Just when we think we’ve seen it all, along comes a Starbucks kiddush cup to prove us wrong! Yes, you read that right – Samantha, a baker, and Scott, who’s in commercial real estate, really did use a Starbucks coffee cup in place of a standard kiddush cup during their interfaith Jewish ceremony, in a nod to their adorable how-they-met story! Just one of the many little touches that went into making this wedding so personal and special.
For instance, we love how these two brought an English garden vibe to their South Florida venue, as a nod to Scott’s origins in the UK. With plenty of blush pink blooms, leafy greens, and twigs – don’t miss the beautiful chuppah! – we love the ambience Samantha and Scott created, and photographer Starfish Studios captured it all so perfectly.
We’ll turn you over to the bride in a minute, but first we have to rave about her impeccable bridal style – from her lovely Hayley Paige gown to her custom handpainted leather jacket, Samantha totally rocked it!
How we met
Samantha, the bride: We met at a Starbucks. We kind of just struck up a conversation and continued talking. Most of the time, I’m not one to talk to other people, I like to get in and get out and go on with my day, but there was something about Scott that kept me there, probably his accent if I’m not lying.
A South Florida Wedding
We got married at The Addison in Boca Raton, Florida. I knew I wanted somewhere in South Florida, since majority of my family lives there and it was still close enough for our friends and some of the family we have in Orlando, Florida (where we live). Once we saw The Addison, we fell in love. It had exactly that outdoor feel that we wanted, with the giant trees and outdoor light. With having the reception indoors, it also gave us an opportunity to keep with the traditional feeling as well.
English Garden Vibes
We did not use a wedding planner, we only had a day of coordinator at The Addison. We wanted an English garden feel, keeping with the blush pink and leafy greens everywhere.With succulents as our escort cards, having sprigs of greenery on the menu, and twigs as part of our chuppah, it helped bring a more earthy feel to the wedding as well.
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Me
I think what I love most about Smashing The Glass is that it isn’t just about solely Jewish weddings. When I first found them, I loved that it also said Jew-ish. Scott is not Jewish, but it was a big deal for my family that we had a Jew-ish wedding, and kept with some of the traditions. Smashing the Glass showed that there are other couples out there who do the exact same thing and that it doesn’t need to be one or the other, you can incorporate so many things in one day.
Invitation
We found a local paper store that was able to work with us and find just the perfect design for us. We wanted the more pastel colors with a floral print, and then adding the gold leaf made it even more perfect to actually match our wedding cake which had the same color scheme and gold leaf as well.
Hair + Makeup
I’ve always loved my hair, but I have a lot of it. It’s very thick and long, so I knew having an updo would be tough and a little bit of a waste to hide it all. I’ve always been in love with that whimsically, romantic look and thought that a half up braid would go great with that style. For makeup, I wanted that same vibe and kept it simple with the light pink, bronze looks. Natasha from Faces by April was amazing, she knew exactly what I wanted and helped make me look beautiful.
A Hayley Paige Dress
I bought my dress from Calvet Couture, a local shop in Winter Park, Florida. It was the Fleur De Lis Gown by Hayley Paige. It was actually the only dress I wanted. I did try on other dresses, but once I put this one on, I instantly fell in love with it. Between the lace, the neckline, and the way it looked on me, I knew it was “the one”.
Leather jacket
I’m pretty sure this was one of the first things I bought, once we knew our wedding date. I found a girl on Instagram who painted the most beautiful leather jackets. I knew right away that I needed to have one. Kelly did such an amazing job with details and getting this rose to be an exact color that I wanted. It is by far my favorite thing I own now and it made for amazing pictures.
Accessories
I kept my jewelry very simple. My mom let me wear her diamond earrings, which was just the right amount of “bling” for me. The veil I kept simple, I didn’t want to take away or hide from the back of my dress. I bought it from Calvet Couture but it is made by Sara Gabriel. When it came to my hair, I originally wanted a wild flower look in it, but knew that real flowers wouldn’t last me the night. After doing some digging online, I finally found these beautiful hair clips from Australia on Etsy. They were the perfect light pink color that would match the color scheme we had, and would look great in the braids I had in my hair. They were made by Tania Maras.
Betsey Johnson Shoes
I actually bought my shoes months before I even got my dress! Since I knew what dress I wanted, it was kind of an easy find. We were in DSW and saw these peep toe lacey shoes by Betsey Johnson. I had no idea how well they would match for sure, but I got them in hopes that they would. When the day came to go dress shopping, I brought them along, and they went together perfectly.
The handsome groom
Scott had on Calvin Klein tux from Men’s Wearhouse. His bow tie was from Tie Bar. Being from England, he wanted to incorporate something special into his outfit so him and his cousin Andrew, who was his best man both wore cufflinks with St. George’s Cross.
Bridesmaids
I knew I wanted them all in the same color and long dresses, but letting them decide on which style they wanted for themselves. I decided to go with Hayley Paige, the same designer who made my wedding dress. She had the perfect dusty rose color that I wanted, and all of her styles were gorgeous so it wasn’t difficult for the girls to pick a dress that would work for them.
