Planning a Jewish wedding can feel like juggling a dozen moving parts at once, from choosing the perfect venue to deciding which traditions to include. For Jewish couples looking to blend traditional customs and personal style, this can be especially overwhelming. We spoke to three recently married couples who shared their experience and advice, offering practical yet heartfelt ways to make the day uniquely personal and rooted in Jewish tradition.
- Consider a glass art piece made from your breaking the glass
Simon and Galya Fedderly were given a custom stained glass “wedding smash glass bean” from NolaGlass. It was given to them by Simon’s family before their wedding. The cup-like glass bean was used in the breaking the glass ritual during their wedding ceremony. The couple chose sunset colors to match the theme of their wedding.
After stepping on the glass, the couple had the broken pieces transformed into a small sculpture to have in their home.
“They make it into an art piece and send it back to you so that you can have a memento of the events and everything,” Galya said. “That was really cool to us.”
Jacob and Bianca Markey had a similar idea. They bought their glass piece from YafitGlass on Etsy and had the artist turn the pieces into Shabbat candles.
“I would say, try and find all the ways you can customize it,” Bianca said. “For me, that was doing the Shabbat candle holders … Something I can actually use every single day…”
- Make a community flower ketubah
Jordan and Dalilah Conen chose a floral themed ketubah for their wedding, with a twist on the traditional Jewish marriage contract.
During their wedding ceremony, the couple pressed dried flowers onto their ketubah. Then, during the wedding reception, they invited their guests to come before the ketubah to press their own flowers around the text of their marriage contract.
“It came together to make this really, really beautiful collective art piece that will display in our home, not only to remember the covenant that we made as a couple, but also everyone that was involved in it,” Dalilah said.
Dalilah is excited to display the art piece in her home, where she and her husband can enjoy it and show visiting loved ones, a living memory of their wedding day.
“If we were to host a dinner or something, and someone that was at our wedding came into our home and saw our Ketubah, they could say, ‘oh, I put that flower there,’” Dalilah said.
- Personalize your rituals or readings
For Simon and Galya Fedderly’s wedding ceremony, instead of the bride circling the husband seven times, the couple decided to circle each other in a three, three, and one circling pattern. For the last circle, the couple circled around each other. Both the bride’s mother and the mother-in-law also held the long train of Galya’s dress so she could circle more easily.
“My dress had a monster of a train, so I definitely needed help with carrying that for walking around,” Galya said. “So that was one way we incorporated [family], for sure.”
Galya’s grandparents walked down the aisle alongside Simon’s grandfather, and both grandfathers performed the blessing over the challah at the reception.
“The most important thing is at the end of the day, you just have to just do what you want and what you’re comfortable with…” Simon said.
At Jordan and Dalilah Conen’s wedding, the couple provided seven loved ones with blessings to read aloud during Sheva Brachot, which are blessings recited during a Jewish ceremony. The blessings were in English instead of Hebrew, so that everyone at the wedding ceremony could understand, not just Hebrew speakers.
“As a Jewish educator, I also sometimes take issue with just long blocks of Hebrew text that no one understands unless they’re a Hebrew speaker,” Dalilah said. “I think that it’s hard for people to find meaning in that if they’re not understanding the words that they’re saying.”
- Offer kippahs for guests to take home
At Jacob and Bianca Markey’s wedding, guests could take home kippot with the couple’s name and wedding date as keepsakes.
“It’s kind of a little token to take home with them as a reminder,” Jacob said.
- Develop a custom chuppah with meaningful items
Instead of a florist-made chuppah, Jordan and Dalilah Conen used trunks from birch trees that Dalilah bought off of Facebook marketplace. The couple also covered their chuppah with lace from Dalilah’s mother’s wedding dress.
“It felt like it served as a representation of the home, but also like it’s a shelter,” Dalilah said. “And I feel like maternal relationships mean a lot to me. So I liked that symbolism of having a shelter of maternal love.”
For Jacob and Bianca Markey’s wedding, Bianca’s mom bought cherry blossoms to adorn the chuppah with, in honor of the couple’s love for Japan.
“My mom’s an event planner. She actually did most of our wedding…” Bianca said. “She knows we really love Japan, so she got these cherry blossoms for inside the chuppah.”
- Hora flash mob and other traditional dances
During Jordan and Dalilah Conen’s wedding reception, the couple revealed a surprise, staging what Dalilah envisioned as a “hora flash mob”.
“We got a dance floor for a group photo. Jordan and I were in the front, in chairs for the group photo. As soon as it was taken, the lights went rainbow, and we went up,” Dalilah said. “I thought that was really cool. I don’t know if anyone else was surprised, but that was my master plan.”
Jacob and Bianca Markey wanted to make sure they incorporated a piece of Bianca’s Cuban heritage into the wedding reception. They danced the “hora loca,” a festive tradition originating in Latin America that is popular at weddings and other celebrations.
The couple said that the hora loca was one of the things they did that made reception truly feel like theirs.
“We went outside the ballroom – my immediate family, Jacob and I, and his parents – and when we came back in, they were blasting Gloria Estefan,” Bianca said. “We started playing Latin music for a solid hour… It was really fun.”
- Kosher-style or kosher-friendly reception menu?
Don’t forget to think about how you will approach dietary restrictions, including what will work for your guests.
You may choose to keep strictly kosher. Or, it’s not for everyone, but some Jewish couples opt for a kosher-style menu. For Jacob and Bianca Markey, the decision stemmed from wanting their guests who kept kosher to feel comfortable. Jacob keeps to more of a kosher style, while Bianca is a pescatarian.
“We wanted to make sure that people who were coming didn’t want to have to order something separate…” Bianca said.
Jews planning a wedding can also consider a more “kosher-friendly” menu.
Simon and Galya Fedderly opted for a menu that was along the friendly lines, conscious of guests who lean toward kosher. They deliberately avoided pork and shellfish and avoided mixing meat and dairy.
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Right: Jordan and Dalilah Conen’s finished ketubah .
Jordan and Dalilah Conen live in Whitefish Bay. Dalilah works in Jewish education as the director of teen initiatives at Milwaukee Jewish Federation. Dalilah and Jordan met in 2020 after she moved to Milwaukee for a job at Hillel, where Jordan was a student intern. The couple was married by Rabbi Joshua Herman at the River Club of Mequon in Milwaukee on May 25, 2025.
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Simon and Galya Fedderly live in Manassas, Virginia. Galya grew up in Jewish Milwaukee and attended Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid growing up. Simon was born in Virginia and grew up “all over,” according to Galya. The couple was married in Lake Geneva, on May 25, 2025.
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Right: “Bianca and Jacob” was written inside each kippah at the Markeys’ wedding.
Jacob and Bianca Markey live in Chicago. Jacob grew up in Brown Deer, where he attended Congregation Shalom. He was active in Hillel at the University of Wisconsin-Madison while he was a student. Bianca is from the Philadelphia area and attended Beth Or growing up. The couple was married at The Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee on March 30, 2025.
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