Marriage is an important aspect of Balinese society and governed strictly by the custom and religious rules. Marriage is important for Balinese since only married man has the full right and obligation to the society. Based on Balinese tradition the purpose of marriage is to give freedom and to set limit to the romance and sexual activities in the society which greatly affect the harmony of the society.

Ideally, a man or woman married once for life, and has four children based on Balinese naming system. Nowadays, Polygamy is a rare case in Bali, though in the bygone days, Balinese Kings were known to have many wives. Illegal love affair is forbidden by custom law (adat); in case a man and woman are found to conduct illegal love affair without legal marriage ceremony, they will be punished according to the adat law of the village where the offence takes place. If a child is born from this illegal relationship, this child will be considered impure and must be given certain ceremony to purify the child.

There are also certain situations that a marriage is considered inappropriate and bring bad luck to the family, they are:

A marriage between brother and sister or between children of brother/sisters, or closely related blood line until the 3rd steps of patriarchal line is forbidden.

If older brother of x family marry older sister of y family then younger brother of x family marry younger sister of x family, and also older brother of x family marry older sister of y family, and younger sister of x family marry younger brother of y family or vice versa; these situation are considered unlucky and bring misfortune.

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