Happy 2020! Seeing as this is our first real Jewish wedding feature of the year, we wanted to make it something really special – and we found just the thing. Emma, a product manager, and Pete, a data scientist, wanted a wedding that showcased their love of London in a fresh, unexpected, and whimsical way – and did they ever hit the jackpot when Emma realized her love of Mary Poppins was the perfect theme to center it all!
The couple’s wedding planner, the amazing Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Elegante By Michelle J – whose experience, knowledge, and knack for handling wedding logistics seamlessly made it easy for the duo to stay focused on the fun details and creative touches – helped them transform their dream into reality, crafting a Mary Poppins-perfect day that always stayed classy and never veered into the cheesy or childish.
Bringing in iconic touches like kites, umbrellas, carpet bags, lampposts, chimneys – for example, Emma and Pete had a giant table plan where the numbers were kites and everyone’s names were hanging down on the bows – and fun details like cocktails with Poppins-inspired names, the whole team really went all in.
And nowhere is this more evident than in the choice to center the reception décor around a totally incredible balloon arrangement by Balloonista, who the couple’s planner connected them with. Working with Emma and Pete’s wedding colours and theme, Balloonista created a stunning, one-of-a-kind overhead installation featuring balloons, and, in true Mary Poppins style, hanging umbrellas too.
The amazing photographer STG Recommended Vendor Claudine Hartzel did a great job capturing all the special moments and details of the day, as did videographer Marco Windham.
And speaking of STG Recommended Vendors – we love that Emma and Peter opted to work with so many of them, from Philippa Louise Makeup, the force between the bride’s glam bridal look, to the mega-talented Jonny Mosesson, who not only sang beautifully during the chuppah but also went above and beyond helping the couple choose their music.
Now over to the gorgeous bride, Emma…
Bevis Marks to Bike Shed
Emma, the bride: Pete and I both come from fairly traditional Jewish backgrounds but are also quite liberal in our thinking and outlook on life. Our wedding had to be a balance between honouring our families’ perspective and the Jewish tradition that we love while keeping true to our values, lifestyle and quirky taste.
We always knew we wanted to have a London wedding and something that captured the way we live together now, which is very much about living in London Bridge and spending a lot of time around the City and East London.
We knew we wanted to have a wedding in a synagogue – we both grew up going to synagogue and being in a venue that was part of Jewish life and connected to years of simchas felt like it would make the service more spiritual for us.
In this respect we got so lucky to be able to get married at the historic Bevis Marks. I had seen a friend get married there years ago and the beauty of the synagogue left such a strong impression on me that it was the first place I thought of when we got engaged. Bevis Marks is also a short walk from our flat so it fitted perfectly with our idea of a local London wedding. We loved getting more involved in the community as we prepared for the wedding.
The reception venue was much trickier to find! We wanted somewhere that would contrast with the history and tradition of Bevis Marks and be the sort of place we would love to go and socialise on a weekend, an ‘urban space’ that didn’t feel too fussy, flowery or light. We initially shied away from warehouse venues because it just felt like too much work, but once we had our wedding planner Michelle on board it became a possibility.
When we went to see Behind The Bike Shed it met all our criteria, we loved the railway arch, the brick walls, the concrete floor, the window which is such a great feature and makes the room feel much lighter. The fact it was behind a motorcycle club was quite random (no, neither of us ride bikes!) but with a great restaurant and bar inside, it’s the kind of place where we would go and have brunch on a weekend.
The other good thing about the Bike Shed is it has a hotel right opposite called the Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch which has an amazing suite for brides with a bedroom, massive bathroom, big living room and massive outdoor terrace for ‘getting ready’ pictures. The hotel events manager and staff were so amazing and did everything they could to help us – letting us drop things off early, take photos in the foyer before the wedding and keeping the bar open for a lot of guests who came back after the wedding. Having the hotel right opposite and how nicely they treated us really bought the venues together.
A Fab Planner
Our wedding planner was Elegante By Michelle J, who my mum found through one of the venues we were talking to. Michelle supports with every aspect of the wedding and it was great to have someone on board with so much experience and knowledge and to take on a lot of the logistics. The wedding was a true team effort between us, both sets of parents and Michelle.
