It is just CL and I this week, because we wanted to give her a chance to speak this week (sorry, Rabbi).

Her oldest son got engaged a few weeks ago, there has already been an engagement party in Crown Heights and a second one on the West Coast, and the wedding is coming fast. So we thought people would be interested: what actually goes into planning a Chabad Hasidic wedding?

The answer starts with a phone call where you plan a huge party with people you have never met, and it only gets more interesting from there.

In this episode, we get into:

• Why dating stays a secret until the engagement is announced at the Rebbe’s grave, and why the whole thing takes weeks instead of years

• Who pays for what, the fifty fifty split, and the gifts each side is expected to give

• Takana weddings, the thirty thousand dollar all in package that makes sure every couple gets a beautiful wedding, and why the community treats that as everyone’s responsibility

• The seven days before the wedding when the bride and groom do not see or speak to each other, get escorted everywhere, and get treated like a king and a queen

• Fasting on your wedding day, why it is considered a mini Yom Kippur, and the Rosh Chodesh loophole

• The badeken, the completely opaque veil, and the moment the next morning when the bride covers her hair for the first time

• Sheva Brachos, a full week of parties, and why the wedding is really a celebration of the entire family

Come for the logistics, stay for ChayaLeah whispering under her own chuppah asking if anyone was even out there.