Chuppah Holders?!

Robin477

My finance and I want to include a few more people than just our wedding party, which is already big enough. I've been told we can have chuppah holders, but we will be having a freestanding chuppah. We don't want the chuppah holders to stand up there during the whole ceremony. Is there a way to include chuppah holders in the wedding and just have them walk down the aisle with something then sit down? or is there another good way to involve a few more people in a jewish wedding?

alinaandjared

Depending on what your chuppah is made from, you could have chuppa carriers (this would require the fabric to be free to hang between the 4 polls, my chuppah had metal beams making the square so it wouldn't work). Have 4 carriers bring it down the aisle and set it into 4 holds on the bimah or whereever it needs to be. Consider also that the Chuppah legs probably can't be decorated with flowers in that case. You could also have people do readings- we selected people to read the 7 blessings in hebrew.

Rachiemoo

It seems a little silly to me to have chuppah holders for only part of the time. I think its fine to have chuppah holders even if the chuppah is freestanding, but I think it would be strange to not have them there for the entire ceremony. I think that if you're trying to involve more people you should have them read out parts of the sheva brachot (the seven blessings). You could have them do it either in English or Hebrew or both.

2dBride

Following up on what Rachiemoo said, we had one person read each of the seven blessings, one person do a reading, and one person do ha-motzi after the ceremony.  We also had one operating the music CD we used for the ceremony and one videotaping the ceremony.  Even without chuppah holders, we pretty much included our entire guest list that way.

silversparks

I agree with Rachiemoo... As a guest I would be confused about part-time chuppah holders, and I think the easiest way to include more people in the wedding is by asking them to recite one of the sheva brachot - if you recite each one in Hebrew and English you can add 14 "honourees" (you do then have to be very organized about seating arrangements and traffic directions). Also, if you have anyone who sings, there are lots of places to add music. Are you signing the ketubah/having a badeken/tisch publicly before the ceremony?

slbriz34

Ditto on the readings.  If you don't want to have 7 folks, then you can just have 3-4 and a few will have more than one blessing. If you are looking for other ways to include folks, ushers are always a nice touch too (and they can be of either sex); someone to pass out programs and/or kippot - up to you and how your day is set up. But if you are having a free standing chuppah, it would be strange to have "holders."

amyannosu

My husband and I are going to be chuppah holders in a wedding next year, but we don't know yet exactly how long we'll be up there.