Snell-Cohen Wedding
Nov. 7th, 2002 10:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ralphmeltonOn Sunday, we went to Seth and Karen's wedding. It was a great wedding. Yay!
We started off by getting up too early and going to Squirrel Hill for Lori to get her hair done for the wedding. I went to Giant Eagle for breakfast food, there again for Diet Coke, and a third time (unsuccessfully) for a scarf for Lori's hair.
Then we road-tripped down to Baltimore without particular trouble, with lovely clear weather.
Ceremony:
We changed into our formal clothes and made it down for the reception just in time. There we got segregated into male and female rooms.
In the room of men, it seemed that every man was drinking whiskey. I was worried about starting with whiskey so early, but I had a bit diluted heavily with water. There was much convivial conversation, which then suddenly turned into Hebrew songs. I don't know the translation, but they certainly had the sound of drinking songs.
Then a group of men grabbed Seth and danced backward with him (all still singing) to the women's room, where he was revealed to Karen.
From there, we went into the ceremony. I don't remember all of the details of the ceremony, unfortunately. (I was extremely grateful for the generous explanations provided by the program. It was a great help, and really helped me appreciate the wedding.)
The major thing I noticed about the whole wedding (including dinner) was how much fun it was. I found myself musing that my Christian heritage tends to look askance at the really fun parts of religious celebrations as secular and oogy--and that's really a shame.
At dinner, we sat with two men I knew through gaming and their wives, and we had much good conversation about gaming and marriage and many such things. Thumbs way up to Seth and Karen for the seating arrangements.
We also danced enthusiastically if not well. More fun.
What a great wedding! What an excellent wedding for Seth and Karen!
We started off by getting up too early and going to Squirrel Hill for Lori to get her hair done for the wedding. I went to Giant Eagle for breakfast food, there again for Diet Coke, and a third time (unsuccessfully) for a scarf for Lori's hair.
Then we road-tripped down to Baltimore without particular trouble, with lovely clear weather.
Ceremony:
We changed into our formal clothes and made it down for the reception just in time. There we got segregated into male and female rooms.
In the room of men, it seemed that every man was drinking whiskey. I was worried about starting with whiskey so early, but I had a bit diluted heavily with water. There was much convivial conversation, which then suddenly turned into Hebrew songs. I don't know the translation, but they certainly had the sound of drinking songs.
Then a group of men grabbed Seth and danced backward with him (all still singing) to the women's room, where he was revealed to Karen.
From there, we went into the ceremony. I don't remember all of the details of the ceremony, unfortunately. (I was extremely grateful for the generous explanations provided by the program. It was a great help, and really helped me appreciate the wedding.)
The major thing I noticed about the whole wedding (including dinner) was how much fun it was. I found myself musing that my Christian heritage tends to look askance at the really fun parts of religious celebrations as secular and oogy--and that's really a shame.
At dinner, we sat with two men I knew through gaming and their wives, and we had much good conversation about gaming and marriage and many such things. Thumbs way up to Seth and Karen for the seating arrangements.
We also danced enthusiastically if not well. More fun.
What a great wedding! What an excellent wedding for Seth and Karen!
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Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-07 09:19 pm (UTC)Strangely, I agree with you. :) In reverse order:
You sat with 4 men (and their wives/fiancees) you knew through gaming. You may not know them well, but you know them. Yes, we are that cool.
Having fun was on the list of things to do. Traditional Jewish weddings are often set up to operate in the way you saw, which means whiskey and singing and dancing and food...and fun! If you took a bentcher (the little blue books we used for the blessing after meals) then I can point out which songs we sang, and when...and none of them were 'drinking' songs.
The segregation was not as strict as it would have been at an Orthodox wedding. Strangely enough, the room where Karen was had better booze. :) So, of course, we had to go there! :) :) :)
Re: Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-08 09:34 am (UTC)Oh well :-)
I'm going to write about it too, but again: What a beautiful wedding!
Re: Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-10 05:12 am (UTC)Re: Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-10 01:08 pm (UTC)I'm reminded of an exchange Dani and I had while we were planning our wedding:
Monica: Should we print bentchers, or will there only be six people in the room who would know what to do with one anyway?
Dani: What's a bentcher?
Monica: Ok, make that five people in the room who would know what to do with one.
(So we didn't, which makes me a little sad.)
Re: Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-10 02:02 pm (UTC)And what a story! ;)
Re: Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-10 05:05 pm (UTC)Re: Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-10 02:01 pm (UTC)Re: Yaay!
Date: 2002-11-10 05:03 pm (UTC)