As you might know, a LOT of my friends are getting married around the same time. And my ride or die chick is one of them. After a surprise proposal in Cambodian, she had her traditional Cambodian engagement ceremony this past weekend, complete with lots of family working hard to put together the event.

It started off with preparations all week.

Then when the big day came, everyone had to get dolled up and things set up. There is a big march to the house, and the groom tells the family why he’s there.

It was pretty cute actually. The story goes, he was walking by the house, and he saw their beautiful daughter and wants to make her his wife. He brings gifts/bribes to get the family of the bride to say yes.

They come to an agreement, and the goods (aka the bride) gets brought out for “inspection”. Haha. Okay maybe I’m making it too casual, but this is how it played out in my mind.

BUT THERE’s a TWIST. The family of the bride decides that, no shes worth more than that. Their daughter is a wonderful magical princess and isn’t easily bought. SOOOO. The groom had to write a check. They finally were like, yeah, okay. We’ll let her go.

Then the engagement is official and we party all night long! And eat! Please note, that this was all in Cambodian, and I didn’t understand a lot of what was going on, so I pretty much made it up.

Lao culture is very similar, except we don’t have an engagement ceremony. You pretty much get married when proposed to!

Seeing this made me so happy. It’s real life. They’ve been together and known each other for more years than there are on my hands. I can’t wait til we all have babies and they can share the friendship that we have.