Was at a wedding this morning. Everyone I asked about this thought the ' tour' was a good idea.
For Cambodians a wedding is a big deal, a once in a life experience that they are happy to share.
Getting some cash to help fund the wedding was also mentioned.

I

PSD-Kiwi wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 1:58 pm Selling tickets to a strangers wedding just seems so wrong to me...kinda like orphanage tourism, obviously not on the same level, but you know what I mean. Imagine doing this in Australia, South Africa, UK, etc....no one would be interested in paying to attend a strangers wedding in those countries would they, so why would they in Cambodia, so they've got a story of how they helped out the poor little natives in an exotic 3rd world country. I may be overthinking this, but in my opinion it's wrong, we all know the old saying about opinions so hoping to read others.

It seems tacky to me but having said that... I've been invited to a lot of weddings where I wondered why the hell I was invited - I barely knew a relative of the happy couple, but it seemed like the more the merrier and a lot of the others there barely knew the couple themselves, they were a business acquaintance of the groom's father or something. It seemed like the number of guests was a bit of a 'face' thing to me and I'm sure everyone leaving a cash donation was very welcome too.

I always dressed appropriately, gave them a red envelope, had a feed and got happily drunk with a table of strangers, and experienced a bit of the local culture. They got whatever the reason for inviting me was. I suppose everyone wins.

If you're going to invite near strangers to your wedding for face and cash gifts, selling tickets to it probably isn't that much of a leap.

Random Dude wrote: ↑Sat Feb 25, 2023 12:22 pm
It seems tacky to me but having said that... I've been invited to a lot of weddings where I wondered why the hell I was invited - I barely knew a relative of the happy couple, but it seemed like the more the merrier and a lot of the others there barely knew the couple themselves, they were a business acquaintance of the groom's father or something. It seemed like the number of guests was a bit of a 'face' thing to me and I'm sure everyone leaving a cash donation was very welcome too.

I always dressed appropriately, gave them a red envelope, had a feed and got happily drunk with a table of strangers, and experienced a bit of the local culture. They got whatever the reason for inviting me was. I suppose everyone wins.

If you're going to invite near strangers to your wedding for face and cash gifts, selling tickets to it probably isn't that much of a leap.

You were invited because the couple and their families are trying to recoup the costs.

Apparently once you receive an invitation you basically can't refuse to either attend or send a donation in lieu of attendance.

Who doesn't love a Cambodian wedding done properly? My experience has been, the more remote the village, the better the event. Everyone piling into cars or onto motos, the female colleagues so made up as to be unrecognisable, the food, the beer, dancing round the table, falling into strangers' embraces; I am usually one of the last to leave.

The etiquette surrounding invitations to village weddings is therefore for me easy: accept them all. On occasion, we have also taken with us foreigners who have been frequenting our restaurant, and whether or not they actually take part in the celebration - conspicuous drinking and dancing - has been more important to the families of the bride and groom than how much they put in the envelope. With such inclusive gatherings, none of the people we've brought along have ever disappointed, and have all judged the event as one of the highlights of their visit to Cambodia.

I was invited at my first Khmer wedding when i was working for a big local construction company in PP.
Younger engineer getting married, all management invited, fancy place, traditionally elegant but no luxury. Flashy colors, neat musics, good food, lots of beer, very good spirit. We worked our asses off for months, the project coming to an end, successfully. Great atmosphere and memories, 3 or 4 westerners on 300 people i guess.

Few days after, same company private party to celebrate the project completion, but aimed at low level staff and middle management (including the newly wedded engineer and the crew, but no top management), and that is another situation.
It was in an outside place close to SR (where the project was), a "fortified" place with a wood enclosure, and all the housings for cooking, music, gazebos and stuff for parties. It was all fine until guys from outside tried to enter the gate, which was refused, then it escalated into a kind of barbarian assault of the fort, sticks, rocks, poles, shouting, throwing bottles and such, blood here and there as some successfully entered the place, caught, thrown back out...The guys were panickey for me (the only westerner) and dragged me inside, caring and also terrified of being responsible of the barang's injuries if happening so.. I was more laughing than scared, but i stopped because they also felt quite ashamed to let me see the wrong side of partying, although all was fine between the attendees, only external pain because "they-party-we-live-closeby-why-can't-we-get-drunk-too" kind of shitty jealous attitude, ruining what they can't have.
Seen that before in wilder places, no injuries anyway.

Second wedding 2 years later, with my fellow factory co-workers, me one of the managers, them not, and a few guys from Japanese management.
Cheaper place, flashy colors, neat music but louder, ok food, lots of beer, very good spirit. We worked our asses off for months, tensions at work between our 3 nationalities, me the sole westerner with limited Khmer and Japanese vocabulary, 150 people max.
But i brought my wife (indonesian, not speaking any language at all) and my kid (4), and we blended spendidly, up to the very end of the event. Dancing, singing, joking, regaling ourselves from all the families brought to the place, honestly it was the best wedding atmosphere i have been in a long time, and i never topped it since.
The day-after hangover was a good one too.

I guess parties are more dangerous than weddings, but i didn't attend much of both, so, unsure.