If you love a good floral chuppah, have we got a treat for you! Today’s couple, Ellie, a fashion stylist and interior designer, and Nick, a property investor, knew they wanted their chuppah to make a statement – and does it ever! Covered in the bride’s favorite flower, gypsophila, it’s serious #chuppahgoals.
Given Ellie’s design background, it’s no surprise she had a strong vision for not only the chuppah, but the whole aesthetic of the day: a white and neutral color scheme, with lots of candles and white flowers to create a mystical and romantic fairytale theme. And it goes without saying that the bride opted for a super-stylish gown, from Israeli designer Mira Zwillinger.
But there was so much more than looks to this wonderful Jewish wedding – it was also an epic party, thanks to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Sensation Band who got everyone dancing with the perfect mix of current music and wedding classics.
Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion filmed the day beautifully, capturing every moment and editing the highlight reel to perfection – and James Mason is behind Ellie and Nick’s most wonderful photos.
And we love that the duo opted to set up their Jewish wedding gift list with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Wedding Shop – nor are we in the least surprised to hear that Ellie and Nick were thrilled with their experience!
There’s so much more to say about this fabulous wedding – read on for all the details in the bride’s own words!
How we Met
Ellie, the bride: We met at a Jewish charity event in 2016 and have never really spent a day apart since! We got engaged after 5 and a half years of being together in November 2021, we had a 9 month long engagement which was such a perfect amount of time to plan our wedding.
Wedding Weekend
We got married at the Fairmont Hotel in Windsor. It is a new hotel and when we first went to visit we immediately knew it was the right place for us. The ballroom is beautiful along with the hotel facilities and grounds, making for such amazing wedding photos. We both have massive families that wanted to stay over the whole wedding weekend.
So we wanted to find a place out of London as we wanted our weekend to feel like a get away retreat but then again somewhere that wasn’t too far away for the guests that didn’t want to stay. (The Fairmont is only 40 minutes out of London.) We were so grateful that over half of our guests decided to stay the night so we hosted a beautiful brunch the next morning in the hotel too.
Theme & Wedding Planner
We worked with White Paper Event to create our magical day. They are absolutely amazing and made the whole process so relaxed and chilled for us. Aron really held our hand and guided us through everything so seamlessly. He is incredibly creative and was absolutely impecable on the wedding day, everything from start to finish was perfect and the day ran exactly to time.
As I work in interior design and fashion, the theme was really important to me as I am a creative myself. I wanted to keep everything white and neutral, using lots of candles and white flowers to create a mystical and romantic fairytale theme. Aron really saw my vision and made it come to life.
Invitations / stationery
I designed my invitations myself – I always knew I wanted to incorporate a bow. So I found grey chiffon silk bows on Ebay and we bought a lot of them! We used old fashion torn paper with calligraphy style writing and our logo on the front and a drawing of gypsophila around the logo. We made the invitation into a little booklet so it could stand on a table. We used the same style for our menus too. Darren at Invitation London was great and was so beyond accommodating. He did all of our wedding stationary and the gift bags in the guests rooms too.
A Mira Zwillinger Dress
My dress was from the bridal boutique in London, Browns Bride. It is an Israeli designer called Mira Zwillinger. I went to about 7 different bridal boutiques and when I saw my dress hanging in the show room I instantly got this warm and fuzzy feeling that I couldn’t wait to try it on. As I hadn’t really seen anything yet on me that wowed me I didn’t expect much, but as I put it on in the dressing room Angie’s face lit up (the lovely lady who served me) and said she has never seen anything so beautiful, as I hadn’t yet looked in the mirror I didn’t believe her!
Until I turned around and couldn’t quite believe it myself, my mum and my nana were with me and it was the first dress that made us well up and get tears in our eyes. (writing this makes me feel emotional all over again!) I always thought I would design my own dress from scratch but I had felt such an attachment to this gown and I really couldn’t stop thinking about it. I just knew in my heart that this was the dress for me.
I am petite and short so I found that the tulle fabric of the gown flattered me so much as it was so delicate like myself. The dress had a floral appliqué over the boned bodice with a sweetheart neckline, which came in at the waist and tied with a bow at the front. I absolutely love bows and I always knew I would have a bow on my dress, so the fact that this came with one already was also a sign that it was just meant to be.
I love that my dress was designed and made in Israel by an Israeli designer. Mira Zwillingers dresses are all so unique and beautiful, I couldn’t recommend her gowns more. (also so comfortable!)
Hair + Make-up
Boe from Botias is an amazing hair dresser, I had my hair up in a bun and she did it so perfectly there honestly wasn’t a hair out of place. Her energy is so calming and I loved having her as part of my bridal team.
Nishma has done my makeup for years. I love her and she is like a friend to me. She is head of Charlotte Tilbury in Brent Cross. She is incredible at what she does. I wanted to look natural and glowy on my wedding day and that’s exactly how I looked. She stayed with me until my photos and she was a dream on the day. I honestly couldn’t of done it without her!
Shoes
My shoes were from Malone Souliers. I’ve always invested in this brand as I love all their styles so I knew they would be comfortable and they matched my dress perfectly. They were so comfortable that I didn’t take them off until 12am! Making the perfect bridal shoe.
