My student from Convent Peel Road connected with me through FB and invited me to her wedding! She had 3 dos: at an Indian Temple, a church, and a reception at Subang Golf Club. Due to a family dinner, I chose the temple and church wedding to attend.
Wished that I had the name of the temple correct because in my haste I keyed in Mariamman Temple but could not get the exact location, so I quickly parked at a public parking at Jalan Tun HS Lee and walked in search of the temple. It was after I came back that I found out the exact name of the temple which is SRI MAHA MARIAMAN!!!
Her I am at the entrance to the temple. Such a grand and big temple!
I come to this area every day for 8 years while teaching at MBS but I have never ventured into this temple!
The other view of the entrance.
Anyway, I love my Punjabi suit which I bought in Seremban for my first Rotary District Training and I had to drop 2 kgs to fit into this. hahaha!!!
These girls at the entrance who are the ushers for the night were yelling at me....
Hahaha!!! They were trying to tell me to take off my shoes!!! For the rest of the night I walked around barefooted!
These friendly usherettes told me what to do, where to go and how to behave, hehe..
They sprinkle water on you and dot your forehead with a pottu.
Like this.
So I went in and started looking for Mary Ann, the bride.
The ceremony was already in session.
Excitedly I caught sight of her performing some rituals
She looked beautiful and resplendent in her wedding sari of red and gold
She was very busy and engrossed in all the traditional customary rites, I could not catch her eye, or take photo with her, but I was sure she saw me, so I left her to complete all her duties,
There were tents and table settings for dinner after the ceremony within the huge temple grounds.
I was told all the food is vegetarian as no meat is allowed in the temple.
Life like and 3 dimensional figurines on the wall
At the entrance, guests were still streaming in.
Some bore gifts..all were dressed in their best saris and suits
Temples are people friendly, and families with kids are welcome too
I met another student, Uma Darshini, and I hung out with her the rest of the night as she could tell me what to do and what was going on.
Her cute, precocious, pretty and loveable daughter!
So, my girls now are mothers too!
Mary Anne had gone in to change, and the other part of the ceremony is about to begin.
With the entrance of the groom.
Now Mary Anne appears and is seated with the groom.
Both of them are similarly dressed in matching garlands and clothes.
To show utmost respect to parents and elders, groom perform foot washing ritual.
A tray of yellow rice is passed around You take a handful to throw on the couple later.
like this!!!!
Now the bride does the foot washing of her mother
who blesses her.
At this juncture, dinner is served.
dhall curry
pumpkin curry
back to the important part of the ceremomy, the tying of the thali
With the thali round her neck, she is officially a wife.
Me and Darshini in matching green outfits
Now relatives and friends can line up to give them presents and angpows and take photos
Everyone clamoured to have a photo with the couple too.
Finally I left the temple, and had Darshini's husband to walk me to the carpark as this is Chinatown and creeps of the night are lurking around!!! I realised too, that this is my first temple wedding experience so I was glad I took the time to come.
