a bakelo wedding

Photography Details

Yasmine, Yesenia’s sister, will be the photographer.

She takes pictures like this one:

Ceremony Details

Neither Rachel nor Yesenia are very religious. Rachel’s family are Reformed Jews, and Yesenia is an atheist. The ceremony will incorporate a few Jewish elements like:

• Jewish candle blessing
• A chuppah (Jewish wedding canopy)
• A ketubah (Jewish wedding contract)
• Stepping on the glass (Yesenia’s favorite part, remember to say “Mazel Tov” after she does it!)

To balance out the Judaism:

And:

P.S. I’m kidding about the cowboy boots. Really.

Chuppah in the Making

Neither of us are very religious, but we are incorporating a few Jewish traditions into the wedding.

One really fun project is building a chuppah, the traditional Jewish wedding canopy! Instead of bridal attendants, we’ve asked our sisters and a couple of close friends to hold the chuppah during the (short) ceremony.

The chuppah itself will consist of four poles and a piece of fabric. The current dilemmas: what kind of poles to use and what fabric?

These people used bamboo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/c2tink/3759706235/

I dunno what these people used, but I like their style: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the-doctors-epstein/1414296629/

Papel Picado

Papel picado is the name for these awesome festive Mexican party streamers. I especially love the ones found above. After a trip to Little Village/Pilsen over the weekend, we didn’t find exactly what we were looking for, so I’ve decided to make custom papel picado for us! Why not?

Day-of Coordinators

We met with our fabulous day-of coordinators, A. and T. today. They were fun and professional and more organized and wedding-nerdy than Rachel and I could have hoped for! They are fellow nonprofit professionals who are starting a wedding consulting service, I know our day will be in trustworthy hands.

Beer and Wine Tasting

This Saturday, we had a beer and wine tasting to sort out the bar menu for the wedding. Rachel proclaimed it “better than Christmas morning” as we hovered outside Smoque waiting for it to open. We ordered all 4 meats that will be on the wedding menu (brisket, pulled pork, ribs, chicken) and brought them home to sample and pair.

The Results:

Red wine was up to Yesenia to choose, as Rachel doesn’t drink it. The big merlot was out of the running early on as most people deemed it too heavy. In the end a Coppola blend was chosen.

White wine was up to Rachel to choose, as Yesenia doesn’t drink it. The pinot grigio was out of the running early on as most people deemed it just plain bad. In the end a sauvignon blanc was chosen. With a monkey on the label.

Beer was (and continues to be) a tough choice! In the running still: Fat Tire, Domain Dupage, Metropolitan Dynamo lager, Bell’s Amber ale.

Invitation Details

Our invitations:

RSVP Card:

Headband

Yesenia will be wearing a gorgeous headband from Etsy.

Invitations in the mail!

Invites are in today’s mail, those of you in Chicago should be receiving yours soon.

We were geeked to use Simpson stamps! (You can buy a supply for yourself too!)