Isaan Traditional Wedding and costs

[thaimeme]

You can afford it Jim ^ as half of nothing is nothing


Just as an aside I have often wondered how the Issan type divorces pan out

i.e. I would say 99% of the Issanites come into the partnership with nothing but themselves , do they walk out a few years down the line with 50% of what the farang brought in at the start ?

Divorces, legally, depend on whether the couple are registered at the Amphoe offices....
A very small percentage of marriages are registered.
That is the legal official aspect.

More valued and important to Thais are the familial, civil, and spiritual ceremonies.
You are considered wedded even without the registrar.

[liveinlos]

Liveinlos:

Congratulations, truly a candidate for the wedding of the century in Isaan. You could not have provided a better ceremony.

In my case, 20 years past it was Bangkok proper. I gave my wife 250k baht, what I could afford (approximately half the cost of an American wedding). Her, her girlfriends, her sisters and the family acquaintances assembled a two ceremony day, morning was a complete Thai traditional wedding ceremony including nine Monks chanting and all the gift giving and exchanging. The gold, the diamond ring, the sin sod (cash bouquet), the wedding gifts to the guests. Evening was a western style reception at a fancy hotel with dinner and Thai professional singers and dancers.

My only function was to show up (although it was the longest day of my life). My wife could not have been happier. Nor could my wife's family. As was your ceremony, a wedding befitting the event of a local girl marrying a foreigner. I have been treated like a king by my extended Thai family ever since the ceremony. Expensive is a relative term and the ongoing debates concerning sin sod, gifts and gold never take into account the benefit of providing the “Thai Tradition” to your family. I would not change a thing.

I salute you.

Yes sir I am sure you are one of the few that can truly understand the reasoning to do this. Just hearing what my wife had to say to me when she gave her speech on stage was totally worth the cost of everything.

I have always know her father to be pretty decent until the Thai whiskey gets passed around, then he is like jekyll and hide.

I think of anything I could have ever done for my wife or bought, this will be the one thing she will remember the rest of her life

[liveinlos]

No pics?
Of all these good looking girls?

Glad you had fun, I'd rather slit my wrists than go through all that.

The only think I can say is you really have to do this out of respect and love. It was damn hot as hell, there is no air con anywhere or internet or cable TV

Even 4 fans I bought could not keep sleeping at a comfortable level

[liveinlos]

That was a ripper yarn mate, sounds like you got of lightly, Your father in law sounds like an absolute scoundrel though, why donate all your stuff to the fucker when he was clearly taking the piss(literally to) should of been your wife's (His daughters) happiest day, slippery Knut I reckon. Anyway now that you know he's a Knut you can safely ignore the fucker, The Grandad sounds like a good bloke though

Really no time to make plans to donate everything. I have already replaced everything in the USA and had no intention to pay to move

[liveinlos]

The extended family do cherish the day when Farang comes into their lives.

What makes me laugh is this guy pays sin sot to the old boy and then the old boy comes in for another crack stealing more money.

Then the guy rewards the old boy by giving him all his belongings.

Should of donated it to the local orphanage or school not give it to the thieving old boy.

Jesus, no wonder Thais consider Farang " Ting Tong "

If he [the OP] didn't realize what was going on, surely his good wife did - yet, didn't speak up questioning the family's [Father] intent.
Her responsibility is to protect the naïve Farang - her husband.

Unabiding loyalty to Papa, and especially Mama, comes first.
Farang receives the leftover loyalties.

When you are married to an Isaan girl, believe me the wife will be the first to speak up. Also all the grandma's come in to help. It is a fine line because this is where the fighting usually starts as total drunks have no reasoning power and we did not want to be going through this on her happy occasion.

My father in law blamed my brother in law who wasn't even drinking even though my father in law got caught red handed with the empty cards in his pocket

There was a good chance there of father and son duking it out which we wanted to avoid at all costs

[liveinlos]

All Women have this Fairy tale dream, to be married, in grand style.
So her dream came true, and their is nothing like Isaan hospitality.

I could not agree more. Not only for my wife, but the young girls of the village, younger ladies, etc. there is hope if it can happen for one, maybe it can happen for them

When people have nothing, sometimes the dream is more important

[liveinlos]

You can afford it Jim ^ as half of nothing is nothing


Just as an aside I have often wondered how the Issan type divorces pan out

i.e. I would say 99% of the Issanites come into the partnership with nothing but themselves , do they walk out a few years down the line with 50% of what the farang brought in at the start ?

Divorces, legally, depend on whether the couple are registered at the Amphoe offices....
A very small percentage of marriages are registered.
That is the legal official aspect.

More valued and important to Thais are the familial, civil, and spiritual ceremonies.
You are considered wedded even without the registrar.

Very, very true. Although we did register the marriage a few years ago and use that to get her to the USA, I believe in her heart she never felt really married until this ceremony

[liveinlos]

I am trying to post up some photos before I take off. Here are some to get started

Library Slideshow by bwpage3 | Photobucket

[jamescollister]

You can afford it Jim ^ as half of nothing is nothing


Just as an aside I have often wondered how the Issan type divorces pan out

i.e. I would say 99% of the Issanites come into the partnership with nothing but themselves , do they walk out a few years down the line with 50% of what the farang brought in at the start ?

