Part of our catering challenge was having plenty of vegetarian options. You do have to ask for them specifically, in my experience. Though that's probably affected by geography.

In non-wedding news, I screwed up something at my other job, kind of, but it's only a crisis because my boss waited so long to even ask me to do it and then never followed up. So I think he's getting in trouble, and that makes me laugh. I am the worst employee ever.

What on earth is a makeup test?

Going to get makeup done before the actual wedding so we can find someone who doesn't make us look like we fell face-first back into the '80s.

How about "Hire a stripper and both the bride and I will kill you in a fun and entertaining way. For us. For you, maybe not so fun."

Heh. Currently, I'm thinking of including: "No presents, no strippers, no suck for a buck, and no genitalia. Of any kind."

Argh. The chance that the weather will cooperate for the shuttle launch today has been lowered to 40%.

she was a little surprised that anyone would want to spend a week after the wedding with their family and friends.

One thing I never do, however, is schedule a "sheva brakhot" on the first evening after the wedding. Even if it means I can't have one for a couple who wants me to have one. On the first night after the wedding, I assume, the couple really doesn't want to see anybody else.

Plus, there's a whole part of "new face" - a new person who wasn't at the wedding itself should be present, so it gives opportunities for people who couldn't attend the wedding itself, for some reason, to take part in the celebrations.

Also, from the numbers you're throwing around - it seems like the weddings you describe are so much smaller than the ones here. Vortex' numbers, for example (200 guests), will be considered here a very small wedding. The average is 300-400 guests. It's not considered "big" before around 700 guests. The smallest wedding I've ever attended was 50 guests, and when I tell it to people here, they don't believe me that it could be that small.

But it really is a lot of fun, and you don't feel as much pressure at the wedding to socialize with everyone because you have like six more nights of "receptions."

The other thing I like about the organization of Orthodox weddings is that, with all the pre-ceremony stuff (there's a word for that, right? I can't remember it now), there's much more allowance for people to get there late and not miss the actual wedding ceremony.

The last wedding I went to, it was a buffet with two carving stations (one beef of some sort, one poultry of some sort) and then a huge table of Israeli foods, almost all of which were vegetarian. There wasn't any hot vegetarian food, but there were a whole ton of different salads and vegetables and stuff like that.

It's not considered "big" before around 700 guests.

Yowza.

Also, from the numbers you're throwing around - it seems like the weddings you describe are so much smaller than the ones here. Vortex' numbers, for example (200 guests), will be considered here a very small wedding. The average is 300-400 guests. It's not considered "big" before around 700 guests. The smallest wedding I've ever attended was 50 guests, and when I tell it to people here, they don't believe me that it could be that small.

Nilly, that makes sense when you talk about how weddings are held in Isreal. In the US, it's so expensive that the number of guests is limited for cost.

The Orthodox wedding I went too was by far the most beautiful and elaborate wedding I have been too, ok maybe the one at the Pierre was more elaborate. I want a huge-ass ridiculous wedding.

Swords for astronauts, titanium chainmail for all!

That's one expensive wedding party, even without the multi-billions for the space travel.

Titanium costs big. Even stainless steel welded or riveted chainmail is very expensive these days (time-consuming for the crafter). [link]