A Classy and Heartfelt Traditional Javanese Wedding

Like a scene straight out of a romance movie, Gita and Jon first met near the Eiffel Tower. The two later on arranged another meeting during Gita's volunteer work in China. As she came from Jakarta and he lived in Honolulu, a long-distance relationship was inevitable. From intensive emails to chats, voice calls to video calls, they both believed that it would be worth it in the end. Looking back at their relationship, there was also a period of time during which the couple couldn't see each other for 21 months straight. However, there's always a lesson learned and those hard times existed to make them stronger.

Thus, after being apart for six years, all Jon and Gita wanted was to simply be together in person. "Ever since we got engaged, I knew that there would be so many things we had to prepare and it that would be quite a challenge for everyone who was involved considering the distance. That's why we didn't want to complicate the wedding," Gita talked about her wedding planning. The Bride also wanted for her family to be involved as much as possible. "Even though Indonesian weddings typically involve extended family members, I knew they would be very happy to help as I'd be moving away to Honolulu after the wedding," the lovely bride said.

As a proud Javanese herself, it was natural that Gita had always dreamed of having a traditional wedding. "I loved every bit of the traditional wedding processions we had to go through from siraman, akad ceremony, up until Panggih," she said. "In the end, Jon and I had a wonderful time. Our families were happy and so was everyone else. That's the most important thing, isn't it?" the bride said with a smile.

If we had to pick our most favorite part of the whole wedding, it must be when the couple did a video call to Jon's family members that couldn't attend the wedding in Jakarta. Scroll back again and you'll see smiles and laughter exchanged effortlessly in each picture.