Day 0 – August 5, 2006

Well, today’s the day. There’s a strange mix of emotions between excitement for what’s to come, and anxiety of what the heck we’re going to talk about once this is behind us. It feels as though the last year and a half was been in anticipation of today. We’re not really sure what to expect out of today, other than we’re sure it’ll be a dream. Everything seems to be lining up perfectly for this magical day. We’ve lucked out and received a beautiful day weather-wise (1 out of 5 that we get in Cleveland all year).

After what seems like days of nervous waiting, Seth gets to see Amy for the first time in her wedding dress. He thinks she looks breathtaking. They get to share this moment alone. There are no words to describe this moment. Although somehow we just wrote a paragraph on it – go figure.

The ceremony goes off w/o a hitch. Well, for the most part. It wouldn’t have been such a memorable wedding if not for a few fun moments:

-- The easiest (yet most important) part of the Jewish wedding – the signing of the ketubah. This makes the marriage legally binding by Jewish law. From hereon out, the rest is really just show (but hey, it sure is one heck of a show!). The witnesses sign the document indicating that we are indeed getting married. Amy signs the document, indicating she thinks she knows what she’s getting into. And then Seth, well, Seth decides to try to break the serious mood of this momentous occasion by cracking a joke about the pen running out of ink. Not to lose any irony at the time, Seth then unsuccessfully tries to sign the document except, as “luck” would have it, the pen really is out of ink. Looks like the wedding and marriage is off, right? Nope, never fear, we were smart enough to get a bank up pen for just such an emergency. As Seth starts to use the backup pen, he realizes that one doesn’t work either. After stenciling his name on the ketubah in deliberate block letters, we are now married. On with the show!

-- While walking down the aisle, “stop stepping on my dress!!” may have been heard, as Amy’s dad slowed his pace a few steps behind Amy. From the viewpoint of the rest of the room, all that could be seen was the normally graceful Amy stumbling down the aisle towards the groom.

-- The havdallah ceremony was beautiful. All the wedding party and parents go up to the bema as we wait to be called up by Rabbi Rosie and Cantor Cathy. At that point, we hear Grandpa B. sitting behind us comment “I can’t see anything with these two people standing right in front of me!” The both of us turn around and give him a smile; he’s always got a good joke, no matter where he is. We tried not to be overly serious about the ceremony – Grandpa B. certainly helped with this. Another helpful non-serious moment was while drinking the wine on the bema. While holding the kiddush cup of wine, Seth notices a fly was bathing in it. He decides it’s not worth sticking his finger into the kiddush cup to try to remove the dead fly. Instead, he gives Amy a quick warning when it comes time to take a drink that she should avoid the fly in the wine. After taking a quick sip, Amy jokingly says, “don’t worry, I took care of it.” Except after looking into the cup, Seth notices that she did in fact drink up the fly. Yum! He’s really looking forward to the first kiss now…

-- After breaking the glass on his FIRST TRY (phew!), Seth is so relieved he almost forgets to give Amy the first kiss. Thank you Rabbi Rosie for the reminder! We begin walking down the aisle quickly. Apparently we’re exiting too quickly, because we are told to slow down. We then notice our parents lapping us by in the other aisle.

On to the reception!

We drive over to Oakwood with Russ right on our tail (how did he catch up to us so quickly?!) to fulfill his “guard duties” for the yichud. We arrive at Oakwood at enjoy our yichud (and a few mini-hot dogs and heart-shaped grilled cheeses. Seth is in heaven right now). The reception is a blast. We talk to as many people as we possibly can. The Kleins tell us about someone they knew who got shot and killed on a cruise. Great story. We’re also planning on watching Titanic and the Poseidon Adventure before boarding our honeymoon cruise. The cocktail hour goes by way too quickly, even with Marilyn helping us move around to see as many people as we can. By the way, the appetizers are great. Absolutely fantastic. Just as Amy has been picturing her wedding dress since she was a little girl, Seth has been picturing the appetizers. Both were perfect. The salads come and Dad L. knocks over his glass at Amy. Luckily Amy and her dress avoid it, but he now has a salad floating in a pool of water. Check out the wedding pictures, there’s one in there of it. It wouldn’t be a Brodsky/Libman wedding without something getting spilled. Later on Dad L. will also drop a fork towards Amy’s dress. We’re all pretty sure Amy’s dress isn’t getting out of here alive. Speeches are great – personal, humorous, touching, warm (although Dad L. may have a few additional comments about Debbie’s speech claiming that “Seth brings to the family someone who’s actually funny, not just thinks he is.” She still denies to have been referring to Dad L. with this comment.). We survive the hora (a.k.a., Chair Tossing Event) and Seth gets dizzy from the quick spinning round and round with Cousin David; he’s glad he hasn’t been drinking, otherwise that may have been the end of the night for him. We “dance” the night away.

After a lot of dancing, a lot of pictures, and a great time, we head out at the end of the night in a car FULL OF presents. What a wedding! We head back to the hotel to find that they gave us a complimentary suite, with a bottle of champagne and some chocolate covered strawberries. Thus starts the free stuff we hope continues when we tell everyon we’re on our honeymoon! WE’RE MARRIED! As Amy says, “can you believe us two kids are married?!?!”

On to the honeymoon (after polishing off some leftover chicken fingers sitting in the hotel fridge)…