2014’s Project Bridesmaid #1

Last year, I was bridesmaid to 5 brides. This year, as far as I am aware of, I’m going to be bridesmaid to 4, and I’m going to document it in “2014’s Bridesmaid Project”.. hehehe. Last Sunday was Rissa and Yoni’s wedding.  Rissa is one of my best friends from the office and Yoni is her high school lover. As one of the bridesmaids, I went to both the ceremony and reception.

The wedding ceremony was held in the morning, following Islamic principles. They did not use a lot of cultural activities afterwards though, it was just sungkeman (asking for the parents’ blessings), and suap – suapan ( I don’t even know how to describe this properly – basically the bride and groom eat together as a symbol of facing the new life – something like that). But afterwards they read their wedding vows together. That’s interesting because Indonesian weddings normally don’t have vow readings, and if they do, the bride and groom would read them separately. In Rissa and Yoni’s case, they discussed the vows together and agreed on it, then Yoni read it for both of them. Sweet. Here’s a snapshot :

The wedding ceremony finished at around 9.30, leaving us with only 1,5 hours to get ready for the wedding reception. I was with Kenny, Adhisty and Amanda – all from the office too, we got ready together and got our hair done as well (Kudos to the hairstylist who got our hair done so quickly!). The other bridesmaids – Rissa’s friends from college and high school – were also busy getting ready in such short period of time. But afterwards we got to see Rissa and spent some time with her while she was getting ready. We had fun taking girly shots while chatting and laughing.

The reception was a typical Indonesian traditional wedding, grand and there were so many people! Too bad I did not spend a lot of time with Rissa and Yoni because they were busy greeting all the guests but I really enjoyed dancing to the music from the wedding singer… especially when they sang “What Makes You Beautiful” by One Direction in a jazzy way. WAIT, WHAT? Hahaha that was the first time I heard that song sang in a wedding and I can’t help but telling you, it was good and really enjoyable! :p I also enjoyed taking lots of pictures with my colleagues, chatted with my bosses who happen to be Expats and one of them actually told me stories of his wedding and how the wedding culture is in where he came from.

I regret not staying longer in the reception – apparently Rissa expected to see us after the whole reception finished before they went on their honeymoon, but at least we got to spend some time with her before the reception started. But all in all, I wish Rissa and Yoni a – happily ever after, filled with love and God’s blessing –  marriage. Congrats, love birds! 🙂