Great news - and certainly no reason to freak out
It's a "lightning engagement", one headline declared. In fact, another howled, it's a "Shock! Tono engaged to Tangmo!"
TV talk-show host Vuttithorn “Woody” Militajinda helped break the news online yesterday, posting a picture on Instagram of happy couple Pakin “Tono” Khamwilaisuk, the singer, and Pattaratida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong, the actress.
The official engagement photos went viral long before the non-digital news outlets carried the story, but then the online community was also in a hurry to conclude that the couple is rushing things too much. In fact they’ve been seeing each other for six months.
The sociable media were also too swift in deciding that they’d already gone and got married, since the first few photos circulating showed Tangmo in a white dress.
But Woody was an eyewitness, a guest at the engagement party, and explained that that wasn’t the case – although it felt like a wedding, he allowed. The venue was decked out like a church and a Catholic priest (Tangmo is Catholic) was there to watch them exchange rings. “It looked sacred,” Woody reported later on his TV show.
He was just as surprised as anyone, he said. Tangmo had only invited him the night before – to a book launch. “I said I had a board meeting, so then she told me she was going to get engaged!”
Wedding-planning firm Box Wedding and Jakawin Photography did a fine job maintaining the secrecy during the week they spent making the preparations. No one ever breathed a word, even though Tangmo and Tono were in the limelight at the anti-government rallies.
There were about 20 guests at the engagement ceremony, counting their parents. They chose the date, 11-12-13, believing it to be auspicious. But there was blowback as the news spread, with speculation online that Tangmo must be pregnant, something of a stigma in show business. The “evidence” was that an earlier Instagram post by Tono seemed to hint at fatherhood. “Historic day,” the singer said. “Today father, mother and grandpa fight together with over one million Thais for the country and you, kid!”
No, not much there to call “evidence”, is there? A recurring theme at the protests has been “fighting for the next generation”. We’ll see. Tono and Tangmo say they plan to tie the knot in another four or five months.