Bridesmaids
As I work in fashion and as a micro influencer on Instagram my bridesmaid dresses were kindly gifted by the amazing brand Anne Louise. I highly recommend them as the quality of the dresses were beautiful they also do lots of floral dresses which make great bridesmaid dresses for abroad weddings! I chose to have my bridesmaids in white as this went so well with the vibe and theme of the wedding.
They also really complemented my wedding dress and all the girls looked so beautiful as they felt really confident in their dresses. My Maid Of Honours wore gold as I wanted them to stand out. We had the dresses hand made by Mihaela’s fashion shop in London. I picked the fabric from Joel’s and Son’s fabric shop and we had the dresses made in a very similar shape to the bridesmaids white dresses so this all matched and was a cohesive look.
Ceremony and Chuppah
We have always loved a big beautiful chuppah. Any wedding we went to we would say “wow that was a beautiful chuppah” so we really wanted to create that for ourselves. The chuppah is so important to a Jewish wedding, its where you actually get married and there is nothing more sacred and special than standing under there with your now husband, parents, and grandparents. I will never forget those magical moments.
So we decided we wanted our chuppah to be the main attraction of our wedding. Being so big and beautiful we wanted to keep it in the room all night, so we had the chuppah up over the stage all night which we later partied under with the band! We had our guests sitting down at their tables whilst we got married. This isn’t usually the traditional way but we wanted to change it up and it ended up working so well.
Our guests got to relax at their tables whilst watching us get married, this also meant that our reception was before the ceremony so we avoided the long turnover of changing the room around which was an added bonus.
Our Music Choice
We used Sensation Band and they were amazing. The music was so great and got everyone dancing! They even said it was one of the fullest dance floors they’ve ever seen. We wanted our music to be current but also a lot of the great classic music you often hear at weddings! Our first dance was to such a beautiful song by Leon Bridges called ‘Beyond’ Sensation sung it so beautifully. It is a special song to us as we played it on Sonos everyday when we first moved in together. A lot of people had never heard it before but now after our wedding its their new favourite song!
Flowers
We worked with the amazing Miri Moses – Flowers by Miri for our flowers and to design our dream chuppah- we wanted it to feel like we were getting married in the clouds. Miri brought our dream chuppah and wedding flowers to life by using my favourite flowers gypsophila (or babies breath some like to call it) The ballroom is beautiful, fresh and neutral, this allows lots of different wedding themes to work in there but I really wanted to keep the theme going and add to it rather than change it.
The chandeliers looked so beautiful against all of the babies breath, white roses & white hydrangeas. I held a bouquet of white roses whilst my bridesmaids held gyspohelia. This worked so well and really looked so delicate and beautiful. As we used our dance floor for our aisle we covered it in white carpet and laid down thick rows of gypsophila on either side to outline the aisle, once we were officially married and had left the room for photos the carpet got lifted up as a “reveal” of our marble effect white dancefloor, and the flowers got moved to the edge of the stage.
Our table centres were garlands of gyp, roses and hydrangeas. On some we had long candle sticks with a garland of gyp and roses wrapped around them too. The top table was long thick strips of flowers which trickled down to the floor on both sides, having candles scattered all over. The room looked like a beautiful floating cloud.
Photographer and videographer
James Mason not only took the most wonderful photos for us but he is one of the nicest people we’ve met. He made us feel so relaxed throughout the day and his energy was so great to have around. I really couldn’t recommend him more. He captured every single moment and emotion of everyone. I couldn’t love my wedding photos more if I tried.
Denee Motion is absolutely amazing. Our video is so beautiful and special to watch. I love watching the highlight reel especially as it captured every moment and was edited to perfection.
Wedding Registry
The Wedding Shop were great as I got to choose everything myself by using their website. Everything arrived in good time and I am so excited to use all of our beautiful generous gifts.
Honeymoon
We actually did a honeymoon before the wedding and called it an engagement moon! We went to the Maldives and stayed at The Vakuru hotel. It was absolutely incredible. We then went on a mini moon to Venice straight after the wedding, we stayed at The Cipriani Hotel which was sensational. Venice was such a great choice for a mini moon, it is the most romantic city I’ve ever been too and we were on cloud 9 and loved every second of our pasta eating trip!
Advice to other couples planning their wedding
Oh wow, where to even begin! I feel like everyone will say this but it is so true- I really recommend taking a moment out of the wedding to stand with your now husband and take it all in. We stood on the stage together and watched our guests dance and it was a truly magical moment. The day goes by so quickly so try and stay as present and relaxed as you can, take it all in and savour all the magic moments. Stay relaxed and don’t sweat the small stuff (on the day and throughout the process) try and remember that the most important of all is the love and energy in the room- At the end of the day nothing materialistic can possibly beat that feeling of pure love and magic in that room.
Ellie & Nick’s LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – James Mason Photography
Videography – Denee Motion {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Band – Sensation Band {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Wedding Registry – The Wedding Shop
Wedding planner – White Paper Event
Venue – Fairmont Hotel
Bride’s dress – Mira Zwillinger found at Browns Bride
Bride’s shoes – Malone Souliers
Bridesmaids – Anne Louise
Hair + Makeup – Botias, Nishma
Flowers – Flowers by Miri
Stationery/Invitation – Invitation London
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.