A Wedding Party that Rocks!

Just attended my dear friends since junior high( Opiq & Tania's) wedding on August 09th 2009, and it was awesome in many aspects, tell you why....
First, I was mesmerized by Opiq's proposal to Tania where he made a song, asking Tania to be his wife and then I was mesmerized again by their decision to use their own money for most of the expenses. I guess that is something unusual and rare to see lately, where many of us spoiled by our parents to celebrate wedding that sucked up hundred millions of rupiahs.
This 'brave' couple decided the wedding will take place at the bride's home with akad in the morning continued with the wedding party for families, and a dedicated wedding party at night for close friends. Invitation made only 250, split half-half for day and nite reception. The bride's are lucky to have a relative of famous catering, so they totally saved a lot for catering which in many case took the biggest portion of your wedding budget.
They've also decided not to take pre-wedding pictures which they think of as 'cheesy' and useless instead they made something really impressive with 'old pictures' of them.

I thought, this could be a great example of how middle-class Jakartans creatively created something impressive with a lot of adjustments to meet the budget, and turned out a.m.a.z.i.n.g. As urban-modern people we only need to be open-minded and put our personality to whatever party we're making. So that people would have certain memory and will last on their mind.
Luckily for the couple that their parents are really wanted to compromise between keeping up with the tradition and : go on, just do it what you youngsters are pleased to do!

So eventually, the result was a beautiful mix of culture, whereas the bride is true javanese from both sides and the broom's father originated from Betawi - and not to forget, they are a true urban couple who enjoys a simple modern life. During the Akad, most of the rituals are javanese with a splash of Betawi accentuation - when the broom came, we were cheered by the sound of cracking ala Betawi fireworks. The whole morning ritual was serene and touchy. Tania-the bride wore the same kebaya that her mom was wearing on her Akad 31years ago, Opik looked nervous, several times seemed wanted to shed tears. He was very human and his constantly wanting to cry showed that marriage is still a very 'seriouss' and 'holy' matter in one's life.
But the highlight of Akad ceremony was truly the 'tausiah' from our Headmaster - Prof DR Arief Rachman - of SMP & SMU Labschool where the couple actually spent their teenage years together. Prof Arief is well-known for his inspiring public speaking, and that morning, he successfully touched the bride & broom's heart and basically everyone in that room.

I went again to their night reception. The house looked more spacious as some tables were taken away. A beautifully-framed picture from the morning ceremony were placed at the door, off-course it showed the newly-wed wacky pose...I came with a group of their closest friends and found them by the pool. Tania wore a gorgeous evening gown, with classic 1950s make up and hairdo if I'm not mistaken, making this attorney looks like a hollywood's movie star back in the days, while Opik still wore Indonesian traditional 'tux', so different than his ala-Art-Director's -grungy-looking daily style, but again, it was a perfect blend! They looked matched!, it's the chemistry I guess.

We took tons of pictures, photographers are everywhere : the candid, the fish eye, and there were also disposable cameras where people were encouraged to help the couple gather even more pictures of their unforgettable night.

The food was great. The catering company, to me had done a great job. Again, it was a great budget cut too, luckt them!. They also got a good deal for : somehow they managed to get Endah & Rhesa, the new-comer acoustic band that stole Rolling Stone Indonesia's attention, to perform that night!!!

The unforgettable of all happened at around 8.30 pm, after a piano session, the couple gave out speech, expressing how thankful they were that we all could show-up and made their night, and theeen tarrraaaa : Opiq performed his proposal song!!! it was a bit jazzy-bozza tune, though his voice was not Sinatra we were all cheering for that romantic expression of love. However asking a girl to marry you thru a song is trully a killer way to make her say "yesss!!!" right?. After that little 'show' their friends from Junior High (yes, junior high) gave some surprise gift. It was a plate and caricature of them that really took their night way more unforgettable!

I have to confess that Ive never been into a such enjoyable wedding party. I had doubts at the beginning that it was going to be successful, since culturally we are not used to these kind of wedding parties. I have to admit that the wedded couple are very open-minded people, that had been through a lot of thinking to make this night memorable. They've really put their personality into that party without being superficial, they dont like pre-wed pictures but putting their old pictures from junior high and some scrap-book styled picture about when they were still dating, and it was a really quite stellar, people gathered to the table and giggled on the innocent faces of the couple's and their friends. Tania's mom wedding picture are mostly talked about since Mrs Susatyo was sooo similar to her daughter. Tell you what, most wedding like this, would end up with a DJ whoever dance session with a lot of alcohols involved, but since that's sooo not represent who these couple are, they decided to hunt down this electrifying accoustic band : Endah & Rhesa, and they did very very well!!!

As I congratulated the happily married couple before going home, I tweeted saying " this is a great wedding party", and people were actually saying the same thing as well on twitter. Until I went home, I was wtill impressed of how great they managed their party. The invitation was simple and not costly, the decoration is simple yet tasteful with fresh flowers in every right spots. The old pictures from junior high on the table, the band (oh mi god the baaaand!!!), and as I tried to figure out what else did this couple had given to impress us, I saw the wedding souvenir - its was a mini can of cookie, i thought it was Pringles inside but when I read the cover its actually made by Opiq's mom who is a cookie maker for celebrations and holiday parcels. I smiled as his being Art-Directorish seen from a text that said "Chemistry without Chemicals" a quote from Sondre Lerche. To me it was a perfect 'thank-you' token. Why? because they made the cookies themselves!. I have this 'thing' about giving something you made it by yourself to others. To me, it really showed how thankful they are - with all those baking and putting the cookies carefully one by one. I dont know if Im weird or something, but to me, giving something hand-made is way more memorable because you'll see there's a sincerity there, the willingness to do something to make other people happy....
I smiled and think how I can relate this story to our lives, until I figured that this is actually about : how 'love' can make a difference!!! Their love for both of them made them husband and wife, and their love of friends and family left beautiful marks, and their love of life has inspired us to make the best use of our life and enjoy it sincerely...

Congaratulations dear friends...
There maybe times when we would be busy, and dont have time to see each other, but the memories, oh God the memories...they will definitely remain in this tiny part of our brain cells that raised our lips and created a smile...

Thank you guys, have a nice life with kids and cats...
Love Ya!!!!