The Miracle Wedding

Although not animal related, I think it's appropriate that I blog about this.

Stacy Lawrence, a close family friend and CEO of Make An Impression, invited me to serve as her assistant for the Rothberg and Kaplan wedding. I was only given about 48 hours notice, but I had the Why Not? attitude. Why not help a friend? Why not attend a wedding that was planned in 14 days? Why not meet a bride who has survived Stage IV cancer, has started her own charity, ComedyCures, and has moved across the US from California? Why not be able to network with people from Israel, California, Philidelphia, and locally?  Why not be part of an Orthodox Jewish wedding?

The Hora!

This is a segment of the Hora, a traditional Jewish dance in celebrating a special event. 

Jews know how to party and this could have gone on all night. What a blast!

The Bride and Groom next to their groom's cake. Made by Grandma's Kitchen!

So back to this 14 days business. In Orthodox tradition, a man and woman should not live together until they are married. Phil (the groom) moved to the east coast for work, and Saranne (the bride) moved to be here with him. They agreed that the best place to raise Phil's kids would be here. School was starting soon. It was important to have the wedding during this month not only to ease the kids' transitions, but also because this was a very spiritual month for Phil, as it is the Jewish new year. So, they wanted to make this happen.

The handsome, lucky groom, Phil Kaplan!

The lovely bride, Saranne Rothberg (now Saranne Kaplan!) and her Daughter, Lorielle, holding the dress.

They sent out "save the date" E-vites to family and friends at midnight a few weeks ago, and received 100 "yes" RSVPs by 6am the following day! Saranne's 19-year-old daughter, Lorielle (who has an incredible singing career ahead of her) has been instrumental in the creativity and planning the entire event. They literally did not sleep for 14 days straight to make everything happen.

So back to this cancer and chairty thing. When diagnosed, Saranne used laughter as medicine to heal her through her difficult time. She was then inspired to create her charity, ComedyCures, to share laughter to cancer patients across the nation. WOW! When I heard that this was the person I would be working for, it reminded me of the Relay For Life conference I had back in July, where Sarah Thomas from Ireland pulled together a Relay For Life in less than 12 weeks.
















As a result of her community involvement, infectious personality, and love of life and everyone in her life, Saranne created a web of friends, colleagues, family, and shul members who all dove in to help her and Phil's special day. Although meeting everyone for the first time, the warmth, love, and support they clearly had for Saranne and Phil radiated beyond the tight-knit community, and was trickled to the workers- the catering staff, security, the DJ, Klesmer band (who flew in from California just for the wedding!) planners/coordinators, and everyone else involved.

It gets even better. Saranne is meticulous and thinks about everything- even all types of weather.

Placecards were fans since the ceremony was 
in their backyard and it was warm out.

The giveaways were umbrellas, which had a logo (designed by Lorielle) with the word "witness" on it. Everyone who came was a witness that it was possible. I was a witness that it was possible.

And, the umbrellas came in handy when it began to rain.