Colleen, what fun, and what a great experience! Congratulations to the bride and groom, of course, and I'll be waiting to hear what the ceremony was like. Oh, and what food was served, and how!

Annie

Oh Wow! What an experiecne....and how very privileged you are! we will need a blow by blow and pictures to be sure!

Fabulous. What kind of wedding gifts do you offer in Bali?

Just got back from the wedding- what a fantastic day! We went to the Dewi's home before things got really started which was good because we got to have some time with Dewi's family before they got busy.

At the entrance gate into the family compound they had fancy decorations flanking either side, swirls made out of marigolds and fabric drapes. You would have to guess something special was happening inside :-). All the little houses and gazebos (called bales -pron "bah-lehs") were elaborately decorated with floral arches, decorations constructed of woven palm leaves and drapes of fancy fabrics. One of the bales was especially decorated and was where the religious ceremony was conducted. As well as an altar and a fancy bench for the religious man to sit on there were two very elaborate thrones for the bride and groom (but which they didn't sit on in the bale). Another heavily decorated bale was for the happy couple to rest in before the ceremony and at other times, and also for the local King and bigwigs to sit at along with ladies from the bride's family.

Near Dewi's mother's little house was the food area, with a canopy to provide shade over the area (very welcome as it is really hot today) and chairs all lined up. A buffet table in an "L" shape had all the food, which was cooked by the family and served in chafing dishes. In the corner of the "L" was a really fancy fruit carving with faces carved out of watermelons and a pumpkin, with roses and other flowers carved out of vegetables, topped with a pair of doves also carved out of vegetables. I took a picture but it hasn't come out very well.

Dewi's mother came and hugged us and insisted on bringing us snacks and coffee, even though we hadn't long finished breakfast :-). One of the snacks was really intriguing, made of a sweet rice paste formed into a ball and with a centre filling of palm sugar syrup, rolled in coconut. DH bit his first one in half and the syrup ran out onto his hand . Then we were given little individual serves of ice cream which was more like a milk sorbet with little pieces of mango and mung beans. There was a little mobile freezer that housed the ice creams, no doubt you rent it when you buy all the ice cream. They also had small bottles of fizzy drinks and juice boxes as well as little sealed disposable cups of water to drink. It hadn't occurred to me until DH pointed out that there was no alcohol in evidence (not that we would have wanted any, we're not really big drinkers).

Next they insisted we be the first guests to hit the buffet. There was a big container of rice which was refilled from time to time, then fried noodles (not unlike ramen but home made), a spicy chicken stew, sate lilit which is what they call it when the meat used is made into a paste with spices and coconut then moulded onto the end of a stick (these were chicken) and peanut sauce sates made of pork, halved hard boiled eggs topped with a killer spicy sauce, a sambal made of finely minced chillies, garlic, onion and spices, another sambal made of toasted coconut and sweet red beans, cap cay (pron chap chay) which is a sort of curry vegetable stew, and little dishes of fruit. It was all delicious but we couldn't eat a lot because we were still full from breakfast. Everyone kept asking, Why aren't you eating more? But we did go back for another round later

The whole thing was not as structured as western weddings are. There were droves of people there all dressed in their best traditional costumes, which is a sarong for the ladies topped by a sort of long jacket made mostly of lace, both regular and guipure and coloured according to personal taste, and the men in sarongs and collared long shirts with a special headband made of elaborately folded fabric. The materials were mostly batik, Ikat or brocade, in every colour and design you can imagine, though the men mostly went in for darker colours and more brown than the ladies. People wandered in and out, sat here or there, moved around, got food, got drinks, and chatted, all while the religious ceremony was going on and the special blessings parts that the bride and groom had to go through. The only people who seemed to have an actual role were the happy couple, the religious man, the photographer and a small group of senior ladies.