Michelle got on well with all of us and was great to have as part of our wedding team! The wedding was split across three locations with buses moving everyone between them and the venue was completely dry hire so everything had to be brought in on the day.
Michelle made us feel supported in all these decisions, and by taking on lots of the arrangements and recommending several major suppliers, we were able to make time to really think about the details and things we wanted for the day without having to worry about the logistics – which is exactly what I think the role of a wedding planner should be!
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us
Smashing the Glass is definitely an amazing resource for anyone making a wedding. For us it was really helpful to read about other Jewish weddings at Bevis Marks in particular.
Invitation
We were lucky that Pete’s brother Michael is a talented graphic designer and was happy to design a lot of our wedding stationery; he did an amazing job for us! We used designing the invite as a chance to pick and then introduce our bold colour scheme which was a mix of turquoise, bright pink, forest green, pale pink, gold and grey. We wanted the invite to set the tone for the wedding with our own take on traditional luxury. We had quite formal wording, Hebrew writing and really nice thick card but Michael made the design modern and geometric. We loved it and used the design again for our menus on the day and the colour scheme throughout the wedding.
Picking the colours was the hardest part of the invitation process. Originally for ease we were going to go with more traditional colours like white and green, but when we explained this to both our wedding planner Michelle and our parents they asked whether this was really our style and what we wanted. On reflection we realised we were just trying to make things easy but actually our style is much more colourful and eclectic and we felt that with our parents and Michelle’s support we should be bolder and go with what we really love.
Hair + Makeup
I had seen Philippa do my friend’s makeup a few years back and remember thinking, if I ever get married that is what I want for my makeup, and she really didn’t disappoint. I prefer slightly heavier makeup and darker colours and Philippa really listened to what I wanted, understood it and then executed it better than I could ever have imagined. I have since been spending a fortune on makeup to try to recreate this magic.
My hair was a recommendation from our wedding planner and she was an absolute dream. I normally always wear my hair down so it was a bit of a departure to have it pulled back, but I wanted it off my face and I wanted the back to be quite big. You only get married once so you might as well have big hair! I was really happy with what Zoe did and she was also an amazing support on the day, staying until the photos were done and making sure we were all picture perfect. Laura Reed made the paper daisies in my hair – just like Mary Poppins in her hat!
Accessories
My jewellery was rose quartz from a collaboration between Monica Vinader and Caroline Issa I’m not really much of a diamond or pearls person so was very relieved to find something more my taste that still felt ‘wedding fancy’. The pink in the quartz blended really nicely with the pink tones in my dress and veil. The rings were by Ruth Tomlinson, who produces very organic and non-traditional designs that we both love.
My bouquet was made out of paper by Laura Reed. Laura specialises in making decorations out of paper, and the paper flower bouquet she made me was so special. She really took time to understand what I wanted and sent me colour samples in advance. I was so happy with the end result, and the best bit is I can keep it forever.
Shoes
I wore a pair of white Toms – my second best decision of the day after marrying Pete. I’m just not a girl who loves shoes and I hate wearing heels so for me it was comfort all the way.
The handsome groom
One of Pete’s best friends from school owns the most gorgeous tailor shop Benson and Clegg. We decided to have Pete’s suit made there and the experience was an absolute wedding highlight – better than my dress buying! We went for fittings and were served whiskey and bloody Marys while discussing belts vs braces, different tuxedo collars and flicking through books of tuxedo linings. I learnt a lot about tuxedos along the way and the end result was just fabulous. Pete looked so handsome in that suit and the braces looked great when the jacket came off later in the party! Pete and all the ushers also wore white bow ties so they would stand out, and we had paper flowers made by Laura Reed for their button holes which matched my bouquet.
Bridesmaids
I had three little bridesmaids and then a bridal party made up of my four best friends, two cousins, and Pete’s sister and sister in law. All of those people are so special and important in my life and I knew I would want them all there on the day to help me feel comfortable and like it was a party from early on. All the grown up girls wore whatever they wanted, I guess you could say that fitted with the theme of doing tradition in our own way.
