Longhouse (Iban) wedding

Today is the day that I have been waiting for. I have never witness an Iban wedding in my life ..EVER! So, I am so excited to witness one today. My auntie woke up quite early as I can hear the pots and pans making sound downstairs. Me & my brother slept in an air conditioning room while the rest sleep outside...yeah ..yeah..we're cheating. But I can't sleep if it's too hot and that is normally the case in a typical longhouse in the month of June.

I woke up & help a bit. Nothing much actually because my aunt only cooked two type of dish. According to the programme that was passed to everyone, the bride's entourage will arrived at our longhouse at 3pm. But you know what, they only arrived at 645pm! I have no idea which planet does their time following but on earth that is like almost 4hrs delay! We waited and waited until we no longer eager to see them arrive anymore. Everyone is fed up because they are all tired. Delay in arrival will mean that all the programme are pushed behind schedule. As their van stop at the side entrance of the longhouse, guess what...there are 25 people coming out from the van! Serious shit! Hahahha....I don't even want to imagine how on earth they can fit inside that van and it was an old van! Probably that's why it took them 4hrs because they were overloaded so the van can'r go very fast!hhahaha...

 Not the entire entourage but these are the group that fit inside an old rugged van that normally can fit only 12 people. There are 25 of them! Can you imagine!!

 Miring ceremony was performed as the guests arrived to honor the 'petara' or God, spirit and ancestors.

 The welcoming committee.Hehehhe...

Everyone is waiting outside their room now to see the entourage. The whole group will go from one unit to another, from one end to another and every unit will serve them either with soda drink or tuak. This is the time for the us to see who are our guest. For those who are single, this is the time to search for available partner.Hehhehe...

 The first person to lead the entourage is normally representatives from the welcoming longhouse.

 One of the welcoming party with Iban traditional vest and head gear. The pants is the modern part of the outfit though....hehhehe

 Of course the 'chief' have to be part of the welcoming comittee.:)

 This is the groom's mom.

 This little girl is always used as the young 'mascot' each time there is a ceremony in the longhouse. I have no idea to whom this girl belong to but can't deny that she does look pretty here.

 This is the boy band. Actually I was wondering how the boy band look like. I thought that it be like those boy band that make live performance in a hotel/lounge.

 Tipah tertipu!! hahaha...that how I feel when I saw these 3 boys playing the traditional instrument.

 Now everyone gather at the groom's ruai and of course everyone bring their dishes to be share by many.

Eating time! This is what most people been waiting for the whole day. The time for feast!

 After the gathering at the groom's ruai & listening to some introduction of the guest and whatever announcement that follow, everyone go back to their own bilik and it's time to place the food outside for everyone to eat. This probably the largest and longest buffet you can ever found! Hahaha...

 The buffet table is stretching from the first bilik to the last one. So, you basically can go as far as you want in search of your favorite dish or in search for new dish that you haven't try yet.:)

 This is our table. We share with two other bilik. It's all traditional Iban dishes but of course there are some individual who want to add a new twist to the all Iban food so it won't be too traditional.

 Finally, I get to see the wedding cake. Can't even fit the whole longhouse.....hehehe

 Finally, at almost 12midnight the bride & groom came out. Man! That was long, in fact, this is the longest wedding ever in terms of the waiting time. The waiting started from the first step of the programme, which is the arrival of the bride's entourage. Gosh..talk about timing!

After like 15min, I just left & went to sleep. Can't wait any longer to go to bed. It was a nice experience to witness the wedding but I hate the waiting.