It’s not every day one of our beautiful blogging brides gets married — and at one of our very favorite London venues, no less! Everything about the Jewish wedding of Charlotte, (a much-loved member of our Brides Club for Jewish Brides) and James is pure #weddinggoals.
Not that you can really go wrong when you get married at Smashing The Glass Recommended Venue The Brewery. Though the location could hardly be more central, this is not your run-of-the-mill London venue — with its flexible spaces and vintage architectural touches like exposed brick walls, wood-beamed ceilings, The Brewery somehow manages to have a ton of character while also serving as an amazing canvas for wedding dreams of all stripes.
Like, for instance, recreating an outdoor Tuscan wedding indoors in London. Sounds impossible, right? But with the help of long banquet tables, romantic lighting, and seriously elegant florals (how cool is the high/low tabletop dà©cor scheme?!) we think these two managed to pull it off. Be sure to take it all in via Adam and Hannah’s exquisite documentary-style photos and AT Motion’s stellar videography.
There’s so much more good stuff about this awesome wedding, from the fact that Charlotte and James used one of our Smash Glass pouches to the espresso martini syringe shots they served on the dancefloor to keep everyone’s dancing energy up to the fact that the couple registered with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Prezola… but we’ll leave the rest of it to the bride, who looked so classically elegant in her Pronovias gown.
How We Met
Charlotte, the bride: I met James through a mutual friend nearly four years ago, before going on a night out to none other than Ministry of Sound. We really hit it off and have been inseparable ever since.
A Brewery Wedding
We got married at The Brewery. It was the only venue we saw in London that ticked all the boxes. With its bare brick walls and wooden beamed ceilings, it’s a venue with the wow factor and we just couldn’t see ourselves getting married at a London hotel. There is a lot you can do with that venue to make it unique to your day.
Tuscany in London
James proposed in Italy, so we wanted that time of our lives to be incorporated into a theme for our wedding day. We dreamt of getting married in Tuscany, so we decided to bring the rustic outdoor Italian theme to the Brewery.
We wanted the evening to feel like a wedding in Tuscany. So we decided to have long banquet tables, which felt more relaxed and sociable. The tables were decorated with high and low white flowers with lots of greenery and candles scattered throughout.
We planned the wedding ourselves, with help from my parents. Tony Page was our caterer, which meant that my family friend was our event planner on the day. Charlotte went out of her way to help us, arranging production meetings and organising all the on the day timings with us. And even helped get me across from the hotel to the venue in the torrential rain!
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us
I loved being able to see similar weddings and thinking how could I bring what I love from theirs into ours. Jewish weddings are so different and unique and Smashing The Glass captures them all together.
Invitations by the Bride
I ended up designing our wedding invitations. We went with a textured white paper and I chose a style of calligraphy that ended up tying everything together on the day.
We used a pale grey ribbon that we tied around each invite which incorporated a gold wax seal that was bought by one of our bridesmaids. The seal had our initials, wedding date all inside a laurel wreath, which suited our theme perfectly.
Hair + Makeup
My cousin is my hairdresser, so she was only choice to have on the day. I went for my hair up on the day in wavy curls, as I didn’t want anything too fussy. It didn’t move at all and I didn’t have to worry about it.
I also had my friend Naomi do my makeup on the day. I was very lucky to have two people who were at my wedding making me look my best. I went for very natural makeup, I didn’t want to feel to unlike me. With a smoky eye, a nude lip, and a bronzed glow.
A Pronovias Dress
I bought my dress from Pronovias on Bond Street. I knew this dress was the one, and bought it right when we got engaged two years before our wedding day. I wanted something timeless and classic, with a sweetheart neckline in satin with an a-line skirt with a long train.
I wanted a cathedral length veil with a blusher, with a lace edge on both the train and the blusher. I found one with chantilly lace which matched the lace appliques on my dress.
For the ceremony I also wore a topper that I bought from David’s Bridal, I wanted something simple and this was all mesh with covered buttons at the back, which sat perfectly with my dress.
Silver and Pearls
I am not the biggest jewellery wearer, so I didn’t want to look too unlike me but did want to look bridal at the same time.
I actually ended up finding hair accessories on Amazon, which were three combs with silver leaves with little pearls. And my earrings were from Debenhams. You wouldn’t be able to tell that they didn’t cost the earth, and were perfect on the day!
Silver Shoes
I wanted shoes that I could dance all night in, that felt bridal but also could wear again. They were silver with a simple band of glitter on a thin strap, with a small stiletto heel, and they were extremely comfortable.
I must have tried on at least 30 pairs before finding the one. My shoes were from Nine West and I found them on the website Shoeaholics. I changed later in the evening into some smaller heels from ASOS.
The handsome groom
I booked James an appointment at The Wedding Gallery as he is hugely indecisive, but knew that he wanted something tailor-made to him.
Dom at The Wedding Gallery is amazing; he knew exactly what would suit James. He went with a suit by Casely-Hayford which was navy textured with a matching waistcoat. He had our first dance song embroidered with our wedding date in the lining of the suit jacket.
