Los Angeles. Day 8. The Main Event.
Happy Wedding Day Austin and Rachel!
We got up and immediately started getting ready. Tzvi took hallie to breakfast at Factors Deli on Pico across from the hotel.
TZVI: We had passed Factors on Shabbos and Hallie really wanted to ride all of the rides outside, so I promised to take her back Sunday for them. We met my father and had breakfast - silver dollar pancakes for Hal and lox and eggs for me. Factors is the place where my parents used to take me all the time for pancakes when I was three, so it was kind of surreal, in a life coming full circle kind of way, to be sitting there with my father and Hallie doing the same thing. After breakfast Hallie rode all of the rides multiple times. They were kind of old and dirty and probably haven’t been used since I was a kid, but she loved them.
STEPH: My makeup started at 9:45 in my parents room and we were basically there until 12:15. A lady named Ziva did our makeup and we got the whole story about how he was a ba’al teshuva, etc. Austin was in and out and was saying something about watching football. I’m not sure what time he left to the hall with my dad and Avery. The whole time this woman named Faigy was with us. She was kind of like our chaperone from the wedding planner, except she disappeared once we got to the actual hotel. Hallie also got her hair done which was so cute. Our goal was to leave the hotel by 12:45, and I think we got out by 1 or 1:15, but not before sending Tzvi to get some food and drinks from the Coffee Bean.
Once we got to the hotel we met Talia (the babysitter) and headed up to room 1710 which was our “getting ready” room. Hallie was very excited about her dress, and then hurt her fingers on the bathroom door, which we saw coming, so Talia took her away to find ice. From the window on the 17th floor we could see Austin and Rachel taking photos.
We went downstairs but didn’t really know where to go or what to do, and Faigy was nowhere to be found. Eventually we met Renata, one of the photographers, who was going to be in charge of most of our family photos. She didn’t speak English that well, but she liked taking photos of Hallie, so that was good. Hallie held up pretty well throughout the photos, so that was good too.
There was no food available to eat at the hall while we were taking photos, though we saw them setting everything up. Tzvi and Gabriella tried to get the sushi makers to give them some sushi, but the man was mean and said no. Actually, he said no as he was eating a plate of sushi. Evil.
We took lots of family photos outside on the lawn. The main photographer kept yelling “Forehead Foreward,” which apparently only Tzvi could figure out how to do, although I still think it looks like he’s diving into something.
My mother had made a list of photos that she wanted to get, but none of the photographers could understand the list so they were both yelling at Tzvi to decipher it for them and tell them what combinations to take, which then led to everyone else yelling at Tzvi to forget about the list. Always gets the blame that husband of mine.
One thing I will give the wedding planner props for - everything at the wedding was incredibly punctual. The schmorg was called to begin at 4:30, and we were actually done with photos by about 4 or 4:15. A lot of people had already arrived by 4:15, but they refused to open any food before 4:30. Tzvi and Gabriella spent the last 15 minutes waiting and staring at the sushi man, but he didn’t budge.
Finally they opened the schmorg and everything was delicious. My favorite thing was butternut squash soup.
TZVI: My favorite thing was the candied bacon. And the veal ribs (actually it was carved veal but I asked the carver to give me the discarded ribs). And the sushi, despite how mean the sushi man was.
STEPH: The whole schmorg hour was blur, running from the bedeken to the tisch to see them break the plates and then back to the bedeken, and then finally it was time to walk down the aisle. Also, I never knew where I had to be, so my mom just kept calling me on my phone and we had to keep running from place to place. I think we made it to everything though!
We all lined up for the chuppah. At first, the wedding planner was telling Karen (Rachel’s mom) that after walking down the aisle everyone had to line up to the right of the chuppah so the band singer (who had a stage of his own) could have the left side all to himself. I think we were all in shock that that request would even be entertained. Everyone said no, so we went right and Rachel’s family went left. Hallie waited with Talia and the flower girls, and then did a beautiful job walking down. We were so proud and she was so cute.
I had the job of emcee. Thankfully it went off mostly without a hitch, except for when I called Rachel’s uncle the “uncle of the groom,” but that is what it said in the script! I was reading! Tzvi did birkat cohanim under the chupah, which was a nice honor. All went smoothly until they started singing Im Eshkacheh and realized they couldn’t find the glass to break. The singer actually asked into the microphone, “anyone have a glass?” Eventually they found something to use. It ends up the glass the planner had left there had rolled under the chupah stage something. I don’t know.
A brief interlude between the chuppah and dinner during which I observed high level rabbinic discussions.
The chuppah was lovely and then we danced them out and headed to the ballroom. I think Rachel and Austin took a few more pictures. During the downtime, people ate their salads and then a lot of people got up to start dancing, just to whatever music was playing.
Finally they came out and the marathon began. It’s all kind of a blur but there was a lot of dancing. For dinner they served a meat that I think was short rib, but who even remembers now. I do remember that it was very good and Tzvi ate two of them. For dessert they opened a separate room and there was a nice buffet with lots of interesting choices. I think instead of a wedding cake they had a tower of macarons. There was also this good passion fruit mousse thing.
Dancing continued after dessert and then at one point they set up a table and started setting up new hot food. At first I thought it was dessert, but it turned out to be latkes and meat.
People were dancing until 1 AM, when they did sheva brachot. I think around 11:30 or midnight Talia took Hallie up to the room that we had gotten ready in and she fell asleep in the bed. We woke her up a little after 1 AM to get into the Uber to go back to the Residence Inn.
Mazal Tov!