Wednesday, June 2, 2010

One Last (I promise) Thing About the Wedding

All right, I’m trying to come down off my wedding high, but it’s not easy. Sue me. It was so lovely, seeing the sweet couple and all of their lovely, loving friends. (Did I fail to mention that the Daffodil assembled one of the all-time most impressive team of attendants ever? She did. They had it all, individually and as a body. Smart, sweet, great-looking, fun and accomplished enough to make me feel like the most under-achieving slug of all time. Here’s a shout-out to the ladies who looked after and cared for my new daughter-in-law (de facto no more!) in such grand style. Yo, Nicole, Emily, Jenni and Tanya! Y’all rock!)

So before we close out the wedding chapter, and because some of you were kind enough to ask for photos of the wedding canopy, here’s a 2-minute video that the Center of the Universe created.

If you’ve never been to a Jewish wedding, let me explain. Er—the canopy, not the video. Jewish weddings are traditionally held under a canopy called a chuppah. It symbolized the home that the new couple is creating by their marriage. It’s open on all sides to indicate that they are part of a community, and will welcome strangers into their lives.

Because I do custom machine embroidery, my son and his then-fiance asked me to make their chuppah, as I had made the one for my daughter and son-in-law six years ago. I was honored.

The chuppah is made of eleven and a half yards of ivory poly-silk. It is 7 ½ feet square, and contains nearly 275,000 stitches of embroidery. I believe the bride and groom hope to hang it in their home in the future.

As you will see in the video, there is a center medallion with their names and their wedding date, and the Hebrew words “Ani l’dodi, v’dodi li.” It’s from the Song of Songs, and means “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.” The four edges of the chuppah include their names and their wedding date, both in Hebrew and in English, and repeat the Hebrew verse cited.

My ongoing thanks to CoTU for doing the photography, and magically turning it into a lovely little video complete with music. My thanks also to the bride and groom for asking me to make it for them.

4 comments:

  1. Very beautiful Miss Leah!
    Actually, in my book, you can stay on the wedding high as long as you like!

    I too have an embroidery machine and I do SMALL projects. There is no way I would undertake what you made. I'd be so stressed out! I'd get to the last set of stitches and I'm sure there would be some issue and I'd have to start all over again.

    Well done!
    :-)

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  2. First, that is a gorgeous chuppah. I had no idea they might be so lavishly embroidered. And the video makes it a double gift!

    Second, STAY on that wedding high. Why come down? When life gives us such a great gift, let's just keep it alive as long as possible! It's just as much a reality as the "real life" you probably think you need to get back to.

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  3. Absolutely lovely. The video was so wonderful. Enjoy the moment as long as you want.

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  4. Oh my Leah....your creativity is delightful! I love Jewish tradition and your chuppah is so beautiful. I hope you have a business for yourself doing embroidery for others....your work is just stunning!

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