Every wedding is special, but there is something about a Jewish wedding that for me is extra special. As someone who wasn’t raised in the community and who was completely unfamiliar with the traditions and customs involved in Jewish weddings, I am, by all accounts, an outsider. Over the last five years, though, I have gone from not knowing the difference between a tisch and a hora to shooting around 15 to 20 Jewish weddings a year and becoming well-versed in the myriad traditions that take place.

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While it’s impossible to showcase all of them here, the following ones are some that you’ll definitely want to make sure to document.

1. Kabbalat Panim

Before the wedding ceremony begins, guests are welcomed into the kabbalat panim, which translates as “receiving faces.” Two separate ceremonies traditionally take place at this point: the male guests go to the groom’s table, and the women attend the bride in another room.

2. Ketubah Signing

The signing of the ketubah, or Jewish marriage license, is considered an integral part of a traditional Jewish marriage and outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom, in relation to the bride (or in more modern ceremonies, one bride to another or one groom to another.) Two witnesses sign the marriage contract, typically in a private room also attended by the rabbi, the wedding couple and close family. In an Orthodox Jewish wedding, two witnesses unrelated to the bride or groom are chosen to sign using their Hebrew names, therein making it a kosher, legal document.

3. Bedeken 

The tradition of the bedeken ceremony, or the veiling of the bride by her groom, can take place at the end of the kabbalat panim or at the end of the ketubah signing if there is no formal kabbalat panim beforehand. 

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4. Chuppa

The Jewish wedding ceremony takes place beneath the chuppa, which typically consists of a cloth or sheet stretched or supported over four poles. It symbolizes the home that the couple will build together. After the bride has been given the ring, or at the end of the ceremony, the groom breaks a glass with his right foot, and the guests shout mazel tov (congratulations).

5. Tisch

A traditional Jewish wedding begins with a groom’s tisch, or table. The groom attempts to present a lecture on the week’s Torah portion, while his male friends and family heckle and interrupt him.

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6. Sheva B’rachot 

After the wedding meal, grace is recited (birkat hamazon), followed by the chanting of sheva b’rachot, or seven blessings, which includes blessing and drinking from the second cup of wine. The first cup is drunk from during the blessings of betrothal. During this tradition, prayer booklets, or benchers, may be handed out to guests. 

7. Hamotzi

The wedding meal begins with this blessing over the challah bread, by the couple’s parents or other honored guest.

8. Mezinka

This is a dance for the parents of the bride or groom when their last child is wed. The parents are often given brooms to finish “sweeping their children out of their home” and to celebrate that all of their offspring are now settled into their own families.

9. Hora

This celebratory dance involves dancing around in circles, typically to the song “Hava Nagila.” At weddings, the bride and groom are lifted on chairs in the middle of the circle. 

Tara McMullen is the founder and lead photographer at Tara McMullen Photography in Toronto and Prince Edward County (Ontario, Canada), where she lives during the week with her son, Lachlan. On weekends Tara is back in Toronto, Muskoka, NOTL (Niagra-on-the-Lake), and elsewhere to make magic with her incredible couples.