Holy union my a.. !

I hate it.
I really do hate it.
With passion.
With conviction.

See, I've been getting wedding invitations from my Malay friends, and several of them were in English instead of the national language.

What usually read as,

"Assalamualaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh
Walimatulurus
Haji A bin Haji B & Hjh C binti Haji D
dengan segala hormatnya menjemput
________________________
ke majlis perkahwinan anakanda kami
AE bin Hj A dengan MN binti Hj O
pada x X 2006 bersamaan dengan y Y 1427H
di No Z, Jalan 123, KL
Semoga dengan kehadiran dan doa restu semua majlis ini akan diberkati Allah.
Terima Kasih
Wassalam"

has turned into:

"May light of happiness shine our joyous event
We,
Suki & Dean
cordially request the honour of your presence
_______________________
to witness the holy union of our love
at 666, Jalan 4444, Sijangkang
x X, 2007 at 6.45PM
With warm regards from Hj V and Hjh Q and family.
Love is two hearts merging as one, and as angels ring our wedding chimes I declare my undying passion to you."

Adui mak... what's up with that la? Sure, perhaps such invits are only sent to friends, and possibly Suki (aka Sakiyah) and Dean (Abudin) are one of those people who work with MNCs with lots of Mat Salleh and Minah Foreigners to invite.

Last April I was delighted to receive a wedding card from a friend in Finland, which was written in Finnish and translated to Swedish (just for me she took time to translate it to English with her own handwriting), but I was honoured nonetheless, I figured that's one way I'll learn her culture.

So where's our culture here? Why so not Malay one? Isn't wedding a time to keep things traditional?

I remember when wedding cards featured baby pictures of the bride and groom - OK, cute.

I remember when wedding cards featured the biodata of the bride and groom - er, who cares?

But wedding cards in English with love vows in printed in italics that do not even contain a simple salam? - Nasty! And frankly, plain vomit material. No budi, no bahasa there!

If this is just another new trend, takkan nak trendy sangat sampai no traces of their roots can be seen?

But that's not all, one mate related to me at one wedding she attended, the usual nasi minyak and ayam masak merah are nowhere to be seen. Guests were presented a Mediteraanean infusion instead.

Guess to these weddings we can just show up in jeans, baby-Ts and Crocs huh?