The Season of our Joy – All the Wedding News that I can recall

“Wow” (direct quote from my mother regarding the wedding).
“I wish I allowed and encouraged videotaping of life cycle events – because I’m the only one who didn’t get to watch the wedding” (direct quote from me)
“A beautiful ceremony” (direct quote from lots of people)
“Out of respect for Jewish religion and culture, please don’t order any dish with pork of shell-fish in it” (from Walter’s incredibly sweet father –  Fwu-Ranq Chang  -at the rehearsal dinner Saturday night)

To get the most out of your child’s wedding ceremony, I recommend being the officiating clergy person. I don’t believe it is possible to have a more intense experience than standing under the hupah with your own daughter (or son if you have one) and her (or his) groom (or husband). Oh wait, possibly doing the father/daughter dance at the wedding. Or maybe sneaking over to her half of the duplex to practice for five minutes and being shown the correct dance frame. More on all this later.  But first, if you need to see some video at this point, go on over to http://babybabble.livejournal.com/

Sunday – The Day Begins

We are facing a parking shortage at UT Hillel (wedding venue), because immediately next door at the Baptist church there is a revival meeting with a nationally known speaker, and it starts at 10:00.  So the ten spaces of the Hillel parking lot have been allocated to the wedding party/family (thank you wedding coordinator Yoli who put her foot down on this one).  So we are maxing out on carpooling.  Walter is picking up his parents and brother, so we buzz down to the duplex to pick up Michalle (sister), Denise (life-long friend and maid of honor), and some beautiful young woman dressed in a bridal gown that would take your breath away (it took mine away).  The thermometer in the rental car is already reading 91 degrees and there is not a cloud in the sky.  Plus, I suddenly notice that the gas gauge, which read half full when driving to  the rehearsal dinner, is now showing perilously close to empty.

Of course, Carol and I are already dressed in wedding outfits and have sweated (literally not figuratively) our way from the motel room to the car.  So I’m running the air conditioner, and leave it on while extricating Michalle from her side of the duplex, and Miriam and Denise from the other side, and trying to speed things up so we get to Hille before, rather than after, running out of gas.  I go into the duplex and Denise promptly announces that she is still lacing up Miriam’s wedding gown.  “How much longer” I ask, to which she replies ten minutes.  So I decree (still the dad for another couple of hours) that the lacing up will be concluded at Hillel.  We gather up the train of the dress and proceed out to the car.  Before we hit the front door, Miriam reminds us that we need to also take the vases with the wedding flowers (for the bridal party).  So everyone gets in the car, and I hand vases to Carol, Michalle and Denise.

Finally we are all loaded in the car with everything we need to bring to the wedding.  We are halfway up I-35 when a shriek is heard from the back seat. Miriam has forgotten her iPod, which has music for after the band is finished. (We’re talking eight course Chinese banquet interrupted with 90 minutes of dancing).  We have enough time, but not enough gas (I’m afraid) to turn around and go get it, so I decree (still the Dad for a couple more hours) that we will find someone at Hillel to go get the iPod.  Unbeknownst to him, my brother-in-law Bob is designated as the likely fetcher.  Bob, Debbie (Carol’s sister), Seth (nephew), Shira (niece) and Irma (Carol’s mom) have to arrive early because Shira is in the wedding party.  Jumping ahead slightly, Bob, being he gracious and all-around good guy that he is, of course agrees to go get the iPod.  He whips out his Blackberry (what! no iPhone?!?) and gets directions from Google Local or whatever it’s called.

We arrive at Hillel

Jumping back 15 minutes in time from the Bob/iPod/Blackberry scene, we are arriving at Hillel. Once around the block in order to pull up on the right side of the street in front of the entrance, we disembark everyone, get bride, bridal flowers, etcetera etcetera, into Hillel.  I start to circumnavigate the block again in order to go the correct way up the alley to get into the Hillel parking lot (not supposed to enter from the street).  Pull the car up in front of the parking lot exit, decided the heck with it, and pull in the wrong way, turn the car around, and park it.  I am of course, at this point ringing wet in my Tux due to the heat and the various getting in and out of car, duplex and so on.  I see Bill Averback (leader of the band – Austin Klezmorim – fantastic by the way) in the side patio, and am able to take a shortcut into UT Hillel, thus more quickly getting into the air conditioned (praise whoever invented AC) building about 45 seconds sooner than otherwise.  My tux begins to dry out.

Check out the Hupah and set up the room

I find Yoli, our wedding coordinator, and go upstairs to see the Hupah, which is now set up.