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.
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."
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.
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.
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."
No matter how you serve up your wedding, you ultimately want your guests to leave with a good taste in their mouths
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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."
He's a nice Jewish boy, she's a nice Jamaican girl, but what will happen when klezmer meets reggae at the wedding?
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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VideoJew Jay Firestone is back with the second 'volume' in his VideoGuide to L.A. This week -- driving around town
Parshat Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32:1-32:52) It isn't nice to say, but if I were hanging out in the desert with my friends -- all excited about moving in to a land of milk, honey and great falafel -- and an old man with a stutter insisted on "speaking into our ears" a weird doom