Wedding Joy

I'm just gonna make this a short(ish) post. I wanted to write a little bit about the wedding since my last post was just about our whirlwind trip to Lyon. If you recall the whole purpose of the trip was going to my best friend's brother's

wedding. :)

The wedding was a traditional Jewish ceremony

in the old synagogue in Lyon. My only knowledge of Jewish weddings came from Fiddler on the Roof--I remember being shocked in the movie when the groom stomps a wine glass. Ethan crushed the glass on the first try. :) Good job.

The bride and groom were both radiant. They get married under a tent-like structure where the alter would be in a church, surrounded by their families. Although I couldn't understand the service (mostly French and Hebrew though the rabbi did say a few lines in English), it was fun to see the different traditions. None of it was too different really from weddings here in Spain:

various traditions and customs, but all focused on the health and happiness of the newly weds. In the end, I guess all weddings, regardless of how they're celebrated, really are the same at heart.

The reception was at a beautiful old chateau (I think you'd call it that) from the 1600's! It was a fantastic local, preserving it's heritage while being modernized just enough to be quite fancy. It was all very elegant. Views from the courtyard of the tiny town below and a castle on the opposing hill--completely fairy tale. What really blew me away was the plaque at the entrance (huge stone wall and iron gate) that read: "private historic monument"... Only in Europe!

Dinner was held in a big room that was once where they crushed grapes to make wine. The ceiling beams were awesome. The huge press was still there, though kind of hidden behind the DJ's set-up. The food was wonderful, but the desserts were absolutely amazing. I've somehow lost my sweet tooth living in Spain, but I tried about 50% of the dessert buffet (seriously...there were so many different things!) and the rest was a feast for the eyes. ;) At this point my camera battery had died (typical!) so there are no pictures... Luckily I did get a shot of the wedding "cake": a castle made of peanut brittle and filled with cream puffs! It even had fireworks!

All of it was beautiful. The bride and groom were so obviously in love. :) We weren't able to partake in much of the merry-making after dinner was served because by the time dessert was finished it was about 1am. We left at about 2:30am because the following day was our long haul back to Barcelona. Still, in the time we were there, we saw enough to be able to extrapolate about all the fun everyone else had until sunrise!!

Here's a little video clip of some of the celebrating...there was no ballroom slow dancing, this was hard-core party! I didn't get a video of Ethan (groom) or Chris (father of the groom) body surfing, but that happened too. There was also lots of circular dancing that was much more like stomping and a "dance" that reminded me of when my sister and I would hold hands in the back yard, lean back and spin as fast as we could. Some how these guys didn't fall over (Emily and I always did!) and this was after quite a few drinks I assure you. ;) I really was sorry to have to leave so early. It always happens that just as I'm getting warmed up, my second wind, we have to leave!

Enjoy the video!