We’re obsessed with all the personal touches Massachusetts couple Madeline, who manages an academic research program focused on traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases, and Adam, an emergency room physician, put into their very special Jewish wedding.
Madeline and her mother planned the wedding themselves, Madeline’s college friend Shelby hand crafted all of the signage to match the theme and flowers, and, best of all, the couple put together a fabulous wedding program including fun touches like a bingo card providing unique details about guests so that people would feel more comfortable mingling and getting to know each other while filling in their cards! Such a clever idea.
We also love that Madeline and Adam, realizing that their winter wedding would include lots of indoor photos and difficult lighting, specifically sought out a photographer who they knew could excel in these conditions – and they found the absolute perfect fit in Eric McCallister.
There’s so much more to say about this beautiful Jewish wedding, but we’ll turn you over to Madeline, who looked so glam in Jenny Yoo, for the rest…
How We Met
Madeline, the bride: We met on Tinder in 2014, but we didn’t just swipe right. The app glitched and matched us out of geographic range. We celebrate this day every year as “existence day”- the day we first learned about one another. Our first date was two weeks later during our college winter break, when he drove from New Hampshire to Massachusetts in a snow storm. Fast forward to 2021, and he proposed on the beach in the same town she was in when she swiped right 7 years prior.
From celebrating the Red Sox World Series win in Boston, to touring the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, our love of sports, stand-up comedy, searching for antiques, and sushi continues to bring us to new places. Now, we both work in the medical field and find great joy in helping others.
An Elegant Venue
After touring 10 venues, we picked Danversport Yacht Club in Danvers, Massachusetts, USA. Immediately upon walking into the venue, we were struck by the gorgeous chandeliers, high ceilings, and modern bars. There are so many beautiful locations on the property for both the ceremony and the reception, and they offer so many unique touches in their wedding packages that we had not seen anywhere else.
Winter Wedding
We knew we wanted a romantic, winter wedding with shades of red, black, white and gold. This really came to life with the help of Madeline’s college friend Shelby, who hand crafted all of the signage to match the theme and flowers. The venue provided a day-of coordinator, but otherwise, Madeline planned the entire wedding herself with a little help from her mother. Much of this planning took place on 7am daily phone calls together, memories they are both grateful for.
Hair + Makeup
I typically do not wear makeup, and I wear my hair in a bun. So, I wanted to have a completely different look on my wedding day. I requested “full glam” with double lashes, shimmery eyes, and long hair extensions. The incredible team of hair and makeup artists was from Axle Color Studio in North Reading, Massachusetts, and they made my bridesmaids, the moms, and I feel so beautiful and glamorous. They have a bridal suite where we all got ready in the morning in typical New England winter fashion, with Dunkin Donuts ICED coffee.
A Jenny Yoo Dress
After visiting five other bridal shops, we finally found Tulle Bridal in Andover, Massachusetts. The dress was the ivory, long sleeve, fitted, lace, Jenny Yoo Veda gown with buttons on the back, a crepe skirt, and a long train. We had a pearl belt sewn on as well. I wanted a dress had sleeves for the winter, but not a ball gown. So, this was the perfect fit and it made me feel like a bride.
Accessories
Madeline wore the pearl earrings that her aunt wore on her wedding day, as well as a cathedral-length veil with flowers. The stones in her engagement ring were from her great-grandmother, who she is named after. An incredible Israeli jeweler, Haviv Shaul, based in Peabody, Massachusetts, created a new setting for the stones and crafted a gorgeous ring.
Bridesmaids
We had six wonderful bridesmaids- Madeline’s two cousins, who are like sisters, were co-maids of honor. The other four bridesmaids included her long-time best friend since birth, her Jewish summer camp friend of over 17 years, her college roommate, and her new sister-in-law. Their outfits stole the show- floor length black gowns, black fur shawls, black heels, and pearl bracelets, which were a gift from Madeline during the rehearsal dinner.
Ceremony & Chuppah
The rabbi was the same rabbi who officiated her baby naming, bat mitzvah, and two other family weddings. We incorporated a havdalah service into our intimate ketubah ceremony, just prior to our main ceremony. We used the kiddish cups from our bar/bat mitzvot. For the recitation of the Seven Blessings during the main ceremony, we had seven different groups of special people come to the chuppah, regardless of religion. This was definitely our favorite part of the ceremony, and felt so meaningful.
We kicked off this part of the ceremony with our “former roommates”, a group of nine non-Jewish individuals. Our ceremony concluded with our recessional song, ‘To Life’ from Fiddler on the Roof. Our chuppah was a feature of our flower package, so our fantastic florist provided the structure, material, and the beautiful flowers on the corners. These flowers matched the bridesmaids’ bouquets.
