Wedding

I could smack my friend Norman. A wedding at 6:15 PM on a Sunday?! And Mother's Day, no less. Well, we managed to have a great time despite only knowing the groom and his parents. This has to be the nicest, most posh affair I have ever attended.With about 250 guests, when all were invited onto the dance floor to join the new bride and groom in their first dance, I overheard a fellow next to us mumble "This is like a mosh pit, only in slow motion." That cracked us up. It was VERY crowded out there.

The evening started with some champagne (with raspberries in each glass) while we waited to be invited into the grand ballroom where the wedding ceremony was to take place - a nice Jewish wedding. After the wedding we were ushered back into the bar for a cocktail hour. There were carving stations, chafing dishes and wait staff circulating trays of hot hors d'oeuvres. As I excused myself to go to the ladies room, I got a peek back into the grand ballroom where the ceremony had taken place only moments before and I was STUNNED to see that the staff had already taken down the chuppah, set up tables (complete with linens, silverware and centerpieces), and set up the band stand (complete with instruments). Amazing!

After some nibbles (and a Cosmo for me from the bar), we sat at our table for dinner. The center pieces were impressive! Three foot tall silver candelabra with a large floral arrangement in the center of the 4 tapers. Total height must have been over four feet tall. To our dismay, and scattered nervous grins around the table, the centerpieces would SWAY at the slightest jostle of the table. This became the main topic of conversation over dinner...whether our table would be the one to go up in flames and become the most memorable event on the wedding video.

We had a nice selection of entrees too. Prime Rib, Roast Capon with apple walnut stuffing, peppercorn encrusted grilled yellow fin tuna, or a vegetarian plate. Cutting the prime rib was nerve racking...the center piece was swaying, swaying, swaying and the candle flames were sputtering and dancing way too close to the flowers. Oh my!

My favorite speech of the night was from the father of the bride. It was revealed that my friend Norman had chased his bride for quite some time. She turned down his date requests no less than 3 times before finally being worn down and relenting. This brought back funny memories from my days working with Norman and the way he would hit on the single female clients as he was fixing their computers. I didn't think his obvious tactics would ever WORK in wearing down a girl into dating him. I guess persistance really DOES pay off.

The dessert was the highlight of the evening for me. Individual Toll House Cookie pies plated on swirls of white and milk chocolate syrup, topped with milk chocolate ice cream, white chocolate drizzles and a lacey trefoil of dark chocolate inserted in the top of the ice cream scoop. Pretty, elegant and YUM!

My final thought about the wedding (besides the fact that Norman is my last single friend and I probably won't attend another wedding until my son Tyler gets married in another 22 years or so) is - Jewish weddings are WAY more fun than Catholic ones. LOL I love that Mazel Tov dance...everyone going around in concentric circles while the bride and groom are lifted up overhead in separate chairs with only a handkerchief bridging the gap between them. Fun stuff! Especially when they nearly drop the bride!

Update: Here is a link to the Shutterfly album with the best of the wedding pics, for those who are interested. Shutterfly Shared pictures