Malay Wedding
A Malay wedding ceremony spreads over two days, beginning with the ceremony on the first day. The groom signs the marriage contract and agrees to provide the bride with a dowry. After that, their hands are dyed with henna during the ceremony. The bride’s hair is also trimmed or her eyebrows shaped by a beautician known as the mak andam. On the second day, the bride is with her family and friends with musicians and bunga manggar or palm blossom carriers at the bride’s house. At the house they are greeted with sprinkling of yellow rice and scented water.
Most weddings in the United States follow a similar pattern to the Italian wedding. It traditionally follows the white wedding type, which originates from the white color of the bride’s wedding dress, but refers to an entire wedding routine. Customs and traditions vary, but common components are listed below.
Before the wedding, the host sends invitations to the wedding guests, usually one to two months before the wedding. Invitations may most formally be addressed by hand to show the importance and personal meaning of the occasion. Large numbers of invitations may be mechanically reproduced. As engraving was the highest quality printing technology available in the past, this has become associated with wedding invitation tradition. Receiving an invitation does not impose any obligation on the invitee other than promptly accepting or declining the invitation, and offering congratulations to the couple.
While giving any gift to the newlywed couple is technically optional, nearly all invited guests who attend the wedding choose to do so. A color scheme is selected by some to match everything from bridesmaids’ dresses, flowers, invitations, and decorations, though there is no necessity in doing so.
A wedding ceremony may take place anywhere, but often a church, courthouse, or outdoor venue. The ceremony may be dictated by the couple’s religious practices. The most common non-religious form is derived from a simple Anglican ceremony in the Book of Common Prayer, and can be performed in less than ten minutes, although it is often extended by inserting music or speeches. Because of its brevity, guests who arrive late may miss the ceremony entirely.