Russian Jewish Weddings Rock

The ceremony was lovely and the reception was awesome. We were among the few non-Russians in attendance, and the Russians at our table were very nice about explaining everything to us.

The tables for the reception were overflowing with hors d'oeuvres when we arrived. But I didn't recognize anything on the table--except for shrimp and caviar, and I don't care for seafood. I am not an adventurous eater, so I picked to most innocuous looking thing to start off with. It turned out to be beef tongue. I have never been so happy as when the bread basket finally arrived.

And every table had its own (big) bottle of vodka. And cognac. And wine. And shot glasses for toasts. (Trivia tidbit: Russians chase their vodka with pickles. I actually liked the pickle chaser.)

And there were lots of vodka toasts. The Russians kept telling us that us that we did not have to try to keep up with them. And I made the fatal mistake of taking that as a challenge.

Most of the toasts were in Russian and the wedding singer spoke in Russian about half the time, and sang in Russian 90% of the time.

I think the highlight was finally getting to do the Hava Nagila.

We had a great time--right up until I started seeing double. Yes, literally. I told DH that I needed to go back to the room--and that was a perfectly timed exit.

Turns out, I can't keep up with Russians and their vodka toasts. I'm horrified that I got so smashed. I'm a little too old for drinking to excess. And now I'm paying for it with the second hangover in my 35 years. (Children, both of my two hangovers were created in controlled situations where neither me nor my companions would be driving at all.)

So I totally feel like crap today, but it was hands down, the most fun wedding I have ever attended. If you ever have the opportunity to attend a Russian wedding, I highly recommend it--but if you're not Russian, don't even try to keep up with the vodka toasts.