I Love To Cry At Weddings (Sweet Charity)

Last night I attended my second wedding of the year.  I love weddings.  I really do.  And I love that all the weddings I have to attend this year are different than the weddings we're all used to.  The first one was in March, and it was two crazy friends who decided to get married and not tell their families.  They only invited their friends to their City Hall ceremony and Midevel Times reception.  The third wedding will happen in July and will involve that same couple in a hand fasting ceremony at her parent's home in Niagara Falls, which I will be President for (thanks to Gilbert's Girl and Princess Alathariel, I have some experience in this field).  The fourth one I am most excited about  It takes place in Ottawa in August and involves two friends from my Ottawa musical theatre community.  The menus on the tables will look like Playbills and instead of table numbers, the tables will be named after musicals that each of them have worked on (mostly together).  Instead of clinking forks on glasses to make the couple kiss, people will have to stand up and sing a showtune.

Last night's event was my very first Jewish wedding!  When we were entering into the church (church, is it?), we were stopped and told that men had to enter from the other side.  So my friend had to sit alone on one side while I sat with her boyfriend on the other.  Awkward.  We were the only two people not wearing a yamaka.  Apparently they were handing them out but we missed that part because we were running late.  Damn.  I really wanted one.  They all walked down the aisle and stood under the chuppah.  I did not understand a thing that was going on.  The groom was handed this oversized white shawl and wrapped it around himself a few times.  The rabbi sang some stuff in a different language.  Everything was so serious and boring and I was about to fall asleep when all of a sudden the groom stepped on the glass and everyone yelled "Moseltov!"  The band immediately broke into some uptempo traditional Jewish tune and all the men in the room started jumping up and down as the bride and groom followed them up the aisle.  It was wild.  In one second it went from a snooze fest to a wild fiesta.

On the dance floor was a divider.  Men would dance on one side, women on the other.  Odd.  That made me a little uncomfortable.  The bride was the one I was friends with and I wanted to dance with her, but I wasn't allowed to.  I didn't know any males there other than my friend's boyfriend.  Awkward.  They did the chair thing where they bounce the groom up and down.  Then they kidnapped the bride and did the same to her and brought her over to the groom's side.  I thought this meant the wall could now be torn down, but it didn't.  Ugh.  As much fun as everyone else had, my friend and I were bored so we left early.

Weddings always get me thinking about wanting to get married myself.  I don't really care for marriage, and I especially am not one to fight for gay marriage, but weddings themselves are so much fun.  If I were to get married, I know who my best man would be.  We've been friends ever since we were born and my mother is his Godmother.  I couldn't not make him my best man.  Then, instead of groomsmen, I would have six to eight groomswomen, or bridesmaids, if you will.  Last night, at the wedding, I selected them in my head.  One lady from each stage of my life, who has taken me to the next level.  I can't wait to have my wedding.  But I never will.