The Wedding Yentas™ | A Guide for the Jewish Bride!™

Free Wedding Dress aka No, This Is Not A Joke

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Alison in Featured, Gotta Have It

What if you’re been there, done that, your wedding is over, and you have a wedding dress you’d like to sell? Sell it on PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com! What if you’re getting married and you’re itching for a designer dress or a specific gown that you can’t afford on the retail circuit and you’re wondering if you can possibly find it with a lower dollar amount attached? Shop on PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com! Okay, here’s another one for you: What if you’re broke and you find yourself looking at the clock when it says 11:11 and no black cats have crossed your path and the cop totally let you go with a wink and a warning when you were driving 60 in a 45? Well, you are a lucky gal and you should definitely be entering for a chance to win a beautiful wedding gown on, you guessed it, PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com.

Okay, so a little background first:

PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com can help any bride find the wedding dress of her dreams – and stay within her budget.

With thousands of new, sample and used wedding dresses by more than 300 different designers, your dream dress is just waiting to be found! Find every silhouette, neckline and style with prices from $100 – $10,000. There is truly a dress for every bride!

Know exactly what you want? Search by Designer, Search by Size and the Advanced Search are great options. For brides looking for inspiration, take a look at our Dresses We Love, Best Dresses for Your Shape and Best Deals pages.

So here’s the lucky part:

PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com is celebrating the New Year by giving away a $2,000 wedding dress! With over 7,000 gowns to choose from, the hardest part about winning might be choosing which wedding gown you’ll want to wear. Just imagine having 2,000 extra dollars in your wedding budget, and wearing your dream dress. If you win this giveaway, you will!

That’s huge money. That could be your flower budget! Or upgraded bells and whistles to your videography purchase! Or, quite a few mai-tais on your Hawaiian honeymoon! I mean, two thousand smackers. That would be s’cool. So you’ve got to enter because, really, how proud would I be if one of our very own Yentas won this phenom prize? I’d kvell like your bubbie did when you chanted the Torah in your half-girly-half-grown-up pubecescent voice at your bat mitzvah.

The contest runs from January 1 through January 31. You still have time. Gooooo! Enter here!

Best of 2011: Mazel Tov Moments

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Alison in Featured

Here’s another day with another installment of Best of 2011. This time, it’s all about that big mazel tov moment. Whether it’s the big glass-stepping moment or the juicy smooch under the chuppah, these best-of photos show such love and celebration that you can almost the hearty “mazel tov!” coming out the photos, through your monitor, and into your ears.

This moment is the reason why so many people love attending a Jewish wedding. The warmth and passion from the family and friends create such a loving environment. It’s easy to keep wishing the couple “mazel tov!” with snapshots of time like these. Brava to today’s best-of photographers for capturing the best moment in any Jewish wedding ceremony!

Erin & Jared | Photography by B &G Photography

Desiree & Richard | Photography by Heidi Ryder Photography

Stacy & Drew | Photography by Rosie Hernandez

Melissa & Josh | Photography by Gwendolyn Tundermann Photography

Emily & Seth | Photography by Kate McElwee Photography

Best of 2011: Hora & Chair Celebrations

Posted on January 4, 2012 by Alison in Featured

Continuing with this week’s Best of 2011 series, today it’s all about that part of the wedding that everyone cheers for. The part of the wedding that everyone smiles about. The part of the wedding that reaches all new heights. Literally. Today it’s all about the celebratory chair lifts during the Hora!

During the reception, the strongest wedding guests lift up the new married couple in individual chairs as their family and friends cheer and dance around them. It’s quite a thrill to be up that high, bouncing around as you hold on to your spouse via a napkin, but it’s all in the name of tradition! This moment usually makes for the best photos! Look below to see the best chair shots of 2011!

Nurit & Clayton | Photography by Sara France

Heather & Josh | Photography by David Michael Photography

Mia & Mike | Photography by Beautiful Day Photography

Lisa & Jason | Photography by Tamarack Studios

Erin & Jared | Photography by B & G Photography

Dana & Matthew | Photography by Bridgette Marie Photography

Real Jewish Weddings | Kyle, TX

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Alison in Real Jewish Weddings

From fighting comes… love? Yes. Diego first spoke to Becky with the soundtrack of a bar fight playing behind them. Irony makes for the best stories! It just goes to show, you can meet your love anywhere.

Even though the location of their meeting was rambunctious, their wedding day felt intimate and calm, thanks to the presence of family and friends. Their families helped take part in the planning process and they included special family members wherever they could.

Becky’s ring that was used during the ceremony belonged to her grandmother and the Kiddush cup was borrowed from her parents. Her mom made the chuppah and the piece with her hebrew name was the original that Becky’s mother had created for her confirmation. Becky’s crafty mom created a matching piece for Diego and they also added a Celtic and a Spanish piece to represent both of their heritages. The couple was inspired to use tree branches as their chuppah posts after reading about it in Anita Diamante’s book The New Jewish Wedding which was recommended to them by their rabbi. The tallit was her dad’s from his bar mitzvah, accomplishing the goal of utilizing Jewish ceremony symbols that had rich history. They also purchased a beautiful parents’ ketubah to give to Becky’s parents at their rehearsal dinner as a thank you for all they had done.

Mazel tov, Becky and Diego!

Venue- The Winfield Inn
Photographer- Katherine O’Brien Photography
Invitations- Escamilla Designs
Wedding Cake- Michelle’s Patisserie
Florist- Design By Sage
Officiant- Rabbi Steven Folberg
Ceremony Music- Christoper Arispe
DJ- Barshop Ollervidez Entertainment
Dress- Belle Saison Bridal
Suit- Al’s Formal Wear
His/Hers Jewelry- Samuel’s Jewelers
Hair and Makeup- Twenty Coats
Ketubah- Ketubah.com

Featuring this wedding was made possible through an editorial partnership with Two Bright Lights!

Best Of 2011: Shoe Shots

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Alison in Featured

This week, The Wedding Yentas is recapping some of the best photos of 2011. It’s impossible to choose the best without some guidelines, so each day there will be a Best Of for each category. See if your favorite photos made the cut!

Today is all about shoe shots. There is something so adorable and personable about seeing shoes peeking through the lavish wedding day ensemble. It’s like they want to make sure they get get a little love and attention, too. After all, they’re the special accessories that will be taking the bride and groom down the aisle to meet each other. Then there are the photos of shoes displayed like museum treasuries, and the photographer is the expert curator. Displaying the shoes is a talent. They can’t just be tossed on the floor waiting for the shutter click. For shame! No, no, the shoes should be complemented by pristine lighting and clever poses.

I can’t help it; I get a kick out of shoes!