how do you measure ?

So my sister's wedding was over, December 17' 2011.

Having been into much of wedding party, and having the privilege to be the organizer / helper in some of them, being human we tend to compare the wedding we went through. Also, we (read I) tend to be selfish in the sense I always hope for my family member & those friends whose wedding I helped is smooth & successful.

So how do we measure the success of my sister's wedding ? As I'm her sister, my answer would mostly be biased here.

Let's see:

The preparation :

Before the wedding day, baju gua dikritik sama my mom & my sis and they keep asking me to buy new dress which was so last minute. Buat tenangin dia orang, gua pergi ke TA, find some dresses, ga nemu, and then decided to stand on my ground buat ga beli new dress. Stick to my decision.

Also, gua udah leave dari tanggal 12 Dec, while my sis cuman mulai leave dari kamis on Dec 15. In that short time span dia harus kejar sana sini, en selesaiin video sendiri using my Macbook. Cool, I never even make any video using Imovie/ Iphoto. She completed all and even teach me how to use IDVD as well. Cuman yah itu: the timing is so mephet. Thank God selesai.

Taking everything into consideration, I say the preparation is okay. We've done all we could and... que sera sera.

As for my sis & leo, they received lots of praises for taking care of everything about the wedding themselves. Ga nyusahin. Lucunya they got critics for rejecting parents funding. Mereka insist on funding the wedding themselves, and parents di Indo pada protes. well ....?!?!?! speechless abit.

The Holy Matrimony, Saturday December 17' 2011 : 11 AM. Annex building.

Have I told you how happy I was to hear the best news this year that dede gua udah join gereja, JPCC ga nanggung nanggung, and after years of her pending her faith confirmation, she finally get baptized taon ini, officiated by none other the father of gembala JPCC Pst. Jeffrey Rahmat, and above all : accepted and sanctified by one and only GOD ?

For many years I waited, sometimes giving up, to hear the good news and this year semuanya Tuhan kerjakan dengan baik dan sempurna. So buat ngeliat dede gua bisa jalanin wedding ala Holy Matrimony-an gereja instead of makan tok..... I feel SO BLESSED to witness the wedding, and to see my parents taste the goodness of His grace.

Even happier to know that they are planted in JPCC, udah join date, udah ikutin semua aturan panjang persyaratan nikah JPCC (seriously : kudos for their persistence), and to know that the wedding is blessed by Pst. Jose Carol whom I personally favored & respect.

Best part : I have my relatives came, mostly are not believers yet, but at the end of the holy matrimony we saw tears everywhere on every girls and guys (my cousins & uncles are crying)

So I guess : it's one score of success for the Holy Matrimony.


The dinner : 17 December 2011 : Upper room annex building. 7PM onwards

Overall I say :

1. Family members are VERY happy & entertained.

2. MC is good. Dede gua hire Ferly dari stasiun TV mana gua jg kagak ngerti...yg udah sering dipake for his company event. Yg pasti dia profesional, bagus en manteb, warna bajunya aja sampe masuk ke decor, sampe semua pada minta contact si Ferly en pada mo foto2.

3. Band is spectacular. Fantastic. The singer, the songs, the grand piano... woots :) good :) Dede gua sewa some band yg perform dari Nikko hotel on live show every monday. Sekali lagi gua ga tau show yg mana.

4. Baju gua received lots of praises on the day itself ...heheheheh ..untung gua ngotot not to buy new one. Thank you El for recommending Rani. And I've relearnt another lesson that sometimes, you just have to stick to what you believe regardless what the world say, when you know that it's something right & good. It's not what they think that matters, it's how standing in the right ground made you feel, that's what matters.

Also another lesson: parents don't always know best. And I know from the long history of my mom buying or choosing some clothes design for me, that she doesn't know best. Sometimes a hit, sometimes a miss. Tapi biasa mothers, they always think they know best. Spt halnya dlm baju gua dimana dia ngotot luar biasa for me to make/ buy new dress. Well I stick to my ground.

5. Baju dede gua seh ..... va va voom lah hoh. The designer is her high school friend who designed one of dresses worn by Lady Gaga for her photoshoot in harper's bazaar. Google aja namanya : Tex Saverio. Gua sempet ketemu dia sekali doang less than 1 minute, and yup : dia beneran keliatan keluar dari some Manga book :P so animetic.

Banyak yg berentiin dede gua pas lg siang2 foto di hotel buat numpang foto sama dia en bajunya :P Pas dinner, banyak yg nunggu dia turun panggung buat foto sama dia, sambil nanya nanya designer nya siapa. She hired a very good make up artist yg bikin dia cakep bener. Thank God dia share make up artistnya sama gua :P eheheheh thank you De :P

6. General feedback on food was super fantastic. My cousin's fiance, Rachel the Korean girl terus2an dateng ke gua siang en malem just to say : Melissa , food is SUPER GOOD !! I love it..

7. Timing is of the essence and they didn't start too late and didn't end that early either. At the end of the reception we saw alot of ppl staying late just to enjoy the party, and keep taking pics with the couple.

Really overall-ly successful in my own limited WO-ing experience view. WO yg dede gua sewapun do a very good job. Team-nya jg manteb.

So I say overall : it's a successful wedding party with lil bit of small minor hiccups here and there which is normal and make the day unforgettable.

But is that how we measure the success of a wedding ?
The dress, the food, the number of guests, the photos, the make up, the band ?

Which bring us to the sermon that Pst. Jose brought in the morning.
Dia cerita about his wedding. It was in 1998, year of riots. Jadi pendetanya telat 3 jam datengnya karena ketunda penutupan jalan. Sound systemnya sewa 2, yg dateng cuman 1 set, so harus dipindah pindah dari ruang holy matrimony ke ruang wedding. By the time the wedding is started in the evening, itu udah jam 8.30 akibat ke drag sama telatnya holy matrimony en akibat sound systemnya yg baru selesai set up. Undangan yg nongol cuman setengah dari yg diundang coz ppl masih trauma sama riots, and then by the time 8.30 PM udah kesisa temen2 Pst and wife only, which is 300 an orang doang. Sekitar 500 an orang are the parents invite and they have went home.

His wedding was a mess. But is his marriage in a mess ? Definitely not.
So he told my sis en husband (now) : your marriage doesn't depend on the success of your wedding. And the success of your wedding doesn't determine the success of your marriage.

What so good about a successful wedding but a train wreck marriage life ? Good thing about wedding is probably ang pao cuan (kata si Pst.)

So is my sis wedding a success ? Given everything that I saw and the feedback from people during the night, I say it is.

Her marriage however, we just have to wait and see, while praying and blessing them with strength and hope and understanding to go through it all till the end, till it last a lifetime.

a happy sis {=^o^=}
bombie