Search Results for: ceremony

A Multicultural Hindu-Jewish Wedding at Offley Place, Hitchin, UK

08/07/2024 by Karen Cinnamon

We love a good multicultural wedding – and Nimisha and Sol’s is just beyond gorgeous! When the UK couple started wedding planning, their overarching theme was to craft a celebration that honored both of their traditions – Nimisha’s Hindu, while Sol is Jewish – equally.

The pair crafted a bespoke ceremony blending both Hindu and Jewish traditions, with a Hindu priest and a rabbi co-officiating. They married under a gorgeous rustic canopy, blending the Hindu mandap with the Jewish chuppah, and we can’t get enough of the forest vibes Nimisha and Sol created with their color scheme of ivory, white, and green and candle holders, foliage, and lanterns throughout.

We also love that this wedding featured a big family dance, Bollywood-style, which everyone practiced for months – sometimes on Zoom! Photographer Roshni Patel captured the day so beautifully, and the couple’s videographer, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion, brought their trademark cinematic style to the day.

Read on for all the other fab details of this very special day in Nimisha’s own words…

How We Met

Nimisha, the bride: We met online! We both expanded our radius (Sol lives in Brighton, Nimi in London!) on a dating app roughly around the same week and we matched! Continue Reading

A Mira Zwillinger Bride for a Classic Jewish Wedding in Black and White at The Rockleigh, New Jersey, USA

01/07/2024 by Karen Cinnamon

Today’s Jewish wedding is just SO classically elegant, we can’t get enough of it. Brooke, who works in marketing, and Jacob, in impact investing, crafted the most exquisite day at The Rockleigh in New Jersey, and we are all about their glam style – don’t miss the bride’s gown from Israeli designer Mira Zwillinger!

There’s no question that this wedding is a stunner – don’t miss the joyous photos by Ira Lippke Studios and trailer by The Totos – but that’s hardly all there is to it. Brooke and Jacob were committed to crafting a day full of personal, meaningful touches – like their custom ketubah by Britt Yudell of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor BritColors, incorporating embroidered mountains to reflect the couples’ love of skiing and a beaded sun to commemorate the acoustic version of “Here Comes the Sun” Brooke chose for walking down the aisle.

Brooke tragically lost her father at age six, and the couple thought up some beautiful ways to incorporate him into the day. The pair wrapped themselves in Brooke’s dad’s tallit for the blessing by the parents, Brooke got ready wearing a robe made from her mom’s wedding dress, and the rabbi who officiated was best friends with Brooke’s dad.

Read on for all the other wonderful details of this very special day in Brooke’s own words…

How We Met

Brooke, the bride: We met on Hinge after the algorithm suggested us saying that it thought we would be a perfect match – clearly it was right! We started chatting over Thanksgiving week in 2018 and had both never enjoyed talking to someone so much before even going on a first date, so we knew that it was special even before meeting in person. Once we had our first date we hit it off and the rest is history!Continue Reading

A BHLDN Bride for an Egalitarian Orthodox Jewish Wedding Filled with Personal Touches at the Chicago History Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA

24/06/2024 by Karen Cinnamon

We just love it when a couple really makes their Jewish wedding their own – and that’s exactly what Chicagoans Ranana and Binyamin did.

They chose the Chicago History Museum as their venue, in honor of their shared love of art and history, and artistic bride Ranana designed the invitations herself – taking inspiration from the Frank Lloyd Wright window in the room where the chuppah took place. She also did her own ketubah art, featuring night and day water scenes inspired by Chicago’s Lake Michigan.

An egalitarian ceremony was important to the couple, and their officiant, Rabbanit Leah Sarna, helped them design one that was both Orthodox and incorporated many feminist and egalitarian touches. Ranana and Binyamin also wrote their own brit ahuvim, a document using liturgical verses to outline their values and commitments to each other outside of the more legalistic language of the ketubah.

We love that, rather than having traditional floral arrangements, Ranana and Binyamin opted for mini orchids potted in tea tins (which they collected leading up to the wedding) on the tables, allowing them both to save money and celebrate their shared love of tea!

The couple’s photographer, the spectacular Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Eliana Melmed Photography, captured the day so perfectly. In Ranana’s words,

We knew Eliana from our synagogue community and when we met with her about our wedding we knew we wanted to hire her because she was someone we could imagine spending hours with on the day of our wedding, having fun. Also we knew she would 100% understand what was going on in our very traditional, very feminist Jewish wedding, which was not something we could take for granted with our other (mostly non-Jewish) vendors. Not to mention her photography is beautiful – colorful, joyous, true to life. She was the best! (Ranana’s dad is still raving about how well she handled our big family during the torrential downpour that happened the day of our wedding.)

We’ll turn you over to Ranana for the rest of the story!

How We Met

Ranana, the bride: and Binyamin, the groom: The simple answer for how we met is “in our synagogue.” In reality we had met a year prior to Ranana moving to Chicago (and joining the same synagogue as Binyamin) at a Shabbat lunch in Jerusalem, hosted by a former teacher of ours (for Ranana from middle school, for Binyamin from grad school). Once Ranana moved to Chicago she and Biny recognized each other and became friendly acquaintances.

