Greek Wedding

At the last minute, I decided to go to a wedding with my brother yesterday. To give you an idea of how huge the wedding was, my brother's friend's cousin got married. I'm thinking of my cousins and there's not a single one of their friends that I'd consider inviting to my wedding. Anyway, this wedding was enormous. There were more than 450 people who came to see the step-daughter of a Greek woman get married. Neither the bride nor the groom was Greek, but there were a few hundred Greek people doing spiral dancing and shouting "Oppah!" The bride's sister told me that for every one Greek person you invite, there are ten more that you have to invite because otherwise they will feel insulted. Hence the "Big Fat Greek Wedding."

The spiral line dancing is kind of fun, and I really enjoyed the music. I do wonder, however, why the bride's father throws a fistful of cash at the groom. Is it a dowry thing? What does "Oppah" mean? Where does the sweetbread dance come from and what does it mean?

I kind of wish I were Greek because then I could have really cool wedding traditions.