Sharing the joy
Sep. 6th, 2002 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beetigerMy friends Rachel and Gary went ahead and got married last night. I’m not sure if the Thursday night wedding was because of some auspiciousness that Gary the amateur astrologer had divined, or because the cantor was all booked up with the Rosh Hashanah holiday after that. They had the wedding at their house, a cute little place that Rachel in her wonderful style has painted in candy colors, powder pink and lime green and sunny yellows and oranges. They weren’t nearly ready when we got there, fourty five minutes before the ceremony was due to start, the bride wearing a pair of shorts and taking out garbage, the groom running around dealing with the caterer. I got the job of hiding the cat in the basement. The weather was perfect outdoors, which is good since I have no idea how they would have fit everyone indoors.
The couple had asked Bard and me to open the ceremony with a short smudging, blessing and elemental call. I was so pleased to be asked to participate, even more so when I realized that we were the only people they’d asked to present something, besides the really wonderful female Jewish cantor who was the main officiary. We kept it very soft in style, so that the people who wanted to see a pagan component to the ceremony could, while people who would have been disturbed by that could easily miss it. Apparently, we were providing the “universal” component, and quite a few members of the families came up to compliment us on it. I glowed. I love doing this sort of thing, and I hope that once my Temple organization gets itself together on NYS legal accreditation, that someone will ask us to officiate a whole ceremony.
There’s something really special about small, intimate ceremonies that feel like they come from the hearts of the people involved. Gary almost skipped the part of the ring vows that states “according to the laws of Moses and Israel”, jumping in for an embrace after the line before, which amused everyone. You can tell that it’s comfortable when people feel free to laugh during the ceremony.
The food was started with some Sephardic specialty appetizers cooked by the bride’s mother, then a vegetarian Indian buffet, including naan baked in a little portable tandoori brought by the caterers and fired up on their driveway. The cake, cooked by the groom’s mother, was surrounded by chocolate covered blueberries, and served almost incidentally. People wandered through the kitchen, and from table to table. We sat with old friends we hadn’t seen in quite some time, and with strangely wonderful relatives like the famous neurobiologist masquerading as a quiet grandmother, and the cousin who is an independent contractor/art restorer. We joked about getting together and starting an alternative wedding planning service.
A quirky event for a quirky couple, one of the best matches I've seen in a long while. I wish them all of the best. Mazel tov.
The couple had asked Bard and me to open the ceremony with a short smudging, blessing and elemental call. I was so pleased to be asked to participate, even more so when I realized that we were the only people they’d asked to present something, besides the really wonderful female Jewish cantor who was the main officiary. We kept it very soft in style, so that the people who wanted to see a pagan component to the ceremony could, while people who would have been disturbed by that could easily miss it. Apparently, we were providing the “universal” component, and quite a few members of the families came up to compliment us on it. I glowed. I love doing this sort of thing, and I hope that once my Temple organization gets itself together on NYS legal accreditation, that someone will ask us to officiate a whole ceremony.
There’s something really special about small, intimate ceremonies that feel like they come from the hearts of the people involved. Gary almost skipped the part of the ring vows that states “according to the laws of Moses and Israel”, jumping in for an embrace after the line before, which amused everyone. You can tell that it’s comfortable when people feel free to laugh during the ceremony.
The food was started with some Sephardic specialty appetizers cooked by the bride’s mother, then a vegetarian Indian buffet, including naan baked in a little portable tandoori brought by the caterers and fired up on their driveway. The cake, cooked by the groom’s mother, was surrounded by chocolate covered blueberries, and served almost incidentally. People wandered through the kitchen, and from table to table. We sat with old friends we hadn’t seen in quite some time, and with strangely wonderful relatives like the famous neurobiologist masquerading as a quiet grandmother, and the cousin who is an independent contractor/art restorer. We joked about getting together and starting an alternative wedding planning service.
A quirky event for a quirky couple, one of the best matches I've seen in a long while. I wish them all of the best. Mazel tov.
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Sounds like a great wedding, and a great time.
The pre wedding stuff actually sounds like our wedding - running around even as guests were arriving.
I've signed the Ketubah for a friend's wedding. Dressed in medevial garb and with rapier, nonetheless. And yes, that was really special :)