Chuppah
For our chuppah, I kind of just did some searching and liked the garden look with the branches, greenery, and flowers all cascading over it. After working with our florists, they were able to design a perfect one with exactly what we wanted.
Ceremony
I’m a huge crier, I cry at everything and anything,it’s kind of funny at just what things make me cry. So of course during our ceremony, I bawled. I cried during our first look, I cried walking down the aisle, and I cried standing up there getting to marry my best friend. Scott pulled out a tissue during the ceremony and ever so gently, blotted my tears. The pictures captured of that moment was so special and sweet. It really describes us perfectly.
Another favorite moment that I need to talk about is our kiddush cup. Scott and I met at a Starbucks, and kind of make it our thing to go every year on that same date, and reorder what we both got. When we were telling the rabbi this story, he loved it and had this great idea that he would surprise our guests with, instead of using a traditional kiddush cup, he would pull out last minute a Starbucks coffee cup instead. Everyone loved it and couldn’t stop talking about it after. It was such a tiny detail that we didn’t even think about, but our rabbi, just by getting to know us for a few months, thought of this one thing that really did make such a huge difference.
Ketubah
It was actually tough to decide on a ketubah. At first I didn’t know what I wanted but eventually I decided on something simple and I really liked the paper cut out look. We ended up going with one from Judaic Connection by Enya Keshet. I wish we had a better picture of it from our wedding but because I wanted it framed with glass panelling on both the front and back, I had to temporarily get it on a white background, just so signing it would be easier.
Our music choice
Our song choices probably took us the longest! We have a more indie/folk/alternative music style, so there were a lot of songs and genres that we did not want. Scott has this running joke that every time he sees someone singing live music that he has to say “Play ‘Wonderwall’“, everyone knows the song, and it’s a very overplayed song, he even joked about learning to play it for the wedding. One day, a friend had told me that Ed Sheeran had sang that song, which I thought was ridiculous. Once I heard it though, it was such a beautiful song that really changed the dynamic of the song. So as a surprise, I made that the ceremony walk music for him and the bridal party. If you haven’t heard the song…you really should, it’s amazing.
For my precessional, I walked down to Ellie Goulding singing ‘How Long Will I Love You’. I always felt like it was such a beautiful song that makes me cry every time I hear it and really captures how Scott makes me feel.
For the recessional I went with something a little bit more upbeat. The soundtrack to Juno is one of my favorite ones. There’s a song in the movie by Barry Louis Polisar called ‘All I Want Is You’. It’s such a sweet song with the cutest lyrics. Once you hear it, it makes you want to just dance and smile, it was a cute way for us to walk down as husband and wife.
For the father daughter dance, I went with ‘The Wonder Of You’ by Villagers (cover of the Elvis song). I first heard it on the show Big Little Lies, when Adam Scott’s character “sings” it, and thought it was a great song and cover that expressed how I felt towards my dad.
Following with the covers themed, Scott’s mom actually found this one. They went with ‘Dreams’ by Imaginary Future (cover of The Cranberries song). Just another artist that was able to take a somewhat popular song and turn it into sounding completely different.
First dance
Our first dance song was kind of a mix up unfortunately. There’s a song by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros called ‘Home’. It’s a pretty popular song, and it was one of the first songs Scott and I listened to together and kind of became “our song”. I wanted it to somehow be in our wedding, but the original version is too fast for it to be a first dance. After doing some researching, I found that a singer Jasmine Thompson sang a cover for it. It’s a slower, acoustic, beautiful version, and knew that I had found exactly what I was looking for! The time came for our first dance, song started… the DJ played the wrong song.
I was devastated, but instead of making a scene or stopping our first dance, Scott and I just continued dancing, pretending like nothing was wrong. After the dance though and after speaking with the DJ, we learned that on iTunes, Jasmine Thompson sings 2 cover songs, both called ‘Home’, and they accidentally downloaded the wrong one. I knew I HAD to dance to that song though, so we ended up doing a couples bridal party dance, so we were able to eventually dance to our song.
Flowers
Going with the English Garden theme, we went with very soft flowers; garden roses, hydrangeas, lilies, and ranunculus. For my bouquet, the one thing I knew I wanted were white anemones with the black center. Our florist was Daniel Events, and they were amazing finding the colors and flowers that we wanted.
Photographer
We went with Starfish Studios for our photos. We found them through our venue, but what really stood out about them was the softness they had in all their photos. They really focused on the natural light, and making the pictures be bright on their own without too much editing.
Food
Our venue, The Addison, took care of all of the food. They have a Five Star Diamond Award and knew we could trust them with serving us and our guests. We kept it pretty traditional with a 3 course meal.
Cake
Our cake was one of my favorites though. We got it made by Earth and Sugar, which before I even knew they were one of the options for doing our cake from our venue, I wanted it made by them. It was such a beautiful cake with pastel painted flowers and edible gold cascading upwards. We had 3 different flavors for each tier. Lemon and strawberry on the bottom, chocolate in the middle, and then a vanilla with dulce de leche as the top. Of course I ate a piece of each layer!
