My incredible Balinese wedding

Forget about the white dress, the smocking and the "pièce montée", our wedding was in the pure Balinese style, exceptionnal and unique !

In an usual Hindu wedding, the bride and groom get up early morning for the ceremony and, then, all through the day, the whole, close and far away, family and friends come over, stay a few hours, eat, drink and gossip.

30 march 2106. 6am :We and the families are ready (my husband's family has been preparing the wedding for already a week, fixing the décorations, organising the catering, the drinks, the music and, the most important, making the enormous amount of offerings necessary.).

The first ceremony is my conversion to Hindu. The priest say a few words, the whitnesses are watching, I promess to follow Hindu and sign the official documents. It's quite a simple ceremony, but full of meanings.

After that, It's time for us to get dressed for the wedding. The outfits are very impressive, they are made of few layers of sarongs, my husband even got a sword and myself a heavy and uncomfortable crown. Getting ready takes a while, the bride usually has a full face make-up uncluding fake eyelashes. I couldn't recognize herself after getting all set up !!

My family was here for this big event, all dressed up with sarongs and kebayas ! Such a special day ! While we were getting ready they could enjoy the music. 6 musicians were playing traditionnal instruments, called Gamelan, to keep the guests bussy until the next ceremony.

Finally everything is in order to start the wedding ceremony, this one takes a while. It consists of a lot of different steps. For exemples, at one moment, I had to hold a bucket full of vegies and my husband had to take It and give money in exchange. Or, an other time, he had to make circles around some offerings and play his sword. All of this reflect the moments of everydays life, I sell vegies at the market, my husband protecting the house and family. The last step is when we feed each other rice, we share food and promess to always look after each other, this is also the time that we choose to ask the priest to bless our wedding rings, and exchange them. Not really a Balinese ritual but this is the way we wished to proceed, mixing culture, mixing traditions, trying to understand and accept each other believes

...After an interesting wedding ceremony It's time for lunch !

When guests arrive they always get serve drinks and snacks, such as coffee and peanuts. After that, they can head to the buffet and choose what they would like to eat, mostly you will find, rice, chicken, maybe prawns and different kinds of vegies, and for dessert, local green pea-coconut ice cream .
The afternoon is bussy welcoming guests, everyone come and go, bringing gifts and enveloppes, the families are more likely bringing rice, coffee or sarongs.

Later on, a band will play music. At our wedding, my husband being a drummer, his friends were more than happy to jam all together, playing and singing Balinese and Internationnal songs.That was really cool !
The guests drink beers and soda, for some, whisky. I offered Champagne, that my family bring from France (bloody expensive to buy It in Bali), but only westerners drank It. Balinese are too shy to drink something high-class like that, even If you offer them, they will refuse It. If you insist they will take a small glass (but you really do have to insist).

To add a western touch to our really traditionnal wedding, I had a "bouquet de fleurs".All non-married women got up, locals and westeners, triying to catch It. It's my sister Popo, who got It ! At this moment, w swap our Balinese wedding clothes for more comfortable ones. I put on a simple white dress and my husband a tee-shirt and sarong.

The wedding took part in Klungkung, where my husband's family come from. It was an incredible warm day, full of suprises for me and my family. 600 people showed up. My husband was hungover from drinking too much whisky the night before with the family members sleeping in Klungkung to help preparing everything, and myself pregnant 5 months.

Not the ideal conditions for a perfect wedding but,at the end of the day, It was an amazing, unforgettable and special day !!!

Everyone took heaps of beautiful pictures and the memories will last forever.