Oh, don’t mind us, we’re just crying happy tears into our afternoon coffee over this ridiculously charming New York Times video of three bubbes who were bridesmaids at their granddaughters’ weddings.
Yep, it’s the hot new old trend: grandma as the Maid of Honor. According to Ariel Meadow Stallings, the founder of Offbeat Bride, couples are increasingly seeking out non-traditional wedding roles for family members. “For a lot of couples and their families, there’s friction between the traditional role that families play in weddings and the couple’s concerns about where those traditions come from and the feeling that they don’t reflect their lives,” she explained.
Enter: the bubbe bridesmaid, the perfect role for grand dames not content with front-row seats at the chuppah.
Dorothy Shapiro, 95, says it was “one of the biggest honors that a grandmother could have. That she chose me! An old lady!” 88-year-old Lila Leblang, who runs an annuity sales firm and can do 40 push-ups (check out her reps at 00:12, solid), told the Times that granddaughter Jenny Illes Wood was sending ” a wonderful message… it’s O.K. to deal with people who are a little older than the typical bridesmaids.” And Sylvia Helfen, who was 89 at her granddaughter’s 2011 wedding, said with tears in her eyes, “It makes my heart feel good that she feels that close to me.”
Is there a word for grandchildren schepping nachas from their grandparents? Meta-nachas?
Image: Eric Stephenson Weddings (via New York Times YouTube)