Senengnya bisa bawa kakakku nengok kami ke Belanda dan jalan - jalan di Eropa

   

   Sudah hampir 1 tahun aku tinggal di Belanda untuk menetap. So jadinya perasaan kangen sama keluarga di Indonesia besar banget. Awalnya 24 juni 2013 itu kami ngerayain anniversary pertemuan kami pertama kali yang ke 3. Nah, kami makan di luar. En aku udah nyiapin kado kecil buat suami. Pas dia lihat aku bawa kado, dia agak pucat. Kayaknya sich karena dia lupa nyiapin kado. Dia cuma inget untuk ajak makan di resto depan danau belakang rumah kami. Tempatnya sich lumayan keren untuk makan. Aku sich gak ngarepin kado2 besar. Apa keq, buku diary, pinsil, atau apa aja yg dibungkus kertas kado pastinya nyenengin banget buat aku. Eh.. ini mah lupa. Tapi ya udah.. Karena udah diajak makan di resto Molenplas yg lumayan asyik tempatnya aku sich gak kecewa.  

   Pas aku nyerahin kadonya en kartu, dia senyum2 aja en bilang terima kasih sambil senyum2. Apalagi kartunya aku bikin sendiri dan dia juga seneng banget sama kadonya yg berupa hand grip untuk ambil barang yang dia temuin di jalan (hobi suamiku untuk check logam/ metal yg dia temukan di jalan). Terus aku yg benernya udah tahu dia gak ada kado, pura2 nanya. "Kadoku mana? " Eh.. dia tiba2 bilang.. ow.. masih rahasia.. Aku pikir dia benernya ngulur2 waktu untuk mikir  kado mana yang dia bisa tawarkan ke aku. Haha, kasihan aku lihat wajahnya sebenarnya. Tapi isengku tiba2 kumat. Jadi aku godain aja dia terus. "Ow kirain kamu lupa.. Syukurlah, hampir aja aku kecewa". Sampai kami jalan pulang, dia belum bilang apa kadonya. Baru sampai di rumah, dia peluk aku bilang kalau dia punya kado besar yg gak bisa dibungkus buat aku. Aku penasaran apa. Dia kasih jawaban yang buat aku kaget. Kaget setengah mati karena enggak nyangka. "Kita bisa undang orang tuamu untuk datang ke Belanda".  "Kamu bercanda? " Dia bilang "Enggak. Aku serius." Akhirnya aku ngelonjak kegirangan. Mataku berkaca - kaca, en bersyukur dalam hati atas kemurahan hati suamiku.   

    Besoknya aku segera sampaikan kabar gembira itu ke ortuku. Tapi ternyata, ortuku kurang positif menanggapinya. Mereka sich sebenarnya mau2 saja ke Belanda. Siapa sich yg gak seneng diajak ke Belanda nengok keluarga (Keluarga besar Mamaku juga banyak yang tinggal di Belanda). Tapi pekerjaan Papaku gak bisa ditinggal. Papaku masih belum pensiun. Itu deh resiko kalau punya ortu yang kawin muda. Jadinya Papaku masih usia 51 dan Mamaku 49. Belum adikku masih baru masuk SMP. Jadi ortuku gak mau resiko ninggal adikku jauh2 sendiri en kalaupun adikku ikut, itu juga gak mungkin karena masih baru masuk sekolah SMP gak baik bolos - bolos. Aduuh .. aku yg gantian kecewa.. Kalau nunggu tahun depan kesuwen.. kelamaan. Aku kan sudah kangen. Sering banget kalau jalan2 di winkel centrum (pusat belanja)  sendirian, pas suami kerja en gak ada kelg ipar / teman yg bisa nemanin, kepikiran, aduuh enak kali ya kalau bisa sama2 mama/ adik dan kakak.   

   Sedang kecewa atas tanggapan ortuku yang bilang mereka butuh beberapa tahun persiapan untuk bisa datang ke Belanda dan tidak bisa mendadakan, aku jadi dikit uring2an. Di rumah jadi malas skype ama mereka yg di Indo, juga FB aku malas. Pokoknya malas banget. Sampai akhirnya, Mamaku WA aku. Katanya lebih baik aku ajak Ceceku (kakak kandung perempuanku satu2nya) Venska dulu. Ceceku juga dengan senang hati menawarkan diri. Tanya suamiku dia sich senang saja. Dengan berbagai pertimbangan akhirnya kami setujui untuk mengundang Ceceku. Dia akan datang dari 12 Agustus 2013 hingga 6 November 2013. Lumayan lama untuk mengobati kangenku.  

