There’s not much we love more than getting a chance to feature the wedding of one of our beloved Smashing The Glass Brides Club members – so we’re pretty thrilled to be sharing the beautiful Atlanta Jewish wedding of our Brides Club member Kim, an elementary school teacher, to Andrew, a contractor.
We’re so touched to hear Kim’s kind words about her experience as a Brides Club member:
I really enjoyed building the friendships and connections with other women around the world who were or had gone through the wedding planning process not long before I had done… I gained most from connecting with others and learning from their experiences and building my own ceremony and wedding experience based off what had worked well and what had not worked well for other Smashing the Glass Brides Club members.
An avid thrifter, Kim turned to stillwhite.com to find the secondhand dress of her dreams – and she found it in her stunning blush/pink colored gown by Ukrainian designer Cathy Telle. And we love that, after the ceremony, she opted to pair it with pink Keds with floral embroidery, which she enjoys wearing to this day – don’t miss them in the luminous photos by Andrea de Anda!
We’re also obsessed with Kim and Andrew’s gorgeous ketubah by calligrapher Ruth Stern Warzecha, which they found on Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com, featuring a classic design of intricate pen line decorations and the traditional seven wedding benedictions around the edge of the ketubah itself.
Read on for the full story in Kim’s own words…
How We Met
Kim, the bride: I invited my best friend from high school to go to yoga and she brought along her roommate. Her roommate and I slowly built a friendship that progressed into a loving relationship over the course of two years, built by common interests, similar grounding, and complimentary personalities.
A Riverside Wedding
We got married at the Huntcliff River Club, just north of Atlanta overlooking the Chattahoochee River. I grew up in the Huntcliff neighborhood and always wanted my wedding to be at this location. I spent time at the community pool, had friends that rode horses at the stables, and had participated in several events throughout my life at this same river club and wanted my wedding to ultimately be at this venue as well.
Summer Colors
Our color scheme was sage green, cream, gold, and blush. Since our wedding was to be in July, we did not want to do jewel tones, and preferred to go with something lighter in color. My husband enjoys dark, rich greens, and natural tones. I love bright colors and pastels. Together the colors above dressed the scenery and the chuppah to give the space a secret garden type of feel, melding our two aesthetics together.
Our wedding planner was Alexa Kesler Spathelf of Alexa Eve Events. When we talked on the phone we connected really quickly and she was able to bring our vision to life. She was able to navigate and take the ideas that I had started to draft and put them towards reality in her coordination and orchestration of the day’s events.
We had originally planned our wedding to take place at 4:30PM EDT, however my wedding coordinator kept me in the loop that around 4PM we were expecting thunderstorms and that the chuppah, which was set up outside, would likely have to be moved inside by 3PM in order for it to be set up before the deluge occured. It rained during our ceremony ONLY.
There was no rain leading up to the ceremony, nor after the ceremony. It only rained DURING our ceremony.My sister’s speech was very heartfelt and she really worked hard to craft and deliver her speech… however when she was finished she did not realize the microphone was still on and when she finished she murmured “Crushed It!” which everyone in the room could hear and then laughed about.
What ‘Smashing The Glass Brides Club’ Did For Us
I really enjoyed building the friendships and connections with other women around the world who were or had gone through the wedding planning process not long before I had done. One such person, Jenna Friedman, connected with me and we talked for some time about wedding planning and what she had done and what I was planning on doing.
I happened to be going to a work conference in the city that she lived in at the time and I ended up being able to spend some time with her and we became great friends. I gained most from connecting with others and learning from their experiences and building my own ceremony and wedding experience based off what had worked well and what had not worked well for other Smashing the Glass Brides Club members.
Invitation
We decided to save on stamps and make our save the dates and wedding invitations on Paperless Post. I was able to find a chuppah design that complimented the cream, gold, and sage green theme of our wedding, and even used my Hebrew keyboard to copy and paste my Hebrew name on to our invitations. We were then able to track who had opened their invitation and who needed to be reminded to look for it with the tracking tool on the website. We found this helpful.
Hair + Makeup
I had a friend of mine named Meg Baker do my hair and Alexa had helped me find the makeup artist, Shureen.
