Next to the bride, the most beautiful visuals at a wedding are the flowers. And lovely as nature makes them, it’s the florist’s creativity and skill that turn flowers into eye-catching, breathtaking arrangements. That’s where Raphi Heimowitz, creative director of Papaya Events in Clifton, shines. Clients show him

To mark her bat mitzvah, Hannah Cohen, a student at Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy in Stamford, organized a chesed project with Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) in which families in the Stamford community could buy two bouquets of flowers for $72—one for themselves as a pre-Shavuot gift and one for a widow who had

Masks are coming off and the doors to normalcy are opening. That’s good news for couples getting married. But with a limited summer calendar and a backlog of rescheduled simchas from pandemic cancellations, vendors are working hard to keep up with the demand. “Everybody wants to party every day and

If you’re planning a wedding, and looking for a venue that can safely handle many guests with fabulous food and gorgeous decor, get to know Northern Valley Affairs and the Art Factory, 70 Spruce Street in Paterson. To give you a taste of what your simcha can be, you’re invited to a Glatt Kosher COVID Conscious

Gary Rosenberg is in great demand as a baal koreh, someone who reads the weekly Torah portion, in Englewood’s shuls and backyard minyanim. “I was first asked to lain in shul in 1980. As there are 54 parshas, I thought I’d add one a year and complete the Torah by 2030,” he said. “But over time, additional

In a normal year, anyone planning a spring simcha would have the details locked in by now. But normal is still in the future. Although the pandemic is inching towards being controlled, event organizers and their clients are grappling with regulations that are changing daily and differ by state and country, making

When weddings and bar mitzvahs “as we knew them” resume, families might find themselves sitting at a reception and marveling at the talents of a certain singer who movingly sings Dror Yikra, Oseh Shalom and other classics.

Audiences might not be surprised to see that the singer intuitively

When a Jewish child comes of age, the show must go on, despite a pandemic or inclement weather. There’s a milestone birthday to acknowledge; for a boy there’s a parsha to lein. The big party of yesteryear is not yet on the agenda, but there are many beautiful ways to celebrate becoming a bar or bat

In addition to the date of birth according to the “regular,” or secular, calendar, we each have a birthday that corresponds to the Hebrew calendar. Visit https://www.aish.com/jl/l/ms/47139952.html?s=nbto find out when your Hebrew birthday is.

Podcasts are all the rage these days. Whether you’re cooking, running or driving, a good podcast is always the way to go. I’ve listened to podcasts for years, but I recently came across a new show that piqued my interest: the Jewish Wedding Podcast. I got a behind-the-scenes look at a thriving videography company,

Dov Katz is on the phone constantly with couples calling to book his bands, Krohma Music, OnKore and Sozo Live, for spring and summer weddings. “I think spring and summer will be crazy,” he said. “Couples who got engaged in September, or are getting engaged now, are waiting until they can go back outside.

I recently gave birth (yay!) during an unprecedented pandemic (boo!). Despite the craziness of giving birth, having a kid in and out of quarantine, and not having any family fly in because of travel restrictions, I still felt love and support from the people in my family and community. This came from some in the form of well wishes and