Weddingbee Blog

When I last left you, this handsome groom was looking for something. By the look on his face here, I think he may have found it.

It was me! I may have been a little excited.

Here we are, seeing each for the first time (again!) officially during the wedding!

Looking out together, to see all of our guests

Realizing that this is really about to start!

Our absolutely wonderful and amazing Rabbi, Rabbi KB, came over to kick things off

KB was the rabbinic intern when we were active at Hillel at NYU. We have known him for years, and absolutely love him. We were so lucky and happy to have him be the rabbi at our wedding. He was amazing!

Here he is, welcoming everyone, and explaining what’s about to happen.

We started with the marriage license. Mr. HC’s dad signed first

My dad signed next

My turn

Mr. HC’s turn

Rabbi KB had us pull on the napkin, a ritual he likes to use to “make it officially official”

Holding on to each other

All of our official documents

Oh, you guys, I am such a mean bee! I totally introduced you to my ketubah choices ages ago and then never told you which one we chose!! This is a paper cut on a watercolor background. What do you think?

Our program text explained a little bit about the ketubah (in case you are interested, we used the traditional aramaic text for the Hebrew in the Torah with the Lieberman clause,  which basically says that if I want out, I am entitled to make that decision, most Conservative Rabbis now require this as part of the Ketubah. Then we found a “translation” for the English that we really spoke to us—we adapted a passage from Anita Diamant’s “New Jewish Wedding”).

Ketubah - The Marriage Contract

Escorted by his family and friends, Mr. Hermit Crab will be lead from the Chatan’s Tish to the Kabalat Panim, where the Ketubah will be signed. This document outlines Mr. Hermit Crab’s legal and ethical obligations to Miss Hermit Crab as her husband. Along with Miss Hermit Crab, Mr. Hermit Crab, and Rabbi KB, four witnesses will sign the ketubah:

LC, childhood friend of the groom

RG, childhood friend of the groom

EH, friend of the bride and groom

DK, childhood friend of the bride

EH signed first - a close friend of both of ours from our time in Syracuse

The Ketubah signing was one honor that we wanted to give to our friends. In order to have a legal conservative Jewish Ketubah, we had to have at least two signers, both Jewish and not related to either of us (male or female). We decided to have four, and include four friends in that way (and they all just happened to be male).

DK signed next—one my best friends as far back as I can remember—at the latest, we became friends in second grade

RG signed next. He’s one of Mr. HC’s oldest and closet friends, also from second grade (and getting married in September!)

LC signed next - another of Mr. HC’s closet friends from forever

My turn - I had been practicing my Hebrew signature!

Mr. HC’s turn

and finally Rabbi KB to bring us home!

All signed and official!

Having finished the ketubah ceremony, and overcome with emotion, we embraced before it was time for the next part!

Hermit Crab wedding tip #14: If you have traditions or rituals that you want to include in your wedding, but you’re not sure all of your guests will know them, write a program describing them. And then, actually hand that program out when the traditions start so people are not totally confused! (There may or may not have been a TON of confusion at this point…everyone survived.)

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