The chuppah stone is a commemorative stone embedded in the wall of a former synagogue, marking the spot where Jewish weddings were performed under a canopy (chuppah). These stones are primarily found in southern Germanyand are often decorated with a Star of David, symbolizing good fortune.

In the center of the star, the Hebrew words "mazl tov" are inscribed. The star symbolizes mazl ("sign" or "luck"), connecting to the Yiddish phrase "Massel haben" ("to be lucky"). The groom's traditional breaking of a glass may occur on or near the stone, symbolizing either the destruction of the Temple or the fragility of life. The stone also bears a Hebrew inscription from the prophet Jeremiah (7:34 and 33:11), which reads: “voice of rejoicing, voice of joy, voice of the bridegroom, voice of the bride”—a verse included in the Seven Blessings recited at weddings.

Happy Tu B'Av / ט"ו באב שמח ! ♥️

Four pieces of a chuppah from Heves, Hungary. 1876.

Marriage ceremony among Nuremberg Jews, early eighteenth century

Via THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

We took a few days off from studying in August and had a tiny back yard wedding with our parents and my brother. Tons of stuff went wrong and it was magical and perfect!

Also we got to design and create basically everything for it!

We built the chuppah!

I built the frame with some help from my dad and my wife, my mom and my wife and I decorated it, and a family friend constructed the flower arrangements. I decorated rainbow bunting with poem excerpts and quotes from queer writers and advocates!

I decorated our Ketubah (and muddled through making some key changes to the Hebrew template I found) - it has personal information on it so I won’t show a close-up but it’s a gorgeous watercolor rainbow with flowers and it was very last minute but came out better than I expected!

We danced a lovely waltz (barefoot, in the scorching heat, on a slope) to Ludo’s Anything For You!

I baked a cake! The cake itself is prickly pear and blood orange, with a prickly pear citrus buttercream frosting and candied sage and flowers (orchids, I think?)

My wife made cupcakes! Blackberry, sage, and earl gray, with a blackberry and sage buttercream and candied sage leaves!

I made a signature cocktail! Gin (Hendrick’s Limited Edition Midsommer botanical gin, which is amazing), a homemade fig and rosemary syrup, and tonic water (1:1:2). It’s called Love in a Time of Quarantine and it doesn’t show up well in the picture but it had a lovely gradient to it, with a light pink at the top fading into a deeper pink towards the bottom.

(I didn’t think to take a picture until after my mother-in-law and I sampled it - it was a hit with my mom, who hates gin, and my brother, dad, and wife, who don’t really drink, so I’m calling it a win!) Bar prep has been hell, especially since my wife and I are prepping to take the same test at the same time and have been feeding off each others’ anxiety and stress (and we’ve spent five months studying for an exam that is designed with a two-month study period in mind) but looking back over wedding photos and remembering the fact that, after almost ten years together, we’re finally married and have the rest of our lives together has helped ground me significantly. After the bar, I’ll be spending ~15 hours a week or so doing research for one of my favorite law professors (studying decoloniality, self-sovereignty, and indigenous cosmovisions as they pertain to environmental and human rights) but other than that, we have the next 3-4 months basically free, making it the longest period of time my wife and I have ever had together without significant time constraints and that’s basically what’s getting me through the next three days.