A Thai Wedding

I got to go to a wedding last week!

Besides there being lots of food to eat, there was also lots to see.  I went with Yupin, we were guests of the father of the groom.  He wanted to get a picture of us:

Thais are short

I was kind of interested in a picture of us, too, so we got another one.

There we go.

When he first saw me, he said something along the lines of "Oh!  You handsome.  Like me.  Hahaha."  He was a pretty funny guy.

The wedding was a traditional one with a pretty elaborate setup.  It was very beautiful.

In the above picture, you can see a "tree" made out of banana leaves in the center of the group.  Hanging off of it are clumps of cotton string, which the guests then tie around the wrists of the bride and groom.  I asked Yupin if there was some significance to this, but she said it was just tradition.

Here you can see a guy tying the string around the groom's wrist

I wasn't planning on tying a string myself as I wasn't a guest of the newlyweds, but the father insisted.  Unfortunately I don't have a picture.  I do, however, have a picture of Yupin's sister wai-ing the bride after tying her string onto her wrist.  Thai's wai, or make a small bow, to show respect, and it's normal to wai people when greeting them or thanking them.

Note the strings on the wrists.  Some people have tied money onto the bride's wrist, too.

There were also a number of cool action photos of the bride and groom hung around the area.  Some of them were in front of fancy buildings and some were on mountains and some were in big meadows, all of them with really fancy cloths.  They were neat!  Here's one:

Don't they look happy :)

After the ceremony, there was food and drinking and music- it was a pretty good time!  Unfortunately, Geoffrey had to catch a bus to Chiang Rai, so Yupin and I had to leave early to take him there.  But that's okay!  It was really a treat to get to experience this wedding.