A Sunday Kind of Love: Lift Me Up

(I feel like I'm always apologizing for the gap in my postings, hopefully this is the last apology.  Sorry I've been slacking on recap posts, prepping for Baby Lyre has taken over our lives with 4 weeks (maybe more, maybe less - let's hope for MORE!) until he arrives. My goal is to have these done before he gets here!) 

Mr. Ly and I had just finished our first dance, and the DJ seamlessly transitioned into the Horah.  Our bridal party, my side of the family and my friends immediately rushed up and circled around us, Mr. Ly's side of the family maybe had never done the Hora before or were a bit more hesitant, but they eventually joined the circle and kicked off our party in the traditional Jewish style.

All photos by Mike Landis Photographer

I am going to be 100% honest here.  I had some serious anxiety going into the horah.  Besides being a plus-sized bride to begin with (would they even be able to lift me??) I was now 3.5 months pregnant, and being jostled in a chair just didn't seem like the best idea.  I had kind of gotten over my fear of the plus sized issue, although I think it's a valid one.  I've seen some pretty beefy guys get lifted in their chairs, but still I was nervous about the weight being too much.  I tried to arrange it so that I had the strongest guys on my chair, and I tried to work that out with Mr. Ly before hand, but he didn't really seem to think it was a big deal and kept brushing it off.  Turns out it wasn't even an issue because I didn't last that long anyway!

Once I spoke to my DOC about it the week of our wedding, she reassured me that it was my call, we could do the chair or not, and no one would even notice it was missing. I felt a little better and was leaning more towards not doing it, but Mr. Ly REALLY wanted to do the chair. It was one of the things he was most looking forward to, and how could I deprive my new husband of that?  So I agreed, very hesitantly, to do the chair lifts.  I gave specific instructions to all the groomsmen that if they were on my chair, I was not to be bounced up and down, but just held up, and not too high (have I mentioned that besides my other worries, I also have a terrible fear of heights??), and when I say, "Put me down." they PUT ME DOWN.   As soon as my chair started to tip forward (which was maybe 30 seconds into it), I was done. Mr. Ly was up for a bit longer than me,  so the pictures are a bit uneven! I'm glad he got to experience it, and I'm glad I never have to again.

I was literally up and down in less than 30 seconds.  

The rest of the horah was great, and in hindsight, if we hadn't done the chair, I probably would have felt like we missed out on something.  No one got hurt and I managed to put aside my weighty-fears for just a moment (or a few seconds) to enjoy it.

 It was a great way to kick off the party, get our guests up and out of their seats, and having some fun.  

Anyone else suffer from "horah fears"  or any other traditions that maybe made you a little nervous??

I pre-capped our recaps with a big announcement!
Recaps began with our Same Day Edit video.
I needed to get some perspective the week of the wedding.
Personally brewed beers gave our rehearsal lunch a special touch!
I spent a fantastic last day as a Miss.
I shared some gifts for my bridesmaids. 
The girls spend an easy and relaxing morning getting made up.
The guys spent the morning building a chuppah and doing guy things.

I panicked when the morning went by too fast.

We exchanged lovely notes and gifts on the wedding morning.

I put on my dress and became a Blissful Bride.

Bridal details and my "somethings" rounded out the wedding morning.

We had our not-so-private first look.

We took some silly pictures, just the two of us.

Broad Street gave us gorgeous shots, but we nearly lost some of bridal party in traffic.

The Lyres and their huge bridal party storm the art museum, Rocky style.

I shed tears of pain at our final photo stop in Olde City

The ceremony space and details took our breath away when we arrived for a quick rehearsal.

We were officially married under Jewish law when we signed our Ketubah.

Guests were seated and the bridal party got our ceremony started.

I got a little emotional for my walk down the aisle.

We did not take our eyes off each other in our traditional Jewish ceremony.

Post-ceremony photos were taken with some special gender pictures for our surprise!

Our extra-long cocktail hour was full of delicious food and drinks, and a controversial ice-sculpture.

Our ceremony space was flipped into an elegant reception space with gorgeous details.

The bridal party made their entrance to some very viral video tunes. 

We danced our first dance as husband and wife.