Jakarta, Indonesia - In many countries, it would have been a straight-forward marriage. Alex, a 31-year-old journalist, had met the woman of his dreams and wanted to make her his wife.
There was one hitch though.
Irina, 28, is Muslim. Alex is Catholic, and it is difficult for people of different religions to wed in Indonesia.
Disguising the beliefs he had been raised on was not an option.
So the couple registered their marriage in Hong Kong. It took just 15 minutes for the paperwork to be processed.
The couple is not alone in fighting what Shafi'i Anwar, executive director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism, says is a mindset that is threatening the diversity of Indonesian society.
While about 90 percent of Indonesians are Muslim, the Constitution recognizes other religions, including Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism and Buddhism.
Their inclusion is aimed at the co-existence of religion under the banner of "unity in diversity."
However, the country's Marriage Law stipulates that marriages should be implemented based on the teachings of each religion.
This stipulation has made it very difficult for Indonesians to put inter-religious marriage into practice because many conservative Islamic and Catholic groups proclaim that mixing faiths in marriage is contrary to religious teachings.
In fact, public officials at religious facilities, which play the role of local authorities, seldom accept applications of inter-religious marriages, unless a couple obtains their marriage ceremony certificate from a mosque or a church, after one partner has changed religion.
In many cases, couples are forced to fabricate marriage registrations by paying bribes to local government officials.
For Alex and Irina, however, corruption was not exactly the ideal way to start a marriage.
After quizzing friends and hours of Internet research they discovered the overseas registration loophole.
They found that neighboring countries such as Singapore and Australia issue marriage certificates to couples even if they are not residents.
What's more, the Indonesian government accepts those certificates, even if the couple has different religious beliefs.
According to the Indonesian Embassy in Singapore, an average of about 20 Indonesian couples hold wedding ceremonies in the island state each month.
They, however, are the lucky ones. There are likely many more inter-religious couples who cannot marry because they either do not have the means to finance the overseas wedding trips, or still face huge opposition from their families and church or mosque communities.
Just last year the Indonesian Council of Ulama, a nationwide organization of Islamic leaders, issued a fatwa, or a religious decree, saying "marriages between people of different religions are against the teachings of Koran and, therefore, must be banned."
Amidhan, the council's chairman, explains: "There is an interpretation that only male citizens can marry people of different religions. But most of the people support the idea that marriages between people of different religions should be prohibited irrespective of whether they are males or not. Therefore, we supported the idea."
The fatwa also advocated that Islam is superior to other religions, a statement that provoked strong criticism, especially in the media.
A leading Indonesian newspaper said, "Such a claim will only give power to radical Islamic groups that are attacking other religions or other sects of Islam."
Last year, radical Islamic groups destroyed more than 20 churches and also attacked moderate Islamic groups in West Java province.
According to Anwar, the incidents coincide with a growing view that it is wrong for people of different religions to be together, let alone marry.
In 1991, popular Islamic model-turned-actress Nurul Arifin, who stole hearts across the country at the peak of her fame in the 1980s, was widely castigated when she married Mayong Suryo Laksono, who is Catholic.
For more than a decade she refused to address the issue in public.
But in 2004, deciding she could perhaps help change peoples' attitudes toward inter-religious marriages, she started to talk.
Nurul, 39, says she was deluged with e-mail messages seeking her advice.
E-mails like, "My family members are strongly opposed to my marriage. How do I persuade them?" and "Which religion should our future children have?"
"If you believe that your marriage is right, you should make an effort to establish dialogue," she says. "The difference of religions is not an obstacle for you or your partner, but a starting point for understanding."
She adds that she fears "society is losing its generosity."
"I'm worried about that," she says. "By talking positively about my marriage, I want more people to come to understand."