Many brides-to-be in Indonesia dream of their perfect wedding, surrounded by family and several thousand of their closest acquaintances. But one Jakarta bride’s dream wedding recently turned into a complete nightmare when she found out that her wedding organizer had failed to do what many would say is their most important job – to organize her wedding.
34-year-old bride Karina Prilianti was set to marry her fiance, Muhammad Bayu Arga, last Sunday. But on Saturday night, she learned the awful truth – her wedding organizer had completely failed to pay for any of her wedding party’s reservations, including the reservation for her wedding venue.
“When she heard that, my sister fainted,” Trido Meidianto, Karina’s brother, told reporters on Monday afternoon as quoted by Kompas.
The engaged couple had been working with their wedding organizer, a company named Getar, since November of last year and they had already paid them Rp 119 million to cover the costs of making the reservations. The couple also says that Getar insisted on handling everything themselves and did not allow them to contact any of the wedding venue or service providers directly.
The family first realized that something was amiss when guests arrived at a pre-wedding party that the organizers were supposed to have planned at Ocha y Bella restaurant earlier in the week. It turned out that the restaurant knew nothing about it, but Karina’s friends kept that revelation a secret, afraid the news might upset the bride, and were able to go on with the party anyways.
Then on Saturday, the wedding group, including most of Karina’s family, arrived at Fave Hotel in Kemang at 2pm and learned that Getar had failed to pay for their room reservations at the hotel.
Chaos ensued, but still the family tried to hide the news from Karina for fear of stressing her out too much.
“At that time, we did not know if the venue and catering had also not been paid. So we hoped the wedding could still take place the next day,” Trido said.
But the bad news kept piling up, with the photographer and makeup artist also telling the family they had not yet been paid. And then they learned that there was no way they could get the wedding venue, Balai Sarwono, as it needed to have been paid for at least 3 weeks in advance (and of course it had yet not been paid for at all).
“At 11pm, the family decided the wedding had to be canceled. We told the bride and she fainted,” Trido said.
The family tried to send a message to everybody who had been invited that the wedding had been canceled, but many still showed up the next day.
During the whole horrible situation, nobody from Getar could be contacted. But the families reported the company to police on Sunday, after which law enforcement was able to track down and arrest one of wedding organizer’s managers, named DeVries.
Upon initial investigation, police found that at least 6 other couples had been similarly conned by the wedding organizers. It is not yet clear what sort of charges they will face for their fraud, but it’s doubtful whatever it is will make up for them ruining Karina and Muhammad’s special day.
