Baba Nyonya Lovin'
The last time I saw full on traditional Peranakan wedding costumes, I was at the Baba Nyonya Heritage Museum in Malacca. My friend and I were in awe of how intricate, elaborate and beautiful (okay, big and loud, too!) these traditional outfits were back then. We spent so much time staring at the delicate pieces hung and kept safe in their respective glass cabinet displays. We talked about the colours, the silk, the embroidery work, the sarong, the jewellery, the headpiece, the pins and details on the coronet. We were saying how nice it would be if people still wore them often on their wedding day and how much we'd love to see that happen for real. Fast forward to this wedding day, almost 4 years since our visit to the museum, I did, and it was exactly how I imagined it to be. Everything we talked about years ago at the museum came true, including the part we imagined doing Kung-Fu moves with the big sleeves because Lynette here really did that a lot. There's also this one memory I'm really fond of from that day, and I find myself revisiting that instance often. When Lynette's mother was watching her as she got her hair done, she showed me the headpieces and coronet her daughter would be wearing that day. "I'll be crowing my princess later", she said. The night ended with a really simple dinner reception filled with nothing but love, laughter and warm embraces.
This wedding day was really, really special. I cried with my bride as she read the letter her Father had written for her that morning, we shared stomach-cramping laughs together and I'm so happy to say that we walked out of the wedding day finding a friend in one another.
Precious things, really. I'll let these frames do the rest of the talking.
