Nov 3, 2020 WOW meetings workshop

For this month's workshop, we also chose a theme:  "A Live Moment of Mock Wedding via zoom" 

The story line behind this mock wedding:  the original wedding plan began in Feb2019, wedding Minister was booked since, deposit paid for a party of 100 persons at the Westin Hotel. Also 100 of wedding souvenirs were prepared, (see picture) 

However, the bride just returned 2 days ago from Russia after visiting her sick mom and must be quarantined for another 12 days. In light of the recent incident where 49 people were infected at a Calgary wedding, therefore,  this wedding has been downscaled to online only; no physical contact.

SAA,  Edith B  aka Sasha who's the bride's long time friend also the Matron of Honour for the night who opened the meeting while wedding processional music playing.        WOD: "fool".    No grammarian was required as we were not necessarily say the word but to have foolish fun all night.  

Our workshop speaker Cherry emphasized that as a leader, it is our job to ensure all meetings are WOW ones that should 1) serve a specific purpose, 2) stay on task, 3) engage the attendees and 4) provide value.     Due to this happy occasion, the objectives evaluation was kept silent and evaluated by Edith. 

Let the party began:  Cherry introduced herself as MC of the mock wedding, The wedding minister Dan M. aka Toastmasters junkie who belongs to 4 TM clubs and V.P. Ed of Lingo performed the wedding ceremony like a pro, because he witnessed many times in his church. So he married the bride Yeshu and the groom Estella and validated the union of two people on papers but the physical union must wait for another 12 days.  

After the ceremony, we invited the Best man also the best friend of the groom, Xiao gave us some very interesting facts about the groom when they were young, ended with a toast to congratulate the newlyweds. Followed by the groom who expressed how fortunate he was finally able to tie the knot with the bride. The groom was able to hold the tears. Next we had the groom's father Dan who was also very happy for the groom being so lucky.

During the break, we cut the imaginary cake and drank our Russian vodka (Gorka in Russia) 

Meeting then reconvened with the toast from the bride's father, Eileen S,  it was 7:00am in Russia with very dim lighting over there.  The father of bride gave a touching speech about the bride's return to Russia, she was able to mend the mother's aching heart. The father of bride was in tears a couple times. They were so happy that the bride was able to return to Canada in time for her wedding. Then, the bride Yeshu also gave us a heartfelt thanks to all and told us.  The bride found out the groom didn't have a swimming pool but did not call off the wedding.  Each toasts & praise were followed by a 1 minute "Eyes & Ears" evaluation by Eileen, Dan, Cherry, Dan again and  Xiao respectively.  The groom Estella double duty as the timer, so many of us to time and no time for the groom to cry.  

Highlight of the night was the Matron of honour Edith B who taught us some Russian  e.g. the bride's name was Lada means a Slavic goddess of beauty and Gold was chosen as her wedding colours,  отец otets = father ,  матьmat' = mother , младенцы mladentsy = Babies. Babushka, or granny,  or baba =married woman.

Gorko!  Wedding toasts are often wrapped up with a shout of “Gorko!” which means bitter. This is a signal for the newlyweds to kiss, which will work in 12 days. Tradition says the sweetness of their kiss will enhance the ‘bitter’ drinks.  

Edith showed us a big loaf of round bread 'on air' and explained that  it is tradition that the newlyweds take a bite of a traditional bread loaf that is heavy on salt. The superstition dictates that the person who takes the biggest bite will become the head of their future household. We will compare bites later.    She held up a bottle of vodka and a crystal glass and explained why it had to be crystal:   if the glass shatters into many shards, each piece signifies a year of happy marriage.  Now let us raise our crystal glasses and shout “Gorko.”   Then Edith asked the bride if she liked to release a balloon with her maiden name written on it, as she begins her new life in 12 days with her new name or in this 2020 and you will keep your maiden name.  Following all these Russian virtues, Edith also gave us a general evaluation of the wedding. We had so much fun, non-stopped foolishness.  Thank you everyone for so prepared and all playing our parts well. Good job everyone     Submitted by Cherry C.