Jewish wedding help

I've seen a glass not break. He just tried again and got some chuckles out of the guests. I don't think it was embarrassing.

I had FH do a trial run with the glass

*not Jewish and haven't attended one unless you'd count Fiddler On The Roof* but could you score the glass before putting it in the bag? Just to kind of weaken it a bit?

I used one of those decorative glasses from Israel. We were actually in the sand so he did have to step twice. No biggie at all.

Not a hora fan so IMO the hora is always too long. We skipped it.

I've never had a glass not break; he should aim to hit it with his heel. If you're buying a special one, they feel heavy but they are meant to break. If you're not, buy a fine, thin crystal glass and you'll have no problems.

Hora; 3-5 minutes.

We're breaking a light bulb - it gives the pop people are hoping to hear (at least that's what I've been told)

I'm scared of the hora - I'm not Jewish but FH is, and that's the one thing I'm not thrilled about doing at all - but it's important to him

@Linds We did a lightbulb! Worked great. Was easy to break (without practice) and made that nice sound.

They have special glasses, also special plates if you do that tradition too. But you can get a special glass they make for weddings... some people make art with it. I've seen on Etsy a lot of artists make custom mezuzahs with wedding glass. They're gorgeous.

This sounds like an urban legend, but this actually happened at my good friends wedding and I was there to witness it. They chose a random glass that they thought would break. Turns out it was too thick and it cut up through the heel of the grooms dress shoe and into his foot. He took off his shoe and it was filled with blood. He had to go to the hospital directly from the ceremony and received 6 stitches. They hopped him up on pain killers and he was only an hour late to the reception and still managed to limp through their choreographer-ed first dance. My only advice to you is make sure you get the right kind of glass!!!!

@samtoine-haha, it's a start! And I thought about doing that...

@celia-I'm guessing you've seen one or two, so I really appreciate the answer!

@kmess-great...now I'm worried about that! That does sound too crazy to be true. How thick were the heels?!

@tallah-that's exactly what I want. There are some really beautiful ones out there.

@linds-nothing to be scared of! It's just glorified running around in a circle. If you're worried about the chair lifting, just make sure there are real chairs available, not folding, and even ask for arm chairs if possible. I mentioned I was nervous and my brother said "I was just in a wedding and we dropped the bride. She was fine". I was like, gee, thanks, so unhelpful! But I've been to at least a few Jewish weddings and a LOT of bar and at mitzvahs and I've never seen anyone dropped.

For you @linds-

I'm nervous about the chair - FH's family isn't the most thoughtful during things like this... they almost bashed FSIL into the ceiling at their wedding, luckily we have a much taller ceiling so I'm safe there. My dress is pretty big, and it's tulle - which makes me think I'll slide right off!

FH said he would try to find me a chair with arms - but I haven't seen it yet!

Oh no! Well that's very sweet of him. If you can get arms it's a LOT harder to fall. Plus you can grab on for dear life.

Our officiant recommended to us that we search online for glasses that are specifically made for this purpose--they come in the nice bags and are easily breakable!

FH is not Jewish so we are keeping the hora short. No more than the duration of an ordinary song

Ok, good to know the made-for-this thing being reinforced. It just seemed on the thick side. Thanks everyone!

Talk to your DJ about their hora medley. I've never actually timed it (but I'm going to a wedding next week so I'll try to remember). There are a few songs typically included in the sequence: Hava Nagila, Mayim Mayim, Siman Tov v Mazel Tov, etc.

Now I'm in the mood to dance, lol.

I was warned about being mindful of the glass I get for my ceremony to try to avoid it not breaking. It's bad luck not to break. So I found this: http://www.judaica.com/wedding/wedding-breaking-glass-and-keepsakes.html

They also have a mezuzah in which you can later take those broken pieces of glass...put them in there and have that as a keepsake.

If the glass doesn't break the first time, so what?! Stomp on it again! I've been to weddings where it didn't break the first time; no one looks down on our makes fun of the groom for not breaking it. It's a laughable moment

I love the Hora!! It's so much fun We did that at my wedding... I can't remember how long it lasted, but definitely quite a few minutes. It always makes me sad too, when it's short! Find a long version and send that to your DJ (or discuss it with him and make sure he knows you want it to go long). My husband's family is not Jewish and I didn't know what they'd think of it or if they'd participate. They LOVED it! There might have been more non-Jewish people dancing and loving it than Jewish people doing it at our wedding, haha