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We can help find a rabbi for your interfaith wedding. Check out our Clergy Officiation Referral Service.

 
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Guide to Wedding Ceremonies for Interfaith Couples

The links in the outline below will lead you to information about the various ceremony components and what they mean.

If you are looking for Jewish clergy to officiate at your interfaith wedding, we can help.

Modern-day Interfaith-Jewish Wedding Order

This can be adapted to your preferences, your officiant's or officiants' needs, or family preference.

  1. Signing of the Ketubah prior to the chuppah ceremony, usually half an hour or so before the scheduled wedding start time. Or during the ceremony.
  2. Chuppah Ceremony
    1. Processional
    2. Circling
    3. Acknowledgement of Different Faiths
      1. Blessing Over the Wine
      2. Shehecheyanu
      3. Blessing over Chuppah
    4. Poems, Prayers and/or Reading
    5. Reading of the Ketubah
    6. Unity Candle
    7. Exchange of Vows
    8. Ring Exchange
    9. Seven Blessings
    10. Benediction
    11. Breaking the Glass
    12. The Kiss! (THIS ONE IS UP TO YOU!)
    13. "MAZEL TOV!"
    14. Recessional
  3. Yichud
  4. Wedding party--Typically includes blessing over bread and blessing over wine offered by family and friends, as well as the wedding couple and their parents being lifted up in chairs, a Hora dance and possibly a Mezinke dance.

 


 

Other Information

 

The Guide to Wedding Ceremonies for Interfaith Couples is also available in PDF and Word formats.

Hebrew for "canopy" or "covering," the structure (open on all four sides) under which a Jewish wedding ceremony takes place. In its simplest for, it consists of a cloth, sheet, or tallit stretched or supported over four poles. Hebrew and Yiddish for "good luck," a phrase used to express congratulations for happy and significant occasions.
RELATED RESOURCES

 

InterfaithFamily. com is the premiere web based resource for interfaith couples exploring Jewish life and making Jewish choices, and the leading web based advocate for attitudes, policies and practices that welcome and embrace them. If you have suggestions, please contact network@interfaithfamily.com.