True friendship blossomed during the pandemic and we began learning Daf Yomi (the practice of studying a page of Talmud a day) together. That gave us an excuse to talk all the time and eventually we moved from being chevrutas (study partners) to dating. Ranana is a PhD candidate at the University of Chicago in religious ethics. Biny is the Director of Jewish Life at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School in Deerfield IL.Continue Reading

Love Knows No Boundaries: Navigating Interfaith Jewish Wedding Celebrations

19/06/2024 by Karen Cinnamon

Styled by La Fête ｜Photo by Divine Day Photography

This is a guest post by Charlotte Ricard-Quesada, Founder & Creative Director of La Fête. She is passionate about helping her couples craft meaningful Jewish and interfaith Jewish weddings in the UK, Italy, France, Spain, and beyond. Today she’s channeling her wisdom into some great tips about how to plan a beautiful celebration that honors both of your backgrounds. Even if you and your partner are both Jewish, if you come from different cultural or international backgrounds lots of these tips will be relevant – so read on!

Love is a universal language, transcending borders, cultures, and religions. In an increasingly interconnected world, interfaith marriages are becoming more common, celebrating the beauty of diversity and the unity of love. While navigating these celebrations can be intricate, the result is a unique and deeply meaningful ceremony that honours both partners’ backgrounds. Here, we explore how to plan and execute an interfaith Jewish wedding that respects and celebrates the traditions of both partners.

Susie and Axel’s Jewish wedding, planned by La Fête ｜Photo by Dream Prod

Embracing Dual Heritage

The key to a successful celebration lies in understanding and respecting both traditions. This journey begins with open and honest conversations between the couple and their families. Discussing each person’s expectations, non-negotiables, and the elements they hold dear ensures that both faiths are represented and honoured. In many scenarios that I have dealt with, couples and families need to be as clear as possible from the start about their way of living their religion, and the rituals or traditions that are important for each one. Some families have a more paired-back vision of religious practice and this needs to be considered, without affecting the other party.

Rebecca and Emmanuel’s Jewish wedding, planned by La Fête ｜Photo by Juan Luis Morilla

Finding Common Ground

The beauty of any wedding lies in finding common ground and creating a ceremony that reflects the couple’s unique love story. Start by identifying shared values and themes that resonate with both traditions. For example, the importance of family, love, and community are universal concepts that can be beautifully woven into the wedding ceremony.

Rebecca and Emmanuel’s Jewish wedding, planned by La Fête ｜Photo by Juan Luis Morilla

Seeking Guidance

Consulting with clergy from both faiths can provide invaluable insights and help in blending the ceremonies seamlessly. Many rabbis and religious leaders have experience with interfaith weddings and can offer guidance on how to incorporate elements from both traditions respectfully. This collaborative approach not only enriches the ceremony but also provides a deeper understanding of each other’s faiths. Many times, when it has been interfaith weddings, I have had a rabbi and priest, or a rabbi and a vicar for example creating this beautifully unique ceremony.

Rebecca and Emmanuel’s Jewish wedding, planned by La Fête ｜Photo by Juan Luis Morilla

The Chuppah

A central element in a Jewish wedding, the chuppah represents the couple’s future home, open to guests and family. Including a chuppah in an interfaith ceremony is a beautiful way to honour Jewish tradition. Personalise the chuppah with meaningful decorations, such as family heirlooms or symbols from both faiths, to represent the union of two cultures.

A Maggie Sottero Bride for an Autumnal Rustic Jewish Wedding with a Joint Speech at The Brewery, London, UK

17/06/2024 by Karen Cinnamon

We love an autumnal Jewish wedding – and Londoners Rebz and Ben had one of the very best! Rebz, a senior product designer, and Ben, a freelance video editor, love their home city and didn’t want to wed anywhere else. And they found the absolute perfect venue in Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Brewery, right in the heart of the City.

The Brewery ticked all the couple’s boxes – it accommodated their 200-person guest list, was easy for everyone to get to, and fit Rebz and Ben’s brief for a cool industrial aesthetic. And the property’s history was perfectly suited to Ben’s love of beer, as a bonus!

The pair let their wedding date dictate the décor, with autumnal burnt oranges, leafy greens, dark reds, and natural hessians for an urban rustic vibe. David Pullum Photography captured all the detail and emotion of the day exquisitely, and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Michael Pearl Films crafted the duo’s ultra-moving wedding video.

One thing we love is that Rebz and Ben opted to do a joint speech! In Rebz’s words, “Ben was not keen on doing a speech on his own, he hates public speaking and I’ve never understood why it’s always just the men that get to share stories. I absolutely loved doing a speech together and without blowing my own trumpet, I’ve had lots of people mention to me how much they loved it too.” What a fab idea!

We’ll let the bride take it from here…

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