The Big Day

After a year of planning, the wedding day arrived and it was a smashing success. Our youngest son married his sweetheart in a beautiful traditional Jewish ceremony followed by a Springsteen/Hockey themed wedding party afterwards. 

For us, the day started with everyone donning their formal attire to be at the synagogue at 2:30 for pictures.  Both have large families so every combination was taken and it took quite a while.  At 5:00, there was a brief rehearsal, which is when my husband took one of the extras. The guests began arriving shortly before 6 and were greeted with music, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.  During that hour the marriage contract was signed and the veiling ceremony occurred and finally we had the ceremony in the sanctuary.    

The bridal party consisted of many brothers (her two and his three), sister-in laws, cousins, best friends and 8 little nieces and nephews.  Our little Hailey was one of the flower girls, but at only 20 months old she needed some guidance from her parents, so she went down the aisle with her father (the best man) and her mother swinging her as they went.  The ceremony was held under the bride’s family’s wedding canopy which had been decorated with colorful flowers.  

Our gorgeous bride and groom met 4 years ago, through a computer dating service.  The two things that brought them together were a love of hockey and Bruce Springsteen.  The wedding reception was hockey-themed with lots of Bruce Springsteen music as well.  The table place cards were all on hockey pucks.  Gifts for the groomsmen and the couple’s fathers were Bobblehead dolls made in their own likeness. The entry area had been adorned with framed pictures of their parent's and grandparent's weddings and pictures of the two of them at every hockey arena in the NHL.  Even the black suede yarmulkes had embossed hockey sticks. 

There were speeches and toasts by the bride’s father and brother, and the groom’s father and best man brother. The bride had a traditional dance with her father and the groom and his mother (that would be me) skipped the sentimental stuff and danced to the band’s excellent rendition of John Fogarty’s  Centerfield. Before the third verse, my other three son’s joined us dancing and singing…. it couldn’t have been any more raucous and fun.  Later, the groom and his best man (my third and fourth sons) sang a slightly inebriated version of Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer and the whole place was rocking, and singing along with them. The last song of the night was New York, New York.  Needless to say, a good time was had by all. 

If you have some time, have a look at the extras.  I confess I didn’t take any of them.  I left my cameras at home so I could be in the moment and enjoy it.