Today on the blog we’re introducing our 7th gorgeous bride from our crop of 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Juliette, who will be marrying Matt on 9th November 2019 at Ashford Estate in Allentown, New Jersey, USA.
THREE FACTS: (1) Juliette and Matt met in Hebrew school when they were 16 – aww! (2) Juliette and Matt are both Jewish, but they are having a Jew-ish wedding – Juliette’s dad’s side of the family is Catholic, and they want to make sure everyone feels included on the day. (3) Juliette is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club – and she calls STG her “secret weapon” in wedding planning!
How We Met
Matt and I met each other when we were 15 years old. When I was a sophomore in high school my mom signed me up for Hebrew High, which was a program my Reform temple ran for continuing education after your bar/bat mitzvah. I almost never went.
I didn’t grow up with any Jewish kids and I didn’t think it was worth my very precious time as a high school student. However, my mom in her sixth sense genius insisted I start to go more often, because you never know who you could meet. I begrudgingly agreed and sitting in a classroom on a random Wednesday night this cute boy jumped from his seat to answer a question and I was dumbfounded.
Within a week we had found each other on Facebook (see me stalking out his last name and friending him with no mutual friends) and went on a few dates. About a week later we were dating. We went to different colleges in different states, which in the end, only brought us closer. Slowly we built lives that melded together. We now work at the same company and are building our happy little life in the center of Midtown Manhattan.
The Proposal
Matt proposed to me on a Wednesday in March. I am never one to be surprised but I had so much going on that week with a new project at work and Passover quickly approaching, I had decided Matt was going to wait to propose for at least another month. That still didn’t stop me from incessantly pestering him and sending him ring pictures (I am pretty shy, can’t you tell?)
Matt pinged me at work in the middle of the day and asked me if I could meet earlier after work. I said of course, figuring he wanted to eat early and get a head start on packing to go home. I met him in the lobby of PwC, where he ushered me into a cab, told me to close my eyes, and put headphones in. The cab took us uptown (I peeked! I can’t be tamed) and he surprised me at my favorite place in New York and the site of one of our very first dates.
Outside the American Museum of Natural History he got down on one knee and told me how the museum has been a fixture in our lives and the lives of so many others that most can’t remember a time without it. He told me he couldn’t honestly remember a time before me and he never wanted to. Matt asked me to be his forever and I said yes!
Moments later a dear family friend was there taking pictures and Matt whisked me to a cute restaurant I didn’t like. So, after the average meal we got in a cab, called our parents and sat at the bar in DelFriscos eating mashed potatoes, drinking VIPs and calling everyone we loved. We rushed home the next morning, where Matt had arranged for my best friend to surprise me, and spent the weekend of Passover announcing our engagement and celebrating with our families.
Wedding Bells are Ringing
If you had asked me what my wedding was going to look like the week I got engaged I would have pulled out my Pinterest, and the seven venues I had stalked and said all of this, at one of these.
In what is most likely not a shock, my vision completely changed when I was not the person funding this venture. What was going to be an ultra-modern glittering gold display in New York City immediately switched when our parents decided we needed to be married in New Jersey. Insert me losing my mind and seeing every venue I could schedule in 2 weeks’ time.
After some very eventful tours, we chose the gorgeous Ashford Estate in Allentown, New Jersey. I walked off a lot of venue tours and was super difficult about finding a place.
I was so quick to judge that there is an embarrassing video of me “tsking” at wilting chrysanthemums at a different venue. However, I stayed through the entire tour at Ashford, including a ridiculous thorough investigation of their china because we saw a place that branded theirs and that wasn’t going to fly with this vision.
We are having a Jew-ish wedding. My dad is Catholic and most of that side of my family is too, and we didn’t want to do anything to alienate them. We also are SUPER Reform.
While we have the “meet-cute” Jewish grandmothers love to shove in the faces of their friends at Mahjong, we are very cultural in our practice of Judaism. There are some traditions we will have like a chuppah and a ketubah, and the rabbi who taught us since I was in pre-school through Hebrew High will officiate. But there are some traditions that I need to make my own.
The People behind the MAGIC
As for vendors we are having Fred Marcus Photography, which I promise to spend a whole post talking about the glamour of.
I also went to Kleinfeld for my dress and I can’t wait to shock my guests with it!
We are having a DJ with different musicians making guest appearances throughout the night. LJDJs is like family to us and we couldn’t be luckier to have Jack at our wedding!
If you are in the process of building your wedding website feel free to steal all my ideas here.
I still have lots of finalizations and decisions to make, but my next big focus is agreeing to bridesmaids and MOH dresses.
So how is Marriage going to play into this whole Party thing?
When first thinking about what marriage means to me I don’t know why but my brain immediately jumped to that scene in The Princess Bride where the priest is about to marry Princess Buttercup and starts by saying “Maw wage. Maw wage is what bwings us together today.” The scene is absolutely ridiculous but it always made me laugh. I really think that the sentiment is there though at its core.
Marriage brings two people from different worlds and lives together. It blends families, friends, and special moments together in a permanent contract. When Matt asked me to be his wife he was inviting me on the adventure of a lifetime. We are embarking on our journey through life, kids, renovations, new jobs, and new places together and our wedding is just the send-off party to this life.
I love that weddings and marriages go hand in hand. It’s an opportunity to see all the people I love from all the different parts of my life as well as Matt’s.
We have grown up together and there are moments where I wonder if being married will change anything. Taking his last name and all that comes with that new initial will certainly take some adjusting.
I am tingling with elation at the realization that my wedding is less than a year away and I really cannot wait to whisper Forever to Matt’s question of Always as he smashes the glass toasting to our new lives!
Click here to read all Juliette’s planning posts to date.
Juliette & Matt’s Wedding Vendors booked so far:
Venue – Ashford Estate
Photographer – Fred Marcus Photography
Bride’s dress – Kleinfeld
DJ – LJDJs
