The Lace We Had to Have for Our Battenburg Wedding Huppah

When we saw this beautiful lace, we knew we it was the perfect finish for our Battenburg Lace Huppah. It’s substantial and sophisticated, with beading and just a light touch of iridescent sequins – so light that it’s hard to see in the photo. To preserve the quality of the lace, we sewed it to the canopy’s valances by hand.

Get more details here. Check rental availability for your wedding date here.

Photo Huppahs.com | Photography Jason Weil, Maryland | Location Woodend Nature Sanctuary, Audubon Naturalist Society, Maryland

And see more huppahs:

• Real Life Ivory Silk Huppah in the Park
• A Wedding Chuppah for All Venues: The Simplicity Huppah
• Real Life Wedding: Organza Huppah at Brooklyn’s Prospect Boat House

If They’re Special Enough to Make Your Small Wedding Guest List, They Deserve an Awesome Dessert

A slice of flourless chocolate cake. And yeah, it was really good.

Having a small guest list means that the people who made the cut must be pretty special. It also enables you to be adventurous with your wedding menu. Flourless chocolate cake is a non-traditional but certain-to-be-appreciated wedding cake. Bonappetit.com serves up a recipe for this bête noire topped with chocolate ganache. It’s not only sophisticated and decadently delicious, but if you’re catering the wedding yourself, it’s one of the easiest cakes to make.

The only fiddly part of the preparation is covering the outside of the baking pan with three layers of foil. The first time I tried the recipe, I managed to put small, unseen tears in all three layers, apparently, because water seeped into the batter during baking. Not good. Here’s a tip that solved the problem on my second try: Handle the foil as little as possible to avoid tearing it. The recipe…

And take a look at our previous post: 10 Scrumptious Wedding Cake Dessert Pairings

A Wedding Chuppah for All Venues: The Simplicity Huppah

While finalizing the reservation of a Simplicity Huppah yesterday, I realized that of all our rental huppahs, we’ve probably shipped this style huppah to the widest variety of wedding venues, from backyards to bistros and hotel ballrooms. Its clean, classic design fits just about any setting (and like all of our huppahs, it’s easy to transport and set up anywhere).

Just for fun, we went back through the files and revisited some of the varied venues where couples have wed under Simplicity Huppahs:

• Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn, New York.
• The Foundry in Long Island City, New York.
• Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo.
• Virginia’s Meadowlark Botanical Gardens.
• The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
• Shell Island Resort in Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina.
• The Inn at the Round Barn Farm in Waitsfield, Vermont.
• An apartment balcony in Washington, DC.

You can check the availability of our Simplicity Huppahs for your wedding day or get more details at Huppahs.com. Or see all our huppah designs.

VISIT:

• DIY wedding dress in Grace Kelly style from Vogue Patterns
• How Big of a Wedding Cake Do I Need?
• What do the Jewish bride and groom wear?

The Jewish Wedding Ceremony, Step by Step

The Jewish wedding ceremony is richly layered in centuries of tradition, Jewish law, spiritual teachings, and customs from communities around the world. Here we’ve laid out the basic structure of the traditional Jewish wedding, with some of the most widely-accepted interpretations of the parts of the ceremony. We’ve also included some of the most popular customs and practices that couples have added during the past few decades. If we’ve missed any of your favorite customs or interpretations, feel free to add them in the Comment section.

Greeting the Couple

Traditionally, Jewish wedding celebrations begin with separate receptions for the bride and groom, together called kabalat panim. Many contemporary couples combine the activities of these receptions into one small pre-huppah ceremony attended by only a few family members and friends.

Attending the Bride. At the bride’s reception, referred to in Hebrew as hakhnassat kallah, the bride sits on a specially decorated chair and receives well wishes from her guests.

The Groom’s Table. At the groom’s reception, or chossen’s tish, two traditional documents and one newly-adopted document are signed.

