Our Jewish Consultant, Rabbi Rachel

Most of you know that I am Jewish, and Chad is not.  Even though I'm not terribly observant, Judaism is important to me and I have always envisioned having a Jewish wedding.  Jewish wedding ceremonies feel very authentic to me, and I find meaning in the traditions:  standing under the chuppah, breaking the glass, signing of the ketubah, reciting the seven blessings, and of course, doing the chair dance!

 

Ketubah signing (source)

Anyhow, Chad has been really gracious about letting me incorporate Jewish traditions into our wedding.  That being said, he has valid concerns about the ceremony reflecting both of our values, traditions and personalities.  To figure out how to blend our different backgrounds into a beautiful, cohesive ceremony, we've enlisted the help of our "Jewish Consultant,"........

Wedding photographer confirmed!

I've spent the past few months methodically searching for a photographer. While photography is one of the most important elements of the wedding to us, we're on a relatively tight budget, so we wanted to limit our photographer cost to about 10% of our total wedding budget. I of course fell in love with all beautiful, elegant photographers advertised on Project Wedding, the Knot and on Once Wed, but got discouraged after contacting a few after learning about their prices (gasp!). Anyhow, I've been on a mission to find a talented, personable, reasonably-priced wedding photographer. We also had a few specific criteria....

Wedding idea board

I've rounded up some of my favorite images from around the weddingweb (many are from Project Wedding, thank you!) and put them into a photo collage idea board, to start to paint a picture of the colors/ style we're thinking of.

What exactly is a grassroots wedding?

Chad and I are really excited about the concept of a "grassroots wedding." The idea is that we do as much as possible using the strengths and talents of people in our community. I see a few great advantages in this concept; one, we'll hopefully save some money. Two, it will give friends and family a chance to feel really invested in our event, progressively building community so that by the actual wedding weekend, everyone will be great friends!

So far, friends have agreed to brew beer, to make our wedding video, to do my makeup and hair, to help us make the chuppah (or borrow a chuppah, thanks for those offers!!), and to can peaches and/ or make jam for wedding favors. We also have friends doing the wedding music- for the ceremony, for the crazy Klezmer dancefest after the ceremony, and for the dance party after dinner.

There are lots of other tasks I'd love a hand with- designing/ making a photo booth, making soy candles, making vases out of wine bottles, making wedding signage, decorating the tables, even growing flowers for potted plant centerpieces! Anyhow, if you're interested in helping out, leave a comment here or send me an email. Or, if you have any other great ideas you think might fit in to our wedding, send 'em my way! I'm going to keep a running list of DIY tasks, as well as people who have agreed to help, on the wedding website. Hopefully the website can serve as a kind of DIY hub for all of these projects.