WEDDINGS
ALLOW MILLENNIALS TO
CUSTOMIZE THEIR NUPTIALS
AND SAVE MONEY
Scenes from weddings and
wedding showers
PHOTOS PROVIDED
L HILARY DANAILOVA | JE FEATURE
IKE A LOT OF MODERN COUPLES, Stephanie
and Daniel Braceland didn’t bother hiring a videogra-
pher for their August wedding at Philadelphia’s Read-
ing Terminal Market.

Instead, Stephanie, a special education teacher, created her
own Snapchat filter — #braceyourselves17 — and instructed
friends to post their smartphone videos online. “I like it better,
because it’s through my friends’ eyes and not the eyes of some-
one I hired,” explained the bride, who, ironically, moonlights as
a wedding photographer.

The Bracelands’ approach to videography typifies the DIY
(do-it-yourself) spirit of today’s Jewish brides and grooms,
whose desire to personalize their nuptials is often as strong a
motivation as saving money.

Plenty of thrifty couples still make their own centerpieces or
buy their own liquor to trim the budget, of course.

But the impulse to put one’s own handcrafted touch on wed-
32 OCTOBER 26, 2017
ding elements comes naturally for millennials, a generation that
knits for fun, cures pickles at home and curates their own social
media brands.

That was the case for Stephanie Braceland, who admitted
that she took on numerous tasks out of a desire to have things
just the way she liked them — and to express the uniqueness of
the couple’s Philadelphia foodie relationship.

“Every wedding I go to starts to look the same, so I wanted
to step out of the box,” said Braceland, 35, who considered only
unconventional venues for her interfaith ceremony (she is Jew-
ish; Daniel, a 33-year-old software engineer, is Catholic).

So she spray-painted tin cans for the floral centerpieces, put
Tastykakes and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews into Philly-themed
goodie bags, and bought white umbrellas for guests to do the
“Mummers’ Strut” in homage to her South Philly grandparents,
who had done the dance at her Bat Mitzvah two decades earlier.

“The millennials really want a story around what they’re
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