Our Wedding in Jakarta, Indonesia

Hi Everyone! Long time no post. As you may have known, I just got married a little over a month ago, and things have been pretty hectic. I was in my hometown for quite sometime, so I was out of my usual set up. I have to say, being away for home with my family and friends have changed the way I am within the past 3 months. I value the time I have more with my parents and sister, and I also got to reconnect with old friends, which have been awesome.

Our wedding might not be exactly the way we had hoped, but God had blessed us in so many ways. The ceremony and reception went as smoothly as possible, and all thanks to our family and friends and wedding team for the fabulous cooperation! If you don't know already, an Indonesian wedding, typically in Jakarta, is usually bigger and much more complicated compared to the simple and intimate weddings in the US, which I and Ocep both love. It was a grand experience for both of us, with around 700 guests came to our reception.

My day started at around 3 AM. My makeup artist and hair dresser came to my hotel room a little bit after 3.30, and started the process right away. Then the photographer came at around 5.30 am. We hired different makeup artists for my bridesmaids, mom, sister, mom-in-law and sister-in-law. All to be more efficient and save time. We had our ceremony scheduled at 10 AM at the church where I came to know Christ. It meant a lot for me to have our ceremony there. After the ceremony, we then had the Chinese tradition, tea ceremony, or what we call tea-pay. It's where we respect our elders from both sides of the family by serving them tea and usually the elders give red envelopes or jewelries as the wedding gifts.

I'm so glad I had my two besties that kept me laughing throughout the day!

One of the traditions what we followed was the veiling of the bride by the parents. I had on my hands Yosef's corsage which later I would give to Yosef in exchange for my bouquet.

Having my wedding ceremony at the church where I came to know Christ meant a lot for me. It wasn't our initial plan to have the blessing there, but all worked out for the better at the end.

The most teary-eyed moment for me was when I hugged my parents. I knew it all along that I would cry my eyes out, but I managed to get back pretty quickly after that. You can see my sister (in lavender dress) also got teary eyed at the back.

After the tea ceremony, we then rushed to the hotel where we had our reception later that night. Jakarta humid and warm weather made me so uncomfortable in my wedding dress that was a little bit too tight after all the procession we just went through. The trip from the church to the hotel was about an hour due to traffic. I couldn't wait to take of the dress, but once we got to the the hotel, we had some photo shoots with our bridesmaids and groomsmen.

After the photo shoot, I got about 40 minutes to take a break. I had my own personal assistant on the day to help me taking off my dress and putting it back on. My makeup artist and hair dresser came back and redid my hair and makeup for the reception. I didn't feel nervous at all until the very moment when we were about to enter the ballroom and walked together as husband and wife in front of hundreds of guests!

One of the dearest moments in the wedding was when I danced with my dad. I call him Papa. We danced to the original version of the song My Girl. We didn't really practice, and the song went on longer that I expected. I was a bit self conscious because I still had to dance with my husband right after that. My dad seemed to enjoy it so much, and it was really funny to see his expression through out the dance. After my father-daughter dance, the song changed to and Yosef took my hand and we started dancing. We did practice to the song several times, and I think it went pretty well. I'm glad that we decided to have the dance because now it's memorable and we have the pictures to remember the moments.

Now the real work begins =). I'm really excited to be in this journey with him. I'll post more details about the wedding soon!

Our Vendors:
Videographer & Photographer: Journal Portraits
Wedding gown: Luminous Bridal
Bridesmaids dresses: Moishells
Bride & Bridesmaids' kimonos: Ebay
Makeup: Silvy Yuriko
Tuxedo: Afhong Tailor
Wedding Planner: The Heart Planner

Previous wedding-related posts: you can read what I learned throughout the wedding prep process here, our surprise pre-wedding party here