This story is from Santi, about her (almost) traditional Indonesian wedding. Check out the photos to see what happened!


Traditionally the bride kisses the groom’s hand to show respect…


…But this time the groom kissed the bride’s hand too!

Santi wrote: This scene happened after the ijab kabul (wedding vow) during our akad (religious ceremony). Normally, the wife should kiss the husband’s hand to show her respect, and in return the husband should kiss her forehead to show his love.

But when I told (future) husband about this, he asked, “Why don’t we rather kiss each others’ hands?” I immediately liked the idea, and we agreed to do it, without telling anybody. When husband was kissing my hand, the guests were shouting ‘ooooh’ ‘aaaaah’ out of surprise. You can even see my brother’s face LOL .. who was looking at me as he suspected it was all my idea.

Read the original on Santi’s blog.

Want to share your story or photos? Write to us! info @ pocketcultures.com

Read more:
Santi also wrote about food in an Indonesian-French family
More stories and photos of cross-cultural relationships
Indonesian blogs on Blogs of the World

About the author

We feature guest posts from people all over the world. If you'd like to write one, please send us an email. Don't worry if English is not your first language, we can help with editing!