We’re so excited to be sharing the beautiful Jewish wedding of our beloved STG Brides Club member Melissa, a nanny and cake maker, to Nick, a design technician in a secondary school! Melissa, a self-described hopeless romantic obsessed with Disney, fairy tales, and butterflies, had been dreaming of her big day since she was a child, and did she ever bring all that enthusiasm to play when it came to planning!
Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Alexandra’s Florist helped the couple merged all these passions with a Midsummer Night’s Dream aesthetic, with plenty of white flowers with ivy, green leaves – and butterflies. Melissa and Nick’s gorgeous rustic chuppah featured was swathed in twigs, white flowers, and silver butterflies, and the wonderful centerpieces for the reception followed suit.
And we adore the unique invitations the pair designed, working with STG Recommended Vendor BigDay Designs and an architectural artist, featuring a hand-sketched illustration of their gorgeous ceremony venue, New West End Synagogue.
We also love that the pair incorporated some awesome DIY projects into their big day, most notably Melissa’s handcrafted arches (see pic above), made from cut up hula hoops and covered in artificial ivy and roses, to keep with the theme (she’s even shared a tutorial inside Brides Club should you wish to follow suit!) – and Nick’s heart-shaped wooden table name signs, each etched with the name of the Disney song the table in question was named for!
Photographer Chiko and videographer and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion captured all the special moments of the day so exquisitely – we really feel as if we were there! And Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Toastmaster Jango kept the day running smoothly and stress-free.
There’s so much more to say about this fantastic day, but we’ll let Melissa, who looked beautiful in Davidʼs Bridal, fill you in on the rest…
Venue
Melissa, the bride: We got married at New West End Synagogue in St Petersburgh Place – ever since I was a little girl I always dreamed of getting married at this synagogue. The interior is just picturesque, with stunning stained-glass windows, too.
After the ceremony, we made our way to the Jumeirah Carlton Towers in Knightsbridge, which allows the bridal party use of their gorgeous and exclusive private park. This made for a stunning set of photos!
Fairy Tale Romance
I have been one of ‘those girls’ who’s been dreaming of their wedding day since about the age of 10, so when it came to organising my big day, I simply COULD NOT WAIT! I’m totally obsessed with anything Disney, fairy tales, butterflies and a self-declared ‘hopeless romantic’. Therefore, I knew I wanted to include these things in my wedding.
I did not see the point in using a wedding planner, as I knew exactly the wedding vendors I wanted to use from the beginning. Also, Brides Club has helped me massively, in hearing other people’s recommendations and testimonials and sounding out ideas with my Brides Club sisters!
‘Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club’ Did For Us
I enjoyed being part of a community and really valued the way everybody helps each other with any challenges, as and when they arise. Unfortunately I joined Brides Club after booking already 80% of our vendors but our invitation was supplied by BigDay Designs Ltd., who still honoured the 10% discount. We also ordered our kippot through Hebrewear, who also honoured this discount.
Illustrated Invitations
This was an essential thing for us. We loved the idea of a hand sketched illustration – which is not in itself a unique thing but as our ceremony venue – New West End Synagogue – is pure architectural eye-candy, it was a natural subject choice for a front cover. We even thought that if the invitation could unfold as if the main arched doors of the synagogue were themselves opening, if it was technically achievable, that would be a special thing. We wasted no time and managed to source a wonderful architectural artist who was happy to illustrate from a photo we sent her. We sent this off to BigDay Designs, who helped us turn our creation in to reality.
Hair + Makeup
For makeup, I definitely wanted to go bridal-glam and to be something that would last the whole day. The lovely Kate Silver did my makeup for me and was able to bring out my natural beauty. My hair was styled by Gemma Harris. I knew the look I wanted was – you guessed it – ‘romantic princess’ and Gemma was excellent in achieving this for me.
A David’s Bridal Dress
I am not a big fan of shopping and being the centre of attention. I decided to go with my mum and grandma to Davidʼs Bridal in Watford. I had been there many times before as a bridesmaid and thought this should be my first stop as I knew they stocked many different styles. I knew I wanted an A-line dress with lace and found this to be the one. It wasn’t designer but a dress from the David’s Bridal collection, which was perfectly fine for me.
Accessories
When trying on my dress from David’s Bridal, they gave me a pearl tiara to try on and I instantly felt like a Disney princess. I also always knew I wanted a cathedral veil, which was outlined with lace and flowers. When it came to trying this on, doing so also confirmed it was right for me. Both of these things were from David’s Bridal.
