A Cambodian Street Wedding Tent

A Wedding Tent was Set Up in the Middle of a Phnom Penh Street

I have not had the opportunity to attend a Cambodian wedding since I was only in this county for less than a month.

However, I did have the opportunity to visit a  Cambodian wedding tent while I was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Inside the Wedding Tent

We were out doing our morning walk early one morning. All of a sudden, we came across a huge beautiful pink tent set up in the middle of the street where we usually take to go to the park.

A huge wedding tent in the middle of a street? How interesting!

Out of curiosity,  we ventured inside the wedding tent to take a look, and some people from the grooms' side were gracious enough to allow us a tour of the wedding tent.

The Tent was Set Up and Decorated Beautifully

The wedding tent turned out to be a reception hall where a wedding banquet was about to take place. There were two sections in this wedding tent. We saw some of the people from the wedding party congregating in the smaller section on the right side of the tent which provided some privacy for whomever were sitting there.

Anybody could apply for a license to have a wedding tent set up in front of his/her house and invite friends and neighbors to the celebrations. How neat is that!

 As for the local traffic and the people who have not been invited to the party. they just have to detour around it while the neighbors are having a ball enjoying the feast and celebrations!

The tent was a beautiful place with many tables and chairs all set up for a big banquet. Waiters were all dressed up and some of the wedding party was already there.

This was about 6:45a.m. when we were out doing our morning exercises!

A Temporary Kitchen Specially Set Up for the Wedding Banquet

There was another tent set up at the back of the wedding tent - a huge working kitchen. This temporary kitchen was well equipped with many cooking utensils and equipment.

The kitchen staff was busy at work preparing food for the banquet.

Some Dishes Were Ready to be Served at the Wedding Banquet

Some of the dishes were already set out to be served.

Unfortunately, I did not have an opportunity to attend a Cambodian wedding, but I learned some traditions about how a bride gets ready for her wedding day.

I was told that that some wedding celebrations may take three days to one week! For some brides, they may take up to a month to get themselves ready and looking pretty for the big day by putting on some special lotions or herbal treatment. For a wealthy bride-to-be, the parents may even build a separate house for her so that she would live separately from her parents for up to a year to get herself ready for the wedding day! There are so many interesting customs and traditions about a Cambodian wedding, I would love to learn more about them in the future!

R.T. Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Nov. 2012