Ok, so I’ll admit it. I’ve totally neglected my blog in February. After having an awesome blogging month in January, I’ve just flat out been a bad blogger so far this month.

I should probably mention February is my least favorite month. Good thing it’s the shortest.

February also is usually the coldest month of the year. I hate the cold. Yes, I know hate is a strong word, but I really seriously do hate the cold. Being a Texas girl, February always brings me down in NYC. Even though I hate February, I still always look at things on a positive note, and the good news is: It’s the 13th. So, we’re basically half-way through the month & hopefully that means warmer weather is near.

{via Pinterest}

A lot of people are superstitious about the 13th day of the month, but I just roll with it.

This February has also been unusually busy work-wise (I know I say that a lot, but it’s so true). Luckily I like to be busy. On top of that, February is a stressful month for medical school applications since the interview season is winding down & a lot of people begin to worry about their medical school fate. Needless to say, I’m definitely looking forward to the President’s Day Weekend ahead. I have a four-day weekend and it’s all about relaxation! I have a spa day planned for Monday & I can’t wait! What better way to celebrate Presidents?

{via Pinterest}

So in the 2nd half of February, I promise more fun posts, with lust lists, product reviews, and just life-in-general (and hopefully a post early next week about a spa day that makes you relax just by reading it).

So Happy Wednesday to you all & Happy Love Day tomorrow (even if you aren’t in a relationship, make sure you still celebrate the ones you love & try to think of the day as a day to spread love & positivity…..yes, I realize that’s not exactly a word)!

Until next time….

Yes, you read that correctly: ceremonies. In Judaism, there are actually several “ceremonies” that take place prior to the main ceremony under the chuppah (wedding canopy) in order to become a married couple.

Before I get into all the details, let me first say I’m not a Rabbi, so how I explain some of these details may be how we decided to interpret particular traditions for us as a couple, so please don’t take this as the end-all-be-all of Jewish weddings, but feel free to ask any questions.

Prior to the ceremony, we had a “tisch” and “bedeken.” A tisch is an informal reception for the groom where all the men come to wish the groom well wishes. During the tisch, the engagement officially ends, and the groom and witnesses also sign the ketubah. The ketubah is the wedding contract which traditionally lays out all of the groom’s obligations to his wife, as well as how he must support her through life.

Another cool thing that happened during the tisch is that both of our mothers broke a plate together to symbolize the seriousness of the commitment between our families. I love how Judaism incorporates the family into the wedding ceremony so much, since marriage really is a bringing together of two families, not just two individuals.

While all of this was going on in the men’s room, there is also an informal reception for the women where I greeted all my female guests (as well as some of our non-Jewish male guests who weren’t comfortable attending the tisch).

Once the men completed all their tasks in the tisch room, the headed over to the ladies room for the bedeken. A Bedeken is literally the veiling of the bride. The tradition of the veiling dates back to the bible when Jacob accidentally married Leah when he was supposed to marry Rachel. After that, Isaac viewed his bride Rebecca to confirm she was the right lady for him, before she was veiled prior to their wedding. For the bedeken, the men all dance and sing into the bedeken room with the groom. This is actually a very exciting moment when there was a ton of joy and our fathers were arm-in-arm on each side of my groom. When the men arrived to where I was saying, both of our fathers, as well as my grandfather and our rabbi offered me a blessing & kind words before my husband came to me for the veiling. We exchanged a few words as this was the first moment we had seen each other all day. It was a very moving time for me.

After the bedeken, all of the men & the groom once again leave while dancing & singing to head to the ceremony. All of the guests of course follow to find their seats for the “big event.”

Once everyone was seated, the ceremony finally began. We had the traditional ceremony procession with the groom walking down the aisle, followed by his groomsmen, my bridesmaids, and finally the flower girls & then me. He walked down the aisle arm-in-arm with his parents and I walked down arm-in-arm with mine (this is a Jewish tradition that I absolutely love).

