Party Like a Jew!

That's right folks, Chud and I attended our very first Jewish wedding this weekend in Chicago and boy, did we have a blast! Friday night we went to the groom, David's, parent's house for the rehearsal dinner since they invited all of the out-of-towners. It was so neat to meet up with all of Chud's old college friends. I remember hanging out with them when I was just starting college at UK, but they all graduated before me and went their separate ways, so I never really got to know some of them. The rehearsal dinner was a great opportunity to catch up and for me to really get all the names, locations, and stories straight of all his wonderful friends! Then, Saturday night we went to a country club (Michigan Shores??) to see the ceremony, have cocktail hour (each party had an individual mini champagne bottle with our names and table numbers!!) and then the reception. Here are all the details for my fellow wedding lovers:

The huppah was a light green fabric and the structure was made by their families. That gal in blue is Dave's mom and she looked beautiful! The lady can party, too. There was an impromptu jazz-fest at their house late after the rehearsal dinner and she was shakin' it in the living room dance floor while folks banged on the piano, drums, keyboard - even a viola!! So fun!
The bridesmaids chose their own dresses from David's Bridal and carried bouquets of off-white and red lilies (I think those are lilies - Laura can probably verify by looking at this pic)! I have to say, they all chose a different dress that was PERFECT for each of them. Plus, I'm very partial to red since that was the color of my bridesmaids' dresses! These girls were just stunning!


The bride, Jenny's, dress was also stunning, but I can't remember all of the details (I know, I'm a horrible wedding-goer). Bottom line, she was gorgeous and I couldn't stop staring at her.


And OOOOOHHHHHHH, the cake! First of all, the reception hall was huge, with dark hardwood floors, a stage and beautiful wooden rafters in the remarkably high ceilings. There was a spotlight mounted way up high that shone right down on the cake in the middle of the dance floor. You can't see it in the picture, but the white fondant ribbons have just a touch of sparkle to them! Aside from being a perfectly pleasing cake aesthetically, it was also very good to eat!









And after the cake came the dancing! The Hava Nagila lasted FOREVER and there was much stomping and circling around and chair raising and "Heys!" and shouts of other sorts. I've never seen anything like it. The band was excellent (you can see their pic, along with many others from the evening, on my Myspace page) and the dance floor was always hopping. Chud even danced a few slow songs with me!

But alas, all good things must come to an end, and I had to get up super early this morning to get myself to New Mexico for the Dar Al Islam Teacher Institute. But that's another blog for another time........