As Matt and Sara made choices for what they wanted in their wedding ceremony, they asked me, as their wedding officiant, to adapt both Jewish and Christian wedding traditions for them.
Before their ceremony at Valley Regency in NJ, they had a formal ketubah signing ceremony with just close family and friends. They had Matt's Catholic godfather be his witness and Sara's Jewish uncle was hers.
The Jewish traditions in their public ceremony included the traditional escorting of the bride and groom by their two parents. The backdrop of their chuppah was Sara's grandfather's prayer shawl. At the end of the ceremony, Matt broke the glass to cheers of Mazel Tov!
Adapting the traditional Christian unity candle ritual, their mothers poured wine into two separate glasses representing their individuality and the families of their birth. Matt and Sara poured the wine from the two glasses into a larger engraved central glass from which they shared the combined wine...symbolizing their new life together in marriage.
This couple was a delight to marry, and I send my thanks to wedding planner Marissa Mortimer, friend of the bride, for referring them to me.
Their wedding announcement was in the Staten Island Advance.
Ceremony Idea: One of the readings they included in their ceremony was a set of comments from email messages Matt had sent to Sara while she was in England studying. In these messages he was reflecting on the philosophical meaning of happiness. I edited the material they provided to create their reading which was very personal and certainly one of a kind. Think "out of the box" for the sources for your wedding ceremony reading.
Julie Laudicina, Celebrant!
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