Indonesian Marriage

[db_aussie]

Follow Up

Hello DB Aussie how are you. Not sure if this will help but my wife and I have a wedding for one of our sons there in Legian / Padang Padang. There are around 70 guests from Australia and 30 or so locals & expats in Bali attending. As you can imagine my wife, new outlaws and all else concerned are putting a fair amount of effort into planning, so along the way we need to make sure that the “Wedding” will be recognized on our return to Australia.
You can do this through the Australian consulate…. not sure what went wrong there with Sully.
Just to make sure you understand who is getting married, this is an Australian marrying an Australian in Indonesia.
We traveled several times last year to make sure we had the right Christian church and the right pastor. Frankly, I thought it would be fairly straight forward but like many other official things we do in in Bali it took a fair bit of explaining and in the end, was not as simple as I thought. So if you have not started there yet I can maybe point you in the right direction if need be church/pastor wise. Our gig is on the south end of the island.
Not too clear on what you mean by doing your own thing with the dialogue (flexible pastor) at a Christian wedding. But if you get married in a Christian church the pastor will take care if the dialogue I’m sure!

Sorry for the late reply Dasha and thank-you for your input.

Yes, there is quite a bit involved in organising a wedding, be it in Bali or any other part of the world I suppose. I’m glad my fiancée and the wedding planner are taking care of most of the details (including which pastor we will use). :icon_wink:

As for the wedding being recognized in Australia, I’m not all that concerned, because at present I don’t have any intention of making a life (apart from work) anywhere else but in Bali. Although as far as I understand the wedding will be recognized in Australia anyway. I am also led to believe that any children of our marriage will have dual citizenship until the age of 21, after which point they’ll need to choose one or the other.

As for the ceremony dialogue, all I meant was that I require it to be non-religious. As it turns out, there are a number of priests/pastors that are quite willing to read whatever is provided to them, be it a religious or non-religious script. All I did to find this out was I just did a quick Google search for various wedding planners/organisers in Bali and sent them all an E-mail detailing my requirements. In the end there were at least a few that have priests/pastors who are flexible in regards to the wedding script/dialogue.

Another titbit that I found out more recently from our wedding planner is that for any Bule man, such as myself who intends to marry an Indonesian Christian woman in a Bali wedding ceremony, officiated by a Christian pastor/priest, it is not necessary for him to declare a religion (Although, according to our wedding planner, the same doesn’t apply to the rest of Indonesia). I would assume the same would most likely apply for a Bule woman wanting to marry an Indonesian man in Bali also. As a non-religious person, I must say I was positively chuffed to find out that I won’t need to ‘pretend’ to be a religious person in order to marry my Indonesian fiancée in Bali, which is something I’d originally assumed I would have to do.

I hope this information helps those who might find themselves in a similar situation.

Regards,

DB.

 

[Sully]

Sorry for the late reply Dasha and thank-you for your input.

Yes, there is quite a bit involved in organising a wedding, be it in Bali or any other part of the world I suppose. I’m glad my fiancée and the wedding planner are taking care of most of the details (including which pastor we will use). :icon_wink:

As for the wedding being recognized in Australia, I’m not all that concerned, because at present I don’t have any intention of making a life (apart from work) anywhere else but in Bali. Although as far as I understand the wedding will be recognized in Australia anyway. I am also led to believe that any children of our marriage will have dual citizenship until the age of 21, after which point they’ll need to choose one or the other.

As for the ceremony dialogue, all I meant was that I require it to be non-religious. As it turns out, there are a number of priests/pastors that are quite willing to read whatever is provided to them, be it a religious or non-religious script. All I did to find this out was I just did a quick Google search for various wedding planners/organisers in Bali and sent them all an E-mail detailing my requirements. In the end there were at least a few that have priests/pastors who are flexible in regards to the wedding script/dialogue.

Another titbit that I found out more recently from our wedding planner is that for any Bule man, such as myself who intends to marry an Indonesian Christian woman in a Bali wedding ceremony, officiated by a Christian pastor/priest, it is not necessary for him to declare a religion (Although, according to our wedding planner, the same doesn’t apply to the rest of Indonesia). I would assume the same would most likely apply for a Bule woman wanting to marry an Indonesian man in Bali also. As a non-religious person, I must say I was positively chuffed to find out that I won’t need to ‘pretend’ to be a religious person in order to marry my Indonesian fiancée in Bali, which is something I’d originally assumed I would have to do.

I hope this information helps those who might find themselves in a similar situation.

Regards,

DB.

Dasha

Mine was not Australian marrying an Australian in Bali. Mine was an Australian woman marrying an Indonesian and not in Bali.

I had to get a document to allow me to marry in Indonesia from the Australian Consulate in Jakarta not Bali as my husband is not Balinese. When I got back to Australia I thought (silly me) :icon_e_confused: I would just report or register the marriage of Births, Deaths and Marriages but no. BD & M did not want to know me, I rang Canberra, Dept of Immigration anyone and everyone until I was blue in the face. Believe it or not noboby really knew in the federal governement.

So I thought we will just get married again in Australia but no, I was told by DB & M that it is illegal to get married twice. I rang a Marriage Celebrant and she could not marry us as I was already married in Indonesia. It is recognised in Australia but I cannot change my name because I do not have an Australian Marriage Certificate or I have not changed my name legally by paying money. Anyway too complicated. Funny ATO do not care what I am called, just fill in my tax return and changed my name. I now have 2 bank accounts and my Taxation file changed to my married name but one bank will not change it, go figure.

I wonder if I was to marry again in Australia, say for argument sake and did not tell anybody that I was married in Indonesia if I would get away with it.:icon_lol:

 

[spicynoodles]

help, me too!!

db_aussie, I need a bit of help, I was wondering about a posting that you had made on Oct 07th 2010 in this forum. I am in the same situation as yourself! except I am from the US and not Aus. In particular I am wondering about this:

"Another titbit that I found out more recently from our wedding planner is that for any Bule man, such as myself who intends to marry an Indonesian Christian woman in a Bali wedding ceremony, officiated by a Christian pastor/priest, it is not necessary for him to declare a religion"

Is this so? My fiancee and I have been stressing out about this religion thing because she is a Christian, and I am a non practicing Christian (which means no document for proof of religion). We were worried we wouldnt be able to find a pastor/priest to marry us without my having something for proof of religion, and give us a valid marriage certificate that would be recognized. If what you say is true, this would ABSOLUTELY save my day! Please I beg for your response on this, as we have been stressing over this for some time now. Maybe I can contact this wedding planner of yours? Thanks so much!

-Bert