The coolest part was that we are probably the world record holders for the
"Juggler's Arch". We had 4 sets of jugglers passing EIGHT CLUBS and two
Yo-Yo champs "Loop-the-Looping" at the end.
(1) Suzie "Condoized" Williams passed with Brad "Take it all off" French,
(2) Martin "Mr. Passing" Frost passed with Steve Gerdes,
(3) Craig "Mr. Couturier" Barnes passed with Ed "Mr. JugglePro" Carstens,
and
(4) The Passing Zone passed with themselves. Needless to say, Jenn and I
weren't the least bit nervous (except for Brad!).
Picture Caption:
Steven Salberg and Jennifer Aaronson exchange rings - pink and blue plastic
ones - as part of their wedding ceremony Thursday in the Fargo Civic
Memorial Auditorium during the International Jugglers Association Festival.
Story:
Those come later.
Instead, Steven Salberg and Jennifer Aaronson got married in Fargo's Civic Memorial Auditorium Thursday amid whooping and hollering jugglers and a ring bearer riding a unicycle.
The unicycle rider presented the couple with large pink and blue plastic rings, which they then juggled into each other's hands.
Despite being part of the fun of the International Jugglers Association Festival, the wedding did have its traditional elements.
The bride and groom were nervous, for instance.
In his room before the wedding, Salberg buttoned his tuxedo shirt, pulled on a black jacket and worried about forgetting something.
"I felt a little nervous this morning when I rewrote my vows for the eighth time," he said.
He claimed he wasn't nervous right before the wedding, but his mother said, "He's a wreck. You don't know that. He's an actor."
Waiting in the wings before walking down the aisle, Aaronson also denied any nerves and said she was having a great time.
But her father said she was worried - "more about having to juggle than getting married, I think."
Though the wedding was "strictly civil" according to Salberg, it did include traditional Jewish wedding vows.
Best man Perry Rubenfeld, chairman of the IJA board of directors, pronounced the words in Hebrew and explained to the audience the vows and the tradition of breaking a glass.
He also explained that the couple will wait to declare the vows and exchange real rings until their religious wedding Aug. 1 in New Jersey, before a rabbi, family and friends.
Like most weddings, this one brought tears to the eyes of onlookers, and the ceremony radiated emotion as Aaronson put aside her written vows and spoke from the heart.
Afterwards, the couple danced to traditional Jewish wedding music.
Gifts were exchanged, congratulations issued, hands shaken.
But these traditional elements didn't get the wedding in the newspaper.
Juggling did.
"Believe it or not, she's the one who suggested it," Salberg said. "even though I'm the hard-core juggler, she's definitely been bitten by the bug."
Salberg, a 35-year-old chiropractor who juggles as a hobby and has been a member of the IJA for six years, said Aaronson learned to juggle a year ago at the IJA Festival in Montreal.
A few months after Salberg proposed to Aaronson in January, "she said, 'Let's have some fun,'" and suggested getting married at the annual festival, he said.
Wearing his tuxedo jacket, a black cowboy hat, ("This is cowboy country," he said), blue and green patterned shorts, tennis shoes and white socks, Salberg began his vows by saying: "The first thing that I want to say to you, Jennifer, on this special day, is: 'Would you please sign this video waiver?'"
The ceremony included such departures from the wedding norm as a 6-year-old unicycle rider serving as the flower girl, a dancer twirling Chinese silk ribbons and an arc of juggling clubs kept aloft by eight IJA members.
The married couple walked under the arc, without getting hit, to conclude the ceremony.
Salberg's mother, Honey, said her son's method of marriage didn't surprise her at all.
He's prone to do "anything that's strange and unusual," she said.
It runs in the family. "We're very theater conscious," she said.
She is a travel agent who performs in regional theater. The bride's father, Robert, directs a regional theater and has his own radio talk show.
"We don't do anything normal. It's too boring," she said.
Carolyn Monzingo, the representative from the local Unitarian church who ministered the wedding, said she had ministered several outdoor weddings but "nothing this strange."
But despite the cheering crowd of jugglers, the flying clubs, the unicycles and the shorts, this wedding counted for the couple as much as any other wedding.
"This is legal," Aaronson said moments before walking down the aisle. "This
is for real."