{Real Jewish Weddings} New Orleans, LA | The Wedding Yentas™

Jeremy and Rose were both students at Tulane Law School in the Spring of 2008 and met while Rose was interviewing for an internship at Jeremy’s law firm and it should be illegal how cute their story is! The first night Rose and Jeremy hung out, they stayed up until 6 a.m. talking. On their second date, Jeremy invited Rose to his apartment to watch a movie. The movie he had rented for them to watch was Across the Universe – not knowing that Rose was (and is) a huge Beatles fan. Because of that date, Rose and Jeremy decided that their first dance as a married couple should be to the song “Across the Universe” and they also chose “I want to Hold Your Hand” as their recessional song at the end of their ceremony.

Rose and Jeremy wanted to have a traditional Conservative Jewish Wedding. Since Rose is born and raised in New Orleans, Jeremy’s mother is originally from New Orleans, and Rose and Jeremy reside in New Orleans, they also wanted to incorporate as many traditional New Orleans wedding elements as possible. To achieve both goals, Rose and Jeremy’s wedding included the following:

Jewish: Rose and Jeremy chose to get married on Saturday, June 23, the second-longest day of the year. Therefore, the bride and groom walked down the aisle at 9:30 p.m., one hour after sunset (and Shabbos). The wedding ceremony was preceded by a cocktail reception in the beautiful Waldorf-Astoria Ballroom. The cocktail reception began at 8:30 p.m. – a few minutes after sunset. Once the Rabbi arrived, Rose, Jeremy, their immediate family members and the wedding party had the Bedecken and Ketubah signing while the wedding guests enjoyed the cocktail reception. Immediately following the wedding ceremony, the curtains surrounding the Chuppah opened and the wedding guests found their seats for the wedding reception. The newlyweds spent that time in Yichud. Rose’s grandparents said Ha’motzi and then Rose and Jeremy made their entrance to the USC (Rose’s Alma Mater) fight song. The beginning of the reception also had an exciting, acrobatic, and lengthy Hora!

New Orleans: Rose and Jeremy had a groom’s cake, cake pulls in the actual wedding cake, a second line with umbrellas and handkerchiefs, and a “cocktail reception”-style wedding reception.

Sharing the special day with family, including and especially Rose’s three grandparents. Rose’s grandfather, Zeidy, who was 96, sang “Chozzan Kallah Mazel Tov” (a Yiddish wedding song) to the Bride and Groom under the Chuppah at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony (it was a surprise).

Rose and Jeremy selected special music for their wedding ceremony. Rose’s maternal grandparents walked down the aisle to their song “Always” by Irving Berlin, Zeidy, Rose’s paternal grandfather, who is a Holocaust survivor, walked down the aisle to a Yiddish wedding song “Chosson Kallah Mazal Tov,” the bridesmaids walked down the aisle to “Canon D” by Pachelbel, and Rose walked down the aisle, flanked by her parents, to the song they walked down the aisle to at their wedding, “Sabbath Prayer” from Fiddler on the Roof. As mentioned before, Rose and Jeremy recessed to the Beatles song “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

Around 2 a.m., after Jeremy and Rose’s exit in a “bubble tunnel” with bubbles blown from mini-wedding cakes, Jeremy and Rose joined at least 20 or so of their wedding guests at the Goldmine Saloon (a late-night bar in the French Quarter) after their wedding reception, and partied with them well into the next morning.

Mazel tov, Rose and Jeremy!