The ceremony turned out to be my most favorite part of the day.
(All the pictures are by the fabulous Cappy Hotchkiss.)
Our friend Paul Thureen happens to be a harpist (!) and offered to play for our ceremony. He’s kind of a rock-n-roll harpist. That is to say, when we were figuring out what music to walk down the aisle to, he suggested a harp arrangement of Rihanna’s Umbrella. It turned out to be lovely. George walked down to Justin Timberlake’s SexyBack. It was kind of our joke, since it wasn’t recognizable on the harp and no one guessed that’s what we played. I went to Sea of Love.
We assembled the chuppah with a little help from our planner. I ordered the birch poles here, and Tammy filled some green Ikea pots with cement according to chuppah-building instructions we found online. Traditionally, the canopy of a chuppah is a tallit, but we didn’t have a big one in the family, so we bought some fabric and gently sewed on tallit that belonged to George’s dad and her grandfather. Our florist added some buds and ivy.
It was such a beautiful day, and I remember standing there, looking past George to the field and the mountain, and I thought to myself: Oh, now I remember why I wanted to get married here!
We didn’t have any readings by friends; we just wanted the traditional Jewish blessings. Though we did ask our Rabbi to read that part from the book of Ruth, where Ruth says to Naomi: “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people, and your God my God.” I always loved that that was spoken between two women.
And then we were wed!
Part 2: See each other and group pictures!
I love the song Sea of Love. I never would have thought of using it, but it fits perfectly with the ceremony. I cannot even imagine SexyBack on harp, it sounds hilarious.
The music sounds awesome, and I love that quote from the book of ruth. And, can I tell you how much I LOVE your huppah!?! This is exactly what I imagined doing. Thank you so much for linking to the resources!
The posts about your wedding have been so touching to me. I’ve teared up at each one! Congratulations and best wishes to you both.