Planning a wedding takes thoughtfulness, patience and support (not to mention a massive savings account). And when it comes to the time, date and pace of a Jewish wedding, precision and a schedule can be a couple’s best friend.\n
The bride and groom, in their 20s, ordered a wedding cake adorned with their image, but unbeknownst to them it arrived on their wedding day featuring an image of an elderly couple with the words, “Mazal tov Bubbe and Zeide on your 60th Wedding Anniversary.”
Couples go through a range of emotions after an engagement, from joy and excitement to anxiety and panic. It doesn’t take long for this wonderful time to give way to the strain of wedding planning — dealing with a budget, coping with family expectations, making tough decisions and balancing wedding-day fantasies with reality.
Rabbi Shalom Arush’s book “The Garden of Peace: A Marital Guide for Men Only” (Machon Chut Shel Chessed, 2008) opens with a stern warning to women: “I bless every woman who resists the temptation to read this book with all the very best of material and spiritual abundance, marital bliss and gratifications from their children.”
Christine S. Sisley and Kenneth B. Garen are to be married on Jan. 3, 2010. Rabbi Uri D. Herscher, founder and president of the Skirball Cultural Center, will officiate in a private sunset ceremony at the center.
We stood near a gleaming pond nestled within a circle of age-old, giant Sequoia trees. The mighty croak of a bullfrog called out from the reeds, as if answering our ancient call to attention from the shofar.
Contemporary, traditional, basic, extravagant, artistic, religious — the choices seem endless when deciding what style of chuppah to be married under.
To rephrase the opening line of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”: It is a truth universally acknowledged — especially by Jewish mothers — that a Jewish single man in possession of a good fortune and over the age of 35 must be in want of a wife … who is in her 20s.
Bridal magazines and Web sites like TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com overflow with designer dresses, couture cakes, haute honeymoon destinations and dreamy reception ideas. But even the best-organized bride will tell you there is so much more to consider when planning a Jewish wedding — from picking the challah to contemplating a dip in the mikveh (ritual bath).
One of the first things I learned about wedding planning is that it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. Oh, I knew it would take time, money, teamwork and a slew of help from my family and friends, but what I never took into account was just how political the entire process would become. Having never been a big fan of politics — personal or otherwise — I was less than thrilled at this discovery.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.