Greg's Wedding Journal 4 I was at the point where the crowd of dancing singing people split open and formed the arches and I walked up to see my bride, my beautiful kallah sitting on her throne, dressed in her white dress that she had designed, had made, fretted and worried over up to the last moment, and how stunning she was in that with a white kipah and her veil draped back of her head…and her eyes, looking into mine, and her gasp and smile and my breath taken away, and tears, little ones,

and then I was standing in front of her, we were looking straight (well, nearly straight - I was standing) into each other's eyes, and everyone, people around us, a blur of faces and bodies and clothes and they're all singing, a wall of sound. And the Rabbi's there, she's saying something - listen…R Einat's speaking, and blessing

and then I'm picking up the veil, whoops, it's caught, there…and lifting it over her head, no don't go my bride, it has taken so long for us to get here, but there she is now, under the veil, the Kallah! And then it's my turn, I reach for the kipah that I was to give her and she was to put on my head, but what's this?

Andi pulls out from under her a kipah that she has been crocheting for me. For me, when did you have time?Yes, yes, I will take this on my head, I bend down, the subject for the queen, ha-malka, and I get a blessing too,and we are walking down to the 'magic garden'

where we sign the ketubah and our t'nayim (check the website) and each of the eight eidim (we had two men and two women for each document) sign and they and our families give us blessings, and there's more crying,

and then it's time to go. Phhhh, deep breath, this is it… we are starting to walk over to the garden, I am between my parents, arm in arm and Andi's between hers, and I get there first, and the garden is filled with people and colours and there's Julie and Leah and Julie and they're singing angels, and everyone's singing and there's so many people, all blurry, I aim for the chupah and I can

see Steve and my brother, and there's Debs, and R. Einat, and blur blur, and then I'm there and the music changes, and I turn around and there comes Andi and she's so beautiful.

She walks slowly down and she's glowing, radiating womanness, light, white, she's here, and we turn together and enter into our chupah, our home, and we circle each other and then we are facing Yerushalayim, the Old City walls and the late afternoon light is perfect and there is a circle of people and they're all singing and chanting and it's a sea of sound and we're in the middle.

It's all dreamlike, I remember being absolutely there, focused - Andi later told me that she wasn't as the veil made it feel like she couldn't see everything properly, the one thing we would do differently if we did it all again - but now it seems like a dream sequence, there was singing and Rabbi Einat and wine and rings and rings again and again,

(I gave Andi her own ring by mistake, so we did it again with mine), and Rav Pesach, and singing and then the Shevah brachot, which were powerful beyond expectation, and then we were walking out and there was energy, and henna and singing and dancing and crying and shouting and jumping, and we made our way slowly towards the cheder yichud where we would have time to ourselves.

Dancing people in front of us, next to us, all around us, we're in the courtyard and the band chimes in, and then we're dancing off again and we're at the door to what was a classroom until this morning, and then we're inside, the door closes and we're alone for the first time. Married. So this time I will let off the commentary until we came out, just to say that the room, the room that was once a classroom had been transformed by Josh and Tony into a desert tent of carpets and rugs

and pillows and nets falling down and a smaller intimate tent with a cushion bed, candles, wine, food, and flowers, incense and music - absolutely unexpected and intoxicating, contributing to the whole dreamlike effect.

So we came out of yichud to a crowd of rice-throwing, sparkler-waving, balloon-blowing, ball-juggling, singing, dancing, shouting, jumping madmen who kept us entertained for an unbroken hour that seemed like a nighttime in itself.

We laughed, we danced, we were danced, thrown, carried, circles, lines, on chairs, on backs, on arms, in and under arms, sit and watch them do these hilarious things,

ropes from serviettes, and jugglers and breakdancers and stooges and witches and kids and grandma and they're all dancing and making us laugh, and then even Shalom and the waiting staff are there and they're mad, they're all mad, there was energy and madness and joy and gila, rina, ditza v'chedva and then there was Marc and R. Meir's d'var Torah and Steve's speech and us, and then we're back on the floor and

the energy is undiminished and we have to drink gallons of water because it doesn't stop and it didn't until we were eating cake min hashamayim (from heaven) made by Chanah and there are blessings and huggings and

cryings and more dancing and then bensching (grace after meals) and sheva broches (seven wedding blessings) and we're doing group photo's and stacking chairs, and goodbye and thank you thank you thank you all so much and we're walking up the road to the hotel, and there's that early morning stillness and we should be exhausted but we are still fresh and we're in love and we're walking barefoot hand in hand up King David Street, and we must be the first couple in the world to get married. And the hotel clerk smiles, says mazal tov and gives us the keys.

And this is the beginning, because there are sheva broches and family, and friends and (we later found out that the SA gang all went out after the wedding to Mamele's where they got the whole place rocking and ran up a tab of over R2000 in drinks) and then Shabbat in Jerusalem, our first as a married couple and we're pouring honey on our challah (for a year after the wedding instead of salt) and we're living in Yemin Moshe and then there's Shavuot and Budapest and we have a wedding party in Budapest on a boat on the Danube and there's a band and a psychodrama group and we see our video for the first time and there are photo's to see and people to meet and Hungarian to learn, and Summer festivals and mineral baths and bike rides and olds shuls and new shuls and more more more and we are MARRIED, and it's great.

And as you can imagine with all of this the two things that we have not yet done is thank you cards and updated the website - so no promises, but it might all get done this week, so keep checking it out:
www.geocities.com/gregandandi
photo's are coming soon. And we love you all who got involved and the thank you cards are formal way of saying that but we do, we really do. And the e-mail mazal tovs and cards and long distance love too.

That's it, I will keep you all posted on life in Hungary when I write next, shavua tov,
L'shalom
Greg