Hassidic Wedding in Boro Park

I just returned from my cousin's wedding in Boro Park, Brooklyn. I go to Hassidic weddings about once a year. Most of them have been siblings of tonight's groom. Hassidic weddings are rather interesting events. It starts out with a modest shmorgasboard. Then there is the ceremony. There is a whole protocol for determining who gets which honor under the wedding canopy. Then there is eating and dancing. The dancing is, like everything else, done with men and women seperately. You can go through a whole hassidic wedding - dancing, ceremony, eating, etc - without seeing a member of the opposite sex. After the dancing (ended at around midnight), most of the guests leave, except for immediate family) and there is a mitzvah tance where someone is hired to make fun of everyone (well, all the men) in Yiddish and tell jokes. This is the only time where men and women sit facing each other and the men dance between jokes. Oddly enough, here the woman holds one end of a gartel (belt) and a man holds the other and they "dance". The function of the batlan is rather interesting. He is quite funny, telling lots fpo jokes and making fun of the family based on scant information provided by one of the relatives. The humor here is possibly worth an academic study by some sociologist. The whoe thing ended at around 2 AM.