Our parents also held candles when walking us down the aisle, to symbolize to literally light the way as my husband & I began our life together. Light in Judaism is very symbolic of joy, and often associated with all joyous and happy occasions, most notably, Shabbat. This is a tradition which is not often used any more, but it’s something I absolutely loved when reading about Jewish wedding traditions, so I wanted to incorporate it into our wedding.

When I finally made it down the aisle, the ceremony began with the traditional circling. This is when both of our mothers & I circled the groom seven times. The number seven has several symbols for marriage (I’m sure there are some others besides these):

1. The seven days of creation
2. The torah says “and when a man takes his wife” seven times
3. A biblical story exists where Joshua led the Jewish people into battle for the city of Jericho & was instructed to circle the city seven times. After his circling, the walls of the city crumbled. This is symbolic as when two people enter into a marriage, they all may face challenges in breaking down barriers or “walls” between them, but its important to keep the faith that those walls will be broken

After the circling, the ceremony begins with a blessing over a glass of wine, as well as another blessing for the sanctification of the marriage. Both the bride & the groom drink from the cup and then the ring ceremony begins.

Luckily my mom was right there with me to help me with my veil, otherwise I am sure I would have made a mess!

We had a very traditional ceremony, so during our wedding, we actually only exchanged one ring, which was the ring he gave to me (I have him his ring during a private time after the ceremony and before the reception). One thing which varies from the traditional American wedding ceremony, is that the traditional Jewish wedding ceremony actually has the groom place the ring on the bride’s right index finger.

After the ring ceremony, the ketubah is read to the guests. The ketubah was mainly read in Hebrew, with a few interjections from our Rabbi in English.

After the ketubah is read, there are seven blessings recited (called Sheva Brachot in Hebrew) which are special blessings in honor of the wedding. These same blessings are also said at the wedding reception after the meal & also in the first few days after the wedding. We gave the honor of each of these seven blessings to people important to us, including his brothers, father & my grandfather.

Once the blessings were completed, one more glass of wine, and finally, the breaking of the glass!

We were officially married! We shared a quick kiss & then went back down the aisle as husband & wife!

(One of my favorite photos, taken by a friend)

After the ceremony was completed, we were able to have some private time together to breathe, take in the day, and just enjoy a few minutes alone before taking portraits & heading off to the reception.

Hopefully later this week I’ll have a chance to share some of the reception highlights!

Until next time…

This week marks the two-year anniversary since our wedding. I thought it would be fun to kick off the week with a look into some of the little details from our wedding. Hopefully I’ll be able to share a few posts about the wedding this week.

Even though we live in New York, we chose to get married in Miami Beach, FL for a multitude of reasons. Mainly because Miami has a rich history for both of us & we just love it there, not to mention that we also both have family there.

If you’re thinking of planning your wedding & live in the Miami area, or if you’re thinking about planning a destination wedding there, feel free to reach out to me. I’ve got tons of advice when it comes to vendors, etc.

Planning our wedding from so far away & in a very short amount of time (we got engaged in August & married in January) was no small task, but I still managed to have the wedding of my dreams & didn’t really leave any detail unnoticed. Here’s a look at some of the little details from our wedding.

This was my bouquet which I absolutely loved! I love how our amazing photographer (Gregory Paul Photography) captured every detail of our big day, but I especially love this bouquet shot, since it also captures the modern decor of our venue.

Something that was extremely important to me was honoring my grandparents who are no longer with us on my big day. I chose to attach a vintage brooch featuring a locket with a photo of them to my bouquet.

