HELP! I have a Saturday Night Wedding Booked and need Rabbi..

I'm unfamiliar with Jewish tradition so please enlighten me- is there a religious reason behind not being able to find a rabbi for a Saturday evening?

I'm not in your area, but what type of rabbi are you looking for? You have plenty of time to look and you would think some reformed rabbis might be willing to do it.

Are you willing to switch to a Sunday wedding for the officiant if you don't find one soon? ETA: LB Saturday is the Sabbath, but it's really counted from Friday at dusk to after sunset on Saturday. Work is prohibited, but the stringency of the practice depends on the tradition.

Yes, it's technically Shabbat, the jewish people's day of rest. Some very religious people won't work or do anything on Shabbat which is every Friday from sundown to Saturday at sundown, including performing weddings.

Yes, we are more reform but still want a real rabbi to marry us. We do have time to look but I worry nothing will change a year from now if we don't have one. We have a deposit and a date locked in so I doubt we could change it now..

What do you mean a 'real rabbi'? ETA: I have been corrected by my Jewish FH that an ordained Reformed rabbi almost certainly wouldn't officiate a Saturday wedding. I am not Jewish and just kind of assumed they might since they drive and everything else... Why would you book a Saturday wedding if you knew you wanted a rabbi to officiate?

@A.Magill.in.May sorry I meant that I didn't want someone who was non-denominational to perform it.

I could bump the ceremony to 6:30 but it's supposed to be outside and I really wanted it to be during the day not at night, but I guess I might not have a choice

That could be quite difficult. Our rabbi, also reform, wouldn't do Saturday weddings. Another friend was in the same boat and ended up with an officiant instead.

We are getting married on a Saturday and having an interfaith ceremony (Catholic and Jewish). We looked for a rabbi for 6 months and were unable to find one to marry us. We faced difficulty because of the interfaith ceremony and because of the day of the week as well. We ended up finding a cantor, another Jewish figure, to marry us. I'm unsure if you would be comfortable with a cantor marrying you since he is not a rabbi, but I am on Long Island and I believe our cantor does the NJ, NYC, LI area if you are interested!!

Can you talk to your venue about moving it to a Sunday? You're over a year away so they still probably have Sundays in October 2018 open.

Thank you for explaining, I knew Friday was off-limits but had no idea that it carried over into Saturday.

I think in this case you need to be flexible. Understanding what your religion's restrictions are for these things, you either need to bend with the timing or with the officiant's denomination. If it's against tradition to perform ceremonies in this timeframe, it is strange to me to insist on this regardless.

That's not going to happen. If you want a Rabbi, it will have to be later. They most likely won't even drive before sundown. Sunset is expected to be at 6:29PM on 10/6. You have 2 choices: 1. Don't use a Rabbi, 2. ceremony will need to start at around 7PM. A lot of Jewish weddings on Saturdays have the cocktail hour before the ceremony for this reason. However, if you have any Orthodox guests, they won't be able to drive before sundown. Depending on where they live in relation to the venue, this can be a challenge.

We are not religious at all but my FH's cousin and his wife are orthodox and they are very important to us, so we decided to get married on a Sunday, since we wanted the summer and sundown is way too late.

Maybe I'm missing something... can you get married on a Sunday? We are getting married Sunday because of religious reasons with Saturday (Friday evening to after Saturday sunset was "off limits" for any wedding events, so we just planned accordingly.) Good luck!

@fallbride thanks, that's what I missed!

Rabbi Dennis Tobin, a personal friend and colleague of mine. He's been to your venue a number of times (there really is only one in FL....) and he's terrific. I believe he is here on WW, but if you google him, you'll find him. He's in northern NJ, and he is the preferred rabbi at almost every upscale venue in our area. He has been a temple rabbi for years.

www.rabbidennistobin.com

His website isn't glamorous, but he's a great guy. I called him to do a service for one of my best friends.

I would definitely look into the rabbi suggested here or maybe a cantor, or another spiritual Jewish officiant.

@Celia I did see Rabbi Tobin was on our preferred vendor list. Maybe I will look into him. Does he orchestrate Ketubah signings and do the whole jewish ceremony?

@Elizabeth who did you find? I'm in the same predicament.

View Quoted Comment Some? How about all. And the word “very” is misleading. So many streams and levels of observance will 100% not work. The term would be “those who are Shomer Shabbat”

Did you ever find someone?? i have the same issue!