Officially Officiating

Although I have mentioned that I will be officiating at my friend's wedding in September, this post is not about that. This is about the rabbi(s) that will be partaking in The Hermit Crabs' wedding!

I would have to say that I have always known who I hoped would marry Mr. Hermit Crab and I when we reached that point. I've known it for years, and I knew it before Mr. Hermit Crab and I were even talking about marriage. I've mentioned before that Mr. Hermit Crab and I met at NYU in Hebrew class. Shortly after we started hanging out, I became very involved with Hillel on campus, thanks in large part to Mr. Hermit Crab. Over the years, we became close with one of the rabbinic interns, and though we went our separate ways after my graduation and his ordination, we kept in touch. I knew he would be perfect since he knew us together and apart, and has been there since the beginning of "us." I felt that it was important to have someone marry us who knows up both equally, and we are lucky to have this option. Not too mention he's young and awesome, and will do a great job!

Our good friend B with Rabbi KB (though I searched and searched, I could not find a picture of the Hermit Crabs with KB, this one will have to do!)

However, there were several more rabbis that we wanted to include in our wedding. I have mentioned before that I work at a synagogue, and the rabbi that I work with has become a close friend of mine here in Syracuse. She has agreed to meet with Mr. Hermit Crab and I before the wedding in preparation, and she helps us understand different parts of the ceremony. Not to mention she's been great to talk to about all things wedding - planning and otherwise, since we got engaged. Rabbi R will be reading the Ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) during our ceremony.

Mr. Hermit Crab and I both had rabbis from our youth that we wanted to honor as well. Mr. Hermit Crab has a rabbi-turned-family-friend who has been in Mr. Hermit Crab's life since his bris, and he will be doing the Tisch (groom's pre-wedding gathering) and Ketubah signing before the ceremony.

I was very close with my rabbi growing up, and he will be doing the Bedeken before the ceremony. More on all these traditions to come soon.

Myself and Rabbi B at my Bat Mitzvah in 1998 - be gentle, I was 13!

(all pictures are personal photos)

We will even have some rabbis at our wedding who are just in attendance! We know of so many people who are not connected to even one officiant, and we had the lucky - though daunting - task of choosing just one of many!

How as your process of finding an officiant? Did you have too many options, or not enough?

Dressing the Tables: Part 3

So I have now shown you my inspiration and first trial run for my table numbers, and the actual numbers themselves have finally arrived! It's time now for another round of table number mock ups. When I went back to the art supply store, they did not have any more of the numbers that I practiced on before, I went this time with a wooden frame (same concept).

I set my supplies out on the floor (not pictured here: my newspaper scraps - ripped to be about the size of a quarter, no particular shape).



I started first with blue again to have a comparison. I mixed a bit of the blue paint with the modge podge and used this to decoupage the newspaper to the frame half.



Next, I tried different colors. The paint was mixed with the modge podge again. This method turned out to be much more time intensive because I had to clean my fingers after each piece, and work very slowly so that the whole piece did not come out brown. I let it dry a bit and then covered the whole thing in clear modge podge (meaning without any paint color mixed in).



Here are the two halves, standing side by side on my coffee table (with what I am pretty sure is Wii Basketball on in the background). The flash washes out the effect a little bit, but you can see the comparison here.



And the frame all put together, with slightly better lighting. You can see the method - paint covered newspaper, pretty well here.

(All pictures in this post are personal photos - action shots!)

The result of my second trial? Not loving it! While I think it looks kind of neat, I'm not really achieving the look that I am going for on the tables. I'm a little bit stuck at this point. I had really planned on doing the numbers like this, but now I am considering leaving them just wood - maybe staining them to be a bit darker since our palette is jewel tones, but I'm not sure. Do you have suggestions?

This is not all for the tables, though! I have another plan for accompanying the wooden numbers, and believe me, it's adorable. But you'll just have to stick around to find out more...

Did you have a project that you couldn't seem to get to go the way you wanted? Any advice for my poor little numbers?

You never know what you'll find...

When you're least expecting it!

We had finished registering at Wiliams Sonoma and Bed, Beth and Beyond, and we had almost given up on finding place settings that we really loved.

