Look, Ma, no propellers!

What's fun about planning a Chewish wedding is that our families get to learn about wedding customs from another culture.  My uncle, for example, recently asked me whether all of the men were going to wear "yamahas" at the wedding.  The image of Mr. HC with a piano on his head made me laugh so hard I almost choked. 

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He meant yarmulkes.

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It's customary for Jewish men (and, in the conservative and reform movements, sometimes women) to cover one's head with a yarmulke (also called kippah) at a wedding, regardless of whether the ceremony is taking place within a synagogue.  Usually imprinted with the couple's name and wedding date, a wedding kippah makes for a lovely keepsake.  

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Mr. HC and I have quite a collection of kippot of all colors from our friends' weddings.  But I've never seen him rewear them, since wedding kippot tend to be made out of filmsy fabric that makes them pop up really high, like beanies.  The resulting conehead effect is not cute.

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So I was determined to find kippot that lay flat on the head.

It turns out that unless one is willing to go with suede kippot, there aren't that many options. But quite frankly, we weren't so into the idea of suede. Crochet kippot were another option -- Ethiopia Judaica, for example, carries crochet kippot, which are handmade by Ethiopian Jews.

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But since we need about 150 for our wedding, crochet kippot, at $10 each, weren't really in our budget.

I was excited about the silk kippot I found at Jessy Judaica.  They come in elegant fabrics, such as brocade and shantung.  How great would the middle one be for a Chewish wedding?!

But around $40 a dozen, these were a bit too upscale for our wallets.

Thankfully, I found Mazeltops, a mom-and-pop operation that sells "new style satin" kippot. Their kippot are an affordable $24 per dozen, with free imprinting for orders of 5 dozen or more, and best of all, the new-style satins lay flat!  No beanie effect!  They also come in our wedding colors, violet and silver:

And Chaykah, the owner of Mazeltops, just couldn't be nicer.

Hope this post helps others of you looking to avoid the beanie look! 

What funny wedding questions have you fielded from your families?