Today’s article comes from guest blogger Daniel Sroka.  I met Daniel over on Third Tribe – a forum for marketers, bloggers, etc..  He read one of my posts and struck up an email conversation. This conversation lead to him graciously offering to not only guest blog about his experiences working with Interfaith Couples, but also about his own experience putting together an Interfaith Ceremony.  He writes from the heart and I love that!!

The Beauty of Creating your own Interfaith Wedding Ceremony

Interfaith weddings can be the most beautiful of wedding ceremonies. Of course, being in an interfaith marriage myself, I may be biased! But when interfaith weddings combine the traditions and practices of both the bride and groom, I find that they become something special, transcending rote ceremony and becoming a uniquely personal celebration.

The way an interfaith ceremony gets created is the key to its beauty. Couples who are from the same religion can pretty much take their ceremony for granted. They can visit their priest or rabbi, get the template, make a few tweaks, and know they’ll have a 100% legit ceremony. Interfaith couples, on the other hand, don’t have this luxury. They have to creatively blend together the different parts of their traditions to craft a working ceremony.

The challenge of creating a ceremony often makes interfaith couples nervous and full of questions. How do you do it? How do you make it feel “real” enough? Will any of the relatives feel left out? But even though these questions can be nerve-wracking, they are the foundation of what makes an interfaith ceremony so special. Because interfaith couples can’t just take an off-the-shelf ceremony and call it a day, they need to think through every aspect of their wedding, considering every detail. This, I believe, results in a very meaningful and powerful ceremony.

In order to combine two different wedding ceremonies, interfaith couples have to review all of the practices within their religions’ ceremonies, and decide what to keep, what to change, and what to leave out. To do this, they first need to help each other learn, teaching each other about their religion’s traditions, symbols, and ideas about marriage. As my wife and I planned our own ceremony, we didn’t just learn about each other’s religion – we rediscovered our own, often surprising ourselves with what really mattered to us and what didn’t. We then went through each wedding tradition, discussed it, and decided if we wanted to include it in our ceremony, and how. Each part of our wedding was therefore a conscious choice. Each part of our wedding was born out of a deep discussion, and reflected a shared value.

The creation of the ceremony helped teach us how to discuss our differences, and find our similarities. Explaining the ceremony to our families helped us better understand our decisions and values. Even the experience of being a part of this blended, shared ceremony helped bring our families closer together. So while creating an interfaith wedding ceremony can take a lot of thought and planning, I believe it is worth it, because your wedding becomes a celebration that truly represents who you are.

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Daniel Sroka is a fine art nature photographer and the owner of Modern Ketubah. He creates modern fine art wedding ketubahs from his abstract photographs of flowers and leaves for interfaith, Jewish, and multi-cultural couples. He also writes the blog Open Studio about his experiences as a full-time artist/entrepreneur.

Ok, so Jennie spoke to Shayna Walker from Williamsburg Wedding Design about guest blogging on Strawberry Road.  When you ask someone to guest blog, you can generally anticipate a broad overview of a topic, reserving any real content at the guest blogger’s home blog.  Well, I dare you to read on!  Shayna wrote us an extensive, well thought out piece on how to plan a wedding.  From start to finish, she lays out some very helpful, insightful information with regards to putting together your big day.  If you’re planning a wedding, print this post, read it, live it, it’s just that good…

Planning a Wedding: Where to Start

Newly engaged? Congratulations! You’re sporting a gorgeous new ring and a huge smile.  Now what?

The Road to a Wedding

If you’re a little confused about where to start with your wedding planning, it’s no wonder. This could be your first wedding (or at least your first in a long time) and you don’t do this every day. Planning is a major investment in terms of time and money, and can be intimidating.  Consider wedding planning a process, and take it in little steps.

The First Steps

Get organized. Buy yourself a great wedding notebook. Some come with the tabs pre-labeled and pockets for things like receipts and business cards. Also, if you are going to consider a wedding planner, the most valuable time to get one involved is before you’ve done anything irreversible. They can save you time and mistakes.

Prioritize. This step sounds so simple but is incredibly valuable to the planning process and should not be skipped. Make a list of every possible category of services you could use at a wedding, from baker to transportation. Give the list to each person whose opinion truly matters (that’s you, your fiancé, and any parent or family member who is contributing a significant amount of cash).

Each of you should rank, from highest to lowest, how important each category is to you. Then compare lists. If they are vastly different, have a frank discussion about why they mean so much (or so little) to you and try to come up with one family wedding priority list that accurately reflects the combined values.  You will use this list throughout your wedding planning to help make tough decisions. It’s like a mini business plan for your big day.

Set a budget. You don’t necessarily have to break down every single expense just yet, but choose an overall budget. Unless you have limitless cash, you’re going to need to know this before you can legitimately start selecting venues and vendors, so have the talk now and pick a number.

Choose a date. Think carefully about selecting a holiday. It may sound convenient to you, but people like to spend holidays with their families and travel expenses are often higher on holiday weekends.  Also, pay attention to how weather will ultimately impact your plans. Outdoor weddings in the south in August can be pretty painful for guests; same with January weddings in the north.

Choose a location. Factors that determine your venue and even the city or state where you get married could include budget, proximity to family or close friends, features that appeal to your guests and of course, how the site reflects your dream wedding.

Choose your caterer, photographer, videographer and reception entertainer. Why these four next (after your planner and your venues)? Of all of the categories of wedding professionals, these are the four who can only possibly do one wedding per day (except some caterers, but many set limits). There may be others like a high-end wedding designer, or a ceremony musician, but as a general rule, these four are your highest risk for competition. Evaluate them carefully and make your commitments as soon as you are sure.

After you’ve done all of the above, you’re ready to start handling the rest of the details with a little more leisure. Your notebook should have a timeline in it (if it doesn’t come with one, there are plenty online and in wedding magazines) and you should check that timeline weekly to make sure you haven’t missed any big deadlines. With the above complete, you’re in great shape to plan a fantastic wedding day! Congratulations and good luck!

Shayna Walker is a professional wedding planner and owner of Williamsburg Wedding Design. She writes the World According to Weddlady, The Williamsburg Wedding Blog and Life in Weddings.

We recently got asked to guest blog for Weddlady.  And…well… ask and you shall receive!  I got to write about the uniquely empowering experience of boudoir photography for women; from our perspective.  It’s always nice to be asked, and even better when you get to see your thoughts being shared   So here’s the post!!!