Love Is Where We Are: Hora

As I've mentioned before, Mr. Lion and I had an interfaith, nontraditional wedding. It wasn't very religious, but we wanted to incorporate elements from each of our cultures into our big day. One way I wanted to nod towards my Jewish heritage was by dancing the Hora during our wedding reception.

My mom's side of the family is Jewish, but not many of them had traditional Jewish weddings. In fact, our wedding was the first time I had ever participated in the Hora. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Allow me to now speak from my very recent experience: the Hora is a lot scarier than I expected!

Yep, I look a little scared.

I felt very relieved to be placed back on safe land. I think Mr. Lion's face perfectly summed up my feelings at this point:

And then these crazy kids kept on dancing!

Here are a few more tokens of unsolicited advice regarding the Hora:

• The Hora is very difficult to photograph, even for the most experienced photographer. I think our pictures came out pretty good, but I've seen some really blurry ones. Talk with your photographer about this beforehand so that they're prepared. I think ours really appreciated the heads-up because he had never shot one before!
• Don't feel obligated to participate for the entire song. In fact, I'd go as far as to ask your DJ or band to play an abbreviated version of Hava Nagila. It was fun and I loved it, but I believe I asked our friends to put us down after a couple of minutes!
• USE CHAIRS WITH ARMRESTS. I cannot reiterate this enough! Our DJ placed two dining chairs on the dance floor, and we really would have sat in them if our day-of coordinator hadn't swapped them out at the last second. I'm glad we had something stable to grab on to; it's a bumpy ride!

Are any of you Jewish brides out there planning on doing the Hora?

Catch up on the Lioness recaps here!

• First, we got ready at my apartment.
• Then, we finished getting ready at the venue.
• The boys got ready and posed for pictures.
• We exchanged gifts.
• The girls posed for pictures.
• I admired every little detail.
• We walked down the aisle.
• We got married.
• We had some alone time.
• We posed for photos with family.
• We posed for photos together.
• Of course, we took a few goofy pictures.
• We had our first dance.
• I danced with my dad, and Mr. Lion danced with his mom.
• We cut the cake.
• We toasted to love.
• We mingled through the dollar dance.
• My sorority sisters carried out one of my favorite traditions.
• We got down on the dance floor.
• The boys decorated our getaway car.
• I tossed my bouquet(s).
• Mr. Lion tossed my garter (and scarred someone for life in the process).

*All photos by H. Photography unless otherwise noted.