My Brother's Movie Wedding: Part 2: Interlude/Reception

Traditionally, I spend most of Shabbos afternoon fast asleep. By the time we got back to the hotel from lunch, however, there wasn't enough time for a Shabbos nap. After my mom and I de-pinned each other and changed into relaxing clothes, we schmoozed with my mom's sisters and nieces, who had spent the afternoon shopping and watching movies. Before long, we had to get dressed and accessorized again. Luckily, our reception outfits, embellished silk tunics and pants, were very easy to put on. There weren't even any back zippers. Mom's tunic was dark blue and her pants were bright tangerine; my outfit was a bright turquoise. I wore one set of bangles on each wrist, as opposed to one half set. A typical bangle set is 4-5" long, and, as I found out later, makes a lot of noise when you dance.

The cocktail reception and dinner were held in the hotel. Dinner was in the ballroom, and our families were announced (and shown in real-time on a big screen) as we walked up to the head table. Given the number of people, the head table was on a large platform. It was a lot of fun being announced and sitting at the head table, but at the same time the long table was not conducive to conversing with my dinner companions. So, after the couple and the bride's parents began circulating, I left the table to hang out with my cousins. A few minutes into our conversing, an important thing happened. The DJ had made the important shift from slow songs for the couple to dance to (and, of course, be properly documented) to catchy dance songs for the guests. Three of my cousins started to bob their heads and sway in their chairs. You know where this is leading.

We formed a moving, shaking, singing, gesturing quartet in one corner of the dance floor. What struck me was that, despite our significant age range (one generation's worth), we all sang/chanted the words and obviously gestured the lyrics (you know, pointing to your friend for the "you"s and closing your eyes when you point dramatically to yourself for the "I"s) like high school girls at a dance in the gymnasium. Although better dressed, of course. Though it took a lot of persuasion, we eventually got my parents to dance for one song (my brother doesn't believe me, but I'm sure he will once he sees footage).

Sadly, my parents and relatives were sensitive to the DJ speakers, and left early. I almost left early myself (around 11:30), because I was starting to feel tired, but my brother stopped me. I'm glad he did, because I was very happy to be dancing until the lights went up.

I think my brother has had a difficult time accepting that I'm in college, because he made some remark about my being too young to dance the way I was dancing (I couldn't hear it well because of the noise, but I didn't need to know the detail to hear the sentiment). I didn't think I was being particularly wild; the dancing was a lot less inappropriately wild than at many of my high school dances, where the principal's spoken/unspoken rule was "anything that's not indecent exposure will be politely ignored unless, of course, people appear drunk." What the dancing had, though, was joyous energy, which is what wedding dances should always have.

In part that joyous energy comes in the form of things like dancing to "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls and laughing about the reason why it was requested. But it's sustained in the reason for the celebration in the first place, in knowing that after a year of talking about it, my brother and my now-official sister-in-law are now (finally!) married.