Originally the three little ones were going to wear whatever dress they wanted but in reality I couldn’t resist the siren call of cute children bridesmaid outfits – so they ended up in matching dresses from Not On The High Street, cardigans from Monsoon and headbands and ribbon made my Laura Reed which matched my bouquet – they looked SO cute on the day!
I included everyone in the day in different ways so my cousins and Pete’s sister and sister in law all walked down the aisle with the little bridesmaids, then later my four friends did a speech, so everyone had a part to play! In terms of tying in the theme, all of the bridesmaids presents were on Mary Poppins theme, the grown up girls all got bracelets with kite’s attached and the younger girls got Mary Poppins jewellery boxes.
As we did the ‘formal’ photos at the hotel prior to leaving for the ceremony we had all the girls at the hotel and then all the boys including Pete, his family and ushers came to the hotel at about 12 to have a drink in the bar and be ready for the photos. My brother Sam who was also an usher organised food in both my hotel room and downstairs in the hotel bar for all of Pete’s wedding party. It was so great to be able to pass a job like that to my brother Sam who provided a large array of amazing food, I would definitely say passing out some jobs like that to close friends or family takes some of the stress out of the day for you.
Ceremony
Bevis Marks have been doing weddings for over 300 years, so we were very happy to have their traditional ceremony without any changes. They lit hundreds of candles in the synagogue and have their own beautiful brass chuppah, so there was no need for any decoration or addition. Jonny Moses-son sang beautifully and passionately along with a piano and violin, and he was great helping us choose the music – even playing songs to us live over the phone!
Rabbi Morris at Bevis Marks made us feel so welcome in the run up to the wedding and his service on the day was really moving and beautiful – it meant a lot to have had the chance to get to know him and the community and they are so welcoming to couples wanting to get married there.
Our music choice
Our first dance song was ‘Nowhere To Go But Up’ from Mary Poppins Returns soundtrack. My favourite date is a fancy cinema so as part of his plans for the day we got engaged, Pete took me out for brunch and then to see Mary Poppins Returns at the Curzon in Aldgate. I have a real weakness for kids films and books like Mary Poppins, Harry Potter, Moana etc… so this was basically an idyllic day for me and really all about Pete doing something specifically I would love.
Anyway, about six months later most of the wedding is planned; venue, colours, balloons, urban London theme. I’m walking home from work listening to the Mary Poppins Returns sound track and this song comes on. It is all about balloons, how life is like a balloon and how if you pick the right balloon then there’s nowhere to go but up!
It was an amazing feeling, like the whole rest of the wedding just came together in my head around this song – it was the perfect first dance song, and then Mary Poppins was a perfect theme for a London wedding and as I walked home idea after idea just sprang into my mind about how this could be a Mary Poppins wedding.
I honestly will never tire of listening to that song and my most magical moment of the wedding was hearing it play as the first dance and then everyone else coming onto the dance floor with us all spinning around while it played. We were also greatly helped by a dance lesson from my uncle who is a famous Lindy Hop Dancer (Simon Selmon who founded London Swing Dance Society). We didn’t want to do a full dance but he definitely made sure no toes got stepped on by teaching us some basic moves!
Of course the last song had to be ‘Let’s Go Fly A Kite’ which worked really well as a final song for everyone to sing along to in a circle.
Balloons
Whilst I absolutely love party decorations (give me a balloon, candle, interesting plate, napkin any day of the week!) I’ve never liked flowers or flower arrangements, so it was hard to visualise them playing a part in my wedding. Having said that, it’s also quite challenging to conceive a wedding without flowers – so I really didn’t know what the right thing to do was. Working with our parents and wedding planner we managed to think about things I do like, and settled on the idea of balloons being the main point of decoration instead. I love balloons but was conscious of not wanting to accidentally throw a children’s birthday party styled wedding (this was before we had the Mary Poppins theme idea) and we knew we needed to find the right person who could make balloons work for our venue and for a wedding.
