Many of us who have lived in NYC for years are always looking for the new experience, the street we may ever have walked down, etc. The Lotus Club, a private former Vanderbilt mansion was one such experience for me. A couple contacted me and said that venue was where they wanted to hold the wedding. It began as a writer’s club in the late 1800’s with such members as Mark Twain. Later a Vanderbilt purchased the museum for her daughter as a wedding gift.
The couple met with me a number of times and planned a magical wedding. The groom was raised Jewish and the bride Catholic. I was co-officiating with a Franciscan priest dressed up in a Friar Tuck looking brown robe with hood. It is amazing how rituals can have a commonality in the religions when you look into it. The prayer that Aaron the high priest used to bless the Jewish people “May god bless and keep you…” was adopted by the Catholic church and often said at the end of mass
We entered a grand hallway in this mansion and looked up to see a magnificent Tiffany window. The room we signed the Ketubah and civil license was a wooden paneled library with massive chairs and mahogany table. The ceremonial room was elegant and one could think many magical dinner parties were held there. In attending the reception I was taken back in time to the grandeur of the 1890’s and the elegance of the Vanderbilts.