Living Jews: Sara Marcus of The Jewish Wedding Network

Marriage isn’t really a word in my lexicon. It’s not that I don’t believe in marriage, and quite a few of my friends are marching steadily towards that path.. . it’s just that I think it is far enough in my future, that worrying about it now does me no good.

That’s partially why, when I received an email from Sara Marcus, the energy behind PopJudaica.com and JewishWeddingNetwork.com, referring to an introduction from (The St. Lou Jew’s favorite St. Louis Jewish artist) Maya Escobar, I was amused, and intrigued.

After a few days of scheduling snafus, I had the opportunity to connect on the phone with Sara, and might just have convinced her to take a road trip through St. Louis.

The interview with Sara started out rather unconventionally, in that she asked all the questions. She was really interested in learning about both Jewish life in St. Louis, as well as some of the organizations we have been involved with.

Once we finally steered the conversation to her, it became apparent very quickly that the Jewish Wedding Network is an idea that comes from an identified need, and has grown very quickly into a very useful resource.

Sara spoke about the experience of planning her own wedding, back in 2006. She said that despite the wealth of general wedding planning resources out there, very little, if anything, existed for planning a Jewish wedding.

She said that there were so many questions that arose in the course of the planning, things like, “what kind of Ketuba should you have” and “what should the Chupa look like”. She wanted her wedding to reflect her and her husband’s creativity, but also incorporate Jewish traditions. In one piece of creativity, Sara's bouquet was comprised of J-Date profiles that she thought would fit her friends.

After the wedding, she had 'wedding withdrawal', which is when the idea for the Jewish Wedding Network appeared. Having some experience in the online Jewish space, she looked decided to incorporate all of the things she wished she had known before the wedding.

The piece de resistance, as Sara puts it, is bride blog, in which Jewish brides blog about topics from serious to frivolous. Many cover wedding dresses, invitation designs, or family issues that come up along the way. Each bride provides a unique perspective and a new way of looking at how to have a Jewish wedding.

The site launched on April 15th, and has already brought quite a bit of positive feedback.

Sara, herself, has really enjoyed the experience.

"Its really great to be around people who are in love, and excited... its contagious"

Be sure to check out Sara's sites online at www.JewishWeddingNetwork.com and www.popjudaica.com