Search Results for: desert

A Grace Loves Lace Bride for a Desert Jewish Wedding at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon, Arizona, USA

16/05/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

Today we’re featuring the wedding of a very special Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Jenna! You see, way back in the Before Times, Jenna hosted the very first NYC Brides Club meetup – a challah bake at her place in Brooklyn, which, as a mega-talented baker, she also led!

During the pandemic, she and now-husband Mat (who’ve got a super cute how-they-met story, by the way) relocated from NYC back to their shared hometown of Tucson, Arizona, where they also held their wedding – and while I know the New York Brides Club crew misses Jenna’s generosity and baking prowess, after taking a look at the gorgeous landscape featured in She.We Studio’s photos, can you really blame her?!

Even before Jenna and Mat’s move back to the Southwest, they always knew they wanted their wedding to reflect the beauty of the region where they met and grew up. Their main requirement in a venue was epic mountain views, their ketubah featured watercolor mountains reminiscent of Tucson’s, their invites featured prickly pear cacti – Jenna’s bridal bouquet even featured succulents! And she found the perfect lightweight gown for Arizona climate at Grace Loves Lace, too.

There’s so much more to say about this wonderful wedding, and we’ll let Jenna tell you all about it in her own words – but before we do, we’ve got to share her kind words about her time in Brides Club:

“I joined the Brides Club because Smashing the Glass really is the only resource out there for modern Jewish weddings. The Brides Club was a way to have that same community I was seeing from other wedding resources, but with the added bonus of people actually understanding questions related to a Jewish wedding. What I didn’t know was that I would meet so many wonderful women and make so many amazing friendships, which was especially helpful when Covid hit and caused so many of us to change or cancel our plans. I honestly couldn’t have weathered two postponements without being surrounded by my friends and having Karen there for mental and emotional support.”

Awww! Doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Take it away, Jenna!

How we Met

Jenna, the bride: I am a data analyst, currently working in retail, & Mat is a customer success manager in tech. We actually met back in 1994 (we weren’t even two years old yet) at a tumbling class at a local park’s rec center. We reconnected throughout life, as we both grew up in Tucson, AZ and belonged to the same synagogue (I even stole Mat’s birthday for my Bat Mitzvah date), but we happened to both be at a mutual friend’s high school graduation party (who ended up being our wedding videographer) one summer.

It turned out that Mat was going to be in the same freshman business mentorship program at our local university I had been in the year prior (I was a grade ahead of Mat in school) and was planning to attend the orientation that following week (University of Arizona is a large school with multiple orientation dates). A few days later, I got a Facebook message from Mat saying “I got your book.” Somehow, Mat got the book we read in the business mentorship program that I had signed – out of 60 from my year and 60 in his incoming year and of all orientation dates, he got my book! When school started, I invited Mat to our school’s Chabad welcome back barbeque for free kosher food, and the rest is history (although, it would take us until March of the following year to start dating).Continue Reading

A BHLDN Bride for a Desert Jewish Wedding at La Quinta Resort, California, USA

21/02/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

Here at Team STG, we love a good desert Jewish wedding… and even better when it’s a full-on wedding weekend full of sun, palm trees, and mountain views for days. So naturally we’re pretty obsessed with our Brides Club member Darah Wagner Boaz’s wedding to groom Jonathan (aka Yoni).

Darah, a television producer and certified coach, and Yoni, director of alliance partnerships for Shure Inc, opted to make things official right where they spent their very first weekend away as a couple – lucky they picked somewhere as gorgeous as La Quinta, right?!

The pair planned a wedding weekend so their guests could retreat into vacation mode and take in the surroundings, just like Darah and Yoni had on that first magical weekend. And honestly, who wouldn’t be thrilled to spend a couple of days in such stunning environs, captured perfectly by our photographer Michael Segal?

You can tell we’re pretty taken with the scenery, but that’s far from the only noteworthy aspect of this wedding! The day was full of special personal touches – for instance, the couple wrote a personal thank you note to every guest that they could pick up along with their escort card! – and we also love the Israeli-style aisle badeken, where Yoni came to meet Darah halfway down the aisle.

Oh, and did we mention how absolutely ravishing Darah looked in her gown from BHLDN?!

A Desert Getaway

Darah, the bride: We absolutely love the desert and La Quinta was our first weekend away together when we first started dating in the summer of 2019. We stayed overnight at La Quinta Resort and over brunch the next morning we looked at each other and both said “ I could get married here” and we weren’t even engaged yet! So when we got engaged, we both knew where exactly we were meant to have our special day.

We invited all of our guests to stay with us at La Quinta Resort and Spa and had our Welcome Party at the La Quinta Brewery Taproom and our wedding at La Quinta Country Club, just across the street. We kept it very La Quinta local! We wanted a weekend event where our guests felt like they were on vacation and could enjoy themselves and get to know each other poolside, playing golf, tennis all while sipping a Margarita.

We loved the La Quinta Country Club for our wedding day and what won us over was their mountain view and the gorgeous pavilion. Getting married under the mountains of the desert at sunset was our vision. Not to mention their incredible hospitality, the delicious food and the gorgeous space. Our guests enjoyed our ceremony at sunset, cocktail hour under the stars continuing by dancing the night away with us. Continue Reading

A Pronovias Bride for a Desert Jewish Wedding at McCormick Ranch Golf Club, Arizona, USA

09/08/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

We love it when a couple takes advantage of their wedding as a way to showcase their hometown pride. So naturally we’re obsessed with the Scottsdale, Arizona, wedding of Jessica, a 4th grade teacher, and Daniel, an actuary. Both born and raised in the Phoenix metro area, these two love the dramatic landscape of their home state and wanted to showcase it for their guests.

