Unique Engagement..

Busy weeks.. now followed by tired week.. pheewww... :-P

The 'butterfly sign' was all right.. the guests came as planned. Joe's family came and met ours last Friday morning, and now it means.. Sinta is officially engaged to Joe!

In Indonesia, the romantic moment of "Would you marry me?" and "Yes", cannot be considered an official engagement, until the family of the future groom comes to the home of the bride to follow up on the 'personal engagement'.

Once the representative of the future groom's family (can be the father or an appointed spokesperson) expresses the intention of proposing for the girl to be wedded to the guy, and a representative of the future bride's family (can also be the father or an appointed spokesperson) provides an answer based on the future bride's answer (which usually is a 'yes').. Then, the engagement becomes official and the two families can start preparing for the wedding ceremony.. :-)

Sooo... CONGRATULATIONS!!! :-)

Anyway.. It was a very unique engagement ceremony, since neither of the couple was here.. Sinta was still in Moscow, Russia (doing her Master degree), and Joe was still in Verona, Italy (doing his PhD).

During the engagement ceremony they appeared only on the TV screen which was connected to the laptop. We used Yahoo Messenger for the video chat (Skype doesn't have video conference chat) and Skype for the voice chat (voice chat quality of Yahoo Messenger was not as good as that of Skype).

Love is a mystery.. we only know it when we have found it.. The process of getting to know each other between Joe and Sinta was not long. They met each other face to face once around last August, then they followed up via the internet..

They met again once around the New Year in Moscow and they decided they were going to get married. After that, most probably, they are going to settle down in Italy for some time.. :-)

The little sister is getting married.. and flying away with the love of her life.. it always sounds strange in every family.. at the same time, it is one of the happiest moments too.. :-)

Here are pictures of the event:


Ahmad (My husband-as family rep), Mother, Joe's mum, Joe's dad (as family rep)



Joe's mum, Fiki (Joe's brother) and Tia (Joe's sister)



Shahliah (Dani's wife), Mother and Me..
Mother and her two daughters-in-law (a son-in-law coming right up very soon.. hehehe...)



The cousins, chatting with Sinta and Joe (left and right top of screen) after the official engagement ceremony


Congratulations again, Sinta and Joe.. wishing you both a blessed future together.. ;-)