Chances are, someday you\’ll be called on to raise a glass and offer a toast, probably at a lifecycle event like a wedding or bar mitzvah. Will you be ready? Will you remember the main points you wanted to make? Or will you end up with glass in hand and foot in mouth?
How best can brides and grooms offer their thanks?
Many wedding guests are often are as concerned as the bride and her attendants about what they will wear. Even though dress codes have become somewhat relaxed, there are still some guidelines that savvy brides and grooms might consider including on their invitations if their wedding is a formal event.
Canceling a wedding has become that common these days. Just because a couple gets engaged, doesn\’t mean that they\’ll get married. It just means they\’ve registered at Macy\’s.
Both brides were beautiful and the dress was a focal point each time, thanks to the loving restoration work by dressmaker Camila Sigelmann, who made it possible for Amee Huppin Sherer to be married in Grandma Marian Huppin\’s 1925 wedding gown.
Flowers are often a big part of anyone\’s wedding day, from the bouquets the bride and her attendants carry to the chuppah decorations and the table centerpieces at the reception hall. Many times the flowers are what the guests remember about the wedding (unless a minor disaster strikes). Deciding which flowers to use for what arrangements, though, can be a dizzying experience, thanks to the availability of different types and colors of flowers at all times of the year.
So there\’s a fairy-tale wedding: a thousand guests in a flower-filled ballroom, a dozen violins playing Mozart, a grainy-voiced singer belting out an old Persian love song. The bride is 20 years old and ravishing, of course, but she\’s also blessed with charm and charisma, the kind of exuberance that turns heads and drags stares behind her. She\’s been breaking hearts since she was 14 years old and walked into a cousin\’s wedding in a frilly white dress and a wide lace headband. Now she dances on stage, next to the singer with the forlorn music, and the crystal beads on her wedding gown glow like fireflies in the dark.
When John and I married, our invitation featured a verse from this week\’s Haftorah (Isaiah 61:10-63:9): Yasis alayich Elochayich kimsos chatan al kalah, rendered freely as \”Come join in the sanctification of our joy\”; literally, \”As a bridegroom rejoices in a bride, so your God will rejoice in you\” (Isaiah 62:5). This verse became a favorite years ago when its daring, electric comparison hit me: Human love provides the standard for God\’s love of the Jewish people. Instead of urging human lovers toward heaven, we Jews cannot imagine any-thing more deeply, joy-ously loving than what committed human part-ners feel for each other. We envision God learning love from human lovers.
Late spring in Los Angeles: cool, foggy mornings, with sun breaking through around midday. The strawberries are sweet and luscious; the gardens are full of roses. It\’s the season of simchas. Our calendars are crowded with graduations and family parties, but most of all with weddings.
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