"… brides, their mothers and wedding planners are going beyond the traditional wedding bands and D.J.s to bring in increasingly extravagant and often surprising Broadway and Hollywood-style entertainment to spice up their affairs.

Mindy Weiss, a celebrity wedding planner in Los Angeles whose client list recently included Eva Longoria and Tony Parker, said that couples were compromising on the number of courses or scaling back on flowers to have "name entertainment" at the reception, spending from $10,000 to $750,000 to deliver a 20-to-40 minute show.

At the wedding of Dr. Sari Weinstein and Brett Goldman on Sept. 2, a man dressed in traditional rabbi garb interrupted the maid of honor's toast and then proceeded to gently roast the bride and bridegroom as their guests looked up from their salads.

At first, Dr. Weinstein, 30, a chief resident in dermatology in Chicago, was "horrified," she said, especially since she had "planned every second" of her wedding at the Angel Orensanz Foundation for the Arts in New York. And this was "not on the schedule," she said.

Her guests were amused, however, as another three bearded men suddenly arrived on the floor, dancing in formation with "bottles balanced on their heads, Klezmer music blasting, spotlights following their every move."

The tightly choreographed 20-minute performance by the Amazing Bottle Dancers, a specialty troupe (bottledancers.com) that appeared at 150 weddings last year, turned out to be an icebreaker. In no time, 135 guests were dancing in concentric circles.

"It was outrageous," Dr. Weinstein said. "The dancers kept everyone going."

The whole crazy thing was a surprise arranged by her mother."

-First the Wedding, Then the Real Show and Razzle-Dazzle Begins
By MARCELLE S. FISCHLER