One of the great things about Central and Upstate NY in the summer are all the festivals. There are literally festivals in every town, every weekend, covering every interest, from wine and food, to crafts and toys, and somewhere during our festival hopping, we met (and subsequently somewhat stalked) a wonderful potter named Ede Walker.

Ede had a booth at a festival early in the summer very close to our house. We were innocently walking around, enjoying the weather and we stumbled upon this:

personal photos

It was...perfect. It was exactly what we were hoping for in a place setting and more. We talked to Ede for a few minutes and took her card. Thus began our roadtrip around Central New York. Every time there was a pottery festival in the area, we took a drive. Finally, Ede had a larger exhibit set up, and we stole a few minutes of her time. She was happy and excited to be able to do a whole set for us, plates, bowls, serving platters, etc. and we took it from there.

You can see some of the pictures that Ede sent me of pieces she made for our set:

All photos by Ede and sent to me

Ede is in the process of setting up an online registry so that it will be easy for our guests to purchase from it, and we can't wait to use our new, handmade (and dishwasher safe!) dishes for a long time!

Were you very excited about one (or a set) of your registry items? Do you want more information about setting up a kosher kitchen? I'd be happy to lend some guidance!

Dressing the Tables: A little sneak peek

In addition to my wooden table numbers, I have another table number project up my sleeve (and this one I have no hesitation about!). I am quite in the midst of working on it, but I just love it, and I think you will, too. I wanted to give you just a teensy weensy sneak peek while I work on them:

Yup, that fiery little red head is your own Miss Heb, through the years!
(personal photo)

Got any guesses as to what I'm doing with these bad boys? Well, you'll have to wait and find out soon!

Are you doing any surprise projects? Any projects that you're really REALLY excited about?

Daddy, I want a Golden Goose now!

(source)

As we began registering, I couldn't help but feel a little bit like Roald Dahl's famous character. What business did I have telling people what to get us? However, with 300 guests, we were inevitably going to be getting gifts, and quite a few of them, and I was quickly convinced that we should register so we received gifts that we liked, and not that we would have to return. We had difficulty at first building our registry list, being that we have each lived on own for several years, and together for almost three years. However, we looked at the registry as an opportunity to trade out our hand-me-down appliances, and warped pots and pans, and get some new and well-made products.

Our registry grew very quickly because we keep a kosher house. This means we need two of literally everything! Two sets of pots and pans, two sets of dishes, even two different bowls and attachments for my standing mixer (pause: LOVE my KitchenAid mixer, I use it ALL the time. If you cook or bake a lot, and don't already have one, register for it! Mine is pink :) ). Also, being that we are having a large crowd ranging in age and financial situations, we decided to register for a range of items.

We headed out to Williams Sonoma first. Oh, it is a cook's heaven. I'm hardly a chef but I do love to cook, and I could have moved right in there. The sale associate was so nice, and so helpful, and we actually had a great time spending our afternoon choosing different items - holding knives, and gazing lovingly at Le Creuset stoneware. Here is a sampling of what made it on to our registry at Williams Sonoma:

The aforementioned Le Creuset - we registered for a couple different pieces

All-Clad cookware - they say it lasts forever!

(source for all three pictures)

So these cheese knives were not actually on our registry but we received and kept them anyway. The thank you note for these contained the line, "we'll think of you now every time we cut the cheese." Who says you have to grow up to get married!

After beginning our registry at Williams Sonoma, we headed to Bed, Beth and Beyond. I have to make a leetle addendum here. While Mr. Hermit Crab had a great time with me at Williams Sonoma, one store was enough for this fiance. We talked extensively about our registry and he and I agreed that I could probably handle BB&B on my own. This is not the end of Mr. Hermit Crab's involvement in registering though, just you wait for it!

Anyway, I headed headed out to my local BB&B. We figured that this would be a good choice because we loaded it with more affordable items, and most people live near at least one (not to mention the good ol' interwebs).

Here are a few things that we listed on our registry here:

Yum, I wish those cookies were included!

We've always wanted one of these, but never wanted to buy it ourselves...helloooo registry!

These will replace my dishwasher-eaten set

Oh, the delicious winter meals this will one day make...

