A New York Wedding

Friday, May 24 and Saturday, May 25 we were able to help our nephew, Eric Kleinbub, celebrate his marriage to Zoe Zaitzeff. Everything was just beautiful and went off without a hitch, in spite of the rainy weather - never a real downpour, just enough precipitation to be annoying.

Amine, Amanda, Christian & Suzanne Kleinbub, Fr. Al

On Friday we joined Zoe's family at her sister's apartment for a family dinner planned and prepared by Zoe, her mother and her sister, Natasha. It was very interesting to be in an apartment in New York City. The building is on 92nd St. and Broadway. It is an older building with a large entrance foyer with marble, stone floors, and a beautiful stained glass skylight. We went to the 12th floor to their large apartment with views of the city. We met Zoe's mother and father, her 2 brothers with wives, 1 baby and 1 on the way, her sister and her 2 children, and several guests. Angel & Fred, Christian and his fiance, Amanda, were there to represent the Kleinbubs (and, of course, Eric and Zoe). After several toasts and conversation we sat down at a long table loaded with a huge variety of foods - salads, ham, beef, lamb pilaff, breads and cheeses, and various sauces and condiments. Amine (Zoe's mother) explained that this was a typical Russian feast - a vast variety of food served all at once at room temperature- sort of a family style buffet. In Russia people have shots of vodka along with the food - but we didn't do that! It was topped off with two kinds of cake.

Bridie and Don Kleinbub, May 25, 2013

Linda and Konrad Kleinbub, May 25, 2013

Natasha Zaitzeff, Zoe & Eric Kleinbub, Christian Kleinbub, Angel Kleinbub

The next day, Saturday, was the wedding. Don's cousins - Bridie, Konrad, and Linda Kleinbub - who live in Queens - joined us for brunch at a restaurant near our hotel. We had a nice visit with them and then we all headed off to the church of St. Ignatius Loyola on Park Avenue for the 3:30 p.m. wedding. The church was quite spectacular. It was built by the Jesuits in 1898. It is filled with marble, stained glass, statues, and other popular decorative elements. Eric and his twin brother, Christian, were dressed in matching tuxes. They proudly watched as the parents walked in, the ring bearer came down with his tray of rings, the two sweet flower girls came in with their bouquets of lilacs, Natasha walked down the aisle with her bouquet of peonies, and then the beautiful bride in her gorgeous white, lace gown walked in on the arm of her father. The priest, Eric and Zoe's friend from San Francisco, led us in a lovely, simple wedding ceremony. The cantor had a perfect voice and the organ music was very powerful.

Fred, Zoe, & Christian Kleinbub, Amanda, Father Al, Angel & Eric Kleinbub

After the ceremony most of us headed off for a gourmet dinner at a French restaurant, La Grenouille. I couldn't even begin to tell you the names of all that we had to eat - but it was all wonderful - from the 4 kinds of hors d'oeuvre (including oysters), the soup, salad, appetizer, lamb chops, ice cream cake, to the cookies and nuts (I'm sure that I left something out). Yum, yum! So we left the bride and groom to go off to their hotel room at the Carlisle, the parents to return to their suddenly quieter homes, and Don and me to return to our hotel.