The Year of Queen Sālote Tupou III – The weddings of Sālote and Tungī

In early 1917, Princess Sālote’s father became ill, and it was clear that he was declining quickly.

Around this time, a suitor for Sālote was settled on, and he met with the approval of the Privy Council, the public and the royal family. His name was Tungī Mailefihi.

Wedding preparations began in earnest, and there was barely enough time to grow the amount of food, to fatten the pigs and gather the other traditional items. Most of the items for the western-style wedding came from Australia and New Zealand. The wedding cake was ordered from Buchanan’s in Auckland. It was eight feet high and cost £65. It was decorated with Tonga’s coat of arms, the motto “God and Tonga are my inheritance”, and the couple’s initials. It was dispatched in several pieces with instructions on how to assemble it.¹

The wedding gown came from Australia and was “white crepe-de-chine, trimmed with pearls, worn with a long court train brocaded with silk lined with pink ninon, ‘ richly worked with an appropriate and chaste design’, and a veil hand-made in Sydney.”²

A press report stated, “The Princess, in choosing her trousseau, showed a weakness for pastel tints, especially in blues and pinks. Lace, silver, and pearls play an important part in the adornment scheme of her bridal apparel. The wedding gown has a fashionable court train, which is 5 1/2 yards long and 3 yards wide. The elaborate gown is of Brussels lace over white silk taffeta and ninon with a pointed tunic of white crêpe de Chine. Silver and pearls edge the tunic, which is caught with silver tassels. Ivory white brocaded satin has been used for the court train, which is lined with white ninon and edged with innumerable frills of malines lace and ninon, and finished at the corners with silver leaves and orange blossoms. The bodice is of rich lace and silk with a trail of orange blossoms and silver leaves on the left shoulder. The whole is stitched with silver according to the bride’s wish, and the stitchery shows a gleam of silver through the lace mesh.”³

The western-style wedding took place on 19 September 1917. Her bridesmaids were seven young women of a rank. Tungī wore “well-cut trousers, a shirt with a bat-wing collar, and a frock coat.”⁴ The royal chapel was decorated, and there was a huge floral bell, which scattered confetti over the newlyweds. After the wedding ceremony, a reception was held in front of the palace.

The Tongan tu’uvalu ceremony was celebrated two days later on 21 September. Sālote wore two of the Tu’i Tonga fine-mats. There were lots of dances, even specially choreographed ones. The songs accompanying the dances emphasised the advantages of the alliance. Islay McOwan, who became the Agent & Consul, wrote, “The three following days were devoted to native ceremonies, including the presentation and exchange of property between the royal house and the family of Tugis [sic], native dances and feasting, all of which excited the greatest interest and enthusiasm. The kava ceremony at which the bride and groom seated on the laps of their prospective foster parents on a huge pile of mats and native cloth drank a bowl of kava together, was an interesting feature, while the presentation and distribution  of some hundreds of roasted pigs, large quantities of native cloth and numerous mats was an unusual sight, even in the Pacific, owing to the scale on which the presentations were made…”⁵

Sālote would have alienated some of the chiefs whomsoever she married, but it turned out Tungī was a wise choice, and they complemented each other.

Author’s note: I am not able to find any wedding pictures, but I have provided below an image of the 1976 wedding of Queen Sālote’s granddaughter, Princess Royal Salote Mafile’o Pilolevu, and The Honourable Siosaʻia Maʻulupekotofa, Lord Tuita of ʻUtungake, to show the fine-mats worn during such an occasion.

1. Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.39
2. Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.39
3. Sālote: Queen of Paradise by Margaret Hixon p.70
4. Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.39
5. Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.40