Yesterday, one of the Semarang Blogging Community members, Mizan, invited me to witness an Indonesian Wedding.
He literally asked me that morning – the day of the wedding!
I was a bit shocked because a question like that is virtually non-existent in western society, and after he insisted (after talking via Adi, who I'm staying with), I thought that I don't get invited to an Indonesian Wedding every day!
And that's the whole point of this entire trip – seeing the real Indonesia.
Since the timing was a bit short notice, Ari, also from Loenpia, quickly brought me one of this batik shirts to wear. This is what men traditionally wear to such weddings when invited as guests.
Anyway, this is roughly how an Indonesian Wedding works (well in this case, a traditional Javanese one).
First of all there is a ceremony. Unfortunately, I missed this because Ari was caught in a traffic jam when he was buying me the batik shirt, so unfortunately I cannot tell you what happened in this case!
There are a number of complicated rituals that occur (about 7 steps). If you want to know more, you can translate this page from Wikipedia (in Indonesian). But in a nutshell, there the spiritual jist is that there is a transfer of responsibility from the parents to the bride and groom.
But the reception is something else.
The bride and groom, with their respective parents and immediate family, are on a stage for photos and greetings. They are all dressed in traditional Javanese clothing.
Photos are taken with each and every single guest/family group. And I literally mean, every single guest.
Since I was an invited guest, the same applied to me!
Instead of presents, money is donated so that the costs of the wedding and reception can be covered.
This was a relatively small wedding by Javanese standards – only about 700 guests were present at this wedding.
Sometimes, they reach 2000-3000 guests! I've been to some large Italian weddings in my time (some of which where I didn't even know the bride or groom), but these Indonesian Weddings put these to shame!
There are no seats and tables at the reception. Everyone stands up, and goes to a number of food stalls to eat and mingle with each other. The reception is a fairly social and informal event, and it was bustling for the entire time I was there.
This reception goes on for a large chunk of the afternoon, and guests move in and out of the venue in steady droves.
Like most weddings, there is music played – I heard a variety of songs both in Indonesian and English sung by the band.
However, it's not often that a foreigner rocks up to one of these events.
Once again, like in other places in Sumatra and Java on this trip, people wanted their photo with me.
I was almost paranoid of stealing the attention away from the bridge and groom.
And there's also the wedding car!
I very grateful to Mizan for sharing this fantastic opportunity with me – I'll never forget it!
And I now have a batik shirt to prove it!
Air Asia flies to loads of places in Indonesia from loads of other places. Check out their website for a great airfare deal now!
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Twitter: suzannita
Says:
October 19th, 2009 at 8:02 am
that’s to many wedding after Lebaran…
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October 19th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
you look great in batik….
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October 19th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
next time i’ll bring you to ‘emperor nasi goreng’ wedding
but you miss the story, that we must stand beside air blower..
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October 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I really appreciate that you willing to came at my sister wedding, sorry for the short notice
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October 19th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
anthony, i am so sure that you’ve never been in a javanese wedding before…hahaha…yeah, and know finally u could use ur own batik shirt…
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October 20th, 2009 at 7:40 am
Good luck for your travel mate
..seeya next time
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October 20th, 2009 at 8:59 am
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October 20th, 2009 at 9:03 am
sorry! I can not write in English…
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October 21st, 2009 at 7:03 am
Wow nice batik shirt. Yabbie wants you to wear it home and to your wedding! I esp. love the car with the paper mache chain, maybe something we could do!!! You are so lucky to be invited hey. Well done.
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October 21st, 2009 at 6:34 pm
You’re lucky! Seriously! What about the food?
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October 21st, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Hi Thomas. As usual, the food was great. Lots of different stalls to go up and graze all day.
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November 23rd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
What a treat. I have a good friend who was married on Bali and he once reviewed all of the components necessary in the wedding ceremony.
I think that it must have just been really interesting to attend such an event, especially after being more familiar with western-style weddings.
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January 24th, 2010 at 2:55 am
It really looks like they had a great time.
I wish we had more interesting food here in the UK, instead we get the same old “traditional” stuff. I really mish my Asian food!!
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January 27th, 2010 at 8:58 am
I’d love to experience different cultured when it comes to weddings. Someone who I once knew got married in China to a Chinese lady and the way he described the day was completely different to how weddings are in the UK. I guess each country has their own way of doing things.
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January 28th, 2010 at 4:09 am
Wow – that looks great. The bride and groom look a tad strained in the photo – probably from having to have their photos taken with 700 guests!
fiona@A Matter of Wedding Photography Edinburgh´s last blog ..Real life wedding – Jane and Duncan
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February 7th, 2010 at 11:28 am
the photos looks so cool , why they have every thing greeny , and plants every where !
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February 20th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Nice to see you again. I wish I could travel the world, just like you. …, One day……
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