Jewish Bride Spotlight: Eve Stern

Where are you from? Forest Hills, NY

What do you do for a living? Content Creator and Digital Consultant

How did you meet your partner? College – SUNY New Paltz

Where did you go on your first date? Our very first day was at Bacchus – a restaurant/pool hall in New Paltz, NY.

When did you first know you were in love? I knew I would marry Mike the first time we hung out and I knew I was love with him, years later after dating on and off.

Tell us about your wedding: Our wedding was very traditional but with a lot of modern twists! We slept separately the night before in different rooms in the same hotel! The next day as we got ready we spoke only via text/phone. Myself, bridesmaids, and Mom all got ready in the bridal suite before taking a shuttle to the venue nearby. After arriving and getting a bit settled, I met Mike in a beautiful area of the venue for our first look. It was quite emotional! I blame him for making me cry haha. After this we jumped into all our wedding party and family photos.

The wedding started with a cocktail hour where we did a Kabbalat Panim. During this time Mike was in this Tish room with his close family and friends where the Ketubah was signed by two witnesses. Then came the Bedeken where Mike placed the veil over me and both his parents and my parents gave me a special blessing.

Soon after the guests were escorted towards the back of the property where we had an outdoor ceremony. We felt so lucky and blessed to have such perfect fall weather the day of. Our ceremony took place right as the sun was setting. We did all the traditional ceremony aspects including asking different family and friends to take part in the seven blessings.

For the reception we made sure to have a lot of fun although it was so hard because it felt like we were constantly running out of time! At one point I ran around and pulled all of our Aunts and Uncles to the floor for a picture with us and our friends took a lot of pictures with us as well! We also did a DIY guest book with some mini polaroid cameras. I think everyone had a lot of fun with it and we really enjoy having all the photos. We had speeches from the Best Man and Matron of Honor, my parents each gave a heart felt speech off the cuff, and Mike’s Dad did a short speech as well.

After COVID really putting our lives and our wedding on hold for so long I think everyone felt so relieved, joyous, and excited to party and celebrate together. Also, speaking of COVID – our venue had no regulations and 90% of our guests were vaccinated but we asked EVERYONE including ourselves to get tested before the wedding! Only a few people were annoyed about it, but we felt it was so worth it to relax and feel good about the responsibility of having a large gathering like we did!

What was the most important part of your wedding day? Dancing! Music is very special to us as we are both obsessed, especially with hip-hop. Mike is actually a legitimate rapper (seriously check him on Spotify Michael Kraun). We started out with our first dance which was the beginning of “Jungle” by Drake and then transitioned to “At Last” by Etta James. We then swiftly jumped into the hora! We started out separately with men and women and then joined together again! I tried to dance as much as possible throughout the night!

Fave Jewish wedding tradition? Utilizing family heirlooms! We stood under my Grandpa’s tallit, I carried pictures and pieces from my grandmothers down the aisle, and really tried incorporating friends and family into as many areas of the wedding as possible!

What does marriage mean to you? Marriage is being officially committed, labeled as partners for everyone to know!

Best wedding planning tip: Things will inevitably go wrong and never be perfect! Why? You and your husband are busy getting married and can only control or stay on top of so many folks! It’s incredibly annoying but always insignificant in the grand scheme. When you are truly in love (especially as a postponed COVID bride) you are just relieved, happy, and over the moon exited to marry your partner and finally be married!! I was over everything else that didn’t work out (and as a type a bride there were quite a few details) and was SO ready to be married and party!

Sum up your wedding style in three words! Vintage, Jewish, Diverse

Fave Jewish festival? Sukkot

Fave Jewish food? Let’s be serious – Challah. All delicious things start with challah!

Fave Jewish tradition? Lighting the Shabbas candles

Happiness is… Babies, animals, how the sun rises and sets. Happiness is appreciating every piece of it whether alone or with someone you love.