In the spirit of “Smashing the Glass”, one of the greatest decisions we made for our wedding was purchasing a colorful glass for him to step on so that we could incorporate the shards into a mezuzah after the wedding. We chose blue and white from Shukis Judaica, based in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was also important to him to ensure that the “smash” was loud enough. So, we bought one of the glasses for him to practice with his wedding shoes on.
Ketubah
Our beautiful ketubah was crafted by Israeli artist, Noam Shargorodsky of Ketubahome. Noam was such a pleasure to work with and is a true artist. We had never seen anything like it. She even worked with our rabbi to make sure the wording was perfect. We love our ketubah so much, that we hung it up in our living room instead of the bedroom so more people could see it.
Our music choice
We had an incredible DJ, Party Excitement Entertainment from Massachusetts. They actually provided the music for her bat mitzvah as well! One of our favorite aspects of the reception was at the DJ’s suggestion- to have all of the guests around the dance floor for our first dance. This felt really special and made for beautiful pictures. He even made a custom mashup for the father/daughter dance. Everyone was dancing the whole night to all different types of music from pop to EDM to disco.
Flowers
Our fabulous florist was Cyndi from Petals, Inc. in Peabody, Massachusetts, USA. She and her team truly elevated the elegance of our big day, and created beautiful bouquets, wine bottle centerpieces with rose petals on the tables, and chuppah arrangements from just a few pictures for inspiration. She even used a piece of Madeline’s mother and grandmother’s wedding dress as the wrap on the bridal bouquet. We incorporated lots of roses in the arrangements, as well as gold leaf accents.
Photographer
Much of the wedding photography that you see online is light, airy and green, but that was not our wedding. It was winter, so we knew there would be darkness and photos would be inside. We spent a long time searching for the right photographer for this setting with difficult lighting, and Eric McCallister, from New Hampshire, nailed it. He captured all of the wonderful memories and fun energy of the entire day.
Our favorite shots are of us in chairs during the hora. Looking back at those photos, we still feel the energy, love, and positivity that was in the room. We also had a second shooter, Jessica, which was key to many of the ceremony photos. Both photographers were able to capture the different angles of our first look and the way we looked at each other during the ceremony.
Food and cake
Danversport provided all of the food for our cocktail hour and reception. Of course at a New England wedding, we had to incorporate some of the local foods. So, we had mini lobster rolls during cocktail hour and clam chowder as our first course. Our delicious red velvet and funfetti cake was created by JCakes in Peabody, Massachusetts, USA. In addition to our two cake flavors, we also had one of our favorite desserts, cheesecake with caramel and chocolate sauces.
Extra Details
We were excited to incorporate so many personal touches into our wedding. We incorporated our pug, Didi, into the signage. We’re also big Boston Red Sox and Boston sports fans, and one of our goals is to go to all of the Major League Baseball stadiums. However, many of our friends and family are from New York as well. So, on our program, we included a pie chart of Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees fans.
Also on our program was a heat map of the different states people traveled from, the “something borrowed, something blue” items, order of events, names of the individuals in the wedding party, different wedding-related statistics, a Venn diagram of our interests, and our favorite personal touch, the bingo card.
This bingo card provided unique details about our guests so that people would mingle and feel comfortable and energized. Some of these bingo squares included “youngest guest”, “ran 48 marathons”, “lead singer in a band”, “fluent in 3 or more languages”, and “published novelist.” We put a lot of time and effort into the program because we wanted something fun and different that people would enjoy reading and remember!
The wedding dress worn by my mother, grandmother, and great-aunt was made into several different pieces for our wedding by a family friend, Alexis. She repurposed the fabric into the bridal bouquet wrap, garter, glass-breaking bag, smaller veil for the ketubah signing, and the challah cover.
Wedding List
We registered with Crate and Barrel and created our wedding website on Joy. Joy has many unique features including the ability to create personalized guest schedules for viewing, integrated registry management, and numerous designs and themes.
Honeymoon
We are going to several wonderful cities in Spain, including Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, and Granada. We are planning to attend a flamenco show, take a pottery class, visit a winery, relax on the beach, and go on several excursions across the country. We picked Spain because we love exploring new cities, are big foodies, and it was one of the European countries that we both had not been to yet.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
We found that one of the most helpful parts of our day was having our first look and portraits before the ceremony. This allowed us to enjoy our cocktail hour and reception without feeling like we had to pose for pictures every few minutes- we could just have fun.
MADELINE & ADAM’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Eric McCallister
Venue – Danversport Yacht Club
Bride’s dress – Jenny Yoo found at Tulle Bridal
Bride’s accessories – Haviv Shaul
Hair + Makeup – Axle Color Studio
Flowers – Petals, Inc.
DJ – Party Excitement Entertainment
Catering – Danversport Yacht Club
Cake – JCakes
Ketubah – Ketubahome
Signage – Shelby
Wedding List – Crate and Barrel
Wedding Dress repurposing – Alexis
Smashing Glass – Shukis Judaica
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.
