Attending Cousin's Wedding in Batu Pahat

I had the chance to check out Batu Pahat in Johor over the weekend since my husband's cousin who lives there was getting married yesterday. Batu Pahat is about 2.5 hours away by car from Seremban.

We all came down to Batu Pahat on Friday evening and had a mini reunion with some relatives over the wedding eve's buffet dinner at the groom's house. We met a really cute and bubbly little girl, Bao Wen, who stole my husband's and my hearts. She's the daughter of my husband's cousin. Bao Wen didn't really know us as we hardly met before but she let my husband and I hold and hug her the moment we met her on Friday night. This girl is absolutely adorable and so glued to my husband.

Me, Sis-in-Law and the kids on Friday night.

The wedding car, ready to use for the next morning.

At about 10pm, we all went back to the nearby hotel to rest as the next day was definitely going to be a long day for everybody. Cousin's wedding ceremony in the morning, wedding dinner and another 2.5 hours long trip to go back home at night.

On Saturday morning, we reached the groom's house at about 9am but unfortunately we missed the chance to accompany the groom pick the bride as the groom has already left to fetch the bride about an hour earlier. Whilst waiting for him to come home and do the tea ceremony, we had breakfast, lingered around and chilled with some relatives at his house.

Husband and I waiting to witness Cousin's Wedding Tea Ceremony.

At about 11am, I was really surprised by the sound of cars' prolonged honking. Apparently, the cars' honking sound was the sign that the groom had arrived with his bride. Another thing used to mark the groom and bride's arrival to the groom's house was the firecrackers being let off in the groom house's front yard. A traditional Chinese wedding celebration indeed goes off with a bang!

The Tea Ceremony: Formal introduction and pay respects to the elderly family members.

The whole tea ceremony processions lasted for about an hour. Once the wedding ceremony was done, we practically had about six hours to kill in Batu Pahat before the wedding dinner so we chose to hit the malls in Batu Pahat to have some coffee and impromptu shopping spree.

We reached early to the restaurant for the wedding dinner. My husband was busy helping his cousin during the event and I chose to have some ladies' talks with my Sis-in-Law before the wedding dinner started.

I was actually quite surprised and impressed with this cousin's lavish and outstanding wedding celebration for a Malaysian style wedding dinner. It was a really well-organized and beautifully decorated wedding celebration. Spiced with some entertainments from local artistes in Malaysia, this wedding was definitely not boring and a really enjoyable event.

The Bride and Groom: This is the only photo of theirs that I have.

The wedding souvenir: A box of assorted coffee sachets for everyone.

The entertaining local artistes: 风菜姐妹。

Bao Wen and I at the wedding dinner.

The food parade began with this Chinese platters.

 Some of the dishes that I managed to capture when I was not too occupied with my food.

Dessert: Coconut Pudding.

I drank way too much Chinese Tea during the wedding dinner which left me totally awake until 3am last night. It was a complete torture! My eyes and body were so tired since afternoon but the caffeine from the tea was indeed the culprit that made me unable to put my eyes and mind at rest until the wee hours. Lesson learned. Better drink soda or hot plain water during a wedding dinner.

Anyway, thanks to this cousin's wedding, I had the chance to go to Batu Pahat and obtained a better picture of Chinese wedding procession and celebration in Malaysia. Two birds in one stone. After my observations, I definitely need to be more organized and cannot underestimate details in preparing my upcoming wedding in Malaysia even though my husband and I planned to have a very simple wedding celebration. Simple wedding still needs proper organizations, especially since we do not hire any wedding organizers in Malaysia. More homework for both of us ahead!