Salad always tastes better in a bamboo bowl, right?
(source for all pictures)

And thus concluded my fun with the registry gun. I will say, I have had very good experiences with both registries. The sales associates couldn't be more friendly and helpful, the perks are great (discounts after the wedding, gift cards, etc.) and the online management options make keeping up with the registry from home so easy. I would recommend both of these stores if you are beginning your registry hunt.

Although these were only partial looks (okay, really teeny tiny peeks) at our registries, you may have noticed an important set of items that are conspicuously missing. Did you guess? If you guessed dishes, you'd be right. Since we will need two sets of every day dishes - one for meat, and one for dairy - we knew from the beginning that we would not be getting china. But we do need to get something to eat on.

My dad moved not too long ago and gave us this beautiful set of dishes that we decided to use for dairy. Here is a sample of some of the dishes:

(source)

The meat set was entirely up to us though, and you'll never guess what we've ended up choosing. We looked and looked and just couldn't find anything that we liked, until one day, we literally stumbled over it. I'll give you a hint, you won't find it on a traditional registry...stay tuned!

What sorts of things did you register for? Did you want to registry for something, but had a hard time finding it? Share your registering experiences!

Jewish Tradtions: Our Ketubah

There were oh-so-many things that we (okay, I) wanted to DIY, and our ketubah was one of them. A ketubah is a Jewish wedding contract; the original Hebrew text actually reads a lot like a pre-nup, outlining the groom's responsibility to the bride. In addition to being an important part of a Jewish wedding ceremony, many couples now use it as an art piece that commemorates their wedding day and commitment to one another. There are so many beautiful Ketubahs that you can get nowadays; Miss Spaniel, Miss Trail Mix and Miss Hot Cocoa have all written about their experience finding ketubahs.

We spent some time looking at hundreds of ketubahs online, and found so many different ones, from painting to paper cuts.

(source)

However, after looking at so many beautiful and different designs, I decided that I wanted to try and make my own. While I've painted before, I would not consider it my forte. But I am always willing to try new mediums. So for this project, I decided to try paper mosaic. I went in cold, and bought a canvas to practice on (for the real thing, I could buy the ketubah text on a blank canvas).

Here is what happened:

(personal photo)

It's, well, okay. In my opinion, it looks kind of juvenile, but that may be due to the colors and the large size of the tiles that I used.

After this project, we spent some more time on Ketubah.com and fell in love with one on the site. We decided that we would buy one from the site, but we would personalize the English wording to make it uniquely ours. And I love it! However, we're still waiting for it to arrive, so you'll just have to wait to see which one we chose!

Are you including any religious customs in your wedding? Were there any projects that you were looking forward to doing-yourself but that you ultimately left to the experts?

You're not doing what?!

(source)

There are a couple of traditions that we will not be including on our wedding day that have caused some of our friends and loved ones to look at us with a face similar to the one above, then think we are kidding, then get a little mad, and then eventually come around!

1. The biggest concern seems to be that we will NOT be having a wedding cake! It means we will not have one of these babies:

(source)

to do this with:

(source)

And, no, we're not having a tower of cupcakes either. Although these are delicious and fun traditions, neither of us feel particularly attached to cake, and would rather serve our guests a duet plate of a chocolate dessert paired with a fruity one, and then have one of these:

Oh yum! I could just eat that all right up!

(source)

We're also toying with the idea of having a goodbye warm chocolate chip cookie gift as guests leave, so our guests will have plenty to satisfy the sweet tooth!

2. We're not having a traditional bridal party

(source)

My little sister will be acting as flower girl, but we're not having a Maid of Honor, Bridesmaids or groomsmen. We will be involving our friends and family, but in different ways!

3. We're not doing a bouquet or garter toss (I'm not even quite certain that I'll be wearing a garter at all, I know, gasp!)

(source) (source)

These are just traditions that did not really speak to us, so we're scraping 'em!

4. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue

I guess we're not actively not doing this one, but we're not actively pursuing it either! It may be that I end up with all of these things, but I may not, either way, we're ok!

However, we will be doing many other traditions that are meaningful to us - all that and more to come!

How did you choose which traditions to keep and which to scrap? Were these difficult decisions to make? Did you leave anyone incredulous at your decision?