Mazel Tov!
Big Jewish Weddings
Are Back in 2022
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
T he New York Times reported in February a pre-
diction from the trade group Wedding Report that
about 2.5 million weddings would “take place” this
year, a “bump not seen since 1984.”
Locally, rabbis and event managers are corroborating the
forecast. Weddings are back in 2022, they say.

But aside from the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the
lockdown period, weddings never really went away, accord-
ing to rabbis and event managers. Th ey just changed shape.

Philadelphia-area Jews held smaller celebrations, some-
times even micro aff airs with 10 or 12 people. Th ey also
hosted parties in diff erent locations than traditional ven-
ues, like backyards and public parks. Some gatherings still
crossed the 100-guest threshold but, in general, these major
life events were scaled down due to pandemic concerns.

In 2022, though, the standard big party is back, and it’s
back in full.

Samantha Foxwell, a coordinator at the Artesano Gallery
in Philadelphia, said, “We’re seeing 200-, 250-person wed-
dings.” Michelle Durinzi, the marketing director for Robert Ryan
Catering, which services three area venues, estimated that
the average 2022 wedding crowd is between 125 and 175
guests. Both ranges are larger than the planners saw in 2020 and
’21. “People are ready to party again,” Durinzi said.

And it’s not just crowd sizes that are standing out — it’s
the sheer amount of bookings that venues and caterers are
seeing. According to Foxwell, Artesano Gallery already has 43
events on its 2022 schedule. She mentioned that, “we’ve seen
a ton of inquiries for 2023 and 2024.”
Nancy Schwoebel, who runs catering sales for Catering by
Design, a company that serves event spaces in Bucks County,
on the Main Line and in Philadelphia, said, “people are
booking much more short-term than they were.” Between
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the short-term bookings and rollover
reservations from 2021, when many
couples postponed weddings, Catering
by Design has far more dates in 2022
than a year ago.

“People are very much eager to get
married,” Foxwell said.

And in the Jewish tradition, the cer-
emony is merely part one. The ensuing
party with the whole village is close to
a necessity in its own right.

Rabbi Aaron Gaber of Congregation
Brothers of Israel in Newtown said
“people are planning the follow-on
affair,” meaning they got married last
year and “now they’re going to cele-
brate.” “People are still getting married, and
people are still having fun,” he added.

Rabbi Nathan
Weiner of
Congregation Beth Tikvah in Marlton,
New Jersey, is noticing the same
trend in the COVID era — receptions
detached from ceremonies, and recep-
tions that are starting to happen now
for those ceremonies.

Such celebrations fulfill the desire to
party in full that the rabbi is seeing in
general right now. He is set to officiate
at two weddings this spring; both will
include “cocktail hours, schmoozing,
drinking, singing and dancing with
over 100 people,” he said.

Jewish spiritual leaders, quite natu-
rally, view this as a beautiful thing.

“You want to perform the mitzvah
of rejoicing with a wedding couple,”
Weiner said.

“People need joy and a source of resil-
ience,” added Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari of
Kol Tzedek in Philadelphia.

“Any couple getting married is a
great celebration and represents a new
beginning,” Gaber said. “Now that
we’re coming into the endemic, peo-
ple are looking for ways to celebrate
together.” But even as we enter what appears
to be the endemic, local Jews are still
taking a cautious approach to their
weddings. At the Artesano Gallery, couples still
ask event coordinators to “make sure
there’s space” for guests to maneu-
ver without getting too close to one
another. There are also still “tons of
couples who want smaller weddings,”
Foxwell said.

Durinzi mentioned similar trends
among Robert Ryan clients; over the
winter, couples mostly kept their
guest lists between 70 and 100 people
because their friends and family mem-
bers were concerned about the virus;
and there are still “a fair share” of peo-
ple who ask for weddings with between
12 and 40 loved ones in attendance,
though Robert Ryan doesn’t usually
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