June Milestones:
June 1st: We moved into our house!!! At 10am we said our goodbyes to the Apartment from Hell and said hello to our nueva casa.
It took awhile for it to sink in but the minute we realized one (or three) very important things...
1) We finally have somewhere that is OURS
2) It's sooo quiet here!!
and 3) Manny is hilarious running around on tile floors
That same week and part of the week after we tried to unpack as much as possible because our wedding would be here before we knew it and we would be leaving soon after we got back for our honeymoon.
June 6th I left for Dallas for my final fitting and to help my mom with everything for the weekend
June 7th Brad and I picked up our friends from the airport and kicked off the wedding weekend with a Shabbat dinner hosted by my grandparents
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| The Gang minus 1 Followed by my Bachelorette Fiesta planned by our amazing MOH, Mindy. The evening included some fun props, a trip to Dueling Pete's Piano Bar, Salsa Dancing with the boys at Gloria's, and Girl time at the hotel  |
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June 9th the day started out early at 8am with a trip to synaggogue for our Auf Ruf which is: Aufruf ("call up" in Yiddish) is the ceremony in which the groom is called up to recite the blessing over the Torah in synagogue. Ashkenazic Jews generally have this ceremony on the Sabbath before the wedding, and Sephardic Jews often have it on the Sabbath after the wedding. After the Torah reading, members of the congregation traditionally sing "Mazal Tov" and to throw soft candies at the groom or couple-to-be as an expression of the community's wishes for a sweet start. Some say that the Aufruf ceremony evolved from an ancient practice in the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. According to the Talmud, King Solomon built a special gate in the Temple that grooms would go through on the Sabbath to be greeted by family and friends. Followed by some shopping with my girls, while Brad went back to the hotel to take a nap, and getting ready for the Rehearsal dinner hosted by Brad's parents that evening. The Rehearsal Dinner, just as the shabbat dinner, was wonderful and we felt so loved by all whom attended. Brad presented our parents and grandparents with roses to thank them for all that they had done in preparation for the weekend and for their love and support of us as a couple. One of the highlights of the weekend, however, was much to Brad's and my surprise, our friends were already scheming of something to do afterwards. It was so amazing how our the majority of the group were complete strangers on Friday and now had created these awesome friendships in such a short amount of time.    Afterwards, we all headed to a local dive bar for Karoke. The kicker though was that my mom, aunt, and my mom's other best friend came with! The moms sang "I will survive," I sang "You got it" by Bonnie Rait, and there was most definitely some other awesomeness in there as well. The damper to the evening was when the manager came over to us and in a matter of choice words said, "You need to leave unless you order some drinks." After basically feeling completely disrespected we took our business elsewhere and said our goodbyes for the evening. Brad and I had strict instructions from my aunt that after 11:30pm we weren't allowed to see each other so the evening was pretty much done anyway. June 10th!! The big day was finally here. Ro, Judy, and I headed to the hotel to check into the room and get settled until our hair appointments later on that afternoon. Unbeknownst to me however was that Brad was sitting in the lobby talking to some family members and because I didn't want him to see me until I walked down the aisle. I made a mad dash, in flip flops, to the elevator. Thankfully he didn't see me. Once upstairs I made the call that has been a source of laughter ever since. I called Brad and said, "Hey babe, you know how normally I don't really care where you go or what you do?" He answered, "Um..yeah." I said..."Well, today I need to know what you're every minute! When you're leaving, when you're coming, etc so we don't bump into each other." He laughed, agreed, and we set the plan in motion. Luckily, we didn't have any issues. The rest of the day flew by and before I knew it I was walking down the aisle arm in arm with my parents. I swore that I wasn't going to cry but well, that didn't really happen as to plan.   The ceremony was a little long or at least it seemed it to be especially because it was like a sauna underneathe my veil. Our rabbi was absolutely amazing and I couldn't have imagined being married by anyone else. After some wine sipping, presenting the ketubah, and trying to keep the tallit wrapped around us (which was very comical), the end finally came when Brad would smash the glass and we'd be pronounced man and wife.     We spent the next couple of hours dancing, laughing, some eating, dancing some more, and posing for lots of pictures! And before we knew it our fairy tale evening came to and end...  We're so thankful to our amazing friends and family that made this evening a true affair to remember! |