The bride and groom came in wearing some amazing traditional finery which included tall many layered crowns and big earrings, matching sarongs (apparently there is no expected colour for wedding clothes so they are free to please themselves) and for the groom a long wide brocade sort of sash. They were paraded around the compound while the religious man performed his part of the ceremony mostly ignored by the assembled guests. Unlike Christian services I guess in Hindu services only the priest does anything. Some of the ladies sat at the side and sang some kind of traditional (wedding?) songs, but only as a background thing. After various perambulations of the bride and groom, some of the senior ladies did what we assumed was a blessing ceremony, placing little banana leaf dishes on the wedding couple's upturned hands and filling them with rice and other goodies. They also swirled incense around them and swished a sheaf of rice over them. The groom was then given a shoulder pole with a coconut hung on one end and a bucket with a banana plant on the other, and the bride a basket of goods to place on her head, and they then were paraded around the compound. We were told this represented the girl selling things in the market and the farm boy coming to buy from her and falling in love. Next the senior ladies made a procession around, carrying various objects such as a coconut, incense, rice sheaves and glasses of water which they dipped flowers into and flicked around like a Catholic priest with his censer.

Then the happy couple faced the family compound temple (where everyone in the family prays daily) and knelt to pray with a large tray of offerings in front of them, while the senior ladies also prayed. Lastly they were taken up to the bale where the religious man was, and he blessed them before the thrones were carried out for them to sit on at the side nearish the food. That seemed to be the end of the "formal" part and everyone ate and drank and talked some more, though in truth there had been little slowing down in that department

We got to offer our congratulations to the happy couple, who are apparently teachers in Denpasar and met at university. The bride is tiny and dainty, about 4'9" and very slender, while the groom, also slender, was rather taller. It was really sweet seeing how carefully he was looking after his bride, helping her up and down the steps as though she was made of spun glass. It was the best day we have spent in a long time and we feel very privileged to have been included as warmly as we were.

While we were there, Dewi had her cousin, who had done all the fruit carvings and palm leaf decorations, make a carved watermelon with mine and DH's names on it, to take back to our villa with us. A brilliant day

I took lots of photos but I'll wait until we get home to post them as bandwidth here isn't as good as it might be

PS We asked about wedding gifts and were told by the manager here that they aren't really expected but when we insisted he suggested cash. We couldn't find a card but I had some envelopes and wrapping paper and tape so I made a pretty envelope with the wrapping paper and a card out of a page from my travel diary and cut outs from the paper and also the cover of my diary which fortuitously had "LOVE" spelled out in hearts on the front We tucked in some cash and our best wishes and I think it was much appreciated but I also think we had the better deal

How lovely! What an honor to be included in such an event.

Balinese seem to be particularly gracious people. My grandparents took a long trip through several countries in Asia before the Vietnam war. My grandmother loved Bali. She befriended a Balinese woman who gave her a spectacular piece of silk ikat.

What a treat! You must be very special people for Dewi to include you in the family festivities. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures, although your description was enchanting.

Oh yes, that was a wonderful description, I can hardly wait for pictures!

Annie

Sounds like a wonderful time. I did get invited to a wedding reception when I was in San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico back in 1976 - everyone who happened to be in town was invited. They had gin and coconut water punch that was surprisingly good. Last Friday we were in Palm Springs and ended up going to a bar/restaurant that was hosting a wedding reception for Tanya and Wanda, and that was quite entertaining. We thought we were just going to a restaurant, but it turned out to be more of a bar, and they had a drag show after the wedding reception, but we did not stay for very much of that.

I do love it when people invite you to participate in their cultural events - Americans do not do that as much, and are very wary of wedding crashers.

Your experience at the wedding sounds wonderful. Thank you for your description and I am also looking forward to seeing some photos.

Having a go at adding photos:

Thank you!! Looks like a magical time....and thank you for taking and posting the pictures so we can see too. AND it's nice to see a picture of you! Didn't know you had blue hair!

Glad you like the pictures! I dyed my hair in a cancer fundraising event we have here annually where you either shave your head or dye your hair an outrageous colour, and I really liked it so it's stayed that way :-)

The funny thing is, because I'm inside the hair I forget it's blue until someone stops me in the street or a shop or whatever and says, "Love the hair!"

wow -- gorgeous colors and decorations! complete visual overload. Thanks for posting! and your hair looks violet-purple on my monitor. :)

Thanks for sharing your fantastic pictures.

Colleen, your hair looks blue/violet on my monitor too, and I love it! It matches your shirt too!

Thanks for the amazing pictures, what a colorful and unique experience that is. And I loved the racing buffalos with the stocking cap covers on their horns, LOL.

Annie

Just lovely.

It's dark violet and cyclamen in the front and aqua and yellow underneath at the back :-) And purple is my favourite colour so I have a whole bunch of purple shirts :-D Makes being in the Red Hat Society really easy LOL