With this brief, Michelle our wedding planner found us the amazing Balloonista! We had a really good meeting with her at the venue and the ideas just grew from there. I had found a picture online of a table with a stream of floating balloons over the top and Aurelija (Ballonista herself!) ran with this and conceived our amazing overhead balloon installation in the wedding colours with umbrellas hanging off it (Mary Poppins theme!) It was such a high impact piece that pulled the whole room together. In the reception/dancing room we had individual massive balloons in the wedding colours which looked great and ended up being used as a dancing prop at the end of the night!
Photographer
Our photographer was Claudine Hartzel who was recommended to us by our wedding planner Michelle. We decided to do nearly all of our ‘formal’ photos before leaving the hotel for the wedding reception as I didn’t want to spend the reception posing for photos. This worked great and it felt good to know that part was done before heading off. Claudine did a great job capturing all the special moments and details on the day, with some of our favourite pictures taken on the old London bus between the venues. It was so nice to be able to look through them and remember everything.
Our videographer
Our videographer was Marco Windham who had done one of my friends’ weddings – Marco was a lovely presence on the day, it’s hard to remember everything that happened that day so it definitely felt important to me to have a video to look back on and see anything I might have missed or forgotten!
Food
Pete and I are both foodies and knew the food would be very important to us on the day. Pete’s brother had recently worked on Shuka’s website and he passed us their details. One taste of Shuka’s amazing catering and we knew they were the ones for us. Their food is inventive, tasty and really well presented. We also loved that it was Israeli style food so lots of slow cooking, sauces, seasoning and of course hummus.
The food on the day was fabulous and lots of people commented on how nice it was. We had sharing starters of mixed meze and a main course of slow cooked lamb with a fantastic Tunisian sauce. After the main course we had the final speeches and then got everyone straight up and dancing. We served roving desserts during the dancing – some people chose to go and sit back down to eat them, others carried on dancing and had some later. Later in the the night we gave out choc ices and coffee liquor shots and these went down really well as a yummy and refreshing snack and a quick pick me up drink.
Shuka also did an amazing job bringing an entire kitchen and basically setting it up behind a curtained off wall at the back of one of the archways – it was truly an immense feat and the amount of energy and organisation they put into the day was astounding. They also provided the most beautiful table linen including our lovely dark green table cloths and lovely plates and cutlery which all really added to the look of the room!
Entertainment
During our engagement Pete and I went to see Fiddler on the Roof, after seeing it we knew we had to have some of that bottle dancing at our wedding! We kept this part of the wedding a surprise. After the last speech finished, the bottle dancers rushed in and gave a mini speech of their own, then led everyone to join them on the dance floor. They then did an amazing show of bottle dancing and even had Pete and his brother Michael dress up and join in! This was such a highlight of the wedding and so many people have mentioned to me how this was one of their favourite bits
Our DJ was Fenton Gee who also came recommended from Michelle. He gave great advice when helping us choose our music style to make sure there was something for everyone. He did a great job on the night and made sure everyone was up and dancing right till the end.
Favours
For favours we had umbrellas which were personalised with a Mary Poppins logo and phrase as well as our initial and the date. My parents designed and organised these and they worked really well with the theme of both Mary Poppins and a November London wedding – I love seeing my friends use them in day to day life now!
A “Mary Poppins wedding”
I don’t often get to be very creative in day to day life so it was a real pleasure to think of all the creative touches for the wedding.
I really wanted a theme to make everything hang together and reflect our more quirky side but struggled with coming up with anything that felt weird or original enough. Part of the attraction of Mary Poppins was that there are so many different iconic objects and looks to play with – kites, umbrellas, carpet bags, lampposts, chimneys and it all felt very London and quite fresh/unexpected. We wanted to do it in a way that made use of the best of the nostalgia, whimsy and iconic nature of the film without tipping over into cheesy/childish and I felt we met that balance on the day!
