The No Show Rabbi
Other Wedding Woes

The fallowing are all true tales — incidents
that have actually happened which
everyone would prefer to forget.

BY BARBARA PASH

Picking A Pattern

An engaged couple goes to a fancy
shop that specializes in fine china and
sterling silver flatware to pick out their
patterns. Accompanying them is the
mother of the bride-to-be. Rather than
being an enjoyable experience, the
couple gets into an argument over the
patterns each prefers. After the couple
decides to get a cup of coffee and cool
down, the embarrassed mother turns
to the owner of the shop, who has
been helping them, and asks if coup-
les often argue over patterns.
It happens more often than you'd
think, he replies. In the worst in-
stance, he continues, one couple got
into such a gigantic fight that it
resulted in their breaking off their
engagement. About a year later, the
shop owner recognized the man when
he came into the shop again, this time
with another woman, his "new" fian-
cee. They were there to pick out china
and silver together but the man had
obviously learned his lesson from his
previous experience. Sweeping his
attn Lowards the wall where the fine
china and silver was displayed, this
time he told his fiancee to "pick
whatever you want!"

The No-Show Rabbi

The bridal couple are graduate stu-
dents in the Washington, D.C., area.
Since they do not belong to a congre-
gation and therefore do not have their
"own" rabbi, months before the wed-
ding they contact and hire a local rabbi
to perform the wedding ceremony.
The wedding day arrives. At the ap-
pointed time, all the guests are assem-
bled, the caterer is warming the hors
d'oeuvres, and the bridal party is
primped and ready. The rabbi, how-

ever, is nowhere in sight. Phone calls
to his office and home fail to locate
him.
One of the wedding guests happens
to have the legal authority to perform
weddings in this jurisdiction, which he
does as a last minute replacement.
Later, it is ascertained that the rabbi
forgot to record the wedding date in
his appointment book. When the
couple returns from their honeymoon,
they have a quiet, private Jewish wed-
ding ceremony.

•

/1;1

24 Brides 1990

By J im Pa o s o n

•

•