Here’s a close-up on my dress. My dress actually began as a very simple, strapless wool dress by Lela Rose. I seriously lucked out in finding my dress. I knew that almost any dress I would find would have to be built up to preserve modesty (since so many wedding gowns these days are strapless or don’t have much in terms of coverage). While hunting for gowns, I saw a tiny ad in my local paper (literally a 1-inch by 1-inch ad) that Lela Rose would be having a bridal sample sale. The sale wasn’t for a couple of weeks after & I had a trip planned to Florida to look at dresses with my parents & sister. I thought I fell in love with one in Florida & then began searching for the best deal on it (hey, wedding dresses are expensive) when the sale came up. Not only was I looking for a good deal but I’d also need the dress expedited considering the proximity of my wedding (time-wise), so the chance at a sample sounded quite nice. One of my coworkers and I went to Lela Rose‘s design studio during lunch for the sale. I looked around and everything looked very detailed which I knew would be hard to build up. On top of that, I also was very set on my dress including lace (I’m obsessed with lace) and none of the dresses seemed to be lace. Finally, my friend picked out my dress which I had passed up due to the size. It was a size I thought I would NEVER fit into, but the girls who worked there said I should try it on just in case. I tried on the dress & wasn’t all that wowed… but then the lady helping us picked up that awesome belt, and it totally made my dress! I snapped some photos to send to my mom & sister, and then called my dad for financial approval. It all happened very quickly, but I knew it was the one. Then came the hard part: building up the dress. One of my colleagues was nice enough to recommend an AMAZING dress-maker on the Upper West Side (if you’re in NYC and need alterations or even something made from scratch, please reach out to me for her information). This dressmaker worked with me to make my vision a reality & I was so pleased with the results. Most people at my wedding were actually shocked that my dress was two pieces when I told them.

When it came to my feet, I knew I wanted to go with flats so I could be comfortable on my big day. I also knew I was wearing a gown & that it was likely nobody would see my shoes or even notice them. These little sparkly numbers did the trick!

That’s a look at our programs which I made. There is a kit at Michael’s to make them & it’s so incredibly easy! The worst part was tying all those bows, but luckily we only had 60 guests. Even though the programs didn’t match the rest of our paper 100%, they still kept to our black, white & garden green color scheme so I thought they worked perfect since I was definitely on a budget (and programs usually get thrown away).

We were supposed to be married outside in a garden right on the beach, so I didn’t plan for too many florals during the ceremony since I figured we could just enjoy the natural decor. When we got word that it was going to be raining all day on our wedding day & that we’d have to be married inside, I got a bit worried about this. I can’t speak highly enough about how wonderful our venue was. They actually set up these nice candles at the end of my aisle to add some extra decor to the ballroom we ended up getting married in, and these candles were the first thing I noticed about the room when I walked in.

Since we had a Jewish ceremony, there were a few items needed for our Jewish rituals. We had two silver kiddush cups which my in-laws brought for us to use from Israel (and one was a lovely wedding gift). Also in that little purple bag was the special glass that my husband broke at the end of our ceremony. We may have been married two years, but I still haven’t done anything with the glass shards yet… although I do still have them and hope to have them put in a picture frame or mezzuzah or something.

Outside of our reception sat this guestbook & place-card table. We had a Polaroid guestbook where our guests took a photo of themselves and signed the book. We also had our place cards match the motif of our invitations which was a modern tree limb (to symbolize the tree of life). On the table we also featured several of our engagement photos along with photos from our parents & grandparents weddings.

For many, the cake is the most important part of their big day. My cake wasn’t so important to me, but I did love it! We had three levels that were different sizes (middle tier being the shortest tier). I modeled it after a photo I saw in a magazine. I liked how the flowers on it were just very happy & the modern-style of the square cake. Our cake was a rum cake & it was definitely delicious!

This is a look at my tables (before they were actually fully set-up, actually). On each table we had a small flower arrangement (I personally prefer small or at least short arrangements on tables so they don’t hinder conversations across the table), along with a prayer book engraved with our names & wedding date (in Judaism, there is a special set of prayers said at a wedding meal), and a little gift at each place setting (we gave Uno cards wrapped in silver paper – Uno because it’s the best and because, ya know, we found our numero uno, lol). In the background you can see the palm trees of Miami Beach. Outside of our reception & ceremony rooms, you had a great view of the bay.

This is a better look at the table florals.

I had always dreamed of leaving my wedding in a fabulous car. My dad thought we should leave in a yacht, but I’m glad that was way out of our budget (considering leaving in a boat in the rain would not have been fun). I decided to leave in a vintage Rolls Royce which was a fun little experience!

So there’s a look at some of my little details. Later this week, I hope to get into more about the wedding.

Until next time….