Getaway: This Ukrainian couple released doves during their vow renewal ceremony in Bali. (JP/J.B.Djwan)

Saint Valentine, the patron saint of romance, has his work cut out for him. Sweethearts around the globe are gearing up for their special day of the year, St. Valentines Day, which falls tomorrow, Saturday, February 14.

Expectations are high – American daytime TV host Ricky Ray is teaching men how to buy flowers for the women in their lives, lovers are making bookings for candlelight dinners, teenagers are spending hours picking out romantic cards, while others are feeling the angst of probably missing out on a Valentine’s remembrance for yet another year.

The most romantic of couples choose the day to get married in Bali – but according to one wedding planner, Katrina Simorangkir of Bali Bridal Boutique in Sanur, that level of romance is uncommon, as lucky dates are a preferred way to identify the ideal day to tie the knot.

“This is the first time in 17 years I have not had a wedding booking on Valentines. What I am seeing is more and more people are booking their Bali weddings for lucky dates. Last year it was the 8.8.08, this year it’s the nines,” says Katrina, adding that some people take the importance of lucky numbers to the extreme. “Some people wanted to get married at 8 a.m. – one couple even had 800 guests.”

Valentine’s Day weddings tend to be far more intimate. “Usually it’s just the couple in Valentine’s Day weddings,” Katrina says. “They choose a really lovely ceremony and later, a romantic dinner with lots of candles and flowers. They tend to be really intimate affairs – romantic.”

Bali’s reputation for tropical romance, with its heady scents of frangipani and gardenia floating on soft breezes, has led to a boom in the wedding market. Dozens of chapels have sprung up across the predominantly Hindu island, where wedding planners are now a dime a dozen on the Internet and glorious villas with water views are becoming hot property as wedding venues.

“We were the first wedding planner in Bali. I had been working with Garuda Airlines for many years and left after having my daughter. I was looking around for something to do – I was with girlfriends having a whine one day and said I had at one time suggested wedding packages but the idea had never been picked up. My friends looked at me and said ‘well’ – that’s how I started back in 1992. My first wedding was in January 1993,” Katrina says.

In the years since, Katrina has managed thousands of Bali weddings where “you can go five star or barefoot on the beach”, and admits to some very funny experiences.

“I remember one wedding the marriage celebrant stepped back and fell in the plunge pool. The bride and groom cracked up – it was really hysterically funny,” says Katrina who confesses to making some really dumb promises – one of the pitfalls of the job.

“One couple were getting married on Lembongan Island. I had to take the wedding cake across in a speedboat without it melting or falling to bits. It was all chocolate layers. I was not game to open the box and have a look. Things just got worse when we got to the island. I had to take the cake in a local bus over dirt roads for 20 minutes. Believe it or not the cake was perfect – but I swore I would never do that again.”

Pitfalls in choosing a Bali wedding are not confined to plunge pools. Co-owner of Aditi Niranjan Photography in Ubud, Thea Dotulong of Kerobakan, highlights the importance of using a wedding planner. “Using a wedding planner is absolutely a good idea. There is so much to negotiate. Many people who get married in Bali are not living here full time. There is all the legal work to be done for starters. Then there are so many choices available. You can choose a chapel, the beach, a villa, rice fields or one of hundreds of hotels.”

She adds that a Bali wedding is very cost effective and offers people everything they could want for their wedding. “People come to Bali because Bali has everything. Weddings are the same – you can really have whatever type of wedding you want with typical five-star Balinese service and hospitality – and it’s a bargain and beautiful.”

Thea has had first hand experience of the variety of weddings people choose, with some peculiar mixes.

“I think one of the oddest was a really lovely American couple wearing saris and Indian clothing who got married in a Buddhist temple outside of Singaraja. I don’t think they quite knew what other options may have been available,” Thea says.

The advent of wedding videos has allowed the romantic day to be perfected in the editing suite, says Thea. “We had a Ukrainian couple who, after five years of marriage, wanted to renew their vows. It was a huge affair. At one point they let go of balloons and two doves. The couple had a vision of the doves flying off into the sunset together. The doves had not read the script – one landed on the ground and started feeding, the other one landed on the roof.”

That was edited out.

“People need to have realistic expectations of the wedding. That is a problem today – people are not realistic – everything has to be over the moon – impossibly absolutely perfect.”

She recalls one woman who had emailed or texted daily for a year before the wedding to discuss photographs. “She had gone through four wedding planners when I met her. She arrived here with a 100-page book she had made of every wedding photo she had ever liked. It’s great to have an idea of what you want, but that was seriously over the top,” says Thea. She adds with a chuckle that the same bride had fireworks at her wedding. “The roof caught fire.”

It is not only foreign nationals who look to Bali for the wedding of their dreams. Katrina and Thea say many of their clients are from Indonesia’s large cities, such as Surabaya and Jakarta.

“More than half our market is domestic. Many young couples don’t want the Jakarta ballroom with a thousand guests. They are looking for intimacy. In Indonesia, intimacy can mean a wedding of 200. We had one couple who were expected to have the huge banquet wedding. They chose to get married with just 20 guests in the rice fields of Jati Luwih. It was a really romantic, beautiful wedding but the bride’s mother was not too pleased with the choice,” says Thea.

This Valentine’s Day Thea and her husband will do what they always do on Valentines. “As a mixed couple when we got married we drew up a list of the days we would celebrate, like Christmas or Indonesia’s Independence Day – Valentines did not make the cut,” Thea laughs.

Who was Saint Valentine?

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were three martyrs bearing the name Valentine. All died on February 14 during the second and third centuries CE.

It was not until the Middle Ages that the idea of celebrating Saint Valentine’s Day was born.

The Catholic Encyclopedia says February 14 was the day birds in ancient Britain began to pair in preparation for the coming spring and was therefore the ideal day for lovers to announce their intentions.

English poet William Chaucer writes, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day when every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.”

In the 14th century a young woman writes to her beau “Unto my right well beloved Valentine, John Paston Esquire”.

Happy Valentines!

Doing the paper work

Getting married in Bali is a wonderfully romantic notion, but wedding planners warn couples to be prepared. People need to have several different documents, including the CNI – or No Impediment to Marriage certificate. The CNI is issued by the couple’s home country consulate.

Couples also need to declare their religion

– Indonesia recognizes just five

– and it is preferred if they are of the same religion.

Religion needs to be documented.

An Indonesian marriage is recognized around the world and should be registered with the local Civil Registrar.

For people not wanting to go through the whole Indonesian marriage document web, which is easily handled by a wedding planner, they can choose to have a Commitment Ceremony, a Balinese Blessing ceremony or a religious wedding only. However, these forms of marriages are not legally recognized.

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