OH WHAT A WEDDING.....

There were 8,000 guests, not including those peering down from the rooftops with high powered zoom cameras. The police closed the streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to allow for a Chasana, or extravagant wedding, and afterward the crowds squeezed so tightly into the reception hall that several people collapsed from cologne overdose.
If the wedding of Haim Zilberberg and Sara Raizel Gordstein lacked the simple charm of a small ceremony, it made up for it in gaudiness and extravagance. . To many local Jews, the couple's marriage this week was an actual royal wedding of Brooklyn.
''It's a perfect match,'' said Rabbi Israel Gold- Silver, a “friend” of both families. ''There's a boy. There's a girl. He comes from a rich family. She comes from a rich family. It brings the Crème de la crème together.''
Known for its ethnic neighborhoods and unpretentious, in-your-face temperament, Brooklyn might seem like a shallow pool for blue blood. But to the ultra-Orthodox Jews who arrived from Europe, Brooklyn is the place of their third home. This week's wedding joined two children of the leaders of the largest land owners in the Tri-state area, a union that to many symbolized the merger of a real estate conglomerate.
''These are the two biggest dynasties in the Jewish world,'' said Schabse Shabbosberg, an employee with the Zilberberg Corp (and unofficial exaggerator of the decade). ''You connect each other. Both of these groups are people who can appreciate the others cash flow.''
Typically reserved and wary of the modern world, the jewish families do enjoy big weddings. The ceremony on Tuesday all but paralyzed Williamsburg, as thousands of residents streamed onto Bedford Avenue and Ross Street to witness the vows in a celebration that began at 4 P.M. (with a smorgasbord that included over 70 types of meat and sausages from around the world) and ended in the early morning hours (with a Viennese table that included over 70 types of meat and sausages from around the world). Police officials estimated the crowd at 8,000, but Shabbosberg put the figure as high as 200,000. At the reception, guests filled three potato sacks and an abandoned grocery shopping cart with personal checks. ''I would say there were about 98,000 or 126,000 gifts,'' Mr. Shabbosberg said. “It could be that somebody gave $5 or $5,000. That's what the new couple will be doing the first week of their new life: making deposits.''
''It was an historic event,'' said Moshe Weissenheimer, who attended the ceremony (without an invitation). ''People were waiting for this event. People came from Israel, London, Haiti, Belgium, Switzerland and Paris. They came from all over the world and I was glad to be a part of it’’.