Shoes
When getting married, I knew I would always want to walk down the aisle in Jimmy Choos! – and this too became a reality. I chose Cinderella sparkling kitten heels for the ceremony but changed in to a pair of personalised white Converses for the dancing and partying.
The handsome groom
We all agreed that morning suits would give our ceremony a wonderful and special sense to the occasion and we were recommended by family friends to go to Impeccable Suits in Hatch End. My husband also bought a new dinner suit there, shoes, bow tie, and dress shirts. It was the ideal one-stop-shop! My husband really dislikes clothes shopping but I know he was in awe at their friendliness, experience and helpfulness in choosing the styles and achieving spot-on alterations for him and the other groomsmen. They took all the stress out of it and made the process one which added to the excitement of the big day.
Bridesmaids
I had 3 bridesmaids – my 2 best friends and Nick’s sister Joanna. I decided to go to David’s Bridal. I had heard many good things about their Vera Wang bridesmaid collection and originally had the color lilac in mind. After seeing the girls in lilac, I felt that they would be too washed out in that colour and decided bolder would be better. The next colour I saw was cassis and after seeing it on all my bridesmaids, I knew that it was the right choice. I also had two flower girls, whose dresses I found in John Lewis.
As the theme evolved to become ‘midsummers’ night’s dreammeets Disney’, the cassis of the bridesmaid dressesfit in very well.
Chuppah
Our chuppah was covered in silver butterflies. I also knew I wanted all the flowers to be decorated with butterflies to tie in with our theme. I also knew I wanted it to be like a forest, with twigs and flowers. As the bridesmaids’ dresses were very bold, we decided to have just white flowers.
Ceremony
We chose to have a ‘public badeken‘ to include everybody, as our grandparents weren’t able to walk down the isle. This way, they could see every part of our ceremony comfortably. Seeing my husband there and vice versa ‘publically’ rather than privately was a brave decision but the intensity and impact it had, in front of all our beloved friends and family in such a stunning setting made the moment we saw one another… indescribable.
My favorite part was walking round my groom, and seeing all our family and friends smiling, waving at my flower girls and page boy and taking it all in.
Ketubah
Our ketubah was also a commissioned piece (although my husband was perfectly happy with the standard United Synagogue version!) by Ketubah Art by Rena. The text is surrounded by a rosette of pink roses with green leaves and gold leaf butterflies (obviously). My husband has finally admitted it was a good decision!
Our music choice
The procession, my groom and bridal party walked in to our Chazan, Jonny Turgel singing ‘Y’Simcha’ and I walked in to ‘Bo’e Shalom’ in the tune of ‘Time To Say Goodbye’ by Andrea Bocelli and I waled the 7 circles to ‘Meheirah Hashem’. Then, immediately after we smashed the glass, ‘Mazel Tov and Siman Tov’.
First dance was Creation’s gorgeous cover of Boyce Avenue’s cover of ‘Sky Full of Stars’ by Coldplay.
Flowers
Our florist was Alexandra’s Florist and she definitely brought my vision to life. For my bouquet, I had a bridal shower, which I always wanted to be pure white with ivy and green leaves. This followed through with the bridesmaids bouquets and the groomsmen wore white, rose buttonholes. I always wanted a midsummer night’s dream theme, which included a rustic chuppah, filled with twigs, white flowers and silver butterflies – this then carried on to the reception, where we placed a mixture of high and low tree-centrepieces, each embellished with flowers and gold butterflies – gold to match the gold-and-white theme of the room.
Photographer and videographer
Chiko was our photographer. I had known him for over 6 years and aside from that, his work is just stunning. He was the only photographer I wanted to use! Now that we have seen all our photos, we can see just how he was able to capture all the special moments and portray our story from start to finish in a way that truly and accurately reflects the feel we of the day. He also offers a discount to Brides Club Members.
When it came to choosing a videographer, I wasn’t sure who to go with and asked Chiko to recommend someone to us. He advised us to look at Denee Motion – after checking out their videos on Instagram we knew we would love to have them!
A fantastic toastmaster
From day one we always knew we wanted a toastmaster. We have been to so many weddings where some have had and some haven’t and I knew it would keep our minds at bay if we had someone running the show.
Jango Gazdar was our star and I can’t recommend him highly enough. He told us in the run up to our wedding that he would look after us as if we were his own children and that is exactly how we felt. The evening ran smoothly thanks to his organisation and experienced professionalism.
Food
When choosing our caterer we had heard many great things about Jason Millan – we decided to go with them as we knew we could leave it all in their capable hands! We had 3 food stations at our reception which were sushi, salt beef and duck pancakes and had hot and cold canapes going around too.