Entertainment
This one we kept fairly simple. We ended up going with a DJ, Sarz Entertainment. We knew we wanted such specific songs and covers to be played, that it ended up just being easier having a DJ play them, than say a live band learning them to be exactly how we wanted.
Favors
For our escort cards we did little succulent plants in a gold pot. Scott and I spray painted the pots ourselves and then a week before the wedding, I went to a local cactus store and bought them myself. It was something a little extra for guests to take home with them to always remember our wedding.
We also at the end of the night had mini donuts made in the colors of our wedding, for guests to take home. There was also a punny sign on the table that I made to encourage guests to take them. I love donuts, I think majority of people do, so it was a small nice thing for people to eat when they got home, or even in the car on their way home!
Happy tears
Where to begin with this! I mentioned this above, I am a big crier… happy, sad, movies, TV commercials… you name it, I cry. My mom had went to a wedding once and they gave out little packets of tissues, which I thought was cute, but not enough for what I wanted. I ended up finding online a tutorial for tiny tissues boxes and thought they were the best things I’d ever seen. I had one of my best friends, who was also a bridesmaid, find a paper that would go well with our wedding and she was able to create them for us! My mom and I spent an entire afternoon folding these tiny boxes and a few days before the wedding she stickered and stuffed them.
Hand crocheted yarmulkes
I had an aunt growing up who crocheted yarmulkes. She made my siblings, cousins, and mine for our bar and bat mitzvahs. When she passed, she unfortunately never shared how to make them. I knew I needed yarmulkes for the wedding, but couldn’t find ones I wanted, and didn’t want the traditional ones. With some time and practice, my mom actually learned how to make them! No one believed that she made all of them by hand, they were such a meaningful thing for her to make.
Wedding sign
Our wedding sign was something I came across on Etsy. I wanted something to showcase in our house, that wasn’t too traditional. I ended up finding this circular piece of wood that they 3D cut the last name on. We wanted an easel for it, to make it easier for guests to sign, but couldn’t find anything big enough to hold it up. Scott ended up making one himself.
SE²
I reached out to my best friend, who made the tissue boxes, and told her that I wanted to do a monogram/logo on our menus. I thought it would be a nice personalized touch on something that is so simple. I didn’t want to do S & S, it never looked a way that I liked. Instead, since our initials are now the same, I ended up going with SE² , which I figured would be something a little different.
Wooden cake topper
I found these custom wooden people toppers that you can create to look just like the bride and groom. It was originally going to be our wedding cake topper, but with the size of it, and with the flowers that were on top of the cake, it ended up just sitting in front of the cake, which added a little personalized touch to the table.
Our dog Gatsby
One thing that made our day special was being able to take photos with our dog Gatsby. Although he did not attend the wedding, we had our dog sitting bring him to the park that we were taking our first look photos. We got him a special bow tie to match Scott’s. It was a special moment for us to be able to share our best day with him and to now have pictures looking back that have Gatsby involved in.
Honeymoon
For our honeymoon, we kind of went a lot of places! We aren’t the beach, relaxing couple, we like to walk around and explore around the cities.
We started off in the south of France, going to Cannes, Nice, and Monaco. Then took a train to Italy, where we did Milan and then continued onto Florence for a few days. We knew since we were in Europe, we wanted to go to England for a little, so that we can see Scott’s family that still lives there. So for the last few days of our honeymoon, we flew to London.
To make it even more special, we decided we wanted to do a little wedding lunch so that his grandmother could be there, as well as his other family. My parents, and Scott’s mom flew from Florida so they could be there to as well. It was a sweet way to end our honeymoon and bring even more of our families together.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
A friend of mine who works as an event planner told me that if you forget something or something goes wrong, don’t sweat it..no one else at the wedding was suppose to know it was there to begin with. It kind of helped ease things a bit because say I forgot a sign or last minute realize I wanted to do something, no one else would know but me, so why should I let that take away from a day that is suppose to be about marrying your best friend.
Samantha & Scott’s little white book
Photography – Starfish Studios
Venue – The Addison
Bride’s dress – Hayley Paige found and fitted at Calvet Couture
Bride’s veil – Sara Gabriel purchased at Calvet Couture
Bride’s shoes – Betsey Johnson
Bride’s hairpins – Tania Maras
Groom’s attire – Calvin Klein purchased at Men’s Wearhouse and Tie Bar
Hair + Makeup – Faces by April
Flowers and decor – Daniel Events
Entertainment – Sarz Entertainment
Ketubah – Judaic Connection by Enya Keshet
Invitations – Paper Goat Post
Ring Box – The Mrs Box
Calligraphy on leather jacket – Bash Calligraphy
Pyjamas – Plum Pretty Sugar
Guestbook sign – Spring Meadow Co.
Tissues boxes, monogram, escort cards – Paper Mark Creative
Cake – Earth and Sugar
Cake Topper – Lollipop Workshop
Donuts – Mini Donut World
Succulents – Florida Cactus
Trolley – Molly’s Trolleys
Rabbi – Michael Raab
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Great Post. Thanks for sharing