Jewish Wedding Traditions

The Wedding Day in a Nutshell

Many of the Jewish wedding traditions are derived from ancient Jewish wedding customs dating back thousands of years. Orthodox Jewish weddings always include these customs. Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jewish people often gather meaningful Jewish Wedding traditions and incorporate them into their wedding day.

In traditional circles, both the bride and groom do not see each other for a week before the wedding. They then both fast on the wedding day, unless it falls on the day of the new Jewish month.

Pre-Chuppah (Jewish Wedding Canopy) Festivities

The wedding itself begins with the groom signing the Ketubah. The Ketubah is the Jewish marriage contract that acknowledges the commitment and obligations which the bride and groom have towards each other.

While this is happening, the bride sits like royalty in a separate area and greets all of the wedding guests. This is called Kabbalat Panim - where Hors d'Ouevres are often served.

After the groom signs the Ketubah, the crowd dances him to his bride for an ancient Jewish wedding tradition called the Bedekin. The Bedekin is when the groom lowers the veil over his bride's face. This custom has its source in Torah, specifically in a story about Jacob who thinking he was going to marry Rachel, married Leah whose face was completely veiled during the ceremony. Jewish grooms today perform Bedekin to symbolically acknowledge that the bride is indeed his beloved.

The guests are then escorted to the main hall for the wedding ceremony.

The Jewish Wedding Traditions of the Ceremony

While the groom is being escorted to the chuppah, the bride sits in meditative prayer. This is a wonderful Jewish wedding tradition that allows the bride to reflect on both her single life that is ending and her married life that is beginning. The rest of the wedding attendants walk down to the chuppah and await the bride's entrance.

The bride is then being escorted by both of her parents (or her mother and the mother-in-low) under the chuppah where the groom is already waiting for her. She then, in the ancient Jewish tradition, circles her groom seven times (or sometimes three times). This act symbolises the "new family circle" they are about to create together. 

Then a Rabbi welcomes the guests and invokes the blessing of G-d. Later, the Rabbi or cantor recites the kiddush, the blessing over a cup of wine, and the couple responds - Amen. The couple then drinks from the cup of wine.

The groom then takes a Jewish wedding ring and gives it to the bride, while reciting the marriage betrothal statement in both Hebrew and English, "With this ring, you are consecrated to me in according to the laws of Moses and Israel."

In Orthodox weddings, there is only one ring, from groom to bride, signifying the groom's commitment to the bride with a valuable object. After the bride accepts the ring, the Rabbi or an honoree reads the ketubah for all to hear, and then hands it to the groom, who in turn hands it to the bride.

Generally, this is when the Rabbi makes a short speech. Afterwards, the Rabbi or an honoree recites the sheva b'rakhot, or seven Jewish wedding blessings, which praise G-d and wish the couple blessing in their new life.

Finally, the best-known traditions of Jewish weddings occurs - the breaking of the wedding glass.

After the Chuppah Jewish Wedding Traditions

The breaking of the glass ends the actual ceremony. The crowd then dances the couple to a private room, where they spend 10-15 minutes alone, this is the time to exhale and embrace. In those few minutes they not only break their fast together but they also have a moment to relax and digest what has just taken place.

The bride and groom then enter the dining hall for the first time as a married couple and the festivities begin. Like at any wedding, there is dancing, music and good food. An honoree says the blessing over the bread, and the grand meal begins. After Birkat Hamazon is said (the grace after the meal) the Sheva B'rakhot are repeated.