Temple of Love

The bride and groom with their parents

On a brisk January Sunday morning in 2002, Wat Thai Los Angeles started its busy Sunday a little bit earlier than usual. The bride, the groom, and the guests had arrived and they were getting ready for the brief version of a traditional Thai wedding ceremony.

And thank goodness that we opt for the brief version. We skipped the traditional groom’s procession part, and STILL took us 2 hours to go through the motions!

And to think out in the Thai countryside and back in the days, wedding goes for DAYS!

Traditionally, the groom and his family along would travel to the bride’s house to present Kahn Mahk, wedding presents and dowry. A few klong yao (long drums), cymbals, and dancers sometimes are a part of the procession. The bigger, the better it seems! The groom has to go through a silver gate and a golden gate, usually silver and gold-colored chains held up by the kids in the families, to get into the house and to the bride. Oh I don’t know how much the rate is for toll these days. B100 each kid? The rate is more inflated in the city, I’m sure.

Anyways. We didn’t do any of that especially because Brandon wasn’t bringing in the dowry. Hehe. The party just congregated at the temple for the ceremony. Our guests were seated in chairs opposite from the monks. Traditionally, everyone would be on the floor, but of course, our group was composed of mostly farangs so we had to provide the chairs.