London – Rabbis have praised plans for a new budget wedding service in Stamford Hill and expressed hope that it would extend across the community.
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Stamford Hill’s Rabbi Avraham Pinter welcomed Easy Chassene’s plans to organise kosher weddings for £5,200 — 10 times less than they current do.
“You shouldn’t have to go into debt when marrying off your children,” said Rabbi Pinter. “It should be a simcha, not a financial burden.”
Easy Chassene has been set up by Solomon Kliers, manager of Pardes Catering, and Moshe Weinstock. It was developed to “help make weddings more affordable”, said Mr Kliers.
Mr Kliers and Mr Weinstock have leased a local hall accommodating up to 350 guests. They will organise the catering, flowers, photographer and music themselves, making the low price tag possible.
Although based in Stamford Hill, Mr Kliers thought there was “potential for it to work in other places”, although at an extra cost for providing the hall. “We want to serve the whole community, anyone who wants it,” he said.
Rabbi Pinter said: “It is one of the greatest acts of kindness to help somebody make a wedding at a reasonable cost.”
He said lower-priced weddings “can still be beautiful and if there is extra money, it can be spent on building up the important things in life”.
Northwood Synagogue’s Rabbi Alan Plancey hoped that the plan “will snowball into other areas of the community”. Even if a family could afford it, “there is no need for simchas to be ostentatious”.
He welcomed the scheme as a way to “stop people saying we have to keep up with the Joneses. Across the community there are families with large numbers of children who find it hard to give the wedding that they would like to. People should be able to enjoy the wedding without worrying about the bill”. [thejc]
If the London price is really so low…, it pays to fly the family to England for the simcha! 🙂
In monsey the Viznitzer wedding hall is very affordable. The hall does not allow live flowers and the flowers by the Kabalos Panim – head table, and on the tables are rented from different gemachs where the money goes to a worthy cause (kollel, yeshiva…) A band is not allowed only 1 man band, and 1 singer – only those singers who agree to charge a certain agreed upon amount.
Although the Atrium and Ateres Charna are in the neighborhood people are not looked down for making a chasunah in Viznitz. (You aren’t regarded with more respect for making the chasunah in the other halls where the cost is usually between double and triple.
AKlezmer…
Nobody should starve c”v.
What this will accomplish is that it will arrest the obscene escallation of spending we are plagued by now.
Should such a plan ever work, the vendor will ultimately save loads
when he IY”H makes a simcha.
If we would only lower our standards and spending, in ALL AREAS, not only would the goyesha kin-ah be diminished, but we would be able to lead normal lives ‘uhn gedayget’. UVAU L’TZION B’RINAH
Let’s not forget that there are families on the other side of this equation also. families of vendors who service our simchas shouldn’t have to starve because of these takanos.
anon 4:06 said
they set guidelines which were too vague and specified what not to do, did not offer practical advice for the average family.
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That is patently untrue!
There were very clear guidelines set forth.
I can B”H afford to make a VERY nice wedding, but went along with the “Gedolim proscribed TAKONOS”.
It was KA”H a beautiful simcha.
The problem with those Takonos was that some (most) wealthy people, instead of being thoughtful and realizing that if they go along with the Takonos, they may save someone from a life of debt, strees, or C”V worse, applied such (KSIV) pressure, (KRI) $$$ to the Roshei Yeshiva that the solidarity among the Rabbonim cracked and the entire project fell apart.
Yyasher Koach and admiration must be expressed to the Novominsker Rebbe, Shlit”a who was not only the driving force behind this plan, but also ‘the last one standing’ from all the G’dolim.
Any attempt to control the wedding expenditures again will NEVER work until the wealthy realize that their selfish actions CHAS V’SHALOM CAN AND WILL kill someone.
Thank you for listening.
1:41, they set guidelines which were too vague and specified what not to do, did not offer practical advice for the average family.
I think that this plan will take hold only when people who can obviously afford a lavish wedding abide by this ruling and scale back-then when the “common folk” spend less,it won’t be looked down upon. Human nature ……
The issue is that in the warped mind of some young couples, more guests=more gifts. Papa pays for the Chasaneh, gifts usually fo to the couple. It is zeh nehneh and zeh who cares what. What I am pointing out is a shortcoming in chinuch and midos. The rebbeim are indeed often a part of the problem because their Yeshivas depend on Bochrim coming and continuing. They are brainwashed to think this is the right approach.
A couple of years ago, didn’t the gedolim address this issue by setting out new guidelines for more modest weddings, including a top limit of 400 people in attendence?
From the looks of things, nobody was paying very much attention, and if anything, the problem has gotten worse, with even more gashmiosdik weddings costing upwards of $50-60k, lavish gifts for both the choson and kallah, even vorts that now cost $10G or more, about the price that the whole wedding itself used to cost.
What is it — do frum people obey the gedolim when they ban something the frum people don’t like anyway, like TV or the internet, so they can brag about how pious they are for doing so — but when it comes to a ruling that would keep them from showing off how successful they are and “one-upping” everyone else, they ignore it and do whatever they please, as if the great rabbis had never spoken?
12:49 – why the cynicism? This is a fantastic idea that would benefit many of us. And what if they DO deal with specific vendors, they obviously will shop around for the best deals, and those vendors who offer the best deals, DO deserve the business. Thats the whole point of this, no? To offer baalei simcha a manner in which to make their simcha without robbing a bank/having a heart attack. Kol Hakovod to the people working hard on arranging and implementing this concept.
do specific bands, florists and photographers have a monopoly on these events? makes me think……
the sooner the better
KOL HAKOVOD
THIS IS A VERY ADMIRABLE CONCEPT
LETS SEE ALL THE JEWISH COMMUNITIES IMPLEMENT THIS
Would love to see this plan take effect in Brooklyn too. Hatzlocha in implementing it.
Kol ha’kavod! Hope it works in an honorable manner, thus encouraging more people to take part.