HARUSI YA BINTI MFALME
Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, right, and Queen Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha at the pre-wedding ceremony yesterday
Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah led a ceremony ahead of today's wedding,
where daughter Princess Hafizah Sururul Bolkiah was dressed in lavish
silks and prepared for today's service
The Sultan is Prime Minister of the
small oil-rich Muslim sultanate that has been governed for 600 years by
the same royal family, and also holds the roles of finance and defence
minister.
The sultan has 12 children, five sons
and seven daughters, from his three marriages, and the wedding is the
first involving one of the sultan’s children since 2007.
Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei
prepared to give his daughter away in a lavish ceremony yesterday, which
saw the family attend a service at the Throne Hall of Istana Nurul Iman
palace in Brunei yesterday.
The couple then exchanged their vows in front of some the most powerful people in the region including Prime Minister Najib Razak of neighbouring Malaysia.
The guest list for the wedding was not released ahead of the day, but
many international royals and dignitaries were preparing to attend,
including Prime Minister Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of neighbouring
Malaysia
The opulent Throne Hall of Istana Nurul Iman palace played host to the service yesterday
The daughter of the sultan of Brunei, one of the world's wealthiest men,
is set to wed this weekend in a dazzling ceremony at the monarch's
1,700-room palace
The young boys looked dashing in their handmade silk outfits as they accompanied their fathers at the ceremony
The couple will now be officially
presented to the royal court in an elaborate ceremony on Sunday that
marks the climax of more than a week of wedding-related festivities.
Southeast Asian leaders and foreign
royalty are expected to be among the guests at a lavish royal banquet in
honour of the newlyweds in the Islamic sultanate on Sunday night,
hosted by the bride’s father, Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, 66.
This week’s festivities have included
nightly vigils at the palace to bless the couple, but the monarchy will
forgo a traditional public procession through the capital in the royal
family’s gilded Rolls Royce.
Such weddings are typically a rare
source of excitement in Brunei, which is known for its slow pace of life
and lack of nightlife.
The wedding of Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee
Billah in 2004 attracted large crowds in the capital, Bandar Seri
Begawan, and a guest list of over 2,000 people including members of the
royal families of Japan, Jordan, Britain and Malaysia.
Happy occasion: Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah, right, and Queen Raja
Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha, who both looked delighted during the
ceremony, have 12 children
Traditional: Brunei's Queen Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha
applies ceremonial paste to Princess Hafizah Sururul Bolkiah's hands
during the week-long wedding festivities
Father of the bride: Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah applies ceremonial paste to Princess Hafizah Sururul Bolkiah in the first of his
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