VI P.
oga tklab:
Mazel Toy!
This engagement celebration
turned into something more.
David and Candy Cuttner
JENNIFER L. MATTLER
Special to The Jewish News
I
magine going to an informal
engagement party and having
the happy couple show up in
matching tuxedoes.
Picture a rabbi suddenly appear-
ing and traditional Jewish wedding
music playing as yarmulkes are
handed out.
That's how David and Candy
Cuttner formalized their love for one
another the second time around.
Mutual friends introduced the cou-
ple to one another. It all began with
a coffee date on Sunday, Oct. 12,
1997 at the Deli Unique Restaurant.
Candy recalled, "I was very
scared, it was my first experience at
dating again." When she arrived at
the restaurant she had a homemade
challah with her. She bakes them
every Rosh Hashanah and delivers
them to her friends. She decided to
give one to David. "It was a sweet
gesture," he fondly recalled.
Their relationship started out as
companionship, as many relation-
ships often do. It was certainly not
love at first sight. David was wid-
owed, Candy divorced and both
were a bit apprehensive about their
new friendship.
After about a year, their relation-
ship began to bloom into a love. On
Sweetest Day, Saturday, Oct. 17, the
happy couple became engaged and set
a date for a Memorial Day wedding.
As their Feb. 6 engagement party
at their friends' Farmington Hills
home approached, David and Candy
felt overwhelmed with their wedding
plans. So, the couple decided to sur-
prise their guests.
"We had three days to get a mar-
riage license," Candy said, "and had
to see if Rabbi Bitran would be
available."The excited couple told
only their immediate families, the
four engagement party host couples,
and the rabbi.
When Rabbi Leonardo Bitran of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek B'nai
Israel Center in West Bloomfield was
asked to marry David and Candy the
very next day he was surprised. "They
planned on getting married in May,
but I told them OK and that I would
show up after Shabbat had ended."
The Cuttners borrowed a chuppa
from the synagogue, but the poles
were too big to get into Dr. Joel and
Linda Forman's house. The hosts
made a make-shift chuppa with a tallit
they had brought back from Israel and
closet poles.
Fifty guests showed up to the
engagement party and around 9:30
p.m. Rabbi Bitran arrived. The guests
thought the rabbi had come to wish
the couple good luck, until the music
began to play. David's daughter and
son-in-law, Wendy and Philip Arnold,
and Candy's children, Joey and Loni
Marcus, walked down the stairs, fol-
lowed by their parents and Candy's
mother, Inez Cane.
The guests applauded as a CD
played traditional Jewish music.
"We got married in the Formans'
foyer,"David said. "Our kids held the
poles to the chuppa and everyone
enjoyed our impromptu ceremony.
After the groom broke the glass,
Dr. Saul Forman played "Hava
Nagilah"on the accordion. "We
danced," said Candy, "and it was just a
very heimish, old fashioned wedding,
like years ago in someone's home.
Added David, "It was just a blast and
so much fun. "
Rabbi Bitran believes "it was the
most unusual wedding I have ever per-
formed. People could not believe it,
and everyone was surprised. At first,
people thought it was a joke, but they
soon realized this engagement party
had turned into a very beautiful wed-
ding." 1-1
"
4/30
199,
Detroit Jewish News
55