PM Lee attends celebrations for Johor prince's wedding

Some 1,200 guests - including Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak - attended the gala celebrations of the wedding of Johor's crown prince at the Istana Besar.

Mr Lee and and his wife Ho Ching arrived at 8.12pm yesterday to congratulate the newlyweds, according to a tweet from Bernama news agency.

Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim, 30, married Che' Puan Khaleeda Bustamam, 21, in a private ceremony two weeks ago. He is the eldest of six children of Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar.

Despite the heavy rain last night, Malaysians eager to catch a glimpse of the royal wedding thronged the city square Dataran Bandaraya with their umbrellas to watch the live screening of the event on two giant screens set up in the square.

People also gathered outside the main palace, Istana Besar, to see the royal couple arrive in their black Mercedes Benz.

As a security measure, roads were sealed off in the area yesterday, and Johor police dispatched nearly 1,000 officers to control the traffic and stand guard outside the palace.

Coloured lights were put up on trees and plants at major road intersections, The Star reported.

Roads leading to the palace were also decorated with state flags, while government buildings in the city were repainted and brightly lit.

"I have never seen so many colourful lights before and, hopefully, the decorations will stay even after the royal banquet, as it will definitely attract more people - especially tourists - to come here," Madam Siti Khadijah Mohamad Khaled, a 49-year-old housewife, told The Star.

Che' Puan Khaleeda is the youngest of five siblings and was born in Kuala Lumpur.

She lived and studied in London from 2003 and returned to Malaysia in 2010.

It is said that Tunku Ismail met his bride via social networking site Twitter two years ago, The Rakyat Post website reported.

Since the announcement of the wedding, congratulatory messages have poured in for the couple.

"It's like a Cinderella story in Johor, Malaysia... Congratulations to our prince of Johor," Twitter user Mylia Analee wrote.

This article was first published on Nov 9, 2014.
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