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The Chuppah – Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained #5

17/10/2014 by Karen

All imagery by Blake Ezra Photography. This is part 5 of the 9-part Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained series.

The word ‘chuppah’ is used in two ways. Firstly, it’s the Hebrew name of the canopy under which Jewish couples get married. Secondly, it’s also colloquially used as another word for ‘ceremony’. So if someone asks you “When’s the chuppah?” don’t assume they’ve lost all grasp of how to put a sentence together, they’re not asking when the canopy is, but when the ceremony starts.

So what is a chuppah? Why do Jewish couples get married underneath one? What do they do when they get there?

The chuppah, like many elements of a Jewish wedding, is beautifully symbolic. It symbolises the home that the couple will build together in their married life, and is open on all sides like the biblical tent of Abraham and Sarah, signifying that everyone is welcome and that everyone will be treated hospitably.

For readers of this blog, who may be planning their own Jewish wedding, the chuppah is also one of the great opportunities to personalise your ceremony. It can range from a massively decadent, custom-designed piece of floral artistry, to four friends holding poles, upon which sits a custom made quilt or Jewish prayer shawl, called a Tallit.

Top 50 Songs To Walk Down The Aisle To at a Jewish Wedding

25/07/2014 by Karen

Image: Robert Shack taken from Georgia & Sam’s Jewish Wedding

With every one of our Real Jewish Weddings we ask the bride or groom, “what song did you walk into and how was the song choice significant to you?”. We receive so many awesome song choices that we thought it was high time we collated them into a Top 50 list for your benefit! So here it is – click on the songs to listen to them and let us know if you have any to add. Click on the playlist, and scroll down, to see the full catalogue in Spotify. This playlist will be constantly updated with new tracks. Enjoy!

A guide to the Jewish Wedding Ceremony and Order of Service under the chuppah

09/06/2014 by Karen

Good question! Many wonderful traditions come together in a Jewish Wedding Ceremony and each one symbolises the beauty of the relationship of a husband and wife, as well as their obligations to each other and the Jewish people. Here’s my guide to everything you need to know.

[ Image: Natasha & Jez’s wedding by Susan Stripling ]

1. Signing of the Ketubah
To start with we have two short, but very important, rituals. The first is the signing of the ketubah. The ketubah is an ancient document — a marriage contract of sorts — that specifies the groom’s commitments to the bride. It is signed by two appointed Jewish witnesses, who must not be blood-related family members to the bride and groom.

Ketubot are often beautiful pieces of artwork that can be framed and displayed in the home.

[ Image: Jessica & Pete’s ketubah designed by Jennifer Raichman, by Jonas Seaman ]

2. Badeken
The second is called the badeken and it happens straight after the ketubah signing. It’s a short but meaningful ritual where the groom covers the bride’s face with her veil. It’s a custom that derives from the biblical account of Jacob’s first marriage, when he was deceived to marry the heavily veiled Leah instead of Rachel, his intended bride. I’ve heard that some egalitarian couples are now balancing this tradition by having the bride place a kippah (yarmulke) on her bridegroom’s head too!

The badeken is often emotionally charged as the bride and groom may not have seen each other for 24 hours or longer (as much as 7 days) until this moment.

[ Image: My badeken at my wedding to Jeremy by Earthy Photography ]

3. Chuppah
Now it’s time for the wedding party to enter the main ceremony area where all the guests are seated. They make their way towards the focal point of the ceremony – a canopy held up by four poles known as the the chuppah.

The chuppah represents the shelter and privacy of the home that the bride and groom will create following their marriage. The home is central in Jewish life — it is the place where we grow up, learn to share and love, and from which we also secure our independence. You will see that the bride and groom stand at the centre of it, and the walls are formed by those closest to them. Just as the walls of our home protect us from the elements, offering warmth and security, so too the ‘walls’ of the chuppah — that is our families and friends — provide support and strength with their love.

The bride follows the groom towards the chuppah, and both are usually escorted by their respective sets of parents.

The custom of the bride circling the bridegroom seven times has been interpreted as the symbolic building of a wall of love around the relationship of the bride and groom. Seven represents the most sacred of all numbers in Judaism and also symbolises the wholeness and completeness that they cannot attain separately.

Again, some more modern couples choose to update this ritual by circling around each other three times and then a final figure of eight. Chelm and Jake did this in their fabulously personal Jewish wedding.

Smashing Pins: Beautiful chuppah ideas

14/10/2013 by Karen

This is the first in the series of Smashing Pins, where I’ll be choosing one of the Smashing The Glass pinterest boards to share with you. Pinterest is your best friend when it comes to planning your wedding as it’s not only useful for collating inspiring ideas and images, but your boards will also help give guidance to your suppliers.

Today I am looking at some really beautiful ‘chuppahs’ or ‘chuppot’ (for the uninitiated that’s the canopy under which a Jewish couple stand during their wedding ceremony). There never seems to be enough inspiring ideas for the all-important chuppah design and one of my most popular boards is definitely the chuppah ideas board. Here I’ve picked 25 out of the 67 pins currently on the board, from the beautifully simple to the outrageously lavish.

You can see the entire Chuppah pinterest board here, and follow all Smashing The Glass’s boards here. Happy pinning!

1. Keep everything else simple and create the colour in your chuppah for a real ‘wow’ effect.

[ image: mazelmoments.com ]

2. For an interfaith wedding, combine cultures like this chuppah made from sari material for a Jewish Hindu interfaith Wedding.

[ image: mazelmoments.com ]

3. Get inspiration from your ketubah design and pick out creative elements for your chuppah.

[ images: mazelmoments.com ]

Top 10 Chuppah Entrance Songs

08/08/2013 by Karen

Image by Susan Stripling taken from Natasha & Jez’s wedding

What song would you like to walk into when you walk down the aisle to your chuppah? There are lots of lovely traditional Jewish songs such as Jerusalem of Gold, Dodi Li, L’cha Dodi, Erev Shel Shoshanim, ‘Sunrise, Sunset’, modern Israeli songs like Mitachat Lashamayim and Lekol Echad Yesh or choose from Smashing The Glass’s Top 30 songs to walk down the aisle to at a Jewish wedding.

I asked Maya Bechor from Zebra Music to recommend 10 fresh chuppah entrance songs for the modern bride and groom. What I really like about Zebra is that they gently encourage Jewish couples to step out of their comfort zone of ordinary “wedding music”. They know exactly how to get the crowd pumped and the party started!.

Zebra and Smashing The Glass are proud to bring you some of the more non-traditional, interesting, happy, energy-filled chuppah entrance song ideas. Listen, enjoy, and… MAZAL TOV!

1. HEY HO BY THE LUMINEERS
This is a great song choice that crosses every type of person and musical genre.

2. ALL I WANT IS YOU BY BARRY LOUIS POLISAR
A cute little love song from the “Juno” soundtrack, A real feel-good song with loving lyrics.

3. GOD ONLY KNOWS BY THE BEACH BOYS
The legendary American rock band gave us one of our favourite songs for wedding season – every word counts.

4. LET’S STAY TOGETHER BY AL GREEN
Classics always work. Al Green sure knows how to put us in a sentimental mood with this soulful love ballad.

5. YOU ARE THE BEST THING BY RAY LAMONTAGNE
With his rough and moving voice Ray will captivate all of your guests, it’s very simple — “you are the best thing that ever happened to me”.