It has been quite some time since my last wedding shoot, let alone a Malay wedding. I don't do much wedding jobs and I do even fewer Malay wedding jobs. I think my talent is not in shooting weddings as it involves a lot of creativity. I'd normally get like maybe 8-10 wedding jobs a year while the rest are mostly corporate events and live concerts related stuffs.
Anyway, the whole proceeding was rather different from the typical Chinese wedding. Infact, the Indian wedding is also very different from both Malay and Chinese wedding. I got a call a week before the wedding asking me to cover the event. It was the wedding of the daughter of Datuk Wira, a high ranking police officer. Naturally, the "akad nikah" ceremony was held at the Pusat Latihan Polis (Pulapol) at Jalan Semarak. The event was held in nothing more than a huge marquee tent with midst fans to help cool the place!
The event starts at 12noon (damn hot, you know) and I was already there by 11:30am. Estimated crowd was approximately 2,000 plus, with guests going in and out group after group. They come, they greet the parents, they eat and they leave! The bridal couple still not out yet for the "bersanding" thingy. Unlimited supply of typical Malay food, rendang mutton, rendang beef, rendang ayam, nasi briyani, air sirap, etc.
The actual event started at 1:30pm with the procession of the couple, some 300m away from the marquee, escorted by local Malay girls with bunga mangga and kompang boys! The sun was f***ing hot and I suffered a light sunburn on my poor face while witnessing the entourage slowly march in. By the time they got it, they were ushered straight to the "pelamin" where they were seated and the ceremony began. After that, it was all about food and food.
Left the place at 4pm, feeling tired, sweaty and sticky. Malay wedding is more difficult to shoot compared to a typical Chinese wedding. And one will definitely need at least two photographers to get good coverage for a Malay wedding, three would be ideal. Speaking of photograhers, there were like 7 photographers there that afternoon. Two were from a Malay photo agency (which I believe was hired by the bridal couple, using Nikon D90 and Canon 400D), one from a local news agency (on a Canon 20D), one from the Police department's in-house fella (looks like a Canon 40D) and the other two...dunno who (using small DSLRs)!
The grand pelamin.
Part of the guests tables under the huge marquee.
The ushers.
Door gifts for everyone. Its actually an egg encapsuled in a oval glass holder thingy.
Makan time!
Everything was red in color, all the rendang delicacies.
The make-shift kitchen and huge pots of rendangs!
My boss (in black-gold batik) with the bride's father.
Some of the photographers.
The couple arrived in a Hummer H3 (a luxury off-road SUV).
The 300m walk under extreme hot sun!
The "adat bersanding".
The bride's father doing the "merinjis" (blessing the couple).
The groom.
The bride.
The main table.
The VIP table, groom's relatives.
A private moment.
A group family photograph.
Photographers (in red) from Glass Images in action.
Leaving...
...in a new BMW 760 Li (6.0 litre DOHC V12 engine with 438 horsepower!!!)
4 comments:
oh!!
the grand malay wedding that i remembered u mentioning it a while ago!
whoah, that's really grand! but if i'm not wrong, i see no air-cond at the dining area! =.= gosh. i can imagine how warm it can be. indeed, it's very different from chinese wedding. i don't know about indian wedding though, never been one.
saw the news about the wedding two days ago, about the daughter of the high ranking officer who got married.
ERV : No lar, this is not the grand malay wedding I mention earlier. This one is a last minute engagement. This one is the wedding of Datuk Wira's (a high ranking police officer) daughter.
The other grand Malay wedding was held at The Palace Of The Golden Horses punya grand marquee (also a huge tent thingy but this one is fully air-conditioned and fully decorated). This Palace wedding was much bigger and grander with a spending budget of over a million bucks! But I didn't do that event as there were some misunderstanding between the bride's parents with my boss (the guy who is sponsoring the wedding). So, my boss decided not to sponsor the wedding and thus, me no job lor. The parents took my boss for granted and kinda expected him to fully sponsor 100% of the wedding including gown, invitation cards and stuffs. When my boss pulled out, the couple is now left with a RM500,000 debt with the hotel and suppliers!
OK back to the Police wedding. Yes, the news media were also there and I pressume some TV and newspaper coverage were made.
Yes, you are right...absolutely NO air-cond!!! HOT like mad!
The couple will also be having a grand gala dinner at Felda's Dewan Perdana on April 26. Apparently, two Sultans have confirmed their attendance! I will be doing both photo and video. This time, there will be 3 photographers and 3 video cameras! For Malay wedding, satu olang cover boleh mati lar!
BOSS :
aiyo!! how can u expect ppl to fully sponsor 100% ? that's absurd. -.-
it's sad that after the wedding and the couple is in debt!imagine the money that can be used for investments that will give attractive returns . hmmm
wah. not easy to cover the whole grand gala dinner. lols. hope u guys will get to eat some good food from the wedding dinner. hehez. Ya, i guess. normally hundred of ppl will get invited in a Malay wedding and you're expected to take photos of everyone!!
wow.. great malay wedding photographs. checkout these lovely wedding nails and see how they can be applied to malay brides.
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