Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Why are you Googling veils instead of putting in grades?

Recently people have begun asking me how I plan to do my hair, if I am going to wear a veil...etc.. I honestly hadn't given the veil thing much thought because I have been so concerned about the reception (catering).
Since I didn't even really know what the symbolism of the veil is, I did what anyone does when they don't know something: I looked on Wikipedia...

The following contains exerpts from the Wikipedia Pages on Veils, Wedding section:

An occasion on which a Western woman is likely to wear a veil is on her white wedding day. Brides once used to wear their hair flowing down their back at their wedding to symbolise their virginity. . .Often in modern weddings, the ceremony of removing a face veil after the wedding to present the groom with a virgin bride is skipped, . . .the bride either wears no face veil, or it is lifted before the ceremony begins, but this is not always the case. . . It is not altogether clear that the wedding veil is a non-religious use of this item, since weddings have almost always had religious underpinnings, especially in the West. Veils, however, had been used in the West for weddings long before this. Roman brides, for instance, wore an intensely flame-colored and fulsome veil, called the flammeum, apparently intended to protect the bride from evil spirits on her wedding day. . .
 The tradition of a veiled bride's face continues even today wherein, a virgin bride, especially in Christian or Jewish culture, enters the marriage ritual with a veiled face and head, and remains fully veiled, both head and face, until the ceremony concludes.
The lifting of the veil was often a part of ancient wedding ritual, symbolising the groom taking possession of the wife, either as lover or as property, or the revelation of the bride by her parents to the groom for his approval.
 
In Judaism, the tradition of wearing a veil dates back to biblical times. According to the Torah in Genesis 24:65, Isaac is brought Rebekah to marry by his father Abraham's servant. It is important to note that Rebekah did not veil herself when traveling with her lady attendants and Abraham's servant and his men to meet Isaac, but she only did so when Isaac was approaching. Just before the wedding ceremony the badeken or bedeken is held. The groom places the veil over the bride's face, and either he or the officiating Rabbi gives her a blessing. The veil stays on her face until just before the end of the wedding ceremony - when they are legally married according to Jewish law - then the groom helps lift the veil from off her face.
The most often cited interpretation for the badeken is that, according to Genesis 29, when Jacob went to marry Rachel, his father in law Laban tricked him into marrying Leah, Rachel's older and homlier sister. Many say that the veiling ceremony takes place to make sure that the groom is marrying the right bride! Some say that as the groom places the veil over his bride, he makes an implicit promise to clothe and protect her. Finally, by covering her face, the groom recognizes that he his marrying the bride for her inner beauty; while looks will fade with time, his love will be everlasting. In some ultra-orthodox traditions the bride wears an opaque veil as she is escorted down the aisle to meet her groom. This shows her complete willingness to enter into the marriage and her absolute trust that she is marrying the right man. In Judaism, a wedding is not considered valid unless the bride willingly consents to it.

At any rate... all of a sudden I am taking this decision more seriously. I am looking into the Shorter length bubble style ala:



That way Mike can be sure he's marying me, and not my homely older sister...


Worst Cake Tasting Ever...

Satuday March 3:

Awkwardness of British proportion ensued on this bleak and dreary Satuday morning. We arrived at a certain Laskin Road Bakery (that shall remain nameless) prepared to be wowed by cake ideas and pizazz.

I should have known better because the day started out by my mother taking picture of me and Mike, which were not very good, promtping Mike to say, loudly, "I look like a [slur for special needs people]." This maybe wouldn't be so bad, if the Bakery weren't partially staffed...by special needs adults.

Moving on, however, we tried to shake off the imminent awkardness, but couldn't because we were forced to wait a good 15 minutes past our scheduled conference with the cake lady.

When she finally graced us with her (smile-less) presence we were abruptly forced into a small room with Dummy cakes. The room itself was a dull shade of off white, and it smelled of water damage and stale frosting. On the table were two notebooks full of Google-produced wedding cake images and some scrap paper to take notes on.

We were left in that room for a good 5 minutes to peruse the completely unhelpful suggestion books, and we began to wonder if this endeavor was doomed from the start. The woman did return with cake of the vanilla, chocolate, almond and lemon varieties, and then left the room again...

Nothing was terribly impressive, and we were about to leave when the woman asked if we wanted any other flavors... Being that we would prefer a red velvet caked I requested that, and she returned with a fresh one. It was awesome, the first good thing to come out of this whole encounter...

but then came the money talks.
Between up charging for red velvet, upcharging for cream cheese, upcharging for decorations and a $200 Sunday Delivery Fee, we were looking at a $900 cake, from a terribly unprofessional wedding tasting.

We left that day with our dignity, a sugar buzz, and a resolution to try more tasting.