My Big Fat Jewish Wedding

(Please ignore my crazy eyes. We barely knew the guy who was nice enough to take our picture and email it us. I couldn't be picky and ask for a retake.)

It's official. Mormons do not know how to throw a wedding. How often do you attend a Mormon reception in the church gym (hey - if there is a basketball hoop overhead, it's a gym not a cultural hall), with half the male attendees in jeans, and eat green jello with a side of mints? Ok, so I'm stereotyping a bit. And I apologize if you did have your reception in the cultural hall. But after this last weekend, I think Scott and I are going to become Jewish. Or at least find some more Jewish friends. Cause this wedding ROCKED!!

It started on Friday night with the couple renting out a ritzy downtown Philadelphia steakhouse. Open bar and hor d'ourves (did you know that diet coke can look a little like wine when it's in a wineglass? the ice gives it away.) then onto the 3 hour dinner. It's been awhile since I've seen a lot of drunk people in action. Pretty funny.

The wedding was Saturday nite, so Scott and I had the day to roam downtown Philly - saw the Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, ate a cheesesteak, all the appropriate Philly tourist attractions. Did a little shopping too...of course.

Then it was wedding time! I am so desperately sad that we forgot our camera. The 2 pictures I have, one is from Scott's phone camera, the other from a guy we met at the wedding that was kind enough to take our pix and email it us. Love that digital age.

Anyways, the wedding was in the Grand Ballroom of a gorgeous Philly hotel. The flowers were beautiful. Gigantic. We are talking towers of flowers taller than I am. The Chuppha (wedding canopy) was beautiful. Didn't understand half of the ceremony, but it was fun and somber all at the same time. (Mine was just somber. So unlike my personality!)

Right after the wedding, it is tradition for the groom and bride to be alone for a time to embrace and savor the first few moments of being husband and wife (yuchud). What a fabulous tradition! While Adam and Julia were alone, the 400 wedding guests moved to 3 smaller ballrooms to enjoy the open drink bars, pasta bars, sushi bars, and meat bars. (multiple bars of each) We had a traveling band that walked through all the ballrooms to entertain us. Finally it was the reception. The hotel had quickly transformed the Grand Ballroom into a reception room - 35 tables, each one with a different, HUGE centerpiece, another live band, dance floor, more open bars, and my favorite, chocolate plates on each table. We ate and danced for the next 3 hours. We finally left at 12:30 am, dessert still hadn't been served (but I had done some damage on the chocolate plate), and everyone else was still going strong. (we had to get up early to drive back to Scott's parents for church) It was the first time I've gotten Scott out on the dance floor in 5 years - since our wedding luncheon. It was so much fun - although harder to dance in heels than I remember.

This is the couple being hoisted up on chairs and paraded around the dance floor. I'm sure you've seen it done in movies, etc. Except Adam is 6'5" and 275 pounds. You can see he's a bit lower than Julia. ;-> This is from the phone camera, but can you see the ballroom's ceiling? Crazy big!

It was a fun weekend. The kids were good for Grandma and Grandpa, which is important cause Grandma is coming out here in a month to babysit for our anniversary trip to Kauai. We are getting spoiled!! So does anyone have any suggestions for Kauai adventures? I'll start practicing my hula now.