Personalize your ketubah without breaking the law

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Friday, August 15, 2008

L.A. bakers suggest ways to make picking your cake a little sweeter

By Elyse Glickman

In Los Angeles, with today's foodie culture in full tilt, there is no "one-size-fits-all" option when it comes to choosing a bakery to create the perfect wedding cake.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Location, location, location

By Elyse Glickman

Destination weddings in spots like Hawaii or the Caribbean are a romantic way to start a new life with someone, but changes in the economy and fuel prices are forcing many couples to rethink the concept of getting "married away."

Friday, August 15, 2008

Sweet somethings for that special day

By Elyse Glickman

No matter how you serve up your wedding, you ultimately want your guests to leave with a good taste in their mouths

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Same-sex marriage and the fabric of society: What does it all mean?

By Julie Gruenbaum Fax

For some, it is a spiritual moment of human dignity finally resting upon everyone. For others, it is a sign that society is being sucked into an eddy of moral dissolution.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

With this ketubah, I thee wed

By Shoshana Lewin Fischer

While civil ceremonies abound up and down the California coast, those seeking a Jewish ceremony -- complete with ketubah (the Jewish marriage contract) -- have a few extra stops to make on the road to matrimony.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Lesbian couple weds in Jewish ceremony in Beverly Hills

By Julie Gruenbaum Fax

Amid a crush of photographers, a handful of largely drowned-out protesters, and hundreds of supporters tossing rose petals, Diane Olson and Robin Tyler stood under a chuppah on the Beverly Hills Courthouse steps on Monday evening to become one of the first lesbian couples to legally marry in California.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Keep the youngest wedding guests happy—and keep your sanity

By Sharon Duke Estroff

Fortunately, it's perfectly possible to welcome children at your wedding without compromising the sanctity of the event or the sanity of any involved parties.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

An American wedding in Israel

By Dikla Kadosh

My fiance, David, cheerfully agreed to designate groomsmen to accompany my green-clad friends down the aisle (another ceremonial tradition not done in Israel -- there, only the bride and groom walk down the aisle). However, despite showing them how lovely matching bridesmaids and groomsmen look on David's Bridals' Web site, we could not convince his three brothers to wear matching suits.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

One more time around

By Sharon Schatz Rosenthal

Finding love a second or third time is not always so effortless, but 52 percent of men and 43.5 percent of women remarried in 2004, according to a 2007 U.S. census bureau report. And Jews are no exception.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Fascinating wedding facts

By Jay Firestone

It happens like some sort of divine intervention. You're single, depressed and desperate for a relationship, but just as you hit rock bottom, when you've given up all hope, the right person makes a grand entrance into your life

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The dress, the ring, the registry and the rest

By Teresa Strasser

This moment that is supposed to be about eternal union is more about capturing eternal beauty in a photo that's going to be mounted in the living room so everyone can silently think, "Man, she used to be a lot thinner."

Sunday, May 25, 2008

MUSIC VIDEO: Beyond the Pale in ‘The Jamaican-Jewish Wedding’

He's a nice Jewish boy, she's a nice Jamaican girl, but what will happen when klezmer meets reggae at the wedding?

Thursday, May 22, 2008

A Chinese Jewish wedding in Jerusalem

Shoshana Li, a descendant of the Jewish community of Kaifeng, China, recently made aliyah and married an American Jewish immigrant to Israel. The wedding was organized by the Shavei Israel organization.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Couple stands under the chuppah—60 years on

By Jane Ulman

"What is this chuppah? We didn't order it."

Maria Shvarts, 80, spotting the wedding canopy standing on the dance floor at West Hollywood's Cafe Troyka, asked the restaurant staff to remove it. She and her husband Boris, 84, were hosting a 60th anniversary party. Guests were arriving, and the chuppah -- obviously from a previous celebration, she thought -- was an obstruction.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

It’s a nice day for a green wedding

By Sharon Schatz Rosenthal

With our country's growing concern about the environment, many couples are choosing to have eco-friendly weddings. Jewish brides and grooms-to-be in the Southland are no exception.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Henna party adds colorful touch to the happy couple

By Ayala Or-el

Sareet Rimon grew up knowing she wanted to have a henna party when she got married. For the local singer it meant carrying on a Moroccan tradition that had been honored by her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Calming those wedding-day jitters, virtually

By Shoshana Lewin-Fischer

The situation couldn't be more stressful: convince your ex-boyfriend to sing at your sister's wedding after the band quits; keep the groom's sister from making it "her" day; assure the groom's mother that it is OK to have a store-bought wedding cake; make sure the bride's divorced parents don't kill each other; don't let the bride know the groom had a stripper at his bachelor party; and above all, keep the bride calm.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

When ketubah didn’t wow, bride created her own

By Amy Klein

Tsilli Pines couldn't find a ketubah that she and her fiance liked. The Jewish wedding contract is often artfully handwritten and later framed as a wall decoration. But Pines, 33, a Portland, Ore.-based graphic designer, wanted something modern and simple. So she designed her own ketubah -- and then one for a friend.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Which comes first—the parent or the egg?

By Tracy Hahn-Burkett

"You do not get to make your children's choices for them. You can only choose how you will act when their choices are already made."

Those words, which appear in the afterword of Rabbi Steven Carr Reuben's manual for parents of adult children involved in interfaith marriage, summarize in two sentences the crux of his entire book.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Balancing family and friend requests not an easy task

By Dana Greene

Getting married is a balancing act. I never quite understood this until my guy proposed.

What's the big deal in wedding planning? I always thought. You set a date, pick a place, settle on a band, choose a few of your favorite flowers and do a dinner and cake tasting. What's difficult about that?

It's not difficult. In fact, that part's been rather fun. However, the part that I am complaining about is the negotiations between family and friends. Trying to please everyone is proving impossible.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Eight ways to give a great toast

By Beth Levine

Making a toast at an event is a touching way to let friends and family know how much you value them and wish them well. I still get misty-eyed when I think of the beautiful toast that my brother-in-law gave at my wedding welcoming me to the family. But public speaking doesn't come easily to everyone. We've all been to big affairs where the toasts were embarrassing and in bad taste, leaving a pall over the entire day -- and beyond.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Looking forward and giving back

By Sharon Schatz Rosenthal

When Richard Weiner and Judith Forman geared up for their November nuptials last year, they didn't register at Crate & Barrel, Macy's or Bed, Bath & Beyond.

"We're 65 years old," chuckled Weiner, a Philadelphia lawyer who has become bicoastal since marrying his Manhattan Beach bride. "We're at an age when you start getting rid of stuff, not getting new stuff."

Thursday, December 13, 2007

How to get your favorite things without losing your mind

By Shoshana Lewin-Fischer

At some point between "Will you marry me?" and "You may kiss the bride," a happy couple must devote some time to the gift registry, which will help fill the shelves and drawers of their new home.

But the first time a couple walks into a store to register for their wedding gifts can be overwhelming. Myriad appliances, gadgets, pots, dishes and sheets seem to loom large, and the choices are dizzying.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Sheer inspiration

By Tamar Snyder