We went for a duck starter, lamb main and a parave (yet surprisingly delicious) chocolate fondant accompanied by candied orange ice cream for dessert. I happen to be an avid cake maker, so it was no trouble for me to make my own wedding cake! I made the toppers myself and had chocolate fudge as the bottom tier, victoria sponge as the top tier.
Entertainment
Our band was Creation owned and managed by Simon Cooper – we had heard them as guests at other weddings previously and are terrific. They certainly brought their A-game on our special night – it was one hell of a party and we couldn’t have imagined better.
We also surprised our guests with a performance by the Fiddler On The Roof Bottle Boys from Uptown Events, who got the groom and man of honour involved – a real crowd pleaser!
Favours
We thought mini Jaeger bottles with a custom printed label would be a nice touch for our friends’ tables and although we searched high and low for mini red bull cans, we still achieved the Jaeger-bomb effect by ensuring the bar had a supply of standard red bull. Looking back, we probably should have ditched the red bull cans as no one actually knew the bar were holding them and most who drank the Jaegers just shot them anyway!
Including all the special people
We included all the special people we wanted to! We had our uncles read the Sheva Brachot – one uncle read the first two under the chuppah and the others after grace after meals at the reception. Our Man of Honour did the toast to Israel and our friend Shelly did the toast to the queen. My brother was best man and delivered a great best man speech.
DIY
The groom Nick designed and manufactured the table name signs himself – laser cut in wood, heart shaped and we incorporated the Disney theme by naming all the tables after a Disney Love song that was etched/engraved on the centre of each one.
To carry on our woodland fairy tale theme, I handcrafted my own arches for Nick and I to walk under as we entered the reception – these were made from cut up hula hoops and covered in artificial ivy and roses – one of my favourite bits to reminisce over when I watch the wedding video back and look at in our gorgeous photos. I also posted a ‘how to’ inside Brides Club so other members could use the guide if they wanted to create their own.
We also had a light up LOVE behind us as we were on a sweetheart (2 people) table this put the spotlight more on us.
Speeches
In terms of stories, the only thing that I’d say here is that yes, our day was special because of a beautiful ceremony and yes, the party atmosphere was stunning too but what we loved the most and our friends and family talked the most about afterwards was – the speeches. Fun, funny, exceptionally delivered, sentimental and heartfelt.
I made a quick improvised thank you speech at the end only to show my appreciation for all our wonderful vendors and generosity from guests and, of course all the support from our family.
Honeymoon
We straight after went for a week’s minimoon to Santorini where we were able to chill and enjoy our first week of marriage. We were due to be in Fiji for a month for work anyway (which was a sort of ‘working honeymoon’) but decided that we’d take advantage of spending a week in the US on the way home where we could simply relax and adventure at will and make that part of our honeymoon too. We went on a mini road trip to San Diego, Santa Monica and Hollywood.
We booked most hotels through Expedia and TripAdvisor’ed everywhere we went, which proved really insightful.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Being organised – I’m a very organised person and I think you just have to be organised! Knowing what you want at the outset will allow things to fall in to place all the more easily and if you’re able to be firm in your vision, it’s easier for others to help you achieve what it is you’re trying to achieve. If you’re not sure about things, definitely – absolutely talk to people who want to help you! Hello Brides Club!
I had a minute by minute schedule that I used for the day and had pre-sent to all vendors well in advance of the day which kept things crystal clear for all involved – In the 4 days running up I took my mum to the hotel (and had a spa day to relax) and I handed everything over to the vendors. By doing this (spa aside) a weight was lifted from my shoulders and I was able to enjoy the 3 day lead up and spend time with family. You have to make sure you take some self time too – Friday and Saturday morning I chilled out and took everything in – wrote my card to Nick and started to get very excited! Maybe a little nervous too!
Melissa & Nick’s little white book
Photography – Chiko {offers 2 parents albums (size 15×21) to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – Denee Motion {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Flowers – Alexandra’s Florist {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Invitation – BigDay Designs {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Toastmaster – Toastmaster Jango
Kippot – Hebrewear {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venues – New West End Synagogue and Jumeirah Carlton Towers
Bride’s dress and accessories – Davidʼs Bridal
Bride’s shoes – Jimmy Choo and Converse
Groom’s attire – Impeccable Suits
Bridesmaids – Davidʼs Bridal and John Lewis
Hair + Makeup – Gemma Harris and Kate Silver
Catering – Jason Millan
Chazan – Jonny Turgel
Band – Creation Showband
Ketubah – Ketubah Art by Rena
Bottle dancers – Uptown Events
Smash The Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
