Attending a Javanese Wedding

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Getting ready to the Javanese Wedding Reception
October 4, 2009


Sunday morning, 6 am. Our villa was running out of hot water. I was debating on whether I should go ahead and took a cold shower or called the maintenance engineer to fix the problem. Mitch suggested that we should have the problem fixed. The wedding we are supposed to attend would start at 10 am and it was almost 8:30 when we finally got our hot water back. I thought I could get ready in half an hour and be at the wedding at 10. Marini came to our villa at 9:00 am and looked surprised at how unready we were. I told her that in Java, they observe "jam karet" or rubber time. So, the wedding may not start till after 11am, I said. It was 10:00am when I started feeling nervous about the time as I was still busy trying to match my accessories. At this very moment, my sister Ita rushed in asking me to help her with her ripped skirt. My mind was already at the wedding party, thinking all members of my family and the bride's family are already there at the wedding hall and here we are still busy trying to figure out how we are going to look. Ita handed me a needle and a piece of thread. I couldn't believe what I was facing, "What am I supposed to do with that?", I asked. She said "Could you please help me thread this and sew up my ripped skirt?". I was shaking my head, trying not to laugh. "Like I have plenty of time?", I said. After she saw that I was so behind on time she decided not to disturb me.


At the Wedding Hall
11:00am

We arrived at the Ahmad Yani Hall in Magelang. The driver pulled the white van right in front of the door step where we were greeted by several people in traditional javanese kebaya. There were six of us jumping out of the van. We walked past through the beautiful "human fence" that formed two lines each on either side of the long red carpet. I looked up on the upper platform where the bride and groom were seated on their "throne". They were already on the up standing position, sandwiched by the parents, one pair on either side, and people were already forming a line going up stage ready to shake the bride's and groom's hands with "Congrats!" and have a picture taken with the "celebratees" (celebrateds). Down below the bridal's platform, the official photographers were busy with their cameras and videos trying to capture the moments. At this point, I realized that the traditional "patemon" ceremony (the meeting moment in a javanese wedding ceremony) was already over. How could I have been so presumptious about the "rubber time" fashion ? But who isn't, for we all know it's always "rubber time" in Asia ? Everyone seemed to have agreed with me on that presumption. Ita explained only much later, that since they only rented the hall for 3 hours, there is no time to waste. For a change, the rubber time doesn't apply. How I wish I knew. I spotted my family members who were all in blue kebayas (the women) and joined the crowd in the adjoining hall where the food buffet was set up. My husband Mitch, Greg, Rod, and Marini soon split up in the dining crowd while Ita and I were catching up with family members. I walked up to see my handsome nephew, Angga the Groom and kissed his beautiful wife, Hesti Sari Dewi Kusuma Wulandari (that's her name, yet to add her husband's name). My husband joined me and we posed for a photograph with the bride and groom.

Meanwhile, the music and the singers were entertaining us. Then I saw my uncle Marcus took the microphone and started singing. He was giving me a signal to join him singing, but I gathered my family members to dance, instead. Marini in her Prada shoes was being a good sport, she joined the dancing crowd in those high heels..... We love Marini. I don't know who started it, but she is now known in our family as Tante (Auntie) Marini.