a thai wedding fair

Jane and I went to the Wedding Fair in Queen Sirikit National Convention Center. As in all things Thai, it was a virtal Chatuchak of wedding suppliers -- mostly wedding studios that are so popular here.

Thais place great importance on pre-nuptial pictorials rather than cermony photos. It's probably because they don't have church ceremonies, only wedding ceremonies in their houses. Their wedding ceremony begins early in the morning, with a procession to the bride's home. It involves monks, the couple's parents, and only close relatives and friends. Here they wear the traditional thai dress. In the evening, they have the wedding party (the reception in more familiar terms) with a bigger group of friends -- this is the only time they get to wear their "western" bridal gowns which they often rent (or is often included in wedding studio packages).

So naturally, there were a lot of wedding studio booths, all employing girls who would hand out brochures and persuade you to come and sit at their booth. Of course they would recite their whole spiel, only for me to stare blankly at them and say I don't understand Thai.

We found 2 bridal gown designers which were pretty good -- they even let us try on their gowns. They were even more surprised when we asked how much their gowns cost because apparently, they don't get inquiries like that very often. Although the designs were a bit different from the ones found in Manila, they were beautiful and a little less costly. Unibride had several pretty gowns but I decided to try a princess-cut gown with beautiful swarovski crystals. It was beautiful, except that the top part was beadwork overload. It had a beaded top, plus frills (probably to enhance small busts) that had beadwork as well. Surprisingly enough, the designer said that she would gladly alter it to my liking if I wanted to buy it. With the reasonable price, it wasn't a bad deal... something even worth considering.

Another interesting booth was this young photographer whose work was a cut above the rest. Instead of traditional poses and shots, she used the photojournalist approach and compiled her pictures in a hard-bound book (think encyclopedias). Pretty interesting, I do hope I find someone in the Philippines who can do the same. A book with pictures or poems would also be a good idea for a guestbook. At least that way, people will write down a note or two, rather then just sign their names and addresses.