Wan Two Three is engaged!

Well we like to tease her and call her Wan Two Three.  The future husband's family asked for her hand in marriage just over the weekend. For the Malays, you have to go through at least 2 ceremonies before you can be wed. One is the merisik ceremony, simply put, the guy's family asking whether the girl is available and whether they can proceed with the engagement ceremony which will be done later. This is my very layman understanding, there's actually a lot of do's and dont's of the ceremonies, too long to write and too lazy to research for more info.


Then, there's the engagement ceremony. Eventhough nowadays young couples already come into an agreement whether or not they want to get married, the engagement cannot be formalised by only kneeling on one knee and proposing..like how we see in those TV series/movies.


During the engagement ceremony, the guy's family will come to discuss with the girl's family to formalise the engagement and set a date to be married. Normally both families do not speak but are represented by another person close to the family to do all the talking. Well, the points have already been discussed earlier on so the representative already knows what to say when speaking for the family they are representing. If there are any discrepancies, the representative can always refer back to the parents he is representing to get their okay.


Basically that's a very layman and short description on the Malay engagement ceremony. I might have missed out a lot of points :)

All dressed up in Pink :)

Us with our over the top pose :)

The guy's family and rep discussing with our family and rep.

Both families looking on

And now after an agreement has been finalised (i.e.: dowry amount, date of  solemnisation, what happens if the engagement is called off and etc), the mother of the future husband puts on the engagement ring on her ring finger. And no, the man cannot be the one doing it because he is not allowed to do so.