Married Under the Open Sky

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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Web Can Help Take ‘Oy Vey’Out of Planning Big Day

By Elyse Glickman

Bridal magazines and Web sites like TheKnot.com and WeddingChannel.com overflow with designer dresses, couture cakes, haute honeymoon destinations and dreamy reception ideas. But even the best-organized bride will tell you there is so much more to consider when planning a Jewish wedding — from picking the challah to contemplating a dip in the mikveh (ritual bath).

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Thanks Anyway, But We’ll Plan Our Own Wedding

by Caroline Cobrin

One of the first things I learned about wedding planning is that it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. Oh, I knew it would take time, money, teamwork and a slew of help from my family and friends, but what I never took into account was just how political the entire process would become. Having never been a big fan of politics — personal or otherwise — I was less than thrilled at this discovery.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

The Wedding Gown That Made History

by Helen Zegerman Schwimmer

Lilly Friedman doesn’t remember the last name of the woman who designed and sewed the wedding gown she wore when she walked down the aisle more than 60 years ago. But the grandmother of seven does recall that when she first told her fiancé Ludwig that she had always dreamed of being married in a white gown, he realized he had his work cut out for him.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Behind the Scenes With a ‘Bridezilla’

By Dikla Kadosh

The wedding video Cynthia Silver will show her child one day is far from typical.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Many Israelis Walk Down Wedding Aisle Less Traveled

By Meredith Price Levitt

Alternative wedding celebrations are on the rise in Israel. From celebrity ceremony officiators to personalized ketubahs and hand-written vows, Jewish wedding ceremonies in Israel are no longer all the same.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

‘Bridas Touch’ — Some Don’t Feel the Magic

By Esther D. Kustanowitz

Weddings are magic. The details have come together according to plan. Two people have found each other and decided to spend their lives together, no matter what fate brings them.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My big fat Dominican Orthodox Jewish wedding

By Aliza Hausman

I wanted to elope. He didn't. Actually, toward the end of our wedding planning, he did -- but his family, which is much larger than mine, was expecting a big fat Orthodox Jewish wedding. What they weren't expecting was a big fat Dominican Orthodox Jewish wedding.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Living chuppah can serve as family heirloom

By Allison Krumholz

Imagine standing under a beautiful, hand-embroidered chuppah that 25 years earlier your parents stood under as they became husband and wife. That is the legacy Los Angeles artist Robin Van Zak hopes to create every time she designs a one-of-a-kind heirloom lace bridal canopy.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

How to save on wedding costs without sacrificing

By Anne Phyllis Pinzow

Most brides want beauty and romance during their wedding -- an expression of their love in the form of a grandiose ceremony. But for many couples, a lavish wedding would require a major financial sacrifice at time when few can afford to do so.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Are you ready for marriage?

By Doreen Seidler-Feller

We live in an age of infinite choices regarding alternative lifestyles, a reality that creates unparalleled freedom in people's living arrangements, but also great confusion.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Shtetl engagement custom makes modern comeback

By Ozzie Nogg

The Gaon also weighed in on tenaim plates and demanded they be ceramic, since "just as a ceramic plate cannot be repaired, so the families should be warned not to renege on their commitments."

Friday, October 10, 2008

Personalize your ketubah without breaking the law

By Michele Alperin

Although the Orthodox community is committed to the existing ketubah document, whose language comes from the Mishnah, Blau said he has no problem with a bride and a groom making additional agreements and commitments, as long as they do not controvert Jewish law.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Save the date, save the world

By Elyse Glickman

Savvy couples are realizing -- in increasing numbers -- that when they send out invites, they are also sending out a message about their own sustainability practices. Some are turning away from paper and ink altogether and looking to cyberspace for their wedding communication needs, from the invites to thank-you notes, as well as albums and scrapbooks.

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 G 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 G 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."