Guess where I went last night? A wedding! Good times had by all…mazal tov, Mark and Hadar!
As an addendum to last week’s Idiot’s Guide to Israeli Weddings, here are a couple more observations I forgot to include. Read that first if you haven’t already…
–Upon entering the wedding hall, you may see TV screens mounted on the walls around the room. Whereas in America, you might expect them to display a video montage of baby pictures of the couple, here they show some random morphing color show that looks like the thing in Windows Media Player. I know Israelis aren’t big Mac users but I can’t help but feel that I’m missing something here.
Welcome to our happy event!Last night, once the house/techno/trance (Can someone please tell me what that stuff is called? I only know that I wake up each morning and thank my creator that it’s not on my ipod) came on, the men went nuts, dancing and jumping together on the floor, arms flailing furiously as they laughed, sweated, and had a wild time. We could probably learn something from them. (While we’re at it, I’d also love to learn from them how to maintain that perfect level of four-day scruff. How does it always stay that length? Amazing.)
–There is absolutely zero correlation between appearance and job in this country. In America, someone might look at a hottie patottie and say about a profession, “that job’s beneath her.” Here? Not a chance. I don’t think this says anything about attitudes, just the preponderance of attractive people here. I’m not saying the staff of servers last night were hotter than the Negev in July, but…ok, yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.
(Stay tuned for next month’s article about Israeli fashion and beauty in the Atlanta Jewish Times’s supplement. Should be a good one.)
What if this woman came to fix your plumbing?
9:21 AM “Omig-d, Trevor, those are soooooooooooo cooooool!”9:22 AM “What are you WEARING??? GROSS!!!!!!!!!!”
I hate fashion.
Seriously? I really thought I might offend someone? With all the sneakers and designer t-shirts…not a chance anyone was gonna notice me.
Bottom line: everyone had a good time and that’s what’s important.
I think this wraps up this somewhat exhaustive guide. At least till the next wedding.
Did I miss anything?
re: the south pacific and grass skirts. Best bet would be Yap. Less so Palau. Yap is more traditional and you’d be more likely to wear a thu (see http://www.pacificworlds.com/yap/arrival/neighbor.cfm, photo near the bottom). Grass skirts (no tops) are for women.
You never mentioned the whole deal with the signs in the street that say “לתחונה של א וב ==>”
“Some guy last night had a white shirt with a dragon on the back”
HA HA HA!
Again, you metioned that this was particular to non-religious weddings in the previous post.
Religious weddings — different storry. Well, the men are just as insane, but the dress is different.
Black
White
Black hat.
I can't believe you neglected to mention the sequined white bikini with removable tutu that the bride was probably wearing… what is that??
Well, depends on the type of religious wedding. That's chareidi – Dati Leumi is a bit of both (clothing-wise, and they have the box, but otherwise closer to chareidi). I'm just glad my relatives mostly have chareidi weddings (even if they aren't), or I couldn't afford to go. No box, generally simple, and you aren't expected to spend much. I first heard about the box at work. But all of the weddings, of whatever sort, are interesting.
Oh, if you want men's dress clothing (especially white shirts), just go to a chareidi neighborhood. We even have one in here in Haifa.
Great post, every word is set in stone.