Ceremony

My ceremony and reception are at Lanikuhonua, so guests won’t have to travel from one place to another.

I’ve already posted pictures of reception ideas but let me spend some time on ceremony.    Josh has always wanted to get married outdoors.  My first wedding to my late husband, Bobby, was also an outdoor wedding with a judge.  I love outdoor weddings.  I love having all of Mother Nature’s elements surrounding me on the day I speak vows to the man I will be with for the rest of my life.  There’s just something so romantic about it.

Now if I could get married more than once (to the same guy)…hahaha…I’d have a church wedding as well, because there is something so special about being in a house of worship.  The problem is I’m catholic and he’s jewish and we’re both not converting anytime soon to one another’s religion.  We both believe in God and that’s what is important.  We respect each other and our upbringing and beliefs and we are going to try our best to marry both faiths and have an interfaith family.

So what does any of this have to do with the ceremony?  A lot.  We want to incorporate different things in our ceremony that include Jewish traditions.  Because I was raised Catholic, I do love rituals and symbolism, similar to Judaism.  I love that for jewish wedding ceremonies they have a Chuppah.

A Chuppah is a canopy with four poles.  It is supposed to symbolize the bride and groom creating a home together that will be open to guests.  It originates from the wedding of Abraham and Sarah.  I think it’s a beautiful tradition.

I was already planning to have a canopy of some sort.  But I believe Josh will have a Rabbi be the officiant so I would think a Chuppah be more appropriate to the ceremony.  Thank you Judith (matron of honor) for informing me of a Chuppah at the lat bridal expo, I never knew she was informed about Jewish traditions!

Another ceremony tradition we want to include is a marriage contract or Ketuhbah that is written in Aramaic or Hebrew.  Things to discuss with the rabbi because I need to be more educated about this.

And of course there is the breaking of the glass.  Josh definitely wants to do this!  So these are some ways we want to incorporate his religious traditions.

Now on to flowers.

How to decorate the ceremony space?  Here are some options my WP gave me at our meeting:

Petals…

And there are heavy brocade flowers lining the aisles…

And there are individual arrangements for each aisle…

So there are many options and there are also decisions on the chairs as well, Chiavari or regular white?  So many options.  Hopefully in the end, my ceremony will look as beautiful as these do at Lanikuhonua!