Jewish Weddings in the 21st Century

By Natalie Buchbinder

Finding a Jewish partner has become easier thanks to popular dating website J-Date, tailored to the Jewish search for love.  But for millennial brides, who have grown up in the shadow of a booming wedding culture on television and the Internet, the quest to blend modern wedding trends with traditional Jewish values can be a daunting task.

But thanks to Austin, Texas wedding planner Michele Schwartz’s new online magazine, The Modern Jewish Wedding, planning the perfectly trendy Jewish or Jew-ish wedding just got easier.

“Other modern wedding magazines can speak to Jewish brides, a Jewish bride can infer inspiration from them,” Schwartz said. “But rarely do they showcase a beautiful chuppah, a modest dress if the bride is Orthodox, and rarely do they showcase a wedding where the bride is on the right of the groom.”

From personal touches to ceremony ideas, Schwartz noted that Jewish weddings are starting to embrace other cultural values, and the reverse holds true as well.  Most notably is the trend towards modesty that Schwartz has seen evolving over recent years in both religious and secular weddings.

Schwartz, a former executive, left the non-profit industry to follow her passion of planning Jewish life-cycle events for Dallas-area Temple Emanu-El.  Noticing a lack of resources for Jewish brides on the market, Schwartz set out to create a market of her own, embracing all variations and interpretations of Jewish values.

“We are very centered and have a lot of traditions around our life cycle events,” Schwartz said.  “To infuse a wedding with some of those traditions that feel right for you, anywhere from an interfaith marriage where they want to stomp on a glass or have a chuppah all the way to the Orthodox wedding…Can make your ceremony very personal.”