Dreaming of an outdoor Jewish wedding but nervous about unpredictable weather? How about making it official in a glass-walled and roofed, sundrenched conservatory? That’s what Anna, a therapist, and Nate, who works in the life sciences industry, did when they chose the Manor Suite at the Manor of Groves, Hertfordshire, as their venue – and we’re in love with the results!
The pair’s big day truly felt like it brought the outdoors in – and the couple played it up even further by choosing a color scheme of green, white, and yellow, reflecting the verdant surroundings visible outside. The natural florals and birch chuppah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Happy Chuppah People – adorned with wild-looking greenery and florals – completed the look. Matt Heath Photography did a perfect job capturing the natural vibes of the day – not to mention the fabulous light!
We’re also in love with Anna’s gorgeous, classic gown from Caroline Castigliano, which she wore with an added lace topper for the chuppah. We could go on and on, but we’ll let the bride take it from here…
How we Met
Anna, the bride: We first met on Jswipe in January 2017 where we had our first date at Doodle Bar in London. We drew a portrait together on the chalk walls where Nate drew himself and I drew me and it formed one face.
Bringing the Outside In
We got married in the Manor Suite at the Manor of Groves, Hertfordshire. We fell in love with the light coming through the conservatory glass roof, how the space could be used for different parts of our function and the view of the gardens and golf course – it felt like the outside was inside.
Colours of Nature
Our colour theme was green, white and yellow. We wanted colours that reflected the outside space and made the venue look bright. Green is also one of our favourite colours. We had been to weddings before that were green and white but something hadn’t made it feel bright enough, so we added the yellow to give a bit more life.
Invitations / stationery
We used Paperless Post for our wedding invites. We are really glad we did as this was an easy way to track the guest list and send out messages to guests. Particularly as we had to make last minute changes and reschedule the wedding three times due to COVID-19.
Our wedding stationary and kippot were by Kisharon. Some of our stationary had our original wedding date of April 2020 on it and we kept this as a reference to what was originally planned (and we didn’t want to waste the paper).
Hair + Make-up
My make-up was by Alice Jenner Beauty, she was recommended by one of my bridesmaids. I went for a natural look as I had not had my make-up professionally done before and didn’t want to not look myself.
I had toyed around with different hairstyles but in the end I had my hairdresser Jon from Hair by Jon R add some serum to my hair and de-frizz a few single curls and kept the rest natural. It took all of 5mins to do my hair on the day as I wanted to stay true to my normal look of being very curly-haired.
A Caroline Castigliano Dress
It took me a while to find the right dress although I had a clear vision of what I wanted. When I finally found my dress it was the Mariah by Caroline Castigliano. My Dad was with me at all the appointments but unfortunately my Mum was away for this one so we had her on Facetime. My Aunt came along to the appointment and it turned out her own wedding dress was by the same designer when she worked for Jasper Conran.
I had an added lace top for the Chuppah and a belt for the reception by the same designer. I loved the shine of my dress, silk and feeling like a cloud in it. I had wanted something classic, with no fuss or lots of detail and to be timeless. I bought my dress in 2019 and waited a long time to wear it. I had it hanging on the outside of a wardrobe for 15months till I could finally wear it.
What was extra special was the designer Caroline did my final fitting for me as this was still when we were coming out of lockdown and staff were still furloughed. It was great to have this moment with her.
Accessories
When I started looking for veils originally my Mum suddenly realised her veil she wore was exactly the same as what I was after. We took it with to the wedding dress fittings and the designer kindly steamed it for us and I wore my Mum’s veil. It felt really special to wear something of hers as my parents have been married for over 35 years. My earrings were from Amelie George Bridal and Nate bought them for me as a birthday present the year before. Both items had a shine that complimented the silk on my dress.
My engagement ring was also very special to me as the diamond originally belonged to my Nana (my Dad’s Mum). We had the diamond reset in to a new band and setting type but it meant a lot to be able to have something of hers with me. I also used a black 1920s style floral beaded black handbag as this was my Grandma’s (Mum’s Mum). Ever since I was gifted the bag after she died I had intended on using it on my wedding day.
Shoes
I wore Rainbow white satin high heels and I wore them all night! I was determined to keep them on and not change in to flats and my feet didn’t even hurt until the music stopped. From 12-11:30.
The handsome groom
Nate wore a gorgeous custom-made tuxedo from Suit Supply. Nate had a green velvet tuxedo jacket and green braces to match the theme.
Bridesmaids
I had three bridesmaids who wore green satin dresses from David’s Bridal. One flowergirl wore a white gemmed dress with a green sating bow from a small boutique in Brentwood.
Ceremony
We had written a wedding guide for our guests as we had a portion of non-Jewish guests and non-religious guests. One of my favourite parts of the ceremony was having different rabbis come and say the sheva brachot. Each one looked us right in the eye and put their own touch on the prayer.
