You will need two wine cups and a bottle of wine for the wedding ceremony under the chuppah. Most brides prefer to use white wine just in case it spills. White wine on a white dress is not nearly as great a dilemma as red, and most rabbis will recommend white wine for this reason.

The two wine cups will be used for the two sets of blessings recited under the chuppah. The first set is said at the beginning of the wedding ceremony, and it consists of two blessings. The first blessing is the hagafen, the blessing over the wine itself. The second blessing sanctifies the wedding and acknowledges that becoming married is a mitzvah.

We make a blessing over wine as part of the wedding ceremony because the wedding is considered especially holy. Not only is a wedding a mitzvah, but the Hebrew word for a wedding ceremony is kiddushin, sanctity. Just as the kiddush is said over wine on Friday night to sanctify the Sabbath, so, too, the holiness of a wedding ceremony demands sanctification over a cup of wine.

The second cup of wine is filled during the later part of the ceremony and is the cup over which the sheva berachot are recited. Though technically the cup that is used for the first two blessings could be rinsed and reused for the sheva berachot, the universal custom is to prepare a second wine cup for the seven blessings. This is especially appropriate since the second half of the wedding ceremony, the nisuin, during which the sheva berachot are recited, was originally a completely separate ceremony held at a later time after the erusin, at which the ring is given and the first two blessings are said over the first cup of wine.

These cups can be traditional silver kiddush cups from family or friends or they can be two glasses from your own home or from the wedding hall. Though many brides and grooms prefer to treasure these as keepsakes, if you just want to use two glasses from the caterer or hall that is fine.