Don't think an amphor divorce would holed much weight in Australian family court. 2 kids born in OZ. The word screwed comes to mind.
Jim

[terry57]

^

Some really great photos there mate, all the best with it.

[sabang]

Should point out- our Isaan 'wedding' was not a wedding as such, we were already married- rather a celebration and blessing of a wedding. It's a big day for the girl & family, not much upside turning it into a shitfight. The 'sin sot' I paid to the MIL was a seperate arrangement- a house. Same place I live now.

[beerlaodrinker]

There was a good chance there of father and son duking it out which we wanted to avoid at all costs[/QUOTE] I thought that a bit of a punch up was also quite traditional at an issan wedding, bit like the Scottish wedding, My own wedding in Vientiane was also somewhat of a debacle as well, submitted the documents (and a big bag of kip) to the authorities, The phone rang one day about a year later and myself and wife were told to report to police station number 3 for an interview which was more of an interrogation really, or at least it seemed so in my limited understanding of Lao language at the time, plus I was badly hungover, 6 months later the phone rang again and we were told to present at the municipality office for the ceremony at 9.00 am didn't get married until 10.00 that night and by then me and the best man and a few mates were all legless, Not the most Romantic of weddings but certainly a memorable hangover, Wonder how long a Divorce takes? Fucking communists eh

[DBell]

The extended family do cherish the day when Farang comes into their lives.

What makes me laugh is this guy pays sin sot to the old boy and then the old boy comes in for another crack stealing more money.

Then the guy rewards the old boy by giving him all his belongings.

Should of donated it to the local orphanage or school not give it to the thieving old boy.

Jesus, no wonder Thais consider Farang " Ting Tong "

If he [the OP] didn't realize what was going on, surely his good wife did - yet, didn't speak up questioning the family's [Father] intent.
Her responsibility is to protect the naïve Farang - her husband.

Unabiding loyalty to Papa, and especially Mama, comes first.
Farang receives the leftover loyalties.

Mum
Dad
Extended family.
Lakorn
Facebook
All Thais
Dinner
The foreign thing.

[bowie]

I could not agree more. Not only for my wife, but the young girls of the village, younger ladies, etc. there is hope if it can happen for one, maybe it can happen for them
When people have nothing, sometimes the dream is more important

Profound and on the mark.

Thanks for the overview - a fantastic tale, and, as you said, of everything and every event that has and will happen to you, this is the day your wife will remember and cherish. KUDO's to you.

[Stumpy]

Congrats LivinLOS. Looks like the throw down in the sticks went well. I have been to half a dozen Thai weddings and the stacked speakers and 150,000 db music is standard fare. After enough Ya Dong or Lao Kao it all seems quiet. Probably because I drank myself to being deaf. I asked my missus if she wanted to do a deal in Thailand, she did not care.

So we skipped all the Thai stuff and did it up Las Vegas Style. Missus was elated with it all. Limo ride with friends, top view from a restaurant on the strip, AC, comfy, great drinks, white dress. I did the James bond tux and she stayed in the custom dress she made all over town. We landed Thursday Night, flew back to Calif Sunday night. Slept maybe 4 hours the entire time. Cost was probably the same, 100,000 baht ($3,000usd) however I won 162,000 baht ($5400) on 3 card poker Saturday night so Vegas bought our wedding which we both greatly appreciated...


Congrats again hope you are liking life back in the US. Missus and I can't wait to leave, I am already tired of the COL, life crammed into weekends and the daily "Lemming" run back and forth to work.

[liveinlos]

With the rising costs in Thailand, I can only see things getting harder and harder. Moving back to the USA, there is nothing I really miss about Thailand. Yeh the 9 to 5 grind at work sucks compared to doing nothing allot of the time in Thailand, but I am finding the quality of life and ample things to do is much better.

Being back in Thailand for 3 weeks, found myself doing/visiting the same places I visited when I lived here for 10 straight years. Did not really do anything for me.

Arizona is close to Vegas, California, Mexico, etc. seems even just for the weekends, much more exciting time that what I have found back in Thailand.

It is pretty much back to normal, I guess the idea hits home of a solid income, being able to pretty much do/have what we want without much worry

I honestly do not know if I will ever return to Thailand. I am interested in exploring Belize or Costa Rica and other areas first where they like foreigners more

[Dead Metal]

My goodness, what a lovely story, what a fantastic wedding and what a beautiful Thai lady ( drop dead gorgeous with a cherry on top ) well done sir. Your a young dude as well, wish you and yours "all the very best for today and always".

Often wondered how things panned out for you, better than I imagined.
Good luck in everything

[titan]

top story , thanxs for sharing

[mrsquirrel]

My wedding cost the price of the certificate at the amphur, a photocopy fee of 4b, petrol for the motorbike - cbr1100 at the time, and a cheap lunch opposite the house before heading back to work.

It was less than a tenner all in.

[wasabi]

Who payed. You.

[wasabi]

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[thaimeme]

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[bowie]

The Real Thailand;

With the diversity of 500k square kilometers with 70 million some individuals. Just how many Real Thailands can there be?

Whatever you believe, desire, or want, you can find. Of course, it may take considerable detective work to find your Real Thailand.