It's All Greek To Me

I went to a big, fat Greek wedding this weekend, and I now understand why they call them that (LOVED that movie, btw). I'd never been in a Greek Orthodox church before, or heard a Greek service performed. The church was beautiful, the walls covered with distinctive Byzantine-style iconography, like the picture at left. The service was VERY long, replete with rituals I'd never heard of before, like the "crowning" of both bride and group, and a formal processional around the altar three times. The priest actually sang most of the words to the service, which made it a bit hard to understand. Very opulent, very ritualistic, very long... very BIG. I estimated about 250 people were there.

There was also a moment where I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing - a lovely young woman began a solo of Ave Maria just before the wedding started. Not only did the organist make a mistake and start playing from the wrong piece of sheet music halfway through the song (causing the poor woman to have to start over), it seemed all the men in the audience were taken by a fit of coughing at the same time. So this nice young woman is trying to sing the gorgeously beautiful, spiritual song, and all you can hear is *cough, cough*, *wrong note*, *cough, cough*. None of the women were coughing, just the men - it was so odd it was funny. :)

The reception was very formal - the bride and groom were whisked off in a Rolls Royce for wedding pictures while everyone else drank and impatiently eyed the menu: filet mignon AND chicken stuffed with feta and cranberries. Best of luck to Tom and Stephanie, who are honeymooning in Spain, then taking a cruise around the Mediterranean. Opah!!