Arya-Ariel Wedding Reception

Dharmawangsa Hotel, December 20th, 2007
7.00 p.m. – 9.00 p.m.

Finally.. the big day arrived..

One day before the D day, we gathered at the hotel for the general rehearsal in the afternoon. Some of us already took an office leave, while the others like myself and my hubby took a half day working.

Later on after lunch I first ran for a quick manicure and pedicure… I’ve been planning to have French manicure for the D day and been maintaining my nails to a level they could be ready for the French manicure.. hehe.. although due to my pregnancy I started to scratching my stomach.

The GR went well, with some funny parts, especially because it is the first time for Arya, Ariel and Ariel’s parents (and they haven’t seen this kind of traditions before). Afterward, the adults went to a family dinner, while we are, the younger went home.

On December 20th

We started the day with sholat Eid Ul Adha first. Then we got ready to the hotel. Most of the main members of the wedding committee were gathered there at about 9.00 a.m. The decoration has started its work. It’s fabulous. The flowers were so beautiful!!

At 2 p.m. the rest of the committees have joined us. The ‘penerima tamu, pager ayu, pager bagus’ have arrived and got ready for make ups, hair style and the kebaya/beskap uniform. We also did the same. It was a little bit chaos, but finally resolved.

At 5.00 p.m. (well, it went a little bit late than expected) the traditional ceremony was held. Arya-Ariel were to do the sungkeman process and some other traditional ceremony; and followed by family and committee pictures. It went fine… (and let the main committee keep a little secret story about this.. hehe..).
Most of our families, even from out of town were there to witness the ceremony. Thank you, thank you so much for coming.

After a light dinner for the committee, we prepared for the reception at 7.00 p.m. It was raining the whole afternoon, but at 7 the rain stopped and surprisingly people still came on time. The parade of the bride & groom, their parents and their close family (including my mom and dad) was so long, led by 9 beautiful Javanese dancers. The dance in front of the stage took about 15 minutes, followed by an introduction by the master of ceremony and speech from Oom Palgunadi (which took another 15 minutes). That resulted in a long line of guests queuing to give the bride & the groom best wishes. The line was up to the hotel lobby where people get off from their cars and they were stuck for about 20 minutes (until the speech finished and they could start giving their greetings to the couple).

Mbak Dyah, Wiro and I were the ones standby at the lobby/foyer. So we were the ones who saw the ‘traffic’ of the queuing guests; while the others (Mbak Lucy, my hubby and Pierre) who were at the ballroom couldn’t make any anticipation action (by opening the door from the ballroom to the dining room) to reduce the crowd. Well, finally the chaos was over as they guests started walking slowly toward the happy couple.

I spent most of the time with the ‘pager ayu and pager bagus’, as where I was posted and in charge of, so I didn’t have much time to have chit chat with the other families. Thank you guys for all the help.. :)

But overall, the reception was a blast!! It was great, the food, the decoration, the committee, the guests, everything..!! Congratulations to Arya and Ariel.. hope your new family will always filled with love, happiness and blessing from God. Oom (Arya’s dad), you can take a relief breath now.. hehe… congrats to you too…

The Pacific Place

Pure Restaurant

The brand new mall located at SCBD. It is still on its soft opening, but about 40% of the stores are already open. We had Mbak Dyah birthday lunch at “Pure”, an organic resto but with a very tasty food. I ordered deep fried dory fish with tartar sauce and fresh salad, plus French fries as the side dish. Tasty…!! The fish was so juicy and soft. Papa also had the same thing. My hubby ordered marinara pasta with tomato sauce (its actually dory and salmon fish). Also yummy.. Mbak Dyah had a enoki mushroom covered with sukiyaki beef with rice. Looks delicious too..

We were offered herbal tea, and there was this special tea called “Mom to be”. I had that one, it’s a combination of peppermint and other herbal. Nice also.

Just about when we were leaving Pure, the waiter asked us to go back to our seat. There was actually a surprise prepared for Mbak Dyah.. She got a piece of chocolate cake (also organic one, low cholesterol and low sugar… hehe..) and the waiters were singing ‘happy birthday’ to her.. Nice thing to make her happier in her happy day (and a little ashamed at the same time).. hehe.. Thanks to Pierre, her lovely romantic husband.. :D


The Pacific Place itself
The mall itself is so huge and having this great layouts. My favorite place is the food section with the boat and sea decoration. You see it for yourself. And you should also see the toilet at the food section,, it’s just different from the usual ones.

Well, here’s the picture if you want to see..

Birthday of the Decembers

On the 15th of December is the birthday of Eyang Poer, Bulek Ninik and Mbak Dyah. On the day, we had lunch (Mbak Dyah, Pierre, Mama, Papa, Ipung and myself – plus Kiddy of course) at Pacific Place (see the posting of “the Pacific Place”).

The day after, on Sunday, we gathered at Bintaro for breakfast. The big family went to cemetery earlier, at about 7.30 a.m. to pray for Aki, who passed away 8 years ago (on December 18th to be more precise). After than, all went to Bintaro. Ipung and I went directly to Bintaro.

We had birthday breakfast with the December birthdays.. Eyang Bin and Eyang Tati were also there.

We had Menado porridge and Timlo Solo as the main menu. Beside that, we also had some snacks from Okky & Paul, my mom’s almond pudding, fresh mango and birthday cake.

The gathering were closed with discussion about Arya-Ariel D day and our trip plan for the end/new year.
Happy Birthday Eyang Poer, Bulek Ninik and Mbak Dyah.. many happy returns…

3 Days to Go

3 days before the D day of Arya-Ariel wedding reception.
Emails are coming more frequently.. updating recent progress and news about the wedding preparation. Bulek Ninik, my aunt, who is the chief of the wedding committee has prepared the final versions (its plural, due to the variety of the documents) of the files related to the wedding preparation.. start with the round down of the event, list of committee members and vendors, lay out of the decoration of the reception, lay out of the rooms to be used by the committees, lay out the ‘pager ayu, pager bagus, reception and among tamu’ will be standing, itinerary of the Olsons during their staying in Jakarta..

I just so worry that my kebaya is not finish yet.. hopefully Mbak Titie will make it before the D day (which suppose to be tomorrow).

Update report will be posted after the D day..

2 weeks to go

yesterday was 2 weeks before the big day for Arya and Ariel... (and of course for Oom and Tante)... December 20th, 2007, would be the wedding reception of Arya-Ariel.

We had big technical meeting with all the committee members and vendors of the event yesterday. Many of us took a day or half day leave from office to be able to go to the meeting. We have also been through many meetings 2 months beforehand.. Bulek Ninik, acting as the chief committee, is the best chief ever. She always prepares handouts and power point presentation for the meetings.

Hope everything will be ready for the big day... :)