MALAYSIAN ROYAL WEDDING! Kelantanese Heir Marries Swedish bride (Friday, 19/04/2019)

A Royal Wedding has taken place in the Malaysian state of Kelantan last Friday! Tengku Mahkota Muhammad Faiz Petra (Ibni Sultan Ismail Petra), heir to the Sultanate's throne, tied the knot with Sofie Louise Johansson, a Swedish national he has known for many years.

The wedding took place on Friday evening (April 19), at the palace - Istana Balai Besar, in Kelantan's capital, Kota Bharu.

The groom (45) arrived at 8:20, with the (33-year-old) bride, following 10 minutes later. It was a private, close-doors solemnisation (Akad Nikah) ceremony for family & close friends.

The state's Syariah islamic Court Chief Judge Daud Mohamad solemnised the royal marriage at 8:35pm with Kelantan's Mufti Mohamad Shukri Mohamad reading the religious marriage sermon.

A glittering wedding reception followed the same night for the 300 guests. Members of state's royal family were present, including the groom's parents former Sultan Ismail Petra (in a rare appearance) & Raja Perempuan Tengku Anis Tengku Abdul Hamid.

Kelantanese Royal family shown on a screen during the wedding, with the bridegroom's parents, Ayahanda Sultan Ismail Petra (on the wheelchair) & Raja Perempuan Tengku Anis (standing next to him), on the newlyweds's left

Official (palace) announcement of the wedding to the press

The wedding schedule was officially announced on Saturday, April 6 (2019), after its invitation became viral on social media, earlier this month. Additionally, Kelantanese palace officials revealed (on April 9) that the Tengku Mahkota hopes his marriage will go smoothly with lifelong blessings & looked forward to introduce his 'sweetheart' to the people through public events as soon as possible.

Muhammad Faiz also decided any wedding gifts received by the couple would be donated to wellfare organisations (like orphanages & old folk homes) or NGO's (eg: Malaysian Red Crescent Society).

Tengku Muhammad Faiz Petra (born 20 January 1974) met Sofie Louise Johansson during his student years in London. No much details are known about their pre-wedding relationship.

Tengku Muhammad Faiz Petra Ibni Sultan Ismail II

He finished his higher education (in Italy & the UK) with a PhD dissertation in archaeology (specializing in late antiquity & early medieval etrurian period - 400-900 AD). She has a degree in English & sociology, being raised in her native Sweden.

Tengku Faiz received the royal title of Tengku Bendahara (Kelantan) in 1989 & became the head of a council, responsible for religious affairs & malay customs of his state (one of the most conservative & less developed Sultanates in Malaysia).

Yang di-Pertuan Agong XV (2016-19), Sultan Muhammad V

In 2010, Faiz was appointed Tengku Mahkota, becoming the heir-presumptive of his elder brother Muhammad Faris Petra, who had seized the throne from their incapacitated ill father, becoming known as Sultan Muhammad V.

When Muhammad V was elected as the 15th Malaysian term-King (Yang di-Pertuan Agong) in 2016 for five years, Tengku Muhammad Faiz assumed the regency over the state & represented the monarch in all of his capacities.

Muhammad V allegedly married a former Miss Moscow last November,
which was never officially announced by any Malaysian royal source

Earlier this year (on 6 January 2019 - their mother's 70th birthday) Muhammad V stepped down from YDP Agong's office following possible tentions of his reported marriage to Russian beauty-pageant Oksana Voevodina/Gorbatenko, reassuming Sultan's duties.

To become member of a Malay royal family, Chik Sofie Louise converted to Islam. However, it is not yet known whether she'll receive any royal title soon (at normal she would be titled Tengku Ampuan Mahkota, equal to Crown Prince's consort in Kelantan).

In Malaysia its quite unusual for royalty to marry foreigners. Although over the last ~century there were exemplary cases of such marriages, it was mostly considered as an attempt of powerful royals to mingle with representatives of "higher" European elite.

But there are also some examples of royal marriages with people of non-European ethnicities, and (nowadays) with commoners.

Native Malays protesting the independent union under
the rulers' authority (thgough the decolonalization process),
because they preferred the colonian rule's diversity

Malaysian royalty traditionally follows a strict blood-purity line (partially affected by the divisive racial approach

of colonialism).

However, over the recent times, royal marriages like this are more & more acceptable (even in the most conservative Malay states), and conservative household rules are seen to soften in some cases...
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