Asher G

Please take a glance at our wedding link below at theknot  for information on our wedding, reception, and information unique to our wedding.

Wedding Link

JUST A FEW UNIQUE ASPECTS AND CHALLENGES TO OUR WEDDING

1 Saturday wedding.  In planning the date for our wedding our main hope was to make it as easy as possible for our friends and relatives to attend. With out of town travel, work and work schedules it seemed Saturday was the best day.

2 Saturday night 7:30 pm? All forms of creative work (cooking, setting up the floral decorations, chuppah, etc) are prohibited on the Sabbath. The timing of the ceremony would therefor commence after Shabbat's end.  Sabbath begins Friday sundown and continues until a bit after the onset of Saturday night. 7:30 pm gives a little time for the preparation of the ceremony, and the 17th of December was one of the shortest Sabbaths (6:15pm) of the year.

3 Catering. The most stress from this requirement is on our caterer.  We are greatly appreciative to the staff of Abuso Catering Company for taking on this challenge. They will initially need to work in a kosher kitchen - we are grateful to UOS for making these arrangements possible. Because of the Sabbath restrictions, food preparations for our event can only take place prior to Friday afternoon at which time all food is refrigerated, locked and all clean up completed. They can only again have access to the food after 6:15 Saturday to complete preparations, cooking, transport and presentation of the food in the museum. These odd time requirements place significant pressure on Abuso Catering. They also make significant impacts on the types of foods we can realistically present and the types of cooking involved in their presentation. We have chosen, with Abuso Catering and The Houston Kashruth Association, a menu which we hope offers an excellent variety. Had we chosen any other day of the week for the wedding our menu could have included practically any variety of foods.

4 The Houston Kashruth Association.  This is the kosher supervising agency involved in every aspect from food prep to food service. They insure that all ingredients utilized meet kosher standards, and directly observe all food prep, cooking, and serving to answer questions, and insure maintenance of kosher standards.

5 Decorations and Floral Arrangements.  To a somewhat lesser degree the decoration of the synagogue for the ceremony is a time pressured event.  We are deeply appreciative of Abraham Hakakian, owner of Plants ‘N Petals, for his help. He will transport and store all the decorations, Chuppah, and floral arrangements to the synagogue before the onset of the Sabbath on Friday. and only after the end of the Sabbath on Saturday evening will he be able to convert the sanctuary from a communal prayer setting to the wedding venue, and place all decorations including floral decorations and Chuppah (wedding canopy). All this and be ready for guests filtering in for a 7:30pm start to the wedding ceremony.

6 Late Dinner. By now you understand why the cocktail hour and dinner to follow start so late at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. WE ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO HAVE AN AFTERNOON SNACK OR MEAL SO THAT YOUR HUNGER WONT BECOME UNBEARABLE BY THIS LATE DINNER. ESPECIALLY FOR ANY OF YOUR CHILDREN YOU PLAN TO BRING.

7 FOR THOSE OBSERVING, BE AWARE THAT THE MEAL IS CONSIDERED DAIRY AS REGARDS KOSHER DIETARY LAWS.

We hope these few paragraphs help you appreciate the effort everyone has taken to conduct our ceremony on this date. 

Abba & Imma