HUPPAH – The wedding canopy symbolic of the couple’s first home together. It often utilizes a prayer shawl in its construction. The term can also refer to the wedding celebration itself, “Join us for Huppah at 7:00 followed by our celebration and dinner.”
KETUBA – The wedding document that spells out the rights and responsibilities to each other within the marriage. This ancient document is signed by two witnesses before the ceremony and read at least in part during the ceremony in front of the assembled community of family and friends. Many contemporary artists and calligraphers have restored the ketuba to a venerated art form as well as a ritual document.
7 WEDDING BLESSINGS – The final blessings of the ceremony complete the transition of two individuals into a sanctified couple. Among their themes, they recall the joy of paradise, the holiness of intimacy, and the sublime completion of the individual through the couple-hood of marriage. In more traditional celebrations they are repeated at the end of the wedding feast during the Grace after Meals.
Author Credit: Rabbi David Greenspoon
Image Credit: themodernjewishwedding.com