The importance of weddings in Indonesian society is hard to overstate, with families often willing to spend exorbitant amounts to cater to thousands of guests on the couple’s big day. But, as with any endeavor involving people willing to spend large sums on fulfilling a dream, there are also those who scheme to exploit them.
A couple that was married in in the South Sumatra capital of Palembang on Sunday has become the latest in a long line of victims who have been scammed by wedding organizers in Indonesia. They were arguably worse off than many previous victims in that they only found out about the scam on their big day when they learned that none of the food that they thought had ordered for their approximately 1,000 guests was coming.
The wedding organizer, identified by her initials RIY, apparently skipped town on the big day along with all of the money the couple and their families had fronted for things like food, the photographer, clothing rental and numerous other aspects of the wedding.
“At 9 in the morning, [RIY] came but then went home with the excuse that she had to get a wedding dress, after that she didn’t come back,” one of the victimized couple, identified as ANG, told Kompas on Monday. RIY answered the couple’s initials frantic calls about the food, saying it was being cooked and was on the way, but then she became uncontactable.
ANG and her partner, identified as FDL, said they had hired RIY as their organizer as ANG knew of her through college friends. After paying RIY a downpayment, they then fronted the money to cover all major aspects of the wedding, including catering and rentals as RIY was supposed to take care of all the details. They said they trusted RIY more after meeting her parents, who also live in Palembang.
In turns out that the scam artist had put down payments on services that were supposed to be paid for in full after their wedding, leaving ANG and FDL with far more problems than just the humiliation of hungry guests (they desperately tried to order 1,000 nasi bungkus an hour before the start of the reception, but couldn’t find a restaurant willing to take the order).
With RIY nowhere to be found and her parents saying they had no idea where to find them, the couple have filed a report with the police and are looking into legal options.
In 2015, 58 soon-to-be married couples in Jakarta were similarly conned out of their money by a fake wedding organizer. The couple behind the scam was arrested by the police. So at least the victims in that case got some justice, if not the wedding of their dreams.
Recently, a few stories about Indonesian couples who decided to save money and make statements with their low-key, low-cost weddings have gone viral. Scams such as the one that befell ANG and FDL are certainly another persuasive argument for such simple nuptials.
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