Author Archive

Recognizing the Fight for Marriage Equality at our Wedding Reception

Posted on March 1st, 2011 by Wasabi. 6 Comments

Wasabi
Wedding Date: Spring 2011
Bio: I just finished up my MBA while planning our wedding, learning about Judaism, and hitting the ski slopes at every opportunity. My fiancée, Ginger, helps disabled kids here in New Orleans when she’s not reading or snowboarding. We are getting married on May 21, 2011 at a funky art museum in a traditional Jewish ceremony followed by an unconventional wedding reception.

From Zenia’s Flickr stream

I’ve noticed that my friends and family seem to mistake our legal DC ceremony with providing us marriage rights, at least at the state level, as much as we try to remind them that Louisiana doesn’t recognize same sex marriage. I would hate to think that after attending our wedding, guests might walk away with the misconception that the rights we desperately need and are fighting hard for have already been obtained.

After remembering Kelly’s awesome idea for a gay marriage law mobile, I decided to figure out how to tweak this idea for our reception. My idea is to ask our florist to make a floral arrangement with branches (like the one pictured above) to decorate the escort card table. And then list some of the 1,100 Federal marriage protections on cards, per Kelly’s tutorial, to hang from the branches of the arrangement, similar to a wish tree. Next to the arrangement, I’ll put a little sign explaining the display with white knots for guests to take. What do you think? Any other ideas to highlight marriage equality at our reception?

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Long Distance Wedding Planning: How to make it work

Posted on February 22nd, 2011 by Wasabi. 4 Comments

Wasabi
Wedding Date: Spring 2011
Bio: I just finished up my MBA while planning our wedding, learning about Judaism, and hitting the ski slopes at every opportunity. My fiancée, Ginger, helps disabled kids here in New Orleans when she’s not reading or snowboarding. We are getting married on May 21, 2011 at a funky art museum in a traditional Jewish ceremony followed by an unconventional wedding reception.

Photo by my Father in law to be

Planning our Baltimore wedding from New Orleans, has it’s challenges. The next time I’ll be back in Maryland it will be three days before the wedding. This is how I’m coping with the challenges of long distance planning:

Transporting Wedding Things:

My dress is waiting for me in MD, and I’m hoping it fits like it did last month, three months from now. The upside is that I won’t have to get on a plane with a huge bag of crinoline, but the downside is that I won’t be able to make last minute adjustments. Laura is taking the opposite approach because her dress is way easier to travel with and she wants a few fittings. The dresses are just the beginning of the wedding stuff that needs to make it to MD. Planning long distance means that I have to be creative with how to get decorations to the wedding. I’m making paper flowers and mailing them to my mom for the paper flower balls that will hang above the dance floor; she is handling the assembly. I’m also forgoing favors, special toasting flutes, signage, and other extras that we don’t feel strongly about and would be difficult to travel with.

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Jewish Ways to Acknowlege Marriage Equality

Posted on February 1st, 2011 by Wasabi. 3 Comments

Wasabi
Wedding Date: Spring 2011
Bio: I just finished up my MBA while planning our wedding, learning about Judaism, and hitting the ski slopes at every opportunity. My fiancée, Ginger, helps disabled kids here in New Orleans when she’s not reading or snowboarding. We are getting married on May 21, 2011 at a funky art museum in a traditional Jewish ceremony followed by an unconventional wedding reception.

I’ve written before about ways to recognize the fight for marriage equality in a Jewish wedding ceremony. In The New Jewish Wedding, Anita Diamant writes about an “eighth blessing” (following the traditional seven blessing; a Jewish prayer) fashioned after the spilling of wine during passover.

“Before drinking from this cup of joy, we acknowledge that our cup is not quite full. We spill out drops of wine in hope that someday this union will be fully recognized as a marriage by the civil authorities with all of the rights and benefits of marriage, and none of the discrimination that faces these brave souls today. As we raise the cup, we affirm the joy that it does contain, the gifts of this union, the blessings of this love, and the delight of everyone here to celebrate this simcha (joy).”

Recently, our Rabbi told us about the possibility of adding this same sentiment into the breaking of the glass as an alternative choice.

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Eco Friendly Wedding Ring Round-up

Posted on January 25th, 2011 by Wasabi. 3 Comments

Wasabi
Wedding Date: Spring 2011
Bio: I just finished up my MBA while planning our wedding, learning about Judaism, and hitting the ski slopes at every opportunity. My fiancée, Ginger, helps disabled kids here in New Orleans when she’s not reading or snowboarding. We are getting married on May 21, 2011 at a funky art museum in a traditional Jewish ceremony followed by an unconventional wedding reception.

This week I’m sharing some of my favorite eco-friendly wedding ring designers. Each of these rings is made from recycled metals and conflict free gemstones. Happy shopping!

Beth Cyr

Bario Neal

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