A Cathy Telle Dress
I actually purchased my dress second hand from the website stillwhite.com. I’ve always been an avid second hand shopper and really wanted to reduce textile waste and wear a gown that had been previously worn, although it would be professionally cleaned first. After spending what seemed like an eternity searching for a blush/pink colored gown, I found one created by Cathy Telle, a Ukrainian designer, that was pink/blush, and would be coming from a bride who had previously worn it in Switzerland.
It’s a custom gown so only two people have ever worn this design… and when I tried it on after it arrived from Switzerland, it fit and needed very few alterations.
Accessories + Shoes
I wore Keds after the ceremony. They are pink with floral embroidery, particularly blue floral embroidery on them. They were so comfortable and I love to wear them even to this day. My grandmother was so “tickled” that of all the shoes I could be wearing at my wedding, I was wearing SNEAKERS! I had two hair accessories as well.
One for the ceremony was the hair accessory that my mother had worn during her wedding to my father on this exact same date back in 1987. I carried that purse with me as well. The veil I had was blush colored, matched the dress, cathedral length, and included the blusher.
Bridesmaids
I had two bridesmaids and my husband had one groom’s woman. They all wore floor length gowns by Birdy Grey in the color SEA GLASS. Their outfits tied in with the theme as we wanted a sage green color, however when I received the swatches, we agreed that the SEA GLASS would coordinate well with the tablescapes but add more dimension to the ladies who would be supporting us on the day.
Each of them had picked their own design, with one being the Grace Convertible dress, one being the Hannah Empire Dress, and the third being the Devin Convertible dress.
Ceremony & Chuppah
We worked with Rabbi Harvey Winokur, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Kehillat Chaim, to craft a ceremony that had the traditional circling, seven blessings, and kiddush.
My husband insisted that we ground our marriage in tradition in order to bind our union to something greater than ourselves. We were able to include family and friends that weren’t able to attend via a livestream. My husband built the chuppah out of pine and poplar and we dressed it in sage green vinery and cream blossoms.
The tallit came from Congregation B’nai Torah, the synagogue that I was practically raised at and attend to this day. By affixing all of these things to our chuppah, and having a small golden table underneath to hold the ceremony items, we were able to capture the comfort of the home we intend to build going forward towards the future.
Andrew’s favorite part of the ceremony was putting the ring that once belonged to my mother on my finger, and subsequently when I put the ring that once belonged to my father on his hand. My father had passed away when I was 9 and the wedding ring Andrew was gifted on our wedding day was his and the band I have was my mother’s when she was married to my dad. Andrew’s father passed away in April of 2022, three months before we got married.
I loved how we were able to have a very meaningful, mostly traditional ceremony that both Jewish and non-Jewish family and friends could find significance and value in.
Ketubah
Our Ketubah artist was Ruth Stern Warzecha who specializes in calligraphy, which drew us to her design we chose, called Lisbon. This design has pen line decorations and the traditional seven wedding benedictions around the edge of the ketubah itself. We liked how simple the design was and that it was not overly elaborate. The text inside the ketubah itself is a pledge of love between the bride and the groom. My husband picked it out and I agreed on it from the selection on ketubah.com.
When it came time to sign the ketubah, Andrew cried, as he was so happy and excited to begin his life with me as his wife. The ketubah gave seriousness and weight to the event, solidifying the purposeful journey he was about to begin.
Our music choice
For the ceremony and the cocktail hour, we had a cellist, Roy Harran, who played cello for us. Roy had played in the IDF Strings Quartet and studied at the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel-Aviv University. He is an artist affiliate and faculty member of Emory University, and has played with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Opera, and Atlanta Ballet, amongst others. We were super excited to work with him on the music for the ceremony band he even worked with my now husband in creating a version of Princess Leia’s theme that I walked down the aisle to.
That was quite special for us as it’s one of my husband’s favorite pieces of music and for them to build this ceremony, particularly because Roy’s wife just had their first child soon before our wedding, was really awesome. I had seen him over multiple occasions over the years at Bridal events and I had always wanted him to play cello for my wedding, so when we had seen him at an event the January before our wedding,
I knew we needed to connect and build a beautiful playlist with him for the ceremony and cocktail hour. After the cocktail hour we did play the Hora, although it was part of a curated Spotify playlist that we had created together in lieu of a DJ.
