Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog - Inspired Jewish Weddings

A Paloma Blanca Bride for a Beachside Destination Jewish-Scottish Wedding at Al Hayam, Caesarea, Israel

25/05/2018 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

Today’s destination Jewish wedding is serious #chuppahgoals. UK couple Natasha, who is a head of sales, and Adam, an investment banker, opted for a destination wedding at gorgeous Al Hayam in Caesarea, Israel.

The pair wanted a statement chuppah, but at the same time didn’t want anything to overshadow the jaw-dropping ocean view from their venue – take a look through their photos by STG Fave Ronen Boidek and you’ll see why!

What they ended up with hits just the right balance between luxe and simple: four narrow poles covered in greenery and white and cream flowers, all under a canopy of delicate lace. It’s just so elegant, yet exquisitely delicate at the same time.

Bride Natasha said she wanted flowers on her chuppah (not only because, well, why would you not?) but also because of all the beautiful things they represent: “life, a new start, and all things alive and living” – all the right notes to hit at the start of your marriage.

Though Natasha and Adam went for an elegant classic style, they did bring some quirky touches to their day. Our favorite: a Scottish whisky bar, in honor of the groom’s Scottish origins, with different types of whisky for guests to sample. Oh yeah, and there was also a bagpiper in attendance too!

Speaking of music, these two picked our latest and greatest STG Recommended Vendor, Teta Band to set their wedding atmosphere on fire! Teta played live all night, from jazz to pop to Israeli to even French, Portuguese, and Motown live music all night, and in Natasha’s words, “phenomenal doesn’t even describe it… Teta had the guests all up on their feet all night long!”

Beautiful Natasha, looking absolutely radiant in her ivory lace gown from Paloma Blanca, will fill you in on all the rest of the juicy details… Happy Fri-yay!

A Venue with an Ocean View

Natasha, the bride: We got married at Al Hayam, Caesarea, Israel. We picked this venue due to the open nature of the venue, yet somehow it felt like there was a sense of intimacy. The gorgeous view overlooking the ocean was the winner for us!

13 of the Best New York City Venues for Jewish Weddings

24/05/2018 by Emily Sacharin 2 Comments

Image by Dave Robbins from Jessie and Craig’s wedding

Hey all, Emily here! As Smashing The Glass’s resident New Yorker, I’m constantly on the lookout for great venues for Jewish (and Jew-ish) weddings here in NYC.

One of the best things about living in the city is the variety, and wedding venues are no exception. But there’s such a wealth of options to suit any style of wedding, from classic to quirky, that it can be overwhelming to sort through them to find the one that’s right for you.

So today, I want to highlight some options beyond your standard hotels and wedding halls (though we’ve got plenty of those, too!). In NYC, you can get married anywhere from a bookshop to a zoo to a historic synagogue to a working winery – and that’s just for starters.

I hope you New York-area readers find some quality inspo here – and even if you’re getting married on another continent, there’s still some quality eye candy to be found below. I know I’ll be bookmarking some of these gems for my own (potential, someday) wedding!

A Monique Lhuillier Bride for a Texan Jewish Wedding with a Beer Bar at the Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas, USA

23/05/2018 by Karen Cinnamon

Happy Wednesday, y’all! Today we’re headed to super cool Austin, where Meredith and Phillip held a Texas-themed wedding for the records. Marrying at the iconic, historic Driskill Hotel in the city center, the couple had one objective: to make their day “as Texas as possible.”

They incorporated their fab theme in so many ways, but our favorite has got to be the beer bar! They had 6 local Texas beers on tap for guests to sample – no generic alcohol for this pair! And as a surprise, Meredith’s parents had customized glasses made as wedding favors for the guests, with the couple’s names and wedding date as well as following text: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something brewed” How clever?!

Neither Meredith nor Phillip being huge cake fans, they decided to buck tradition and serve pie for their dessert instead – so on-theme, too! They had four luscious-sounding flavors: blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, chocolate, and pecan. We’d like a slice of each, please! And they still did a traditional cutting picture – just with pie.

Cory Ryan Photography captured all the details of the day beautifully. Now we’ll turn you over to Meredith, who looked gorgeous in her classic lace Monique Lhuillier gown…

How we met

Meredith, the bride: We met in college at the University of Richmond, at a Hillel event. We were together for nine years and three cities before tying the knot.

Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Our Wedding Gift List With Prezola

22/05/2018 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK. Click here to read all Charlotte’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence… on her parent’s 36^th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!) (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags – it’s #dropitlikeitshart !

Planning a wedding gift list is probably one of the most fun parts of the wedding. And even better – it’s the one part of planning where you don’t need to worry about blowing the budget! There is a lot of choice out there when it comes to gift lists now.

But firstly, why have a wedding gift list? It makes things a lot easier for your wedding guests and saves them the stress of deciding what to give you. Your guests won’t waste their money on gifts you don’t need (or even don’t like!). People who are going to your wedding are going to want to give you a gift for your special day, but they might not have a clear idea of what they want to get you. A gift list just simplifies it for them.

The more choice the better, unless you plan to spend your married life enjoying the 5 kettles and 4 cake knives that no gift list can leave you with!

A Stephanie Allin Bride for an Ultra-Personal Country House Jewish Wedding at Parklands Quendon Hall, Essex, UK

21/05/2018 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

We absolutely LOVE today’s bride, Tash, who is an avid Smashing The Glass reader, and looked so elegant in her Stephanie Allin gown (with “the best twirling skirt ever!”).

She made some amazing vendor choices (choosing three STG Recommended Vendors all found on the pages of Smashing The Glass) and she had so many beautiful creative ideas. We particularly love the couple’s extra-meaningful chuppah design inspired by a previous wedding on Smashing The Glass, where the guests helped decorate the canopy with flowers (so gorge).

Their fab florist, the amazing Emma from STG Recommended Vendor Urban Flower Farmer, designed a simple birch pole chuppah laden with greenery and arranged flowers in buckets by the entrance to the ceremony, with a sign asking the guests to add them to the chuppah.

And that’s just one of the beautiful ways Tash and Ian personalized their ceremony while embracing Jewish tradition – you’ve got to read about their ultra-meaningful badeken. Photographer Andy Tyler and videographer Rideout Films did a wonderful job capturing all the emotion of the day.

The pair had a large wedding (230 guests!) with LOTS of children, and to make things easier for the parents in the crowd they hired another fabulous STG Recommended Vendor Safe and Sound Childcare to provide a creche, which kept all the little ones entertained and allowed the adults to enjoy the party.

Tash and Ian knew they wanted a band that could handle some serious Israeli dancing. Turning to Smashing The Glass for ideas, they found STG Recommended Vendor XS Showband. The couple report that the band created a fab atmosphere and kept their guests dancing all evening – and, most important of all, they ably handled not one but two rounds of Israeli dancing! Speaking of which, be sure to check out Tash’s top tips for Israeli dancing in her writeup…

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How we met

Tash, the bride: We met online – if you’d told me 5 years ago that I’d end up marrying someone I met online I would have thought you were mad, but here we are!

We met through Mysinglefriend, which is the site where your friends write your profile, which means you get slightly more interesting descriptions than the classic “I like eating out with friends and country walks.”

But it turns out it doesn’t actually mean you get more truthful profiles, as Ian’s friends Jo and Stu wrote lots of things that I’ve subsequently discovered were complete lies – like the suggestion that Ian is not a football obsessive!