Jeff and Natasha's Wedding Invitation

Ah, the joys of wedding planning!

Wedding planning's taking its toll on you. This video may cheer you up. It's an actual video wedding invitation that is also an animated reminder of how some things can get out of hand. In the clip, Jeff and Natasha are trying to select their wedding invite. Natasha is the star and she tries to come up with the perfect wedding invitation.

"We burned this animation onto DVD's and sent it out as our actual wedding invitation. It took nine months to complete, and was produced entirely as part of a group project class at the Art Institute of California - San Francisco where I'm an instructor of animation." - says Jeff, who posted the video on YouTube.

Enjoy!

Lisa and Dave's fun NYC Wedding

Lisa and Dave's fun NYC Wedding

Have you ever heard of a groom eating a carrot at the altar? Find out why he does this at Lisa and Dave's spectacular and fun New York City wedding ceremony!

Dress: redesigned by Alex Teih

Band: Peter Greco

Flowers: Flowers of the World

Photography & Videography: J Michaels photography

Catering: Abigael's

Reception venue: Museum of Jewish Heritage

Shmeltzer / Neginah Hora

This video features Lipa Shmeltzer, a star on the chassidic music scene known for a variety of music styles that includes rap and techno among others, doing more or less the 'Standard Second Dance' - (second music set at a Jewish wedding, usually reserved for those who have not died out after the first dance.) This video is quite representative of the tempo of Jewish wedding music. It's fast. Sport photographers, who are pro at capturing fast action, would probably have a hard time shooting at these speeds. This video is from an orthodox Jewish wedding, hence the separate dancing for men and women.

This is another video with Lipa. This one is from a wedding in London. In this clip Lipa is performing his own stuff and it looks more like a concert than a wedding.

Planning a Wedding with 20,000 Guests

If you are a leader of one of the largest Chassidic group in the world and your daughter is planning a wedding, you have to think big...No bigger than that. No, really BIG.

First you'll need to find a venue that would accommodate an unpredictable amount of people that belong to your Chassidic group, lets say 10,000 to 20,000 people that would love to share the wedding joy of their beloved Rebbe. In addition to the Bobover Chassidic community of Boro Park, thousands from Antwerp, Lakewood, London, Monsey, Montreal, Toronto, Williamsburg, and elsewhere will be in attendance. And of course, you can expect another couple of thousand people who are likely to drop by just to see what a twenty thousand people wedding looks like.

The Venue

Floyd Bennett Field, the no-longer-in-use airfield adjacent to the Marine Parkway Bridge in South Brooklyn was the venue of choice for this couple. The airfield’s two gargantuan cement runways, each nearly one-mile long, were the largest in the world when built in 1929. The airfield and its hangars are likely the largest usable open spaces, both indoors and out, in New York City today.

When your wedding is of such proportions, it is, for all intents and purposes, a concert. (And if you don't do it right, it may very well turn into a cirus, too.) It is not exactly clear, though, who the audience is. Are they the friends and family, are they the guests (invited and the uninvited). Shall you want to find out, browse the videos for this wedding on YouTube.com and you'll see that the roles change and everyone is entertained at some point and time.




Phototgrapher

For this event, which by the way, took place on May 27, 2007, not one, not two, not even three photo crews were commissioned to photograph the happenings of the day. No, it took five photography teams to document this affair. Hirsh Rosner Studio of Boro Park was the leader of photography pack, who, by the way, has plenty of such weddings in his porfolio.

Planning


On the bright side, when you are a leader of a huge Chassidic group there are plenty of helpers (and those helpers have more helpers...) to take care of every single detail of the event planning - no wedding planner necessary.

An Yemenite Jewish dance troupe

A video performance from an Yemenite Jewish dance troupe. A colorful display of Jewish cultural variety. May be you can get them to perform at your Jewish wedding. That would be an incredible wedding shtick.

Yemeni Jews singing and dancing: A performance of the Yemenite Troupe.

Here is a "simple" translation of the Yemeni Dialect part--I need help with the Hebrew part (some words are translated based on the way the performers pronounce them, which is in some parts "questionable").

Note: the words in parentheses are added for clarification:

Down (the hill or mountain) I went
To the stream
To water my horse--
My foot slipped
And I fell into the water.

I went to propose (engagement)
But they rejected me,
(and) my "qat" (a stimulant)
And the "mada3ah" (water-pipe)
Although I'm the son of a Chief
The son of a Jew.

I went to propose
Carrying my qat and the mada3ah
But the bad guys
Made a fool of me.

Sweet heart and the apple of my eye
Tell those who made you
Think bad of me:
Who of you would entertain me?

From the early dawn
She got angry with me
And went cry--
Got angry--oh darkness (of the night)

Out of sight is my beloved.
For a year and two months,
Never returned.
Alas people
She left
And deserted me.

To whom shall I complain,
And would understand me?
Before whom shall I cry,
And would pity me?
And who of you
Would entertain me.

Rabbi Mordy Katz

Rabbi Mordy Katz performing at a wedding in Melbourne Australia.

Satmar Kabbolas Ponim...or more accurately Kabulas Punim

Here's a Satmar wedding video. A bit crowded...

Amazing Wedding Shtick