Friday, February 24, 2006

My Favorite Wedding Story

A very amusing post over at The Ice Floe reminded me of this memory. When you've read them both, you'll understand the connection.

It was a lesbian commitment ceremony in 1998, planned by my daughter elswhere and her partner RW. From far and wide about 100 people were streaming to a beautiful Victorian resort-town near Canada to witness the event. Months of preparation had gone into the event, with not a little trepidation about encountering overt and incipient homophobia.

The ceremony was a rousing success, as was the entire weekend, including the meeting of the two brides' families for the first time, and some family feuds were healed. Throughout all the planning - the invitations, the caterer, the dresses, the rehearsal dinner, the musicians, the program, the vows, the hotel, the photographer, etc., etc. - nobody involved batted an eye that this was for two women (admittedly, it was still the era of "It's the economy, stupid," but still, I was impressed.)

Later elswhere reported this happening after the event:

She and RW stayed on in Victorian Resort Town for a couple of nights to recover from the festivities, and so it wasn't until two days later that they went together to the local rental shop where they had rented various items like chairs and tableware, to settle their account:

RW: "We're here to pay our bill for the Booland wedding."

Saleswoman: "Oh, you're from that wedding over at the Victorian Resort Town Hotel. We heard it was really unusual."

Uh-oh, they thought, here it comes.

RW (cautiously): "In what way?"

They held their breath to prepare themselves for the reply.

Salewoman: "We heard it was a Jewish wedding! With lots of wonderful dancing!"
*****************************************************************************
(And so it was)------------------------->

9 comments:

OldHorsetailSnake said...

Great story, Gramma. Hugs for elswhere.

Udge said...

Yep, keep your eye on the important stuff! I find that a thoroughly Canadian response.

TLP said...

What a sweet story! Made me laugh.

I saw a one-woman play once about a woman who just wanted one thing: A traditional Jewish lesbian wedding. It was so cute and funny!

Shannon Des Roches Rosa said...

How is that I had no idea you were the wonderful elswhere's mother? I had the honor of meeting both her and MG in December, and truly wish they lived closer to us. Your granddaughter and my daughter got to go hunting for trolls together.

The wedding photo gave me the happy sniffles. Thanks for the treat.

SavtaDotty said...

Hoss - How I wish I could deliver those hugs RIGHT NOW!

Udge - It was close enough to Canada that she could have been.

TLP - One of the many ironies in this story is that it was not even a traditional Jewish lesbian wedding, because one of the brides wasn't Jewish, and there was no rabbi!

Dale - Lovely to see your smiling face!

Tamar - "savta-le" I love it!

Squid - I was sure EVERYONE KNEW. I try not to pull the mother-of-elswhere card too much, but she and prowesslessnesslessness are definitely my crowning glories.

"Happy sniffles" is what your comment gave me! Must be something going around the blogosphere.

Udge said...

Sorry, I must have been on autopilot then. I read "near" as "in" (well, they do look and sound alike) and combined this with the post on Uncle Skaterboy (he is Canadian, right?) to make 2+2=7.

SavtaDotty said...

Not only do you have creative math and creative eyes and ears, but a very sharp memory! Uncle Skaterboy is indeed Canadian, and in fact he was the only one to bring an ironing board to the wedding. Which was put to good use!

Anonymous said...

Hi savtadotty,

Thanks for commenting positively and enthusiastically on our blog: israelvideoblog.org

Please keep stopping in... and maybe even create a video to post about your like in Israel.

btw - great blog!

Israel Video Blog team

Anonymous said...

Great story! Love the punchline :)