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Home > A Riki Dalal Bride for a Jewish Wedding Featuring a Musical Flash Mob at Stockbrook Manor Country Club, Billericay, Essex, UK

A Riki Dalal Bride for a Jewish Wedding Featuring a Musical Flash Mob at Stockbrook Manor Country Club, Billericay, Essex, UK

16/05/2018 by Karen Cinnamon

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With the Royal wedding just days away, we’ve got our very own ‘Smashing Royalty’ getting married on the blog today. Yes — it’s the real Jewish wedding of a very dear colleague, wonderful Francesca, who manages (and is a big part of) much-loved STG Vendor XS Showband, to Ziek, a chef with kosher-style caterer Shuka Catering.

Being in the industry, the pair had a major leg up when it came to choosing suppliers for their gorgeous Jewish wedding at Stockbrook Manor Country Club. Francesca and Ziek chose Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors Blake Ezra and Denee Motion for photography and videography, respectively. Having worked with both, the couple knew they were choosing suppliers who not only produce amazing work but are incredibly passionate about what they do.

And entertainment was a no-brainer: the bride’s own XS Showband — which she both owns and sings in — was obviously going to be part of her wedding. With an epic 18-piece setup playing non-stop from start to finish, music was absolutely integral to the day.

It just happens that XS Showband has pioneered using musical flash mobs in wedding ceremonies, so it was only natural that Francesca included one in hers. You’ve got to check out Denee Motion‘s video of the flash mob in action; it’s unlike anything we’ve seen in any other wedding!

Beautiful Francesca, who looked positively radiant in her elegant lace Riki Dalal gown, will fill you in on the rest…

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How we met

 
Francesca, the bride: We met on Jdate!

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Best of Both Worlds

Like many couples, we started out wanting something a little quirky! This idea went out the window very quickly once we had thought through all of the venues we’d either worked at or visited. Quirky venues usually come with sound restrictions and generally aren’t very practical.

So then we decided that we wanted our chuppah outside but also wanted the formality of a posh London hotel and again… this doesn’t exist! So in the end we decided on Stockbrook Manor Country Club because of its beautiful grounds outside along with a blank canvas inside. The venue has lots of rooms and spaces making it very practical. We had the best of both in the end and were over the moon!

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All about the Food and Music

We were adamant about making our day personal. We’re both pretty bubbly and nutty. First of all, we wanted our wedding to be colorful, summery, bright, and fun, so we picked greens and oranges in our flowers and lighting to help create this feel.
 
Having the chuppah outside was a massive must for us, especially because Ziek was brought up on a kibbutz. We wanted as much outdoors as possible. 
 
Ziek is a chef and I’m a singer, so quite naturally, we wanted the wedding to be all about the food and music – this was our “theme” I suppose! We did this in a few ways. Amazing food by Celia Clyne, and we had my own band, XS Showband.
 
We had non-stop music from start until finish and incorporated some super fun things into the day for our guests, including a musical flash mob, which worked just perfectly. Food wise, again, it was non-stop from start to finish, and Celia even used violin cases as canape trays, which was brilliant.
 
We added a few subtle things to help the theme come together. We had really silly musical/food names for the tables such as “Purple Chrain,” “Hakuna Moussaka,” and “Mozart-Rella.”
 
 

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Hair + Makeup

Natasha Klipp did my make up and Sarah Louise Okin did my hair. I was SOOO happy with both of them. I just felt amazing, and they both did an amazing job. I wish I could have them every day of my life. The hair style I chose was VERY complicated and Sarah did it with ease! I would highly recommend both girls. 

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A Riki Dalal Dress

I got my dress from Riki Dalal. It was so different to what I had in my head and was one of the first I tried on. So I ended up booking in 2 days worth of wedding dress shops and trying on everything in sight to try and rule everything else out before going back to the shop to get this one! I LOVED the dress, it was so unusual, very me. I felt amazing and wish I could wear my dress every day of the week! 

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Minimalist Accessories

Because the dress was so detailed and pretty fussy, I kept