Even though the couple had to cut down their guest list to just close family and their wedding party for their March 2021 wedding in light of the pandemic, they were still able to make it official at their original venue, McCormick Ranch Golf Club, with an outdoor chuppah overlooking the sunset over Camelback Mountain in the distance. Doesn’t get much more quintessentially Arizona than that – don’t miss the gorgeous photos by Ryan Nicole Photography.

We’re also obsessed with the couple’s wonderful ketubah was designed and created by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Noa Attias. Jessica loved it so much that after seeing the finished product, she ordered a challah board by Noa Attias as her wedding gift to Daniel!

Now over to the bride, who looked ever so elegant in Pronovias…

How we Met

Jessica, the bride: We were both advisors for BBYO and met at my first meeting as an advisor.

A Tony Ward Bride for a Desert Glam Jewish Wedding at the Westin La Paloma, Tucson, Arizona, USA

08/05/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

Today’s gorgeous Jewish wedding has made us realize we don’t see nearly enough desert celebrations. But we’re hoping to see a lot more after today, because who could see the stunning nuptials of Simone, the co-founder of an educational services company that brings wellbeing programs to college students, and Isaac, who works in real estate development, and not want to get married amidst the mountains and saguaros?!

Although mountain lovers Simone and Isaac live in Tucson, home to plentiful dramatic scenery, it wasn’t so easy for them to find a chuppah spot that met their specs: it needed breathtaking mountain views that could be enjoyed by both guests AND the couple themselves while standing under the chuppah. We’re glad they didn’t give up, though, because they totally hit the jackpot when they found The Westin La Paloma.

And how amazing is their chuppah, which, in keeping with the theme of celebrating Tucson’s natural beauty, incorporates not only flowers but also cactus pads?!

We’re obsessed with their gorgeous artistic ketubah from STG Recommended Vendor ketubah.com too. Truly a work of art!

OK – time to ogle over the stunning pics from Ben & Kelly Photography and video by Black Sheep Filmworks. And let’s hand over to the bride, who looked radiant in Tony Ward…

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Mountain Views

Simone, the bride: We got married at The Westin La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona. I had two main criteria when it came to selecting a venue. The first, and most important, was to have mountain views from the ceremony site and the second was to select a hotel venue since a lot of our guests would be coming from out of town.

I visited every hotel venue in Tucson and while all were beautiful, none had the dramatic mountain views that I had wanted from the ceremony site and if they did, only the guests would be able to see them, not me or my husband from under the chuppah. I actually started to scope out venues in Scottsdale because this was one area I was not willing to compromise.

As a Jersey girl, my favorite thing about living in Tucson are the mountains and I am just as enamored with their beauty today as I was when I first moved here 6 years ago. My husband, who is a native Tucsonan, shares my love of the mountains and I couldn’t imagine them not being a part of our big day.

Anyways, La Paloma was the last stop on our Tucson hotel tour and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. As we were going around the property everything else checked the boxes in terms of what we were looking for and I was eager to see the ceremony site, which was the last stop on our tour.

The minute we pulled up I knew with 100% certainty that we had found our venue. The ceremony site was beyond perfect. It was quiet, secluded, and had unbelievable views of the mountains for both us and our guests.

A Justin Alexander Bride for a Desert-Chic Jewish Wedding at Chateau Lux, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

09/10/2017 by Karen

What we love here at Smashing The Glass, are that no two couples Jewish weddings we feature are EVER the same! Some prefer to keep things simple, some fill their weddings with ‘in’ jokes and items that have personal meaning to them, and some, like Sheila and Alex, create stunning aesthetics, with intense attention-to-detail that makes their Jewish wedding look fresh from the pages of Pinterest, or a luxury magazine.

First introduced by their best man, Sheila and Alex have been besotted with one another since they first laid eyes on each other. Their ‘desert chic’-inspired real day paid homage to their home state of Arizona, with a stunning color scheme and gorgeous, succulent (see what we did there?) dà©cor details.

The happy couple had a moving and beautiful outdoor sunset Jewish ceremony under the chuppah and the breathtaking bistro lights at their venue, Chateau Luxe. The rabbi’s touching words can be heard in the cinematic wedding film below, provided by Ryan Blake Films.

We simply LOVE that the wedding’s sweet treats were provided by bride Sheila’s family deli – how incredible is that?

Photographer Ryan Nicole Photography captured every moment, creating a dreamy set of images that you won’t be able to stop yourself from Pinning, while bride Sheila provided the writeup with every detail of the planning process and big day itself. We’ll leave you in their capable hands. Enjoy!

How we met

Sheila, the bride: We were introduced by a mutual friend who had been trying to set us up for years. Our friend, Ari Psez, was visiting AZ staying with Alex. Ari invited me over to catch up with him. Unbeknownst to me, Ari had a ploy to have me meet Alex in hopes of setting us up. We met that night at Alex’s house, and he asked for my phone number. We went on our first date a few days later. Alex proposed in the same house we met in, and we now live there together.