1. The Tenaim. The traditional formal agreement between the two families that the bride and groom will marry.
2. The Ketubah. This is the wedding contract. In the most traditional of Jewish weddings, the purpose of the ketubah is for the groom to assume his legal and moral obligations to his wife. The groom and two witnesses sign it. Increasingly, couples choose ketubahs that lay out both partners’ obligations to each other, and both partners sign them.
3. Prenuptial Agreement. The Prenup is a new agreement, introduced in the 1950s and embraced by a wide spectrum of Jewish communities. It helps ensure that a woman who marries under Jewish law and decides in the future to end the marriage will be able to obtain a divorce under Jewish law. The Conservative movement incorporates this agreement into its standard ketubah through what is called the Lieberman Clause. Modern Orthodox communities generally use a separate prenup form.

Veiling the Bride. Also called bedecken. The groom lowers the veil over the bride’s face. The groom is the person who lowers the veil so that he can make sure that the bride is the person he intends to marry. The practice recalls the Biblical story of Jacob, who was tricked by his father-in-law into marrying the sister of his intended bride.

The Huppah Ceremonies

In a traditional Jewish wedding, the groom puts on a kittel, a white robe, before the festivities move to the huppah. Wearing white, for both the groom and the bride, signifies that for them this day is a new spiritual beginning. The kittel has no pockets, symbolizing that the bride marries the groom for who he is rather than for what he owns. For the same reason, the bride removes her jewelry before the huppah ceremony.

The wedding takes place under a huppah, a canopy that represents the couple’s physical and spiritual home. The huppah is open on all four sides, like the tent of the first Jewish couple, Abraham and Sarah, to associate the couple’s home with the hospitality for which Abraham and Sarah were known. Historically, a bride was escorted from her home to the ceremony while walking under a huppah carried by four huppah-bearers.

The Procession. For a ceremony using a traditional hand-held huppah, the huppah bearers carry the huppah into the ceremony space. Then, as with other modern wedding processions, any special honored guests are escorted to their seats, and the members of the wedding party enter and take their places. The groom is escorted to the huppah by his parents, and the bride is escorted by her parents.

Kiddushin, The Betrothal. When the bride reaches the huppah, she circles the groom seven times, creating the spiritual space that will surround them in marriage. The number of circles can vary. Today, both partners may take turns circling each other to symbolize their mutual obligations to each other. After circling, a bride stands to her groom’s right.

• Opening Blessings.
• Blessing for the First Cup. The rabbi recites a blessing over a cup of wine, and the wedding couple each take a sip. Some couples may pass the cup to their parents or other guests for them to sip.
• The Ring Ceremony. This is the central act of the Jewish wedding ceremony. The groom places the ring on the bride’s right index finger while reciting the following, in Hebrew or his native language: “By this ring you are consecrated to me in accordance with the laws of Moses and Israel.” Today, some brides also give the groom a ring at this time, while reciting a similar statement to that of the groom.
• Bride’s Acceptance. Two people must witness that the bride accepts the ring willingly.

Reading the Ketubah

Reading the ketubah is not a formal part of the ceremony, but today most couples incorporate it into the ceremony at this point.

Nussuin, Nuptials

The sheva b’rachot, seven blessings, are recited. These prayers place the couple within God’s continuing act of creation and celebrate the many voices of joy that God created in the world, including the voices of the bride and groom.

Breaking the Glass

The groom smashes a glass on the ground with his foot as a reminder of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Everyone yells “Mazel tov!”

Yichud

The newly married couple spends some time in seclusion — at least eight minutes according to strict interpretations of tradition — breaking their wedding-day fast and sharing their first married moments alone together. The bride puts on the jewelry she took off before the huppah ceremony.

For modern couples who do not have a double ring ceremony under the huppah, this is a good time for the bride to present the groom with his wedding ring.

After the yichud, it’s time to join everyone else at the party!

Ivanka Trump: Her 2009 Jewish wedding started the popular trend toward more demure gowns.

ALSO VISIT:

• What do the Jewish bride and groom wear?
• 21 Things Rabbis Wish Wedding Coordinators and Couples Knew About Planning a Jewish Wedding (Huppahs.com)
• Kosher-fied Royal Wedding Hors d’Oeurve Reception Menu with Recipes

The Surprising Thing Missing from Many Jewish Wedding Planning Checklists

This is the season when engaged couples start looking in earnest for — and media start posting and publishing — wedding planning checklists. Each year I’m surprised at the number of Jewish wedding planning checklists that leave out a critical item: the huppah. I suppose it’s a bit self-serving of me to mention this, since my company rents huppahs, but I guess I’m hoping to get this item included in as many guides as possible or get it hand-written onto as many couples’ lists as possible to help ensure that the huppah is a source of joy for couples rather than a last-minute worry.

