Last weekend our family had the privilege of attending an Indonesian (Chinese) wedding. Other foreign guests said that it was quite a western wedding compared to some that they had been to before, but I've gotta tell you, we've never been to a wedding like it. The venue was a sports club called Pantai Mutiara (Pearl Beach) in North Jakarta, over an hour away from our home. Thankfully the weather was cooperative as it was held outdoors, under a beautiful three-starred night. Even the breeze blew in the right direction, and kept the smell of the surrounding waters away from the evening's festivities. If one looked at the water from the dock that we stood on (ohhh, the beams looked like the cedar beams used to make docks back home...) we could see the rubbish floating in the brown water, and it made me understand why one would host a wedding after dusk. It was the sound of the water lapping against the piles that made the water magical, definitely not the smell nor the sight.
As for the wedding itself, the actual ceremony had taken place earlier in the day, at 10 am. We were invited to both, but as is common, apparently, for such events, most guests only attend the reception. We arrived at 6:30 pm, and after our driver dropped our family off at the front doors, we walked down a beautiful pink & red satin-draped corridor through the hotel to the outdoor reception. A long red carpet led us down through the reception area where, after signing the guest book and leaving our monetary gift in a special box, we headed towards the cake, drinks and fruit plates. Lining the carpet on the outskirts of the dock were food vendor stalls, each labelled with their particular food for the taking. If you take a look at the photo above, you'll see pillars behind Kendri and Cyinthia, the happy couple and their parents, and the cake in between. That cake was HUGE! According to etiquette, none of the food or drinks were to be touched until after the wedding party arrived, which typically occurs about 30 minutes after the guests arrive.
It was fun to meet up with a few of our SPH community members, and a few old ones that have moved elsewhere, and to chat while we waited. Once the wedding party had arrived, the parents were introduced and the wedding couple strolled down the long red carpet, finally stopping under a flower and grape covered "love gazebo." It was here that Kendri, the husband, spoke some incredible words of love and admiration, in English, to his beautiful new bride (I told Matt to take notes for the future Kendri was so good!) that inspired older couples like Tris and I to gaze into each other's eyes for a split second and think of our own vows (ah, memories of new love) made to each other years ago.
Indonesians are quite into romance, and this was proven when, while the newlyweds fed grapes to each other, choreographed reams of tinsel hearts exploded over the couple and above the crowd. This happened a second time a few moments later after the couple finished feeding each other pieces of their wedding cake. What REALLY screamed romance, though, was when the couple leaned in for their official "wedding bliss kiss" and fireworks, yes...seriously...fireworks went off behind them. Our friend Becky was able to capture the incredible, out-of-a-movie scene on her Canon snap and shoot. You can't see the couple but you get the gist of the whole atmosphere. Very lovely.
There are very few opportunities to dress up in this culture, at least for our family, and so it was fun to put on our nicest clothes, wear heels (thankfully, they don't even sell nylons here) or dress shoes, and to sweat in clothes we don't usually have the fun of sweating in. Tris did that really well, even after he took off the dress jacket, but fortunately that was hidden by the shadows of the night:) When someone commented that Tris looks hot in this photo, little does she know how hot he REALLY is (and for the record, I agree, he does look pretty hot). Here's our family in regular form, and then posing properly for a nice family shot.
We really enjoyed our night and were glad to have been invited.
Thanks for reading.
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