Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog - Inspired Jewish Weddings

An Ines Di Santo Bride for a New York-Meets-London Jewish Wedding at the Gramercy Park Hotel, NYC, USA

15/02/2019 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

Where do we even start with this epic Jewish wedding? Catherine’s sensational bridal style? The way she and now-husband Perry, combined their NYC (hers) and London (his) backgrounds? The ceremony they crafted to reflect their “Judaism Lite” approach to religion? The editorial-style photography from Christopher Lane Wedding?

Or maybe the fact that the bride is a beloved member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club?

Okay, we’ll go with that last one… Catherine has the absolute sweetest things to say about the advice, tips, and resources she found through being a member of our Brides Club (and also her SMASHED IT bag for her smash glass)!

In Catherine’s own words:

“Karen (founder of Brides Club) was absolutely SMASHING in everything from her one-on-one advice inside Brides Club, to daily tips, and as neither my husband and I are very religious, the vast breadth of Jewish related questions and answers I was able to get answered was priceless.”

Curious? In honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re having a special promo where you can get a FREE month-long trial of Brides Club, now through Sunday only. If you’re planning a wedding right now – whether you’re newly engaged or just weeks out from the big day – do give it a try (and you can see Catherine’s ‘newlywed debrief’ interview in there too!)

So back to Catherine’s bridal fashion sense… this super stylish bride, and she had not one but TWO gorgeous dresses: for the ceremony, an uber-glam long-sleeved Ines di Santo, and for the reception an edgier custom gown by the bride’s friend designer Paul Raymond – and we’re TOALLY obsessed with both looks.

There’s so much more to say, but we’ll let the bride take it from here…

New York Meets London

Catherine, the bride: We got married a the Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC. I had wanted to get married in the UK as my husband is from London… plus who doesn’t want to be an English countryside bride?!

However, my mother put the kibosh on that (after we had already traveled to and picked the venue in England), claiming the wedding should be in the bride’s hometown. As I am born and bred NY’er, there was no shortage of venue options. We decided on the GPH as it embodied the perfect symbiosis of New York City glamour and London chic. Additionally, my parents’ first apartment was also on Gramercy park and the rooftop terrace has a Robert Mapplethorpe by Andy Warhol portrait… given my mother was Robert’s publisher while he was alive, it further supplanted the idea that the GPH was the venue for us.

A Valentine’s Gift from Smashing The Glass to 50 Brides-to-be! {today only}

14/02/2019 by Karen Leave a Comment

Happy Valentine’s Day! What are you up to today? I’ll be having a cosy, intimate dinner at home with Mr STG this evening which I’m really looking forward to.

And as it’s the universal day of love, I can’t let it pass by without showering some Valentine’s love on 50 of my gorgeous bride-to-be readers too!

So I’m gifting 50 (yes 50!) brides-to-be a FREE 30 day membership to Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club! I have never done anything like this before, but I’m doing it today as I’m in a very celebratory Valentines-y mood!

BUT there are only 50 free places, and they’re only available today, Thursday February 14 . Once they’re gone they’re gone!

The doors to Brides Club are closing for this quarter’s intake this Monday February 18, so if you’ve always wanted to try Brides Club, and haven’t quite got round to it, today’s the day to join!

(If you’re already a member of Brides Club, another little Valentine’s gift is awaiting you! Check your emails, or inside the Brides Club Facebook Group, and go claim it and spoil yourself!)

But wait…what exactly is Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club?

Brides Club is my members-only community for planning your perfect Jewish (or Jew-ish) wedding. It’s my biggest passion, and my 3rd baby (after my two little princesses)!

I set up Brides Club a year ago, in response to receiving 100’s of daily emails and DMs from brides-to-be wanting to know how to tailor Jewish wedding traditions / music / family dynamics / timelines / levels of Jewish-ness / mixing of cultures and faiths etc. to their personal Jewish wedding.

I was also receiving daily requests for vendor recommendations and creative wedding ideas, and I absolutely LOVE helping with this kind of stuff (seriously – this is what I live for!). The spark was lit for creating Brides Club, a members-only community, dedicated exclusively to Jewish and Jew-ish Brides, and now, one year later, I’m proud to have helped 100’s of awesome Jewish and Jew-ish brides create the Jewish wedding of their dreams.

Inside Brides Club I’m able to take away all the wedstress and all the ‘wedding information overload’. I help you plan every element of your wedding, ensuring you make decisions with clarity and confidence whilst keeping family and friends happy. I also ensure you get the most ‘bang for your buck’ with your wedding budget, and, most of all, ensure that planning your wedding is as fun and stress-free as the day itself!

A Lihi Hod Bride for a Destination Jewish Wedding at Borgo San Felice, Berardenga, Tuscany, Italy

13/02/2019 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

A late summer night’s dream… yep, Leah and Tyler’s stunner of a Jewish wedding combined the magic of Tuscany with one of the most beautiful times of year, that perfect patch of late summer where fall’s just beginning to creep in.