His shirts were from Gieves and Hawkes, with navy matching buttons. And James’ shoes were from Kurt Geiger.
Bridesmaids in Navy
I had four adult bridesmaids – one has already been featured on Smashing The Glass (Lisa — Married in La Cabana, Marbella) – and three flower girls who are all sisters.
My bridesmaids were matching in navy dress from Phase Eight. I wanted them to be in something classic and with simple detailing. And my flower girls were all matching in navy tulle dresses, which I managed to find from Ebay!
A Floral Chuppah
We knew we wanted something dramatic and elegant for our chuppah, as this would be our guests’ first peek at our wedding theme. I wanted a lot of texture with different white flowers and not to feel too arranged and quite loose and relaxed.
A Memorable Ceremony
We chose to have James’ family rabbi, Rabbi Suffrin, for our ceremony. He is quite a character, and made my family and me feel very comfortable with him before and on the day.
There were some funny memorable moments, like him recalling what James’ first thought of me when we met, being that I was “petite, slim and brunette”. And also when he called up all five of the best men to drink the wine when we didn’t drink enough for him!
Sky Full of Stars
For the ceremony we had Eitan Freilich as our chazan. His voice is incredible and he sings very traditional songs, which suited our ceremony. James walked down to ‘Mi Adir’ and I walked down to ‘Boi Kala’ sung to ‘Hallelujah’.
For our first dance we had our song, ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ by Coldplay. We had the lights down for it with stars projected around the room which made it feel even more incredible. Our friends joined us in a big circle at the end, we felt a lot of love from it.
Funky Flowers
Our amazing florist was Liz from Funky Flowers. She got my vision from the start, and I came with a lot of imagery that I had found from Pinterest.
We had hanging white flowers with greenery over the top table, and reused a part of our chuppah to sit in front of the table with candles framing us.
The long tables had a mixture of high and low flowers. The high flowers were on top of rose gold metal frames, each arrangement felt different and not too arranged and formal. There were low flower arrangements scattered across the tables all in different rose gold vases.
Liz even wrapped foliage around our Mr and Mrs signs that hung behind our chairs for the evening.
Photographer
We chose Adam and Hannah, they were completely right for us as we don’t love posing for photos and wanted it to feel entirely natural. We didn’t even notice they were there on the day, and we felt relaxed and not forced. Their style is more documentary, which capture all the moments we wanted to see.
Videographer
Our videographers were AT Motion, who are total professionals. They spent the whole evening dancing along with me and my friends.
Espresso Martini Shots
We didn’t have a cake, as we knew that our dessert definitely had the wow factor. We are still receiving compliments about the chocolate fondant!
Our caterer was Tony Page, the food was amazing. And they are so professional, we couldn’t recommend them more.
The extras they provide, like espresso Martini syringe shots on the dancefloor were a perfect added touch!
Dancing All Night
We chose Creation as our band, and they also did our production on the day.
We met with Simon a couple of months before the wedding and he took on board our many (many!) playlists, and understood our love for music. Throughout the evening they kept on joining us all on the dance floor, and you could tell they enjoyed it as much as we did.
As the live music ended we continued partying with a live DJ set. There was a big group of us until the end raving to drum and base and singing our hearts out to Oasis ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’. It was a great end to our perfect evening!
It’s Amore
James’ brother is 14 years younger than him, and he provided us with the toast to the state of Israel. Little did we know that he would actually sing us the whole of ‘It’s Amore’. It was amazing and something we will never forget!
Honeymoon in Italy
We did a three week honeymoon travelling around Italy, which James planned himself. We started off in Lake Como, and drove to Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome and ended up in Sorrento. We stayed at all Airbnbs along the way, so we stayed mainly in the city centres. In Florence where we were opposite the Gucci Garden — highly recommend it!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Make sure you fully enjoy your own wedding. Eat, drink, dance and enjoy every second. Don’t worry about running around to ensure that you speak to every guest, as it goes by so quickly. Just remember to take a step back and take it all in.
Charlotte & James’ little white book
Photography — Adam and Hannah
Videographer — AT Motion
Venue — The Brewery
Flowers — Funky Flowers {offers a complimentary bouquet to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Gift list — Prezola {offers planning notebook + free upgrade to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Groom’s attire — Casely-Hayford and Gieves and Hawkes purchased at The Wedding Gallery {waives appointment fee to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Bride and mother of the bride’s dress — Pronovias
Groom’s shoes – Kurt Geiger
Bride’ topper – David’s Bridal
Bride’s shoes – ASOS and Nine West purchased at Shoeaholics
Bride’s accessories – Amazon and Debenhams
Bridesmaids — Phase Eight and Ebay
Hair + Makeup — Gemma Harris, Make Up by Laura and Blow LTD
Band and production — Creation Showband
Catering — Tony Page
Chazan — Eitan Freilich
Toastmaster — Simon Green
Their reception looked like it was such a good time!!