We started introducing the theme at the synagogue by including the phrase ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ on the inside of the kippot we had printed. Then at the venue Laura Reed made us a giant table plan where the numbers were kites and everyone’s names were hanging down on the bows. We also had toy carousels, cocktails with Mary Poppins theme names so ‘Sister Suffragette needs a Cosmopolitan’, ‘Chim Chiminey, Chim Chiminey, Chim Chim, Daq-ui-ree’ and a ‘Jolly Holiday Pina Colada’ were all on the menu.
We had a guestbook where we asked the guests to sign using cockney rhyming slang – we had a big sign printed explaining how to sign it and left out several copies of the cockney rhyming slang dictionary to help people, and the resulting guest book is absolutely hilarious.
In the second archway Laura made the name cards in the shape of kites that clipped onto the glasses,and she made electrically lit Victorian street lights (all out of paper) showing the table numbers.
During the dancing we also had a photo booth and I spent the run up to the wedding ordering Mary Poppins props online.
Speeches
On the wedding day we had speeches from my dad, myself, my four best friends, Pete and his best man. It felt very natural to me that the talking should be split evenly and I knew that I wanted to give a full speech. It also felt normal to have my friends speak for me and about me. I think it’s all about what feels natural. Speeches are my favourite part of a wedding and I absolutely loved the ones at our wedding, especially those from my dad, friends and Pete’s best man – which were really funny, personal, full of amusing anecdotes and gave a real sense of who we are making it all feel very personal and loving.
Honeymoon
We left two days after the wedding for a 1800 mile road trip around California, from Los Angeles to San Francisco via Death Valley and Yosemite. It was an incredible experience, and we particularly enjoyed glamping in a converted silver trailer near the mountains. It also meant that we got to visit Emma’s American family and Pete’s friend, which was an added bonus.
Of all the strange things that could happen, as Pete and I were queuing to check into our flight for America I heard someone chatting about their job with one of the British Airways staff at the next check-in desk, I realised it actually was Karen Cinnamon from Smashing the Glass – for me after a year of Jewish wedding planning this was basically a celebrity sighting! We had a nice chat and I told her I was the ‘Mary Poppins’ wedding that would be featuring in January and showed her some pictures! It was such a funny coincidence and a great start to our honeymoon!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
The first thing I would say is that no one does this without a certain amount of stress, compromise and mishaps – those things just mean you are normal so don’t worry! The advice I’d give is to try to see those things as part of the process and realise that it is still more fun to get stressed planning a massive party than what you would probably otherwise be doing!
I’d also say, before involving others have a long conversation – first with yourself and then with the person you are marrying. Think through what you think others will want, what you think you want and try to identify where you can already find compromises without even being asked and where you are absolutely sure something matters to you, then broaden out the conversation and listen to how other people think or feel.
There is no such thing as wedding style, there is only your taste. Ultimately we loved our wedding day because, where it mattered to us we had made it something that we love, that was personal and that we wanted to look at.
It’s a cliché- but on the day try to remember as much as possible – you will want to re-live it in your head afterwards, trust me! Make sure to take a moment during the dancing and watch how much fun everyone is having!
If you can, get a wedding planner! Making a wedding can feel like a job in itself, and if you already have one then you don’t need two jobs! Also, having someone on the journey with you who has done it all before makes everything so much easier than trying to figure it out as you go. I’d say this is especially true if you are doing a separate venue and caterer.
Similar to this, let others help you! Our parents were very involved in the organisation of the wedding and letting them help alleviated some of the pressure from us and made sure we were making decisions that meant everyone would have a great day! If help is being offered, I’d say take it.
Emma & Pete’s little white book
Photography – Claudine Hartzel {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – Marco Windham
Wedding planner – Elegante By Michelle J {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Makeup – Philippa Louise Makeup {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Chazan – Jonny Mosesson {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Catering – Shuka
Venues – Bevis Marks and Behind The Bike Shed
Bride’s shoes – Toms
Bride’s accessories – Monica Vinader and Ruth Tomlinson
Groom’s attire – Benson and Clegg
Bridesmaids – Not On The High Street and Monsoon
Hair – Zoe Norris
Paper flowers – Laura Reed
DJ – Fenton Gee
Balloons – Balloonista
Stationery – Micheal Fine Design
Dance lessons – London Swing Dance Society