Anyone have experience with a Cambodian Wedding?

vwhitney2107

Hello there, I guess I just have a general question. My FI is Cambodian and we are doing a traditional Cambodian ceremony, and an American ceremony, followed by a large reception. Has anyone had any experience with a Cambodian ceremony? I know they are long and I'm expecting to be exhausted by the end of it all but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips? Lol...my FI filled in me in quite a bit but he has only ever attended a wedding as a guest and it seems to be much different if you're a guest or actually involved.

vibolemily

Hello!  I am having a Cambodian wedding too!  My fiance is Cambodian.  We are having those ceremonies on Saturday and the "American" ceremony on Sunday.  I'm super-excited.  We are flying out to Ohio to pick out the costumes this weekend.

I've been to two Cambodian weddings so far and will attend another this weekend.  I'm sure there are slight variations all over.  Does your FI have siblings or cousins who have gotten married that you could ask? 

The tips I've gotten from his family are to have chairs for the ceremonies if you can because you get really achy sitting on the floor.  They also take breaks in between the ceremonies. 

Also, I wrote a program that describes each of the ceremonies in English so my American family will know what is going on and the significance of each of the ceremonies.  We're also planning on labeling the foods, since we are having traditional Cambodian food that many people might not recognize. 

Feel free to PM me if you want to chat!

gogi218

Well, there is the long version and the short version. 

We are doing the short version. Friday night is the blessings by the monks which lasts for about 2 hours followed by pre-wedding party. The day of our wedding is the next day, which is Saturday and we will be having the Cambodian wedding start at 8am and will wrap up at noon followed by a light lunch. Then at 4PM is when we will have the american ceremony, followed by cocktail hour then reception.

I hope that helps. Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.

It is very lengthy but there are breaks due to wardrobe/hair style changes.

jennsy

We are in the beginning stages of planning and I am so happy to find other people in the same situation. I think ideally we would have the Friday night ceremonies and 3 hour ceremony on saturday morning. However, what did you do with all of your guests until the American ceremony in early evening? All of our cambodian family will be from out of town. So it is not ideal to have them at our home for several hours while we are prepping to get to the American ceremony.
Also, how did you prepare the invites for the cambodian and american ceremony? Did you do them seperately for everyone? We will only be inviting 1/3 of the guests to the cambodian ceremony and then everyone will be at the american ceremony and reception. I LOVE the idea of descibing the ceremony briefly in the invite.