{"id":12598,"date":"2012-04-23T01:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-23T08:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theweddingyentas.com\/?p=12598"},"modified":"2012-04-17T10:49:46","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T17:49:46","slug":"12598","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.bryanfriedman.me\/yentas\/inside-scoop\/12598","title":{"rendered":"Tales From The Veil: Learning From Other Weddings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Another “Tales from the Veil” story is brought to us by Rachel Kitt who is the Executive Assistant at the Jewish Federation of San Diego County. She loves to run competitively and for pleasure, bake gluten-free sweets, and hang out with her hubby, a San Diego attorney. After eloping to the island of Oahu in December of 2007, Rachel finds herself looking back on her Jewish destination wedding adventure and laughing out loud. Her story will show you how any bride can take wedding disasters and turn them into wedded bliss. Lemons into lemonade. Grapes into Manischewitz. We’ll be hearing more from Rachel as a regular contributor to The Wedding Yentas.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Once upon a time, your first girlfriend got engaged and you were, shall we say, hmmmmm, a tad jealous. Not jealous, like, you are angry with her. But more like, seriously, why can\u2019t the boyfriend hurry up and propose so you could be the one in her shoes. We may not admit it out loud, but we’ve been there. Anyway, you sucked it up (or drank some wine) and a year or so later, you went to your friend’s happy occasion. You thought, \u201cthe flowers are so pretty\u201d and \u201cwow, look at her dress.\u201d Maybe you were thinking, \u201cyikes, I wish the food tasted better.\u201d But mostly, you thought about how beautiful it all was. How happy you were for your girlfriend! And then with each friend’s wedding, the cycle continued and continued and continued.<\/p>\n

Until the day you got engaged.<\/p>\n

The day you get engaged definitely changed your life, but you also began to see weddings you attended in a whole new light. Instead of \u201cwow, she looks beautiful!\u201d you started thinking \u201chmmmm, that looks good, but maybe I’ll do looser curls.\u201d When you saw the bridesmaids, you thought \u201cooh, knee length looks less formal! I like that!\u201d or \u201cdo I want a black-tie wedding?\u201d <\/p>\n

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Me as a bridesmaid with my sister-in-law at her and my brother's wedding.<\/p><\/div>\n

What I\u2019m trying to say is that your weddings of your friends and family will be more than just their special day: it will be a walk-through for you. A mini trial. It\u2019s a free and safe test run. You need to not only enjoy the festivities, but take note of what you liked and didn\u2019t like. <\/p>\n

When I was engaged, I actually would go home after a wedding and write down what I liked and didn\u2019t like. You know, it\u2019s almost like a real, live (but private) Pinterest. It\u2019s not a critique on your friend\u2019s wedding, or anything personal about her. It\u2019s not about your friends, the bride and groom, at all, actually. It\u2019s about you getting real world experience from a guest\u2019s perspective with a bridal point of view. You may have never thought twice \u2014 or even once! \u2014 about the difference between passed hors d\u2019 oeuvres versus an appetizer station. Food was food and you were eating it. But now, with a wedding to plan, you are thinking more about these very decisions you\u2019ll have to make yourself. <\/p>\n

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My husband and I with our friends Lindsey and Jody at their beautiful wedding in 2010.<\/p><\/div>\n

So go in there with an agenda. Borrow your friend\u2019s experience. And when your wedding day comes, hopefully you won\u2019t realize it, but rest assured that as you are walking down the aisle, at least one of your girlfriends will probably be looking around and thinking, \u201cI love the flowers she chose!\u201d or \u201cWow, natural looking make-up is the way to go!\u201d<\/p>\n

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