Last-minute huppah rentals are something of a specialty of Huppahs.com. In fact, we love being able to tell panicked clients who contact us just a few weeks before the wedding that they will have a huppah, delivered to their door, no problem. But every once in a while we have to say that we no longer have anything available, which is heartbreaking for couples and for us.

We also work with clients who reserve their huppahs more than a year before their weddings. The nice thing about working with brides and grooms as far in advance of the wedding date as possible, for them and for us, is that we can give them as wide a range of huppah styles to choose as we can.

The check box for reserving a huppah should ideally lie just under the check box for choosing the ceremony location. When you know where your ceremony will be — whether it’s a synagogue, beach, country inn, hotel, backyard, bistro, or zoo — you have a good idea of the style of your wedding and the style of huppah that you would most prefer.

So we recommend that couples contact us to check huppah rental availability soon after they choose the location for their ceremony. That’s when you’ll have the widest selection and the best chance of securing the huppah that works best for you.

And we do try to make your huppah rental the easiest box to check off your to-do list.

How can we make huppah rentals even easier for you? Leave us a note in the Comments section.

VISIT:

• Real Jewish Wedding: Natalie + Richard Wed Under an Ivory Silk Huppah in a New York City Park
• 7 Tips for Designing Stylish Long Tablescapes on a Budget
• 7 Ways to Decorate a Huppah (Chuppah)

How to Safely Use an Older Tallit for a Huppah

Are you thinking of making a wedding huppah from an older, well-worn tallit, like a grandfather’s tallit, but concerned that the tallit is too frail to be tied to huppah poles? No one wants to risk damaging such a special heirloom. I thought I’d pass along great idea from one of our Huppahs.com clients who faced the same dilemma.

Our client rented a Simplicity Huppah and laid his grandfather’s tallit over the top of the canopy without tying to the tallit to the poles. The ends of the tallit draped over the edge of the canopy, so the fabric and fringe were visible.

The couple were able to wed under the tallit worn by the groom’s grandfather free from any concerns about damaging the tallit.

Thanks for sharing, Robert, and Mazel Tov!

VISIT:

• Free printable templates:Do a favor for your guests and a good cause: Give a charitable donation instead of wedding favors (Huppahs.com)
• 7 Ideas for Decorating a Huppah (Chuppah)
• Real Jewish Wedding: Natalie + Richard Wed Under an Ivory Silk Huppah in a New York City Park

Wedding Huppah Rentals “as Easy as Zappos.com”

Lace Wedding Huppah

We love all the positive reviews we get for Huppahs.com, and one of my favorites said we “make it as easy as Zappos.com to receive and return your chuppah.” Zappos is a company that we thought of as we designed our services. We try to make it as easy to rent and return a wedding huppah as it is to buy and return shoes for Zappos.

Here’s how we do it:

• We ship the huppah by FedEx to arrive by the Wednesday before the wedding so you can be confident you’ll have it when you need it.
• We provide simple instructions for attaching the huppah canopy to the poles. It takes about three minutes.
• When it’s time to return the huppah, use the box the huppah arrives in and the pre-paid FedEx return shipping label we send. You can drop it off at a FedEx location or call for FedEx to pick it up, which ever is easier for you.

For more info: Huppahs.com | Check huppah availability for your wedding date

Is there a way we could make huppah rentals even more convenient for you? Send us an email.

RELATED:
Real Jewish Wedding: Natalie + Richard Wed Under an Ivory Silk Huppah in a New York City Park
Real Life Jewish Wedding: Under an Organza Huppah at Brooklyn, New York’s Prospect Boat House
Free printable templates: Do a favor for your guests and a good cause: Give a charitable donation instead of wedding favors

Reader Question: How Do I Attach 2 Tallits Together to Make a Wedding Huppah?

Question: We are thinking of making a huppah canopy by combining the groom’s father’s tallit and his grandfather’s tallit. Do you have any recommendations for how we might do this?

