I suggest you get comfy... this was written so that 30 years from now, I will have something to help me recall just how great it all was and Sophie will be able to read about how much a day that she spent enjoying her cousins, Aunts & Uncles and grandparents, meant to her Mom.
Though the weeks leading up to our reception on Aug 15th, 2010 were stressful in my own mind, and therefore affected not only me, but my lovely wife, the actual day went spectacularly well. Not perfect, mind you, but then, what does?
I had a week off with Sophie just prior to people coming in for the main event. And that time off allowed us some good one on one time together swimming in the pool and getting last minute reception stuff done well in advance of the event.
My brother David (whom some of you know as the blogger Treppenwitz) and his family (wife Cheryl and children Ariella, Gilad & Yonah) arrived from Israel on Aug 8th (for a 2 week visit!!! Awesome being able to spend so much time with them!)
My parents arrived from Israel on the 11th. My brother Benjamin and his family (wife Leila and sons Kevin & Joshua) arrived from California on the 12th for a 5 day visit (first time meeting my youngest nephew Josh!) and my sister Elizabeth and her daughters Maisie & Noa were somewhat local living in Manhattan, NY, so they were up and back a few times.
Being that David and his family are observant, the Shabbat arrangements were the tricky part of planning a special Friday night that I had hoped would work out. Since they were staying with my parents in Westport, (20 minute ride from our Temple) and Shabbat started so late (8pm) I asked them if they'd be able to join everyone for services on Friday night since they were so early (6pm-7pm) and they'd still be able to get home in time to light candles. They said no problem.
So on Friday night, Aug 13th, we were all together for services at our Temple for probably the first time since Benjamin's Bar Mitzvah!!! (which actually took place at this same Temple back in 1982!!!) And, well, it was the first time for Linda's parents, but I think they enjoyed it and being there with everyone! Benjamin's youngest (Josh - age 4) slept thru the whole thing, between jet lag, swimming during the day and no nap!
It was a magical evening and I'll treasure the memory always.
Linda, Sophie & I set up the social hall on Saturday morning, which just left a few things to do on Sunday morning.
Sunday morning was a little humid, but sunny. I took Linda's parents with me to run up to the local (30 minutes away!) kosher place to pick up the food that my brother and his family would eat at the reception. We dropped it off at the Temple, spoke with the staff and headed home so I could shower and get dressed. (Luckily, we live a mile up the road from the Temple!)
Linda & Sophie hung at our place. Our friend Randi did double duty as our make-up artist and photographer! She did a great job in both roles!
I headed to the Temple to meet the wedding cake person, the DJ and the videographer about 11. I had told my family to arrive at noon for pictures and not to be late. (the reception was to start at 1!)
Let me first say that it's tough to imagine getting 14 other Bogners to show up on time, but as we know, God does work in mysterious ways, and it did happen! And it was very fun posing together and in sub groups, etc... We're a rather loud, but happy group!
Here are a few shots from the photo shoot done before the party started.
The first one is the whole Bogner-Torzsa clan - - all 19 of us!
In the bottom row are the 8 grandchildren, from l-r: Gilad, Maisie, Sophie, Yonah, Noa, Kevin, Ariella & Joshua.
On the top right, you'll see my 2 brothers (David (aka Treppenwitz) & Benjamin) with my sister Elizabeth between them. (I'm next to my Dad)
Linda is next to her parents. My parents are on the top left. David's wife Cheryl is on the far left above her son Gilad and Benjamin's wife Leila is on the far right.
And here are the brides!
My siblings and I: (from l-r: David, Elizabeth & Benjamin, birth order is: Me, David, Elizabeth & Benjamin - 12 years between me & the youngest!)
And this is what these 4 created!:
As you can plainly see -- no one was having a good time AT ALL! :)
Here is one of Linda & me at the reception:
The reception took place in the social hall of our Temple. We had about 90 guests. (not including family!)Quite the diverse crowd between gay and straight friends, blogger friends, friends from our Congregation, friends of the family (including 3 couples who have been friends of my parents since I was in elementary school!!), all ages (young and old)and a few children! It was a room filled with tons of love. We both felt so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who genuinely loved us.
