Indonesian Wedding – I’m Invited!
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.
My Indonesian Wedding Photos
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!
To find out more about Indonesian Culture, check out Indonesia – Culture Smart!
Air Asia flies to loads of places in Indonesia from loads of other places. Check out their website for a great airfare deal now!
that’s to many wedding after Lebaran…
you look great in batik….
next time i’ll bring you to ’emperor nasi goreng’ wedding 😀
but you miss the story, that we must stand beside air blower..
I really appreciate that you willing to came at my sister wedding, sorry for the short notice 🙂
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… 😀
Good luck for your travel mate 🙂 ..seeya next time
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sorry! I can not write in English…
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.
You’re lucky! Seriously! What about the food? 🙂
Hi Thomas. As usual, the food was great. Lots of different stalls to go up and graze all day.
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.
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!!
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.
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 =-.
the photos looks so cool , why they have every thing greeny , and plants every where ! 🙂
Nice to see you again. I wish I could travel the world, just like you. …, One day……
I would like to be on one Indonesian Wedding look wery nice to me.
.-= carolija@vencanice´s last blog ..Carolija Vencanice Novi Sad Beograd =-.
Such lovely greens! I enjoy seeing how people celebrate marriages in different parts of the world. Thanks for sharing.
.-= London wedding photographer´s last blog ..It’s Tubesday: Wedding Humor =-.
What a great post, I enjoy seeing pictures of other cultures and their wedding ceremonies. Here is a website for anyone in any culture to buy or sell wedding related products or services. There was a lot of the color green in this wedding, does that have any symbolism?
.-= Benito “Green Wedding” Vazquez´s last blog ..中国人结婚怎么选日子？ =-.
Loved seeing the photos of this! The clothing is so colorful and it’s interesting how everyone in the family matches.
Such great photographs. I love the head pieces that the bride and groom are wearing. What an amazing experience.
One last thing. The brown and black pants that the mother and father of either the bride and groom are just wildly vivid. That’s just amazing to be visiting a country and to be invited to a wedding on the spot. I’m very jealous of your adventures and hope to have a little taste of them in the future.
It was awesome! I really enjoyed the experience!
what i love about asian foods is that they are always tasty and spice`:,
Great post. Indonesian weddings are so fun! Going to one in September.
Great dress. They look wonderful. It is another wedding dress that comes in an artistic style. Very creative.
I never been and attended an Indonesian wedding and wow this is nice. I like the head dress of the bride and the style of her dress. And the guest is around 2000-3000, my gosh the wedding is soo expensive 😀 How I wish I could also afford it 😀
Indonesian wedding is so coloful. The set- up is so unique. Very different to western weddings wherein the bride would wear white gown.
Their elegant and colorful outfits speak of the rich Indonesian culture and wedding tradition. What amazes me is the number of guests who attended their wedding.
Best wishes to the newly weds, how I wish one of these days I can also witness such kind of wedding ceremony. Different nation, different tribe but when we say wedding it is connected in one common purpose that is to unite two individuals together forever.
The shots were great and best wishes to the couple. The outfits were really colorful, I wish I could witness a wedding like this. Love the green theme!
Where would you get a venue to hold that many guests. How do they get to know 2000 people, why don’t they just ask for presents, it would take months to undo them. I guess that feeding 2000 people is quite expensive though. I love the image of the wedding car, that is great. This really does show that the West has lost a lot of its culture and that we have a lot to learn from other cultures such as Indonesia!
The color of the dress reflects their culture. Muslims have very colorful dresses, so as their bride and groom wear colorful dress. One of the indonesian wedding concept is the more guests, the merrier. That’s why most of their wedding has most numbered of guests. It’s really great to know more about their culture. I could imagine how wonderful your experience was as you witnessed their wedding. 🙂
This is a different type of wedding. They have their own concepts and style.The bridal gown is not also typical. Do they also have bridesmaid and grooms men? You are lucky to witness such an event.
Wonderful experience. Indonesian wedding is so colorful. I could imagine the number of guests they had. Are Indonesian weddings always outnumbered with guests? I wish I could witness such.
Asian weddings are really colorful in nature and full of rituals. It is blended with traditions and culture.
One of the most important concepts at Indonesian weddings seems to be ‘the more the merrier’. Literally every relative, acquaintance, colleague or business partner could be invited to the wedding.
Hahaha, interesting experience! Indonesian wedding shocked my husband too (I’m Indonesian). My dad in the last minute didn’t think we invited enough people, and just spread the word from phone to phone (and his friends that got invited by phone, invited even more people by phone).
But that’s exactly why I loved it! It was a great experience I’ll never forget!
Amazing how the cultures differ though. A big UK wedding is probably 400 people and that is a lot. Even if I invited everyone that I had spoken to in the last year, it probably wouldn’t reach 4000. shows that the western culture is far more polarised and impersonal imho!
I really wanted to attend or experience a wedding from a different culture like the Indonesian or Indian wedding.
I think the wedding is more in traditional wedding. But that was a great wedding I like the color of their dress is green. And the reception there’s a lot of people, but they enjoying the foods they serve.
The wedding on Indonesian was so traditional aspect. But it’s so cool. I like the motif of there wedding neon green. The bridal car was so decorated in style. Thanks its so nice to see the photo’s
Indeed they have a very unique wedding celebration. Aside from the colorful dress and different ritual from western wedding, they also have may guests. Would there be most likely same number of guests even for the less privilege couple?
Very Unique Wedding Style!!! very surprising to see a family have such a different kind of wedding ceremony!
Very cool opportunity! You look like Shaq next to all those people!
Maybe something we could do!!! You are so lucky to be invited hey. Well done. Asian weddings are really colorful in nature and full of rituals. It is blended with traditions and culture.
The wedding is so colorful with a bunch of guests that would make it merrier. I wish I would also be invited on such wedding, I would surely enjoy taking photos of the colorful dresses.
RENDANG and EMPEK-EMPEK emmm YUMMY ,You must try this Food
Aside from the colorful dress and different ritual from western wedding, they also have may guests. Would there be most likely same number of guests even for the less privilege couple. Thank you.
I think that it must have just been really interesting to attend such an event, especially after being more familiar with western-style weddings. I enjoy seeing how people celebrate marriages in different parts of the world. Thanks for sharing.
That was fantastic. That’s just amazing to be visiting a country and to be invited to a wedding on the spot. I’m very jealous of your adventures and hope to have a little taste of them in the future. Thank you.
Indonesian wedding, specially Javanese wedding ceremony is so cool, unique, and colorful traditions. Thanks for share your experience for us 🙂