The setting – a medieval Tuscan village converted into a hotel – could not have been more magical, and the couple’s wedding planner, Sara Mazzei, fromSmashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Infinity Weddings went full-on for that fairytale sparkle with a soft muted florals, a dreamy chuppah, twinkly lights, and even a fireworks display! Everything was captured to perfection by photographer Massimiliano Morlott and videographer Luigi De Gregorio Films.

And then there’s that dress. Leah was a total and complete knockout in Lihi Hod, and we’re kind of obsessed with her dramatic yet classic styling. We’ll let her take it from here…

Venue

Leah, the bride: We got married under a grape pergola at Borgo San Felice in Tuscany. My husband and I had a short list of must-haves for a wedding venue: we wanted everything to take place outside and a venue where all of our family and friends could stay on-site. We researched venues quite a bit in different countries (mostly wine-regions because we are lovers of wine) when the thought of getting married in Italy occurred to us. Between the two of us we had visited wine regions in California, New Zealand, Hungary, Switzerland, South Africa, and Israel, but neither of us knew much about Italian wines.

We booked a trip to visit a few venues in Tuscany and while they were all beautiful, Borgo San Felice blew us away. It is a medieval Tuscan village converted into a hotel. On the outside old spindly vines cover stone buildings. On the inside fresh chic interior design integrates with classic Tuscan architecture. My husband and I live in an old abode in New Orleans’ French quarter, so this character-filled aesthetic was right up our alley.

Real Jewish Brides: Mimi Finds Her Perfect Dress

12/02/2019 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Mimi will be marrying Andrew on 7th July 2019 at Hazel Gap Barn in Welbeck, Nottinghamshire, UK. Click here to read all Mimi’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: THREE FACTS: (1) Mimi and Andrew met online in 2013. (2) Mimi is a flight attendant and writes her own travel and beauty blog on the side (3) Andrew proposed to Mimi, who at the time was nearing the completion of her conversion to Judaism, at the top of Masada – wow!

Not as easy as I thought

I’m going to put it out there – finding ‘the dress’ may have been harder than finding the man I’m marrying. I’d always looked forward to the day I could officially admire all of the dresses in Brides magazine with a purpose (rather than sneakily flicking through it pre-engagement) and the host of happy boutique appointments that would surely follow.

However, post-engagement I found that wedding dress shopping was not as fun as shows such as Say Yes to The Dress make out. There was no ‘THIS IS THE ONE’ moment surrounded by a gaggle or crying bridesmaids or total joy when I tried on the dress of my dreams. I had imagined my closest friends and family, all sinking into a velvet sofa, glass of champagne in hand and teary eyed as I emerged from the dressing room looking like Kate Middleton.

Instead, it was 3 months of back to back appointments, 18 different store visits, and what felt like 1000 teeny tiny sample sized dresses. At one point, I remember being stood on a box in the most ridiculous dress I had ever seen, only to learn that the price – should I want to buy such a hideous dress – was just short of £11K. Wow.

Image by Signe Dzile Photography from Jade and Andy’s wedding

A BHLDN Bride for a Jewish Wedding with a Remarkable Love Story at The Folly, Capistrano Beach, California, USA

11/02/2019 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

With Valentine’s Day coming up this week, we thought it was the perfect time to share this beautiful Jewish wedding with a very special love story behind it.

Just after they got engaged, Deborah and Adam found their commitment put to the ultimate test when Deborah was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer.

For four years, Deborah endured surgeries, chemo, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant – all with Adam by her side. And when the couple got the amazing news that Deb was cancer-free in July 2018, they knew it was time for the wedding of their dreams.

Believe it or not, they planned this beautiful, meaningful wedding in just three months! We’re in love with the quintessentially California vibes, from the enchanted garden beachside setting to the Spanish Colonial architecture, all captured so beautifully by photographer This Modern Romance.

And we are totally and completely obsessed with the couple’s low-key yet elegant chuppah, which they designed themselves with some inspo from Smashing The Glass! With dark wood, simple lines, sheer fabric, and some asymmetrical pops of color courtesy of florals, it’s effortless yet totally memorable.

Now over to Deborah, who looked epically elegant in BHLDN…

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How We Met

Deborah, the bride: We’d been looking for each other our whole lives… we just didn’t know it. We’d kissed our share of frogs, but none were our prince or princess. On our first date, in a beautiful sandy-beached cove, as the setting sunlight sparkled on the water while dolphins splashed just offshore, we thought “Oh! Well this is definitely a sign…”

So much so, that when the time was right (and Adam could turn it into a big surprise!) we went back and got engaged there on “our” beach!

By the way, we met on JDate.com.