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Creative License from page C22

for Molly it became the "something old." She took an ivory dress
from her closet — bought for around $60 in 2001 — and "for
$150 I had a brand new wedding dress designed. It was a dress
that I had always loved."
The real "something new" was the bird's nest veil that she
found on Etsy, the Website featuring hand-made and vintage
items. It met her criteria of a reasonable price and also sup-
ported a fledgling designer.
"Something blue" were the bright blue earrings (costume jew-
elry, she noted), inherited from her grandmother. She plans to
hand them down to her two sisters, Caitlyn and Robyn Melamed,
who were her maids of honor.
Although Nick isn't Jewish and Molly grew up in a mixed mar-
riage, she recently embraced Judaism, partly as a result of a
Birthright trip to Israel in January 2010.
"It was like the most moving thing," said Steve Schlafer, a
client of Molly's at the Equilibrium Pilates Studio in Bloomfield
Hills, to hear Molly tell how much the Birthright trip meant to
her.
"It was important to me that Jewish traditions were part
of the service," said Molly, the daughter of Barry and Cheryl
Melamed of Farmington Hills. As a result, she wanted to be mar-
ried under a chuppah, to close the ceremony with the breaking
of the glass and to dance the hora.

A barn in southwest
Michigan was the setting
for the wedding of Molly
and Nick Reeser, reflecting
the bride's lifelong love of
horses.

Right: Pinning a flower to
one of her bridesmaids,
Molly made it happen with
a dress she had hanging
in her closet, a bird's nest
veil bought on line, inher-
ited blue earrings and
flowers that "give you a lot
of bang for your buck."

Something Borrowed

When Schlafer, a Shaarey Zedek congregant, learned she was
going to buy material for the chuppah canopy, he offered his
tallis. "I thought it was a mitzvah," said the West Bloomfield resi-
dent who is first vice president at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
in its Global Wealth Management Group in Birmingham.
His tallis became her "something borrowed."
"My best friend, a gentile, and I went to Lowe's to get our

C24

celebrate!

I

March 2011

building supplies for the chuppah," Molly said. They found wood-
en poles, had them sized and then dyed them a soft brown.
They bought four flower pots, laid cement and then sod in
them and planted flowers for the base. A vine which trellised
the chuppah was later removed and used to decorate the head
table.
A close friend of the couple went on line to gain credentials
to marry them — another way to limit costs. He researched and
then explained each ritual's symbolism to the 120 guests.
"Interestingly, one of my guests who isn't Jewish told me that
after attending our wedding she's interested in incorporating
some Jewish traditions into her upcoming wedding," Molly said.
For the wedding program, she identified each of the partici-
pants with a caricature, which she uploaded from an application
on her cell phone. "They really looked like each of them," she
said.
Creative License on page C26

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