Package of Joy

In Israel there’s a famous joke — if you hear an ambulance siren, you say “Mazel Tov,” because either someone’s having a baby or someone’s marrying off a child. But does making a wedding really have to give the mechutan a heart attack? Today, many families are opting for packages that won’t wipe them out

“I would say that 80 percent of Lakewood opts for takanah weddings today,” says Shloimy Friedman of Lakewood, New Jersey. “Even people who could afford a very lavish affair will make a takanah wedding, in order to help set the tone and convey the message that there is nothing to be ashamed of in making a modest simchah. These wealthy families may go on to spend triple the cost of their chasunah on Shabbos sheva brachos, when the participants are more limited and private; it’s about helping set boundaries for the night of the wedding. Lakewood has become such an attraction for baalei simchah that people come from other cities to make a chasunah here.”

In Montreal, the difference between the takanah plan and the standard prices is significant. “Ninety percent of people use our wedding plan, which ranges from $13,000 to $19,000,” says Mrs. Ettie Oberlander, who runs a takanah package called “The Royal Wedding Plan.” “One person who didn’t enlist us told me her wedding cost exactly double that of our higher-end plan.”

The package covers what Mrs. Oberlander describes as a very balabatish affair and, since being introduced, it has brought down the general standards of weddings in Montreal so that things have become much simpler.