A few years after the fact, and after moving back to the USA, my wife was yearning for a traditional Isaan wedding. Due to the prosperity at being gamefully employed in the USA, I readily agreed.
When planning an Isaan wedding, the first thing to do is throw all logical plans out the window as soon as the relatives arrive.
We had decided on tables for 200 people, which meant 4 large tents
A large stage was set up with the Thai customary 50 foot high pile of speakers you can hear in the next country
A couple of the local lady boys run the wedding shop and showed up with a truck full of cinderella type wedding gowns which was an event in itself and pure joy for my wife and all the ladies
My only brother in law was a huge help getting the tents and stage setup, while the father in law was hell-bent drunk entertaining all his family from all over Thailand. (More on this later)
There was a storage area down the road from the temple where you can rent all the plates, bowls, glasses, silverware, pots and pans, tables, chairs etc for the cooking. This is a fixed price of 1400 thb no matter how much you take. Everything is inventoried before you leave
My brother in law and his friends drove his 2 wheel Kabota and wagon over and picked everything up.
4 tents and the stage were set up quite quickly as my brother in law has quite a few friends there that all pitched in to help.
The wedding clothes were picked out and fitted. The ladyboys also provided all the flowers, wedding sign, silk backdrop, ceremonial tables etc and did a hell of a job setting it all up. Cost was around 20,000 for all of this (renting)
2 huge pigs, over 120K each were ordered as well as fish.
At 2:00 AM we all woke up and drove to the next town to get all the vegetables at a fresh outdoor market that opens up at midnight. I would guess we spent about 10,000 there on vegetables, and another 10,000 on more cases of beer, thai whiskey etc. for all the ladies doing the cooking.
With a whole pack of Thai ladies this still took at least 3.5 or more hours to buy everything needed to feed 200 people
pigs cost 17,000 baht for 2, 30 fish (1.5k each) was another 3,000 baht delivered
We rented the tables and chairs for the dinner from a gal in Khon Kaen, who delivered 25 tables and 200 chairs with white and pink table cloths, and the white chair slips with gold ribbons. Looked very nice and this was only 3,000 baht
While all of this was going on, father in law managed to rack up 10,000 baht buying local whiskey and other things we were not aware of
Invitation cards were printed, addressed and set out to 200 people. This cost around 4,000 baht
Family started arriving from everywhere and they set up all the grills to cook the fish and pork. There were 14 people cooking, cleaning, serving and washing and returning all the dishes to the temple for a cost of 7,000 baht
Each table was set up with a box of whiskey, a bottle of Thai whiskey, mixer, 1.5L of coke, fanta and water. For 25 tables I think this came out to about 10,000 baht
We hired a local guy my brother in law knew to handle the entertainment and we had 5 local Thai singers and 6 super hot coyote dancers. This cost was only 8,000 thb
We had arranged the tents in a U shape so the whole area in front of the stage was open and as customary, everyone got shit faced, out there dancing and howling at the moon! A most enjoyable time.
When the wedding day came, all the food was cooking in full. The lady boy makeup artists arrived to do the wife and the wifes bridesmaids
During this timeframe, my father in law was shitfaced and caught stealing money from the cards in the card box that were meant for my wife. When the old ladies confronted him, he tried to blame it on his son, who was no where around when that happened. My father in law finally admitted to taking the money because he didn't want anyone else to steal it?????
He also broke into the stash of whiskey meant for the tables and we came up a few bottles short and had to replace at the last minute.
I said no thanks to the makeup and had two of my sons friends serve as the grooms-men
When it was time, the whole village gets together and the groom has to walk to the brides house, carrying the gold gifts, sin sod etc that I chose to give. Many people have their own opinions on this and I did what I was 100% happy in doing
We got to my wifes house and had to give some envelopes of money to the 2 ladies keeping the gate, which allowed me to proceed to have my feet washed, another envelope, then to the entryway to the house. 2 more ladies to pay off and inside I went.
Being this is rural, super poor Isaan, it must have been 40 c inside that cement block house. Super uncomfortable in a suit!
My wife soon joined me and I presented her with the sin sod tray, of which she approved and presented to my father in law. The tray was taking away and all the money counted in front of everyone and spread out on a sheet (200,000)
After that, we exchanged gold rings, and then I had to place all the gold jewelry on her neck etc.
A hour of traditional talk, then it was people lining up to tie strings on your wrist, pour water in your hands and some give you some baht
I think I came out of that with about 8,000 baht and my wife with 2,000 baht
After all the traditional stuff was over a coin was placed in my wifes mouth who had to kiss me and pass the coin for good luck
We were then taken to the ceremonial bed, where about 8 grandma's received envelopes with money.
It was then on to the tents, to greet each table of guests individually and many gave more baht.
Once that was finished my wife and I were called to the stage, there was a Thai Emcee and an English speaking Emcee and we had to tell how we met, why we love each other etc.
My wife, who is very shy, and never spoken in front of this many people, delivered such a heart felt speech, she honestly had the whole place in tears, including me.
After that the dinner was served, and the party started.
As customary in Isaan, people never know when to stop drinking until they pass out, which was the case. By the time the party started, the crowd had swelled to an additional 300 plus people standing outside the tents on the street watching the singers and dancers.
Long into the night, it appeared lots of food would go to waste so we started giving away all the food, fanta, etc to the kids and poor that were gathered around. Pretty good thing to do and experience as I remember one little girl with a bottle of Fanta as happy as she could be.
We stayed the night in a nearby resort, use the word resort lightly, where my wife had the bag of sin sod money and all the invitation cards. (Father in law had passed out stone cold drunk) so my wife took all the sin sod money
Between the cash given at the ceremony and the cards, there was around 25,000 which is a huge amount for that poor of an area and our poor family
I donated the 25,000 to my brother in law, as without his help, this never would have happened.
My wifes grandfather is still working and going strong at 90 years old, the old guy actually asked me if I had any Viagra I could give him which was a real hoot when I told my wife.
Amazing all the beautiful cousins, friends etc. that showed up. Lots of good looking gals in my wife's extended family
All in all, not counting the sin sod and gold, the bill was around 100,000 to 120,00 baht
Not bad and I was more than happy to have the experience of going through this and meeting all the relatives as my wife has a huge, huge family.
We are going back to the USA, but first, we donated everything in our western style house to my father in law, including all the furniture, computers, flat screen tvs, appliances, tools, motorbikes, etc., etc. as we do not think we will return anytime soon
Still love the rural part of Isaan, just no realistic way to give my family a future here and their best bet is being in the USA, getting a good education and preparing themselves for a future.
It was an experience well worth the price and something my wife nor I will ever forget.