I was asked by my best friend and his fiance, who is Jewish, to make a chuppah for their wedding. Should it have come as a surprise that while I had been to a same-sex wedding before, I had never been to a Jewish wedding? Probably not, but, because that was the case, I said to Scott “yes, of course I will make you a chuppah! I would be honored and delighted! … what’s a chuppah?”

A chuppah (which is spelled a million different ways) is a wedding canopy. Now, I was in grad school at the time he asked me, so I totally indulged my inner research geek and wrote a paper on chuppahs for my History of Textiles course. So, I looked at a lot of chuppahs, and, a bit to my dismay, I found that there’s no one ‘traditional’ chuppah design. A chuppah can be anything, so long as you can stand under it. And that kind of design freedom can be scary. Especially when you really don’t want to screw it up because it’s your best friend’s wedding… So, I put a lot of thought into this one, and here’s how it turned out:

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I thought about their tastes, what the rest of the wedding would look like, what they might like to pass as a family heirloom, the setting, the light, the symbolism, etc… and on the practical side, I thought about what kinds of fabric I could get, what I knew how to do, and what I might like to try. I didn’t know how the heck I was going to inset a piece of lace around the whole thing, but, lo and behold, there it is…

Here they are under the chuppah…

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And here’s how it looked to them from under the chuppah…

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And, as registered bff and certified ‘crafty one’, I also designed the program, helped pick linens (almost made custom table coverings for each table…), and, my favorite: I wrote out the menu for the dinner on a little chalk board for each of the tables.

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And I was thrilled to be a part of it. Truly, honored and delighted! It was a beautiful day,  Khalil and I actually had an excuse to look at a ton of Martha Stewart Weddings magazines, and now I can say I’ve been to a Jewish wedding!

Mazal tov!!!

0 thoughts on “A Chuppah

  1. Your favorite Aunt says:

    Ohm my goodness little ‘a’. At first I thought a cup o’what??? Thought it was something to drink!!!! LOL. What a beautiful, beautiful canopy or cup of whatever!! You are just like Big ‘A’. I must have been out the day they gave out the craft genes.
    The blackboards on the table setting were a perfect reflection of your talent as well.
    WOW…picture perfect!! They are lucky to have you as a ‘best friend’ but I am even luckier to have you as a special silent daughter that was accidentally given to the wrong sister.
    Repeat after me Lissy…..D I A M O N D S!!!! That will fill your ‘cup of whatever’…. :-0

  2. Lisa P. says:

    WOW Alyssa, that is absolutely beautiful!!! I love the way the tables look with the little chalkboards and the beautiful linens. Job well done.

  3. "Little" Nancy says:

    Hey there!
    I love the website and the quilt with the kites!!!!!!
    The print on the apron is beautiful:)
    hope all is well.
    Gram is here she says Hi 🙂
    Love you!!

  4. DCSas says:

    Oh my gosh … that is all beautiful. I’m so impressed. You did an amazing job, and the tables looked beautiful too!!

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