How we planned a modern and meaningful wedding ceremony
In October 2024 my fiancée Bill and I were married after a 6-year courtship. We share a love of family and traditions, and we were excited about designing a ceremony that would reflect this. We each looked to our faiths, our personal interests, and to popular wedding customs, and then picked meaningful symbols and rituals we wanted to include. The day went off without a hitch (almost! Read below for the one thing we forgot), and these photos only hint at the gorgeous autumn day and heartfelt love we were surrounded by from morning till night.
Very John…
The ceremony was held at Grounds for Sculpture, an outdoor museum in Hamilton, New Jersey, in front of Harp of David, a soaring steel sculpture by my mother, Dina Wind. Though she passed away in 2014, she was well-represented by her art as our family gathered under its embrace.
My Bar Mitzvah tallit (prayer shawl) served as a cloth for the candle table. It was given to me by my grandparents and served as a warm link between past and present. We asked our family members to each light a Yartzeit (Memorial) candle to remember family members no longer with us.
For the breaking of the glass we bought a beautiful hand-blown glass at the Jewish Museum Store in New York. The cool twist is that after smashing it, you send the shards back to the artist and he melts them into a vase or bowl. But this was our one glitch of the day—we forgot the glass back in Philadelphia! It created a moment of confusion followed by a good laugh as I mimed breaking it and the crowd yelled Mazel Tov… and we followed through on the rest once we were home.
An antique silver wine goblet from my great grandfather was used by my father to tell our family history and say the prayer over the wine.
Very Bill…
As the ceremony started, we each lit a long single taper. Later we used those flames to light a twisted Unity Candle, representing our union. We placed Bill’s Confirmation Bible on the table filled with our ritual objects. It was another link between past and present. Bill’s best friend Joe served as our officiant. The two know each other from decades of community theatre, and there were plenty of show references throughout the day.
Continuing the Broadway theme… Joe’s daughter Julia is also Bill’s Goddaughter. She sang a heartwarming version of When You Wish Upon a Star and we all had tears in our eyes.
Another good theatre friend, Pam, sings professionally and contributed several meaningful songs to the ceremony—Unexpected Song, If Someone Like You, and That’s All.
We were happy to share the spotlight with Bill’s favorite star—Lucy! Or more accurately, Diane Vincent as Lucy Ricardo… Diane is the country’s premiere Lucy impersonator, and she added so much joy, humor and surprise to the day. It goes without saying that selfies with Lucy were in great demand.
We incorporated buttons from Bill’s mother’s wedding gown into corsages and boutonnieres for Bill, his sister, and their family.
Once the party moved indoors, we displayed a Bakers Rack with wedding photos of loved ones and other special family memories. It was a way of remembering where we came from and adding our special day to this lineage.
We commissioned a beautiful Ketubah (Jewish Wedding Contract) from an artist we also found at the Jewish Museum. We had all our guests sign the back and later framed it in a double-sided glass frame. It’s an amazing keepsake of the day~
The Alley Cat is the original line dance, and one of Bill’s favorite shticks! We brought cat ears for our guests, projected a giant Alley Cat on the wall, and even put an instructional video on our wedding website. It was another way to bring everyone together, this time on the dance floor, and one more indelible memory in a day filled with them.
Something Old & Something New…
The whole experience filled Bill and me with gratitude, and I’m so glad we had preparing personal gifts for our wedding party. We chose meaningful jewelry for Bill’s goddaughter and my niece, memberships at Grounds for Sculpture for Pam and for Nance, Bill’s Best Gal, a gift card to his favorite store for Joe, and so on…
The experience of planning our wedding and feeling the satisfaction of including timeless traditions while creating new ones got me thinking about how I can contribute to other couples’ wedding plans. One very special way is by creating custom charm bracelets, necklaces and earrings for the wedding party. Brides have increasingly been staging ‘Bridesmaid Proposals’, and I love that our thoughtful, personal, and affordable custom jewelry is part of this new tradition. Of course, we also offer unique jewelry gifts for moms, grandmoms and others in the wedding party, as well as crystal and pearl jewelry for the bride. Learn more about our Bridal Party Collection❤️
