Yesterday, 29 November, was the wedding day of my eldest niece, Aisyah. She is the eldest daughter of my second sister Habibah and her husband, Zainal. As was the case with most events in our family, it was a collective affair.
The planning process took place quite a while back under the reliable guidance of my other sister, Haslina. This is actually the second marriage in our family, the first being Aisyah's younger sister, Amirah, a few years back. (She now has 2 sons). Based on the experience gained from the previous event, Asiyah's wedding seemed less challenging. The only problem was that since it was held so close to the Eidul Adha celebrations, we were all in a rush to do things over a short period of time.
The night before the wedding the bride's family held a "kenduri kesyukuran" in their newly completed house. We were there since late afternoon and left around 10:30 (just in time for me to reach home and catch the start of Manchester United's game against Portsmouth).
The wedding day started with the "Majlis Nikah" in the morning which was held in a nearby mosque. All went well and the proceedings were completed by 11:00 am. The weather was cool after the morning showers, which started just as we were about to leave our house but stopped after about one hour. After the nikah, preparations started in earnest to welcome the first guests who are expected to arrive by noon. Of course, the cooking had started since the night before.
The involvement of our large extended family members made work relatively easy. I have more than 40 nieces and nephews and a lot of them are already in their teens. So, we have more than enough hands to carry out the tasks. What was needed was only proper guidance. Of course, this is a challenge since there are always more than one "instructors" and more often than not the instructions contradict each other. But as always, we managed.
The stream of visitors and well wishers did not stop since the "official visiting hours" began at 12:00 noon. Everyone were busy with their tasks. I had to take it easy as I had some trouble with my foot arising out of my helping out at the "korban" do in my mosque on Saturday. So, of and on, I had to sit down so as not to aggravate the condition of my foot which was causing considerable pain if I keep applying too much pressue on it.
Though the weather was downcast, we can feel the heat as it threatens to rain again. By 3:30pm, and after meeting up with our key relatives (including uncles and aunties), I decided take a short break in the house. By this time, I was told that we had run out of most of the food except for the main dish. Some of the guests, including the party accompanying the groom, had to wait for newly cooked rice before they can have their lunch. Thankfully, everybody had something to eat. Apparently most of the guests who were invited made it to the event. It was thus a success.
I managed a short nap in the house and was only awoken by the Azan for Asar prayers. It was raining again when we started work on "clearing things up". By 6:00pm, the major works have been completed. Most of the kids looked spent. We left for home at 6:30pm. I know there are still things to do but we decided to leave something for the newly weds to dirty their hand on :-)
I feel it was a successful do but what was most heartening for me was the fact that the whole family got involved in doing their bit. My father would have been proud to see his children, children in-laws and grand children working together. As always.
Now we got to prepare for "Wedding 2 - Azizah" on 19 December.
