Jewish Wedding 101

A wedding can be as simple or as richly detailed as you want it to be. Most importantly, you want to create a ceremony that suits your religious and emotional needs. To help you infuse your ceremony with the Jewish touch, we have created a breakdown of the elements that make up a traditional Jewish wedding. Be sure to discuss these details with your wedding officiant and work together to create a ceremony you will remember for a lifetime.

• The Significance of Marriage in Jewish Thought
• The Marriage Rites in Jewish History
• The Wedding Festivities: A Step-by-Step Breakdown
• Aufruf: Reading the Torah Before the Wedding
• The Betrothal Ceremony
• The Nuptial Ceremony
• After the Wedding
• Spiritual Preparation for a Wedding
• Charity and the Jewish Wedding

• Conservative Weddings
• Reform Weddings
• Reconstructionist Weddings
• Secular Humanist Weddings
• Same-Sex Weddings
• Interfaith Weddings

• When May a Wedding Take Place?
• Where May a Wedding Take Place?
• Who Participates in a Jewish Wedding?
• Kabbalat Panim - Receiving the Wedding Guests
• Bedeken: The Veiling Ceremony
• The Wedding Processional
• Hakafot - Circling the Groom
• The Nuptial Blessings
• The Ring Ceremony
• Yichud

• Wedding Attire
• The Chuppah
• The Origins of the Ketubah
• The Traditional Ketubah Text
• Wedding Rings
• Breaking the Glass

• The Wedding Meal
• Rejoicing After the Ceremony
• The Krenzel - Dance of the Last Child

• Kohanim and Marriage
• A Note on Deceased Parents
• Tena'im
• The Tradition of Matchmaking
• Fun Facts About Jewish Weddings