   Akhirnya 12 Agustus 2013, dengan menumpang pesawat Malaysian Airlines, Ceceku tiba di Schiphol pukul 07:00 pagi. Seneng banget rasanya bisa bahagiain satu dari anggota keluargaku. Darah dagingku juga. Ceceku yang meski kami sering juga ribut, tapi benernya kami deket banget. Karena beda usia cuma 2,5 tahun. Sebelum dia datang, aku grogi minta ampun. Siapin semua pernak - pernik yang ungu di kamarnya karena ungu itu warna favoritnya dari dulu sampe sekarang, siapin poster Welcome to NL (bikin sendiri), pokoknya benar2 grogi, sampe2 sehari sebelumnya bikin rendang yg terlalu pedas untuk dimakan. Karena ngelamun, otakku gak kerja bener. Harusnya pake lombok besar (spaans peper) aku malah kasih rawit. Semuanya dari rawit. So, bisa dibayangin gimana pedesnya itu rendang. Hahaha. 

  Oh ya entar di post berikutnya aku kasih tahu apa saja yang harus disiapin kalau mau undang anggota keluarga datang ke Belanda untuk berlibur dengan visa Schengen. Sudah ada draftnya cuma belum lengkap, masih harus dipoles sana - sini.  

Aku dan kakakku di halaman depan bandara Schiphol 

The Ceremony of mixed race marriage couple in Bali

We have decided that we held 2 parties. One in Bali and one in Surabaya (the city where I came from & also where my big family live still).

Why did we choose Bali for our wedding? It was simple. Bali was the place that we met for the first time & Bali is beautiful. Who doesnt want to marry in Bali anyway?
But the Bali wedding party was only for really close family. (Parents, Sisters, Brothers) But for Surabaya, the party was bigger because I have more families that couldnt be able to do a long journey to Bali (from Surabaya, East Java) only to attend our wedding. And we want to share our happiness with all parts of the big family member without make them difficult for example has to make a trip to Bali only for our wedding. And because in Bali was smaller, we made it very private and simple but really beautiful as beautiful as possible. The theme was Green Garden Party and it was held on the place that we found it accidentaly when we were having lunch. It was only a new small restaurant with nice surrounding: a rice field and big fish pond. Actually that was an idea from my husband. ;) The name of the restaurant is D'Carik. It is located on Sanur area. 

March 13th 2012:

Morning session:

It was raining a bit when I woke up and opened my eyes this morning.. hmm not a good sign for tomorrow. But I didnt want to keep focus with negative possibility. So yes. I was keep smiling the whole morning. And the first step it was welcoming my family came from Surabaya. My Parents, litle Brother and my uncle. While my Auntie en my lil cousin had came earlier days than them. And my Sis also was still living in Bali that time. So yes, from the bride's side, at 9 o'clock in the morning the family was already complete. Now have to wait for the groom's side. Suddenly I got a text from the haircreambath lady. Ooops! Almost forget that I made appointment with her. So i was hurrying took a shower, got dressed and then ran to her place. I wanted to looks more fresh to welcome my Husband and my in law family. During the hair creambath, my husband called me from Jakarta. Yeee.. He told about he had already in Jakarta and they were going to boarding to the flight to Bali.  I could hear his voice with Mama- Papa and all sisters & brothers as the background. From Jakarta to Bali hmm not so long.. It meant yup.. I had to go soon. So finished with my hair (pretty relaxing) I jumped back to my house and asked my Uncle to go and be ready to pick up all of them. From my place to the airport, gonna take around 1 hour and from Jakarta to Bali only 1, 5 hour!!

Middle day session:

So we were in rush and like usually with a bit messy clumsy as me usually.. Finally.. I met them again.. YES! I could jump to him again! And the nice thing was all of Rick's family was there. His parents and all his sisters & brothers in law. (Except the youngest sister of him coz she just gave a birth a baby.) Totally there were 9 persons that I had to pick up from the airport. It was nice feeling to be there among all of them and to see that his family was looking so happy and excited! Of course! That day was the first time of them to have a holiday to another continent ouside Europe as 1 big family!

We then walked directly to the hotel in Sanur : Peneeda View to drop the whole family.

Afternoon session:

And after let Rick took a bit of rest in the hotel for 1 little hour, we went to the location of our wedding ceremony. (Sorry Honey - but we had to do it :[ ) Our dear friends were already waiting there to help us preparing the ceremony. Ari & Milla (Meilan) Wijaya. And suddenly.. Ooo.. It was raining very bad.. Really bad.. Like you will never imagine. So all the preparations of the wedding had to be stopped at least till there was no rain anymore. We were a bit nervous of course. We kept thinking: Oh no.. what gonna happen for tomorrow? (PS: the wedding concept : Garden Party)

Evening session:

From the wedding location I pushed Rick to drop by to the florist shop to take the flowers tomorrow. Well, I know it was a little work, but it was worth with the money that we could save instead that we had to spend money to hire a wedding organizer. And to be honest, I am kind of woman who likes to do everything as possible as can by my self.  If something is really2 I cant do by my self, then that time  I will ask for help ;)

Dinner session:

For the first time the family from both side will be introduced face to face. So we chosen the best restaurant in Sanur Bali, and of course it was Cafe Batu Jimbar Resto. All the family for the first time met, but because have been sitting in the same faith as Jehovah Witness, they were easy to adapt and not so long time after it was started, I saw that they were already laughing, talking en enjoying so many nice conversation :) And also the nice dinner. Many tried the Indo's food, but some also didnt dare to taste the Indo food. Too early they said. During the dinner session I even had to go to the ladies room for my appointment with my modista. Yes, for my Kebaya dress for Surabaya party. Gladly tha eventhough it was raining hard and very busy day, everything was going smoothly.

Midnight:

I opened my phone and there was a message from the MC that he wont be able to help us. Gosh! :( Well but my husband and I decided to just que sera - sera and see what happened the next day. And my mom, like always, still worry about many things even till 1 o clock in the morning she was still asking about make up and so on. Mother oh mother ;) By the way till that time the weather was still bad.. It was rain so hard, almost like storm. :(  I almost couldnt sleep. I guess till 1 a.m in the morning I was still awake.

March 14, 2012: 

I was wake up coz my mother called me around 5:30 am told about that the taxi driver had lost and she also  didnt know the way to go to the beauty Salon. Oh my goodness. That was so perfect! :#  And even I was a bit upset because being told that the Taxi driver also became stress since he had another next client that also urgent to be picked up so didnt want to be late.( Like I did care :#)  But yes, at the end it was handled very good and I also being picked up by the Taxi driver (already ordered since last night) and he was the same taxi driver who picked up my mother. Olala! So when he told my mother that he had another important client,  I was his another important client!! Hahaha that was funny. I had to laughing for my self. He was also laughing when he realized it. On the way to beauty Salon, we picked up my bride maid. She was my Bible student, and she is soo pretty and nice girl. We had the breakfast on the way inside the Taxi.  Gladly that the Make Up Artist was our own sister in the Jehovah Witness. She is pretty professional M.U.A but we could get friend's price :D So lucky. And we also did the make up test 2 weeks before, so on the Big Day, she already knew what she had to do with my face and my hair. ( I was so carefull about not to looked like over make up), and yes, according to me, she is the best. ;)

On the way to the wedding party place, I forgot the flower, so had to come back to the bridal. :D Luckily I had Veren as my bridemaid, she was so helpful and act as an adult on that day. ;)

Btw, Rick my husband took good care of himself pretty good but his family also helped him of course. 

Oh yeah, one more important thing is : the weather was sooo beautiful. Sun was shining really good and almost there was no evidence that the day before was soo hard rain. And all the programs were working so smoothly and success. Many gave compliments about the party. It was simple but sweet. And we didnt have to pay as expensive as we imagined before. Because we did all by our self. The decoration from the place& car, food (was from the restaurant, but we contributed some ideas also),our wedding costume, the invitation, the souvenirs, the photographer was the young talented photographer that I found in the young photographer community in Bali. So that it didnt cause a lot. TO be honest, I got the inspirations mostly from Hollywood movie about concept of simple but sweet wedding. I dont know why, even though I have Asia blood in my gene, but I never like the big party as common in Asia. For me those kind of party are never look sweet & beautiful. So many I attended wedding party of others and realized how much many they spent on it, but it looks not unique, too same with others. And that also full of fake. Like fake wedding tart, fake flowers, fake photos schene & video and so on. I always said in my heart, that I promise I wont have that kind of party for my own wedding. To usual, and I dont want to start my marriage with fake wedding party. The worst is also for that kind of fake they have to pay pretty crazy amount of money. FYI for invite 50 peoples for the food and drinks and place plus photographer and souvenir, plus invitation and decoration, we only spent  around 7 million. And the wedding gown also I got the channel direct from the producent in Jakarta that sell it price quarter that what they sell in the Bridal.
Hey, I dont mean to become so critical now.  Im just saying my opinion about how my wedding party. And the point is that (according to me) our wedding party was perfect & though I was a bit disappointed that the bride maid was insisting to wear a purple (her fave colour instead than green my fave colour) but as my husband said, it was not a big problem and I should thankful that we had a nice wedding and always try to focus to the nice thing about our wedding party instead than only focus to the not nice thing of the party.
 

our Bali's wedding decoration