A Wedding is a once in a lifetime experience, most girls dream of their wedding day their whole life, this is the same for Balinese people.

Our Island is well known as The Island of Gods, hence, the Balinese Traditional Wedding is sacred and religious. Unlike weddings in general, there are lots of procession should be followed,  starting from the meeting of both parents of Groom and Bride to carry out an engagement, this is the first stage until the wedding reception. And all of them involve the Holy Priest to set the “good date” of the wedding.

The Engagement Procession

Balinese engagement procession called “Ngidih”, means that both families meet each other and talk about the future plan for the couple. Thegroom’s side usually prepar the dowry for the bride during this procession. The Groom’s parents will ask the permission from The Bride’s parents to take their daughter to be their new daughter and bring her to the Groom’s house. Afterwards, there will another welcoming ceremony of the new daughter ( thebride ) at groom’s house.

The Balinese Traditional Wedding Procession

Ceremonial procession lead bythr Holy Priest normally take one to two hours. There is also the ceremony tools called “banten or upakara” prepared by the Groom’s families followed by the Holy Priest instruction. During the ceremony procession, there are tons of wishes and prayers witnessed by God, Ancestors, families and relatives.

Afterwards, the next procession is called “metipatbantal or mejauman” which takes place in the Bride’s house to welcome the newly wed and alsoaccompanied by the Groom’s main family. This usually happens the next days after the main ceremonial day. On the day it was agreed by both sides of the family, the newly wed will visit the brides familywhilst bringing Balinese traditional food called kue bantal, jajan apem, cerorot, sirih, pinang, coffee, tea, palm sugar, rice, fruits and other Balinese culinary. This is the last procession of the Balinese wedding ceremony and it has meaning of the two families gather in order to make peace and harmony. Besides, the procession itself believe that this announce the newly weds as already legally married couple to the bride’s ancestor.

The wedding ceremony itself has three categories in tradition depending on the level of caste in the community, financial and the ability of each person. Balinese stick to the culture of each place. Therefore, when we talk about tradition, indeed we are very unique.

The Balinese Traditional Wedding Costume

We found that every country has different traditional costume.

At a Balinese wedding the Bride and Groom wear something special,thissymbolises the King and Queen once in their life. Most of them are colourful costumes in pair and have special pieces of fabrics called “songket”. It’s handmade and the bright colours gerneally symbolise happiness and brighter future. Golds and silver pattern of songketsymbolise of wealth. Besides, couples that are wearing a high cover looks like crown with golden accent.

After long ceremonial procession, the reception will following by then. Normally they order a buffet style, there can be thousands visiting in one day. Seems tiring, but this is their way to share the joy of having a new life.