Answer: The idea of making a wedding huppah canopy from more than one tallit, or prayer shawl, is a definite trend. At Huppahs.com we’re getting variations on this question more and more often.

Jewish couples have been marrying under huppah canopies made from tallits for centuries (Quick point: The Hebrew language plural for “tallit”, also spelled “tallith” would be “tallithim ” or “tallisim”. However, I’m using tallit as an English language word, so I’m using the plural “tallits”). Through the ages, the bride and groom stood under the groom’s tallit, in keeping with the symbolism of the huppah as the couple’s physical home and their shared spiritual space.

Many of our clients use our huppah poles with their own tallits or a tallit of a family member to create a very personal huppah.

Today, the idea of combining the tallits of more than one person is seen as a way to honor people who are special to the bride and groom and to represent the presence of these people in the couples’ lives.

As a huppah and tallit designer, I can recommend a few things to keep in mind:

1. Compatible Lengths: Make sure the two tallits you want to attach together are the same length.
2. Final Canopy Size: Every fabric canopy will drape in the middle. The larger the canopy, the more the drape. You’ll want to make sure that the size of the combined tallits isn’t so large that it drapes too low in the middle. Also, the larger the canopy, the more it will weigh, and heavier canopies pull more on the huppah poles. Be sure to use poles that are strong enough to handle the weight of the combined tallits without bending. For Huppahs.com’s poles, we recommend a canopy size that is no larger than 60″x80″ (1.5mx2m). That size yields a nice drape, and the poles are easy to hold.
3. Tallit Age: If you are using an older tallit, such as a grandfather’s tallit, look it over carefully to make sure the fabric isn’t frail or threadbare. Stitching two prayer shawls together will make small holes in the tallits, and when the canopy hangs the huppah poles, the weight of the tallits will pull at the fabric along the seam. Make sure the tallits are strong enough to hold up well to this kind of treatment.
4. Religious Nature of a Tallit: Keep in mind the religious role of the tallit. Wearing a tallit for prayer isn’t just a tradition, it’s a practice rooted in religious obligations laid out in the Torah. The Biblical and spiritual power of the tallit lies in its shape, with four corners, and the ritual fringes on the corners. Sewing two prayer shawls together changes this physical structure, and although doing so can create a huppah with great emotional meaning, my recommendation as a huppah and tallit designer is to use only one tallit for your huppah, to ensure you are preserving the tallit’s religious and spiritual power.

Given these practical and spiritual considerations, my recommendation in most cases is to use only one tallit for a huppah canopy and honor additional special people in other ways. Here are some options:

1. Ask them to hold a huppah pole.
2. Ask them to recite one of the seven blessings during the ceremony.
3. Acknowledge them during a speech or toast at the reception.

Update: Here’s another option for using two tallits that doesn’t involve sewing them together: Attach one tallit to the huppah poles, and lay the second tallit on top of the first. You would want to make sure that the fabric of the first tallit is strong enough so that it won’t rip at the point of the tallit where you tie it to the poles, especially since the fabric will be carrying the weight of two tallits.

This would be a way to combine two tallits without sewing them, and it would be a way to include a second tallit that is older and frail or too delicate to sew or carry weight.

This idea comes from a Huppahs.com client who wanted to use a grandfather’s tallit that was too frail to be tied to the poles. His solution was to start with a Simplicity Huppah and lay his grandfather’s tallit on top of it. A great idea.

Do you have any other suggestions for honoring special people on your wedding day? Please share them in the comment section.

RELATED:
Real Jewish Wedding: Natalie + Richard Wed Under an Ivory Silk Huppah in a New York City Park
7 Tips for Designing Stylish Long Tablescapes on a Budget
Free printable templates: Do a favor for your guests and a good cause: Give a charitable donation instead of wedding favors

Should I Use Ribbons to Decorate the Corners of the Battenburg Lace Huppah?

I thought I’d share a question I received from one of our clients in Maine this week, along with my answer:

Q: Do people use ribbons on the corners of the Battenburg Lace Huppah? Is there an easy way to attach ribbons? How many ribbons work best at each corner?

