For Jodie’s 30th birthday, we had a surprise activity at Home Ec, a sewing workshop on 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn. Jodie knew she was having a surprise party, but she didn’t know where we were going or what we were going to be doing.
The surprise activity was crafting a patchwork chuppah (a Jewish wedding canopy that symbolizes the home that the wedding couple will build together) for our wedding.
Beforehand, I (Josh) recruited our dear friend Jenny Rittberg, a skilled DIY seamstress, to help design the chuppah and lead the sewing party. She and I picked out fabrics together at Mood and another fabric store in the fashion district and asked our friends to contribute additional fabric that had sentimental or other special meanings.
About 15 of our friends and family members joined us on Saturday, December 4 at Home Ec. Jodie was indeed surprised and after we explained what we were doing and Jenny gave some basic instructions, we got stitching. We ultimately produced about 25 squares that Jenny will help finish up and piece together to form our final chuppah.
