Chapter 82

I don't think I had ever adequately expressed to Jeff how lucky I was to have found him. After I had failed to trust him, I promised myself to let him know how much I valued him.

There are traditional songs played while the bride walks down the aisle. At Jewish weddings the most common is Dodi Li, my beloved is mine. It continues and I am his. I would be saying that shortly.

I was pretty traditional and my family was traditional as well. To show Jeff how I felt about him, I decided to break with tradition. It would probably be more accurate to say I did not break with tradition, I smashed it to smithereens.

As we paused at the door, my father had that big, happy smile Jeff had insisted upon.

I saw Jeff waiting in the front of the room with a calm, serene smile. When the music started it changed to a huge, ebullient smile as he started swaying to the music. My father's smile turned to a look of shock. He forgot to walk with me when I started down the aisle to the intro to Believe it or Not, the theme from the television show The Greatest American Hero.

Like dominoes, the look of astonishment spread on the bride's side of the room. Like dominoes, the delighted smiles spread on the groom's side.

I walked very slowly down the aisle. I wanted to give the quartet adequate time to finish, a little over three minutes.

Just over a minute in I started to belt out the second verse:

"Just like the light of a new day, it hit me from out of the blue breaking me out of the spell I was in making all of my wishes come true."

I focused on Jeff as I sang it. He started laughing with a happy, loving expression on his face.

At the chorus he joined in, harmonizing. "Believe it or not I'm walking on air." That was followed immediately by all of his side joining in and a modest representation of mine as well.

As if it had been rehearsed, everyone else refrained from singing the bridge, but after "This is too good to be true," Jeff joined me singing, "look at me falling for you."

Most of the guests joined back in until the song was over. To my surprise, the string quartet had snuck in an electric guitar for the riff near the end.

When I reached Jeff, he engulfed me in his arms.

"You are absolutely amazing."

"Aw shucks."

"I'll be astonished if this doesn't wind up on YouTube," Jeff almost whispered.

The guests quieted down and the rabbi broke script.

"I've known Jeff for quite a while. I met Ashley more recently. I would not have been surprised if Jeff had pulled something like this. But, Ashley, I never imagined you would so delightfully set tradition on its ear.

"Jeff, I think you're in for quite a ride."

We stood under the chuppah, my parents to my left and Jeff's to his right.

"We have Jeff's grandmother, Hari, to thank for this bright, colorful design on the canopy. Her specialty is jewelry, but Hari is clearly an artist.

"As we stand here beneath the chuppah, you will notice its fragility. These poles are adequate to hold our canopy, but we have no illusion that this is a formidable structure. So are a marriage and home fragile structures. It takes a lot of work and attention to keep them vital and vibrant."

This was not the most important day of my life that brides obsessed over; the day I'm queen of the world. This was the continuation of an adventure that was more fun and more satisfying than I could ever have imagined.

It was steeped with tradition. I walked around Jeff three times as a symbol that he was the center of my life.

It backed off from tradition. With the modern approach, Jeff walked around me to symbolize that I was the center of his life. We walked the final circle around each other.

Some people believe that bad things happen in threes. We Jews are prone to doing things in sevens. As we made our seven circles, the rabbi recited the sheva brachot - the seven blessings.

The rabbi recited some Hebrew which Jeff repeated, which translates to "Behold, you are consecrated to me with this ring." Jeff then placed my ring on my right index finger, thought in biblical times to be closest to the heart.