A: People don’t usually use ribbons with this huppah, but you certainly could. Ribbons tie easily to the screw eyes at the tops of the poles that the canopy corners are tied to.

It’s tricky to advise you on how many ribbons to use, since I have seen brides decorate our huppahs in ways that haven’t occurred to me and look great. I would say, though, for the Battenburg Lace Huppah I would keep the effect subtle. The line of lace that goes across each overhang is a notable horizontal visual element, so I wouldn’t add ribbons that make a strong vertical statement that competes with the lace. I wouldn’t use a mix of strong colors. The number of ribbons would depend on the width; I wouldn’t use more than two 1″ wide ribbons, though you could mix narrower widths.

If you’re going to use ribbon, it works best if each ribbon is about 6-feet long and tied to the screw eyes at about the middle of the ribbon, so two 3-foot long ends hang down from each ribbon. If you vary the lengths of the two ends by an inch or so, the ribbons will have more movement, especially if they catch a breeze.

Real Jewish Wedding: Natalie + Richard Wed Under an Ivory Silk Huppah in a New York City Park

I love to see the ways couples decorate our huppahs. This week, Natalie sent photos of her wedding to Richard in a New York City park earlier this month. You can feel the joy just looking at the photos.

The simple, natural beauty of the flower petals on the ground is perfect for a spring wedding in the park.

To decorate the poles of the Ivory Silk Huppah, Natalie layered not just colors, but textures, too, with charcoal grey silk ribbons and tassels in a color that I’m going to call muted bronze.

Natalie found the ribbons and tassels at Jo Ann Fabrics. The tassels were in the curtain trimming isle, Natalie says, and she chose the ribbon from the ribbon isle, in medium width.

For other brides who want to recreate this effect, Natalie recommends, “make the ribbons longer, because I wished they would have flapped in the wind more.” Still, I can’t imagine they could have created any more joy.

Thanks so much for sharing, Natalie! All the best to you and Richard.

Related article: 7 Ways to Decorate a Huppah

Real Life Jewish Wedding: Under an Organza Huppah at Brooklyn, New York’s Prospect Boat House

Big thanks go out to Nancy for sending us this photo of her son and new daughter-in-law marrying under a Huppahs.com’s huppah earlier this month. The site for the wedding was the historic Prospect Park Boathouse, one of Brooklyn, New York’s most elegant landmarks.

“We all loved the ethereal feeling of the organza huppah,” Nancy wrote, “Set against the bucolic setting of the Prospect Park Boathouse, we could do no wrong. Bride and groom were thrilled.”

And we were thrilled to see the photo. Thanks for sharing, Nancy. Huppahs.com wishes you and your family all the best!

Now Trending for 2012 Weddings: Organza Dresses, Accessories, Decor…and Huppahs!

It’s only March, but I’m calling Huppah.com’s top huppah of 2012: the Organza Huppah. Organza always places among the top wedding fabrics, but this year it’s pulling away from the rest of the pack early. Organza’s light weave lets light diffuse through, creating a soft, romantic aura. The fabric has more drape than tulle and more body than chiffon, making it a great choice for dress overlays, fabric flowers and huppah canopies. Huppahs.com’s Organza Huppah features a thin ribbon scrolling across the fabric, to add texture and play gently with the light that filters down to the ceremony below.

In celebration of organza, I’ve gathered these organza wedding dresses, accessories, and decorations from some of my favorite Etsy designers:

“Acacia”, vintage-inspired tea length bridal gown from Ellana Couture.

“Floressa” organza flower bridal hairpin by PowderBlueBijoux.

Silver organza favor pouches with navy and white scalloped circle thank you tags by WeddingsBySusan.

Pale pink satin, organza flower girl dress with cascading vertical ruffles. For babies, toddlers, and girls, from Daisies + Damsels.

Organza chair sashes, custom made in a rainbow of colors by GiftsForHer26.

Whimsical organza bridal headband with rhinestone accents by TKDesignsetc.

“The Lucille”, Ivory organza bridal or bridesmaid satin sash or belt by Ted Zeppelynn’s Fine Wedding Accessories.

RELATED: Real Life Wedding: Alanna + Joe Share their Favorite Hangouts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn