I usually arrive to Orthodox weddings at 1/2 hour after the "Kabalas Panim" (reception) is called. Last year, we attended a wedding for my wife's friend who had the reception after the chupah and half her wedding guests missed it.
The last Orthodox wedding I went to was on Long Island, and we were driving in from New Jersey. There was a ton of traffic, we got there nearly an hour and a half late, and still had time to talk to the bride (well, we kind of pushed to the front of the line, on the "we're her friends, all of you people are distant relatives of the groom" rationale) and grab a few hors d'oevres before the ceremony started. I think we got there just in time for the badeken (which is the word I was trying to remember before.)
(Badeken is when the groom comes into the bride's reception area and puts the veil on her.)
but the point is, it was something (partially) from my hands, and that mattered more than what it cost.
Which is why, if it's not the bride's thing, I always volunteer to prepare the kipa for the groom to wear at the ceremony (or for her father, brother, or whatever). It also reduces something from her To-Do list. I love it when I see guys walking around with my kipa on their heads, even several years after the wedding itself.
To haul out the pedant for a moment, unless the people from the Renaissance are having an "Olden Tymes" party, chainmail is pretty much gone from the armoury by then, depending on where you are and when. Transitional plate and full plate has replaced chainmail almost everywhere by that time (depending on how you define Renaissance and where/when you are). Both would still be reasonably effective at protecting an astronaut suit from swords, to bring the discussion back to the purposeful and sensible origins.
(How much do I love that it's possible to be pedantic about Rennaisance-themed weddings on Mars on this board? SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!)
The new tape shelves are finally being installed in my office today. It's very very loud in here.
I'm skipping wedding talk to say, someone called about a job this morning. I'm taking an hour or two to calm down, look over my resume and calendar before I call her back.
At any rate, yay for any kind of prospect. I was ready to hunker down in unemployment for a while before I was even considered for something I really wanted.
Sort of like John Sweden's example of U2 tickets, which he slaved over (I mean, in the boredom sense). If he'd bought them from a scalper for a lot more money, they wouldn't be more emotionally valuable.
Does it help if I note that the best man in question was a huge U2 fan, had got me hooked on the band when we were roommates at university, and that I almost lost the only job I had (my second full-time job ever) doing that standing in line for tickets, since I didn't have any vacation, but was essentially skipping out of work.
Man, the crazy stuff we do when we are young. (The concert in question was the Joshua Tree tour.)
Totally. Most of the showers I've been to have been basically a lot like a tea party. This is why multiples seem natural to me - you might have one that's mostly the old ladies who were your grandmother's close friends or something, and maybe a different one for relatives or the groom or for people who are your own contemporaries, etc. And appropriate gifts tend to be along the lines of kitchen gadgets or notepaper, unless there a specific theme involved. But still, nothing that would be a big deal for anyone to buy, or make them feel like they're on the hook for two wedding presents.
Yes! You might end up with a lingerie shower from your friends and a kitchen shower from your aunties (lord help us, not the other way around). My Mom had one with a "Missouri Box" (they lived in Missouri) where all her co-workers brought canned goods with the labels peeled off so your new kitchen had a bunch of food but it was a total crap shoot as to what you might end up eating on a given night.
Adding my own wedding experiences...
I've been a bridesmaid twice. The first one, I had to buy the dress(which wasn't all that bad. It was black, and I had it shortened to cocktail length after the ceremony) and be at the wedding.(Since my brother and his fiancee lived in NYC and I was in NC, they understood me not attending the bridal shower) The second one I wore a dress I
had bought previously, since it was the color I was assigned.(Each of the bride's attendants was assigned a color, based on what they looked good in)I brought food and helped decorate for the shower.
I had one bridal shower, which was thrown by my Matron of Honor, and was quite low-key. Snacks, a few games and unwrapping gifts. My bachelorette party was me and three friends at Dave & Buster's playing videogames and skee-ball. I gave my female attendants(I didn't have bridesmaids, just the MoH and huppah bearers) gift certificates to a spa.(Male attendants got money clips with their monograms engraved on it)
We ended up with ~160 people at the wedding, and I thought that was a lot. Guess not...
To haul out the pedant for a moment, unless the people from the Renaissance are having an "Olden Tymes" party, chainmail is pretty much gone from the armoury by then, depending on where you are and when. Transitional plate and full plate has replaced chainmail almost everywhere by that time (depending on how you define Renaissance and where/when you are). Both would still be reasonably effective at protecting an astronaut suit from swords, to bring the discussion back to the purposeful and sensible origins.
Well, to be fair, the chainmail requirement came before the Renaissance theme. But I'll leave it up to tommyrot which is more important. It's his big day on Mars, after all.
I will buy a present for a shower, but I always give a check as a gift, or part of it.
But that's what the money dance is for!
This is more or less true here, depending on the customs of the families.
That varies widely.
Personally, I wouldn't think very much of getting money as a wedding gift. It seems a little tacky.
