Bride’s brother brings a llama to wedding wearing a tuxedo, kippah
Mendl Weinstock followed through with the help of Shocky the llama

Llamas were first domesticated in South America. Photo by La Su/iStockPhoto
(JTA) — A Jewish man from Cleveland, Ohio, brought a llama wearing a tuxedo and a kippah to his sister’s wedding, following through on a 5-year-old vow.
Mendl Weinstock arrived with Shocky the llama, which he rented from a llama farm, on Sunday to the wedding of his older sister Riva.
Mendl told Riva five years ago, when she wasn’t even dating, that he would bring a llama to her wedding to tease her over how often she spoke about getting married, he told Insider in an interview for an article that was published Tuesday.
“She tried to use reverse psychology on me and said, ‘OK, the llama is invited to the wedding,’” he said.
Riva was engaged in October, and Mendl told her that he intends to hold her to her words.
And he made sure she remembered.
“He has been torturing me with this, in good fun, and has been reminding me of this probably twice a week for the last five years,” Riva told Insider. “I have tried striking so many deals, I have tried doing literally everything possible to make sure it didn’t happen, and lo and behold, there was a llama at my wedding.”
Mendl had the tuxedo and kippah specially made for his guest.
A photo of brother and sister near the animal shows Mendl smiling in Riva’s direction while placing his left hand on the llama. Riva looks at him angrily. The llama is the only subject facing the camera.
The photo received more than 156,000 interactions on Reddit and attracted more than 3,600 comments.
The post This brother vowed he would bring a llama to his sister’s wedding. And he did — wearing a tuxedo and kippah. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 3
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion This Nazi-era story shows why Trump won’t fix a terrifying deportation mistake
-
Opinion I operate a small Judaica business. Trump’s tariffs are going to squelch Jewish innovation.
-
Fast Forward Language apps are putting Hebrew school in teens’ back pockets. But do they work?
-
Books How a Jewish boy from Canterbury became a Zulu chieftain
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.