We had our actual wedding ceremony video taped back on March 22, 2010 and we had the 14 minute DVD that our wonderful videographer created for us, kick off the reception.
The 19 of us were hiding in another part of the Temple, with our nephew Gilad entertaining us all by playing Beatle songs on his guitar and singing. It was wonderful - our own private concert!
We all walked in and lined up on the dance floor to be part of a brief ceremony led by our Rabbi, which consisted of welcoming everyone and mentioning how everyone in our families traveled from all over the world (Florida, Israel, California & Manhattan, NY!), a few blessings and a lovely rendition of "If I ever forget thee, Jerusalem" sung by our beautiful niece Ariella and her handsome brother Gilad.
This was followed by the typical Jewish circle dancing followed by the tradition of lifting the couple up on chairs! Oh yeah, they got me up, but Linda looked cuter, so I'll just include a shot of her:
Appetizers like spring rolls, tortellini skewers, chicken satay, bruschetta, steak, cheese & crackers and cut up veggies were served by our catering staff who actually work in the deli at the corporate building where Linda & I work. (Both waitresses volunteered specifically to work our wedding cuz they like us!) Wine & beer were available, along with soft drinks and water, as well.
Our first dance was to "I Finally Found Somoene" by Barbra Streisand & Bryan Adams. Of course I didn't make it through it without tears! The words to that song are so perfect for us.
I had asked Ariella & Gilad to not only sing a song for our brief ceremony, but to also sing one of my favorite Beatles' song, "I Will", which they agreed to do. I had told them that whenever they were ready, to get the DJ's mike and just announce themselves.
So after some dancing and mingling, we were pleased to hear them ask everyone to take a seat so that they could sing a song for us. Linda & I sat on the opposite side of the dance floor from where they were singing, facing them and waited. But instead of the song we expected, they had other plans!
You see, when they were young (say 4 & 5) and lived here in CT - just on the other side of town from me, I used to see them all the time and we'd go for rides in my car. They loved to hear "Octopus' Garden" by the Beatles and what they called the "the Goat song" (which was actually, the song from "the Sound of music, that they play when the puppet show is going on). In fact they loved it so much, I created a cassette tape (remember those???!) with just those 2 songs on it with just those 2 songs over and over and over for them!!
Anyway, the way they told it, I FORCED them to listen to the Beatles song and the Sound of Music soundtrack and so now they would repay that by playing/singing Octopus' Garden for us, which they did quite nicely. It was very cute!
And then they played "I Will" and Linda & I danced and it was perfect! They're very sweet and talented kids and we were so grateful that they were there to celebrate with us and make the day that much more special.
I had asked my brother David, my sister-in-law Cheryl, my oldest friend Yak (not her real name!) and my Dad to say a few words. David was sweet and funny. Cheryl made us both cry - with her heartfelt words and sentiments. Yak made us laugh. My Dad killed us both - with his words that were so full of love, pride and warmth. It was overwhelming, but meant so much to both of us. Thanks, Dad!
He had already touched us both with a poem that he had written and e-mailed to us back in March for our wedding. We loved it so much, we had it printed on the wedding programs that were part of the table decorations:
After all the kind words, we cut the cake and fed it to each other gently and kindly. Here's the cake:
It tasted just as good as it looks... YUM!
Aside from our DJ seeming to have dropped acid just prior to kicking the reception off with introductions of the 19 of us, which made for some extremly strange pronounciations of not only last names, but first names, as well! He also introduced Linda's parents as Bogners!
But considering he was the only thing that was whacked that day, and he did manage to play some music to dance to, I followed Linda's advice and let it go... remembering how great the day was!
Sophie had a great time - getting the award for most amount of time on the dance floor! She & Maisie danced the entire time that music was playing! They were very cute together!
We received the video of the reception just last week and it came out awesome! The day was everything I'd hoped it would be and more. I love being married!
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