Post-Wedding Wrap-up!

Friends, the wedding is over!

I now have a beautiful sister-in-law, Prachee (who's totally bi-cultural, btw), an open invitation to Mumbai (Bombay) from Prachee's mother, and lingering symptoms from what I thought was caffeine and sugar withdrawal but turns out to have been a rather tenacious stomach flu.

You may recall that I spent most of last week in a state of mild-to-moderate nausea.  I ended up skipping Friday night's Bhangra dancing/Mehndi painting party.  (Mehndi are the henna tattoos the bride and some of her party wear.)  I was disappointed, but I knew I wouldn't make it through all three days in the state my stomach was in.

Saturday's Hindu ceremony was held in the basement of the beautiful Ganesh Temple in Flushing, Queens, and the women wore traditional saris.



Here's what Michael and I wore on Saturday.  Eek, mustard, not my color, especially with a GI bug.



Here are Rich and Prachee.



The rituals were completely mysterious to me but convincing, and mercifully brief (less than an hour), after which we had a delicious vegetarian Indian lunch -- well, everyone except me, who just sort of nibbled on anything I thought I could keep down. Not much.

On the subway home (no stretch limousine, alas) I saw a super-stylish young woman wearing GREAT shoes.





We were home before 3 pm and I spent the rest of the day (and succeeding night) in bed.

The following day was the Jewish wedding ceremony and a more formal reception, held at an intimate event space in the Decoration & Design Building near Bloomingdales, in Manhattan, with wonderful views north and east.  We had gorgeous weather both days, btw: sunny and seasonably cool.

Here's what I wore.   I was feeling so crummy; I just threw together stuff in my closet and hoped for the best.  It's not quite a suit, but close.



My brother wore the suit.



This is the rabbi.  Rabbi...Marcia.



Friends, I did not grow up in a religious family.  No temples, no bar mitzvahs, nada.  But for some reason my mother wanted to go full-on chuppah (the canopy the bride and groom stand under), rabbi, yarmulkes, blessings in Hebrew, with this wedding.  Please don't ask me why.  I guess as Tevye said in Fiddler on the Roof,  "Tradition!"

When you have no connection to a temple or a rabbi, you basically rent a rabbi.  And that's how we got Rabbi Marcia.  Marcia, whom my mother refers to as "the hippie rabbi," is a cross between Joni Mitchell and Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (Can I roller skate...?).

She was definitely hilarious, especially when she mispronounced Prachee (rhymes with Saatchi & Saatchi) AND our family's last name, Lappin (rhymes with flappin').

I'm not going to say anything except if I were a rent-a-rabbi, I would make sure I knew the names of the people I was marrying, but I'm that way.  In Marcia's defense, there was a lot going on.  And parenthetically, the Hindu priest screwed up the names too.  What is it with clergy people these days?



Marcia loved the wedding, our family, the food, everything.  In fact, though she kept saying she had to leave in twenty minutes, she stayed for the whole dinner.  I'm just relieved we didn't have to peel her off a bar stool and send her home in a cab.

To her credit, the actual ceremony was lovely and very moving.  And brief.  Kudos, Rabbi Marcia!



The food really was excellent -- though we all agreed the desserts failed to live up to the rest of meal, not so rare, I guess -- and I was able to eat a bit more than I had the day before.  I didn't vomit once that night.

And that's it.  Mother Sonia was happy, and that's really what it's all about, no?  Even more important, her friends loved it and were very impressed!







Michael's parents came too!



Now that the wedding is over I can -- hopefully -- get back on track.

Yesterday I made the red and black houndstooth shorts, and today I'll be making the long pants in the black and white double knit.  Saturday is the big photoshoot so if you're in town and would like to be in it, just let me know.

In closing, friends, how do you feel about big weddings?  Did you have one yourself?  Was it fun?  Were you blending two different cultures/religions?

Do you think Michael and I should have some sort of ceremony?  A lot of people at the wedding asked when we would, which was sweet of them.

If Marcia's available,who knows?!  (Actually, I do -- ix-nay.)

Have a great day, everybody!