Today was the big day. Lily left the AirBnB in the morning and joined up with the rest of the bridal party to get ready.
I left the AirBnB shortly after Lily, delivering a Starbucks order for the bridal party before going off and doing a little shopping. I traveled back to Central London, stopping by a Uniqlo for a long sleeve shirt and two different Muji stores looking for a moisturizing cream that Lily wanted.
In the afternoon, I cleaned up, suited up, and headed to the wedding venue, Islington Assembly Hall.
The venue was pretty cool. Josh and Beckie “found” the place after attending a concert there. The setup there is similar to that of St. Andrew’s Hall in Detroit, for those that are familiar with the place: a stage up front, standing room on a wide open floor in front of the stage, with a balcony at the back and up top for a higher up vantage point. And of course, the bar along the side of the main lower floor. Naturally, this place is properly posh.
It was a very intimate Jewish wedding. The ceremony was quite wonderful. There were songs, there were poems, and there was dancing.
While the ceremony setup and seating was cleared from the main floor and replaced with tables and chairs for the evening meal, we guests mingled in the venue hallway with champagne glasses in hand and a steady stream of appetites flowing in and out of the crowd.
Finally, it was time for dinner. It was a Lebanese meal served family style at each of the tables. I somehow was seated on the head table despite not being in the wedding party or having done any real work for the wedding. I got to meet the other bridesmaids and the meal and the wedding cake was delicious.
Once the meal was over, the tables at the front of three floor near the stage were cleared and stowed away, and the curtains on the stage drew open to reveal a Jewish band consisting of a fiddle, two drummers, a clarinet, a saxophone, a bass guitar, and last but not least, a musician that alternated between the accordion and the bagpipes. They played two sets, and it was a rollicking good time.
I had hoped to keep partying until the 11:30pm “Exit and Carriages” portion of the night’s program, a delightfully British way of telling people to go home, but Lily and I ran out of energy as 10pm approached. I insisted on taking a group selfie with Josh and Beckie before we left, and we headed back to our AirBnB with an Uber.