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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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