Samoan Wedding

As I am preparing and organising my Samoan wedding next month I am confronted with some challenges to having the wedding of our (Hubby and I) dreams. As a Samoan woman growing up in an era of changing traditions from traditional to modern norms I find myself caught in the rip of the tides of transformation. Being reared and nurtured in a cultural environment and yet was taught to embrace independence and liberal thinking I find myself fighting to clear confusion and let my thoughts and wishes be heard. Wanting a wedding that would be fun and enjoyed by all present is fine but it goes against the wedding traditions of the celebration of the merge of two families, the exchange of finemats and food, the show of wealth and smarts through speeches. One finds one self in a difficult position of whether to please others or stick to a programme that is simple and yet have fun and have fond memories to reminisce on for the rest our lives. The story continues...

Comments

Fotuosamoa said…
I understand your thoughts clearly...being trapped between the faasamoa and the ummm, affordable.,...nah, seriously, between faasamoa and faapalagi.

After the wedding the point is again reiterated, 'you can never please everybody'.

Especially if these everybodies are two different cultures.

You two (Aleki and Mega) did great with controling what could and couldn't be done,. culture-wise.

Had we done the full-on faasamoan wedding, you'd be losing thousands more to receive (kali ai aiga)...i mean, isn't that what the faasamoa is about....you give happily, but you also get bitter when you dont get something back. e.g the case of Tupai giving a roasted pig to 'help' but went off bitching coz he didn't get any money.

Furthermore, a samoan wedding involves lots of speeches, because all the orators would be wanting lafos(money$$$), and seeing that it's pre-election time, many idiots would do their best to stand up and do their blahblah...

thus, the brunt of the story is this, 'I loved the wedding, the champagne was flowin', the red wine was dripping off drunking fobular chins and best of all, most of the samoans from sa-chic don't like either,...so more to drink for the regular drunks, ...

at the end of the nite, shaun(and the rest of the boys) were massaging kate's feet, moe was piss-drunk under the bar again, sam fell over while cracking a coconut with his fist, and the camera man danced like a humpty dumpty to the elderlies table, falling over, and standing up momentarily to say, 'I'm okay, hometime, you da Master(to mom)....
and i stumbled home and washed my bridemaid dress in the sink and hung it in the teuila bushes, unconciously!
6/1/06 00:16
Anonymous said…
My Belated Congratulations to Omega & Alex Hilbron

Thank you for the lovely photos of your wedding. Enjoyed each photo & the stories behind them were just wonderful(always enjoyed your sense of humour, omega). No doubt, it was a blissful day for both of you & your families. You all look fabulous & love the setting too.

God Bless & may you have more wonderful times to come. (It will only get better!)Trust me on that one..ha ha.

Alofaaga,
Tess & Victor Passi
12/1/06 08:28
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