You know there’s little we love more than a distinctive chuppah design at a Jewish wedding.
At first glance, today’s version may look like a fairly standard-issue floral design… but look again. Specifically, look at the poles – or, more precisely the lack thereof.
That’s right, Jillian, a reporter at the financial news site MarketWatch, and Steven, a dental student, went for a suspended chuppah for their big day, with asymmetrical greenery and white flowers descending from each of the four corners but stopping a good few feet from the floor. How cool does it look in Sam Hurd’s glam photos?!
The non-traditional (yet still permissible according to Jewish law — the couple checked with their rabbi) chuppah is just one of the wonderful ways Jillian and Steven merged Jewish traditions with their own 21st-century sensibilities.
For example, the pair liked the tradition of a pre-wedding tisch (a ceremony for the groom and male guests) and kabbalat panim (for the bride and female guests), but weren’t crazy about the gender segregation thing. Their solution? During the cocktail hour, they held both ceremonies, but made each gender-neutral so that all of the guests could experience both — and get in some valuable time with the bride and the groom. We LOVE that.
There’s so much more to say about this fun, festive wedding, but we’ll let Jillian — who looked so glam in her custom gold lace gown designed by family friend Sharon Wilkes — take it from here…
How we met
Jillian, the bride: We first met through mutual friends – a close friend of Steven’s from growing up was one of my roommates in college – but then began dating while working together at HuffPost in New York, shortly after graduating from college. And of course our relationship continued through job changes and Steven’s career left turn into dentistry!
