My Israeli wedding experience

Last night I went to my first Israeli wedding. One of our city coordinators, Kineret, got married and invited everyone from the program. So between sleeping and watching movies, I'm now mustering up the energy to blog about it. There are a few reasons why I'm a complete waste of space today. I danced like a crazy person all night in 4 inch heels (with an impending stress fracture on my foot. No running for 3 weeks. Doctor's orders.) I ate entirely too much delicious food. And we may have taken advantage of the open bar. It was hard not to! Every time we turned around, the bartenders had poured a new round of shots. And did you know at Israeli weddings they have shot carts? Like an actual cart holding over a hundred shots that some guy wheels out into the middle of the dance floor, and this happened multiple times throughout the night. People went nuts over it. Israelis love shots.

But that's not the point. The wedding was beautiful. To get there, we all rented a sherut to transport us to the wedding hall, which was in the middle nowhere. The decor was pretty awesome; neon pink and blue lights. Very disco. The ceremony was very short and to the point, which was nice, and it was also held during the cocktail hour! When we got to the wedding, there were drinks and hors d'oeuvres being served. They had everything from sushi and Asian noodles with egg roles to falafel with hummus, eggplant and chickpeas. Delicious. Then, someone made an announcement and suddenly the ceremony was happening. The crowd split and created a sort of aisle that led to the chuppah, which was elevated on a stage at one end of the room. Kineret walked down the aisle with her parents, and was then followed by Todd, the groom. There was no bridal party, no flower girls, it was all very simple; in Israel the emphasis is definitely on the party. As soon as the ceremony was over, we all found our tables and Kineret and Todd danced to the first song. Then, the dance music started immediately and everyone was on the floor, which is how the party continued for the rest of the night. We took a brief break to eat dinner, which was definitely rushed, and then we were right back out on the dance floor. We had so much fun that I lost my camera. I found the pictures that I have now on Facebook. I'll post more as soon as I a) find my camera or b) get pictures from someone else.

The happy couple and some mood lighting.

Some highlights from the night:
Israeli dancing. I love the way that Israelis dance. They throw their hands up in the air and swing them around. It's hard to explain, but it's so Israeli and so awesome. The best part is my roommate Uri, who was born in Israel but grew up in Canada. His inner Israeli seriously comes out when we're all dancing. It's hilarious and amazing.

Partying with Momo. Never in my life did I think I'd ever be at a wedding with Momo. Dancing, singing and drinking with him is such a rare occurrence that I feel like it's equivalent to spotting some endangered animal out in the wild or something.  Mission accomplished- I can now cross "partying with Momo" off my bucket list.

Good times with friends. You knew it would happen- all of my blog posts get cheesy at some point. It's like an episode of Full House- it will inevitably end with one of the girls taking a seat on Danny Tanner's knee and learning the moral of the episode while sappy music plays in the background. Our time here is now more than halfway over. These next two months are going to fly by, and soon we'll all be going home and I won't have the pleasure of seeing these fine people every day. My friends here are awesome and I am so lucky to have spent such a great night surrounded by people that I love.

John Stamos. OK, he has nothing to do with the wedding, but stumbling across this video while scouring YouTube for cheesy Danny Tanner moments definitely counts as a highlight of this overall experience. Enjoy.