When the Chuppah Becomes a Concert

ATthe risk of sounding like a curmudgeon (a grumpy old man, for the uninitiated)… here goes:

Ah… what can compare to a heimishe wedding! The attendees arrive first in a trickle and then in a stream. There is lively chatter and sampling of the shmorg delicacies. And then, watered and fed, the assembled gather for the highlight: the chuppah, that brief but powerful ceremony symbolizing the home the couple is about to build, steeped in generations of tradition and suffused with meaning.

But lately, dear reader, something curious has happened. The chuppah — once a moving, dignified, and relatively concise event — has begun to morph into something else entirely. It starts innocently enough: a heartfelt niggun, perhaps a soulful rendition of “Bo’i B’shalom,” before the chuppah… nu, nu… then the usual songs as the chassan and kallah walk down (the kids’ procession is no longer in vogue, thankfully), the kiddushin, kesubah reading, sheva brachos.

And then, a heartfelt melody… which continues. And continues. And continues.