Flowers
Andrew’s mom ran all over town, collecting cream colored roses and other accent flowers to develop the boutonniere, bouquets, and floral decorations for the tables. His mom did this as our wedding gift. The chuppah flowers were silk flowers I had purchased on Facebook Marketplace, as we were not sure with the heat, if real flowers would be able to hold up outside. Since there was a storm during our actual wedding ceremony, and needing to move the chuppah inside, we could have gone with actual flowers, but at that point it was already decorated so we left it alone.
Photographer
We used Andrea de Anda as our wedding photographer for our special day. We knew she was the right choice because, as we looked through her portfolio, the lighting we wanted, the crispness of the imagery, the dimension of what she can create with her camera was really outstanding. She worked with us to build a package that suited our needs, as well as made sure she captured every angle of our wedding that we needed.
She captured unscripted moments like when Andrew burst into tears walking into the room to do the badeken ceremony and signing of the ketubah. She did catch my shocked face though because I wasn’t expecting a few photos to be taken after we had signed it. However, she really captured the authenticity of the day and we are so glad we were able to work with her on our day.
Food and cake
Chef Cary’s Cuisine handled our kosher-style catering. For the Butler Passed hors d’oeuvre selections, we had warmed shredded sweet potato pancakes topped with apple chutney and chives, fried seasoned ground lamb and beef “lollipop” meatballs with spicy dipping sauce, and cucumber canape filled with black bean mousse with diced mango, cilantro, and a dried plantain chip.
The Artisan salad selection was a mixed greens with sauteed bosc pears, toasted walnuts with mustard-thyme champagne vinaigrette. The main courses for our day were Grilled chicken scaloppini with fresh basil, garlic infused oil, cherry tomato sauce, fried spinach and “24-hour” slow braised brisket in Coca Cola demi Glace sauce and garnished with sautéed carrots and caramelized Worcestershire onions. On the side we had Broccoli Rabe with toasted garlic, and Red B Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic.
Our cake was a lemon cake with raspberry filling and cream cheese icing created by Sally’s Gluten Free Bakery. It was incredibly soft, delicate, and seasonally appropriate for July. Unfortunately the bakery abruptly closed just after we got married.
Honeymoon
When we got married, we had a quick mini moon at Paradise Hills Winery and Spa, where we were able to take our dog, Lilah, with us and rent a cabin on their property for a few days. We were able to just relax, go canoeing, have some wine, and eat some local barbeque. It was also nice to just get away from the city for a few days to decompress after the wedding itself.
We went on our full honeymoon in June of the following year, where we took a Virgin Voyages Cruise into and out of Barcelona and saw the ports of Marseille, Cannes (but we spent most of our time in Antibes and have since fallen in love with that city), Palma Majorca, of which we took the tour of Jewish Majorca with Dani (if you get a tour with him, tell him I sent you!). You can book a two hour tour, a half day 4 hours (which we did) or a full day 6 hours tour.
We then took the cruise ship to Ibiza, then back to Barcelona for a few days before departing for home. Our cruise booking agent was a friend of mine, Sheri Mycols (she goes to my synogogue and we went to the same high school).
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
To reduce stress, you don’t want to expect things to go perfectly, you want your wedding team to be able to competently and creatively address unforeseen scenarios. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Marriages are bumpy roads, weddings are as well.
KIM & ANDREW’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Andrea de Anda Photography
Ketubah – ketubah.com {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Huntcliff River Club
Planner – Alexa Eve Events
Bride’s dress – Cathy Telle found at stillwhite.com
Bride’s shoes – Keds
Bridesmaids – Birdy Grey
Cellist – Roy Harran
Catering – Chef Cary’s Cuisine
Cake – Sally’s Gluten Free Bakery
Honeymoon – Paradise Hills Winery and Spa
Stationery/Invitation – Paperless Post
Rabbi – Rabbi Harvey Winokur, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Kehillat Chaim
Smash The Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, you’ll want to join Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club. Guided by the world’s number 1 Jewish wedding expert, Karen Cinnamon, Brides Club is the private community for Jewish and Jew-ish brides that removes wedstress and indecision and gives you what you need to plan with confidence during these uncertain times. Join our Brides Club here.
