I'm a bit bored of being good with eating. I like to eat some cream biscuits on the couch as I watch T.V and Ken is missing eating nuts big time. Oh well, if we hadn't eaten so much before we wouldn't be trying to lose it in time for our wedding.
Ken's dad called him today to ask about the numbers of people from my side. While my side will be about 15 tops his dad was saying to him that his side may extend from the cool 350 they already have accounted for to 400. My goodness. I am not going to know anyone other than my side and Ken's immediate family. It seems so unreal to imagine 400 people rocking up at your wedding, most whom you have never met.
Anyway, Ken sees it as a great opportunity to be gifted with gold and money. Apparentely close family, particularly 'Taze' (Aunties, there are 6!) will buy gold bracelets to put on my arms and others will buy gold coins which can be traded later. And then there is cold hard cash that they give or pin to the bride and groom. The customs are quite different from Australia where the bride and groom have a registry and guests purchase gifts from it. Compare that to giving money and it's almost considered rude just to hand over some notes in an envelope. Whereas here, it's no big deal and not common place to arrive with a wrapped gift.
Not long now to go really with the wedding only a few weeks away. I'm in the throws of organising flights to Ankara, transfers from home to the airport in Istanbul and a driver and mini bus to transport our guests around Ankara, all while trying to do some work in my real job! It's all going to be worth it though. I am starting to get excited now!
2 comments:
Rene, Glad that you are getting excited.
I much prefer people giving money at weddings rather than having a registry for guests to buy gifts.
Our Turkish-Cypriot custom is that gifts are given at Engagements and Kitchen Tea Parties but Money is gifted at Weddings. That way the Bride and Groom can buy whatever they like. At weddings of Turkish-Cypriot couples in Australia, they are currently being gifted $30,000 - $40,000 cash from the guests. Of course this also depends on the amount of guests invited to the wedding. An average TC wedding is about 300 people.
I laughed at what you wrote about lemons. I have two lemon trees in my back yard simply because I too use lemon juice in most of my cooking. The fish looked Yum!
Ardent, the latest numbers are something like 400-500 people but I'm sure Baba is having us on! He was joking (we think!) to Ken that he took a loan from the bank to host the extra 150 people.
I think the Aussie tradition is more geared towards buying a gift as opposed to handing over cash, but with this culture, cash and gold are the only gift. I have looked high and low for a registry here but the Turks just aren't up with that. I've been told that gold bracelets are also given by the aunties, of which there are about 6, at least!
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