We had already had our legal wedding in July a few months earlier so it was nice to have this wedding be solely a religious one.
Ketubah
Our Ketubah was the standard United Synagogue one.
Chuppah
We chose the Finchley chuppah from The Happy Chuppah People as this went with our natural outdoors/inside theme.
Our Music Choice
For the Chuppah we had:
– Groom entrance – ‘Meheira’
– Rest of wedding party – ‘Mi Adir’ (Schwekey Tune)
– Bride entrance – ‘Boi B’Shalom’ (All of Me Version)
– ‘Eshet Chayil’ – Schwekey Tune
– ‘Im Eshkachech’ – Schwekey Tune
Our first dance was a song we love called, ‘I Found’ by Amber Run.
Flowers
Our florist was Rebel Rebel. I loved their natural vibe, how nothing was in neat little balls but flowed and spread out as if it was still growing and part of the setting. We had flowers down the aisle, a natural flowing Chuppah, and matching button holes, with our flower girl holding flower stems. The flowers from the aisle then went on to the tables, alternating with those bunches and different glass vase arrangements of flower stems. We wanted low-hanging table centres so as to not obstruct eyesight.
Photographer and videographer
We really liked Matt’s style (Matt Heath Photography), how natural his photos were, how he played around with light and the weather. The video (Inline Film) was a similar style and we knew that they had worked together before and would synchronise and compliment each other well on the day. They were also really friendly and understood what our vision was.
Food and Cake
Our caterer was Reichs Catering. We kept the food quite traditional with a special starter for Nate as he loves Mexican food – Pulled beef tacos. We had a wedding cake by Tami’s Cakery – it was a two tiered semi-naked cake with buttercream frosting. One tier was strawberry flavoured, the other lemon.
Entertainment
We had Pure Showband – we knew them personally and had seen and enjoyed them at other functions.
Favours
I gave my bridesmaids some earrings from Etsy and my flower girl a bracelet with her initials on it.
Extra details
I loved having my Grandfathers walk down the aisle with us. They’re both widowed so they were joined by their Sister and Sister-in-law.
We had two funny moments where we did a public Bedeking on the aisle and Nate saw a fly in my veil as he was pulling it over my face and as he took the fly out he accidentally pulled my whole veil off. Nate also got a bit too excited smashing the glass and cut his foot open. To future couples – use the heel of your foot and layer it up.
We live-streamed our Chuppah via Zoom as Nate had a lot of friends and family from abroad (USA and Canada) who were unable to be there on the day. This also meant that those in the UK who had to pull out last minute due to sickness or other circumstances were also with us on the day.
I gave a speech. I couldn’t imagine not speaking at my wedding and it meant a lot to be able to say something to the special people around me. One of my bridesmaids also sang a song with the band and she was amazing!
Nate and I recently relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, California and found out shortly before our wedding that the visa was granted. In some ways our wedding was also a goodbye party as we weren’t sure when we would get to see everyone again.
Honeymoon
We went to Majorca for 5 days – this is a favourite place of ours and we love to hire a car and drive around to all the different coves and beaches. After Majorca we went to Warsaw, Poland for my visa interview at the US embassy and then we headed to Mexico for two weeks. We were in Mexico so that we could enter the US as at the time you couldn’t enter from the UK.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Keep it you! Don’t change the way you look or dress for this day, you want people to get a sense of you and who you are on your wedding day and to not look like somebody else.
Don’t have so much fuss or details that it takes away from the fact that you are getting married. Have fun, make sure you eat and take time to go around to your guests tables and say hello!
Also one bit of advice I got the day before my wedding which was very helpful. If you have to go to the toilet in your dress – face the toilet and go forward-facing (opposite to normal) so you don’t have to worry about your dress being wedged.
One thing we noticed after the wedding was lots of cheques were made out to my new married name and this made cashing them in slightly complicated as technically that wasn’t my name yet. I would advise finding a way of informing guests what to write or where to send money so as to avoid awkward phone calls of explaining why their cheques bounced.
ANNA & NATE’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Matt Heath Photography
Videography – Inline Film
Chuppah – The Happy Chuppah People {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Manor of Groves
Bride’s dress – Caroline Castigliano
Bride’s shoes – John Lewis
Bride’s accessories – Amelie George Bridal
Groom’s attire – Suit Supply
Bridesmaids – David’s Bridal
Hair + Makeup – Alice Jenner Beauty + Hair by Jon R
Flowers – Rebel Rebel
Band – Pure Showband
Catering – Reichs Catering
Cake – Tami’s Cakery
Ketubah – United Synagogue
Stationery/Invitation – Kisharon, Paperless Post
Rabbi – Rabbi Davis
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