Dwi's father was born in Semarang, Java, and she grew up -more and less- in a javanese culture. Don't expect too much that she can explain everything about the javanese wedding in detail though, she just tries to provide as much as information she could collect from many sources.

A javanese wedding ceremony starts with a proposal from the parents of the will-be-groom to the parents of the will-be-bride, saying that their son is willing to marry their daughter.

Once the proposal is accepted, a committee starts to plan the whole wedding process. A traditional javanese wedding has several rituals, and the role of pamaes, a traditional make-up woman who leads the whole ceremony, is very important.

One day before the wedding ceremony begins, the gates of the bride's parents house, where traditionally the party takes place, is decorated with several traditional decoration called tarub which consist of several plants and leaves, each has special meaning.

The ceremony itself begins with siraman, the bathing ritual. The meaning of the ritual for the couple is to become clean both their body as well as their soul. Siraman usually takes place in the afternoon, one day before panggih ritual.

During panggih, there are several traditional rituals such as balangan suruh, wiji dadi, timbang, etc. The panggih ceremony is closed by sungkem ritual, where the couples ask for the blessing of their parents.

The whole ceremony ends with a wedding reception, which we will probably do in lampungnese instead of javanese tradition.

For detailed explanation about javanese wedding ceremony, complete with pictures, please take a look at this site