Indonesia is no stranger to unique dowries and wedding gifts over the years, such as es cendol, a pair of humble flip-flops, and a single IDR1,000 (US$0.067) bill for dowry (it’s the love that counts), as well as that time a gamer gave his fiancée a PC gaming set as an engagement present.
In Islamic weddings, the groom or groom’s father pays money or possessions to the bride at the time of their marriage as mahr (dowry). The dowry is agreed upon by the bride and is usually specified in the marriage contract, usually taking the form of money and/or jewelry.
The latest unique dowry appears to perfectly encapsulate the era we live in, as it comes in the form of e-wallet credit, as seen in a viral wedding video of a couple in Jakarta. In what appears to be a screen recording of Instagram stories by user @lukasoct, who attended the wedding, the bride’s father and the groom can be seen announcing the dowry during the ijab kabul (wedding solemnization) ceremony.
“Insan Syamsudin bin Jaelani, I will marry you with Linda Novianti binti Abdul Munif with a dowry in the form of GoPay balance amounting to IDR10 million (US$678) paid in cash,” the bride’s father said, which was then responded by the groom that he accepted the marriage.
In the next scene, Lukas greeted the newly married couple on stage and asked the bride, Linda, to show him the money in her GoPay account, which is the mobile payment of super app Gojek. Linda then showed him the IDR10 million incoming transfer from her groom, Insan, complete with a message that reads, “Bismillah honey, hopefully we’ll stay together until death do us part.”
“Whoa it’s true, 10 million. Share the Gopay [balance], lah,” Lukas asked Linda.
“No way. Try getting married, so you can get your own dowry,” Linda answered him jokingly, as the groom is not the one to receive dowry.
The exchange between Lukas and Linda did come off like it was a little bit scripted, which may owe to Linda’s wedding jitters. Considering Gojek’s penchant for viral marketing stunts, we wouldn’t be surprised if this whole thing was staged (we have been duped before, we humbly admit, but so was the entire nation). But, for now, we’ll take this as a sweet little story that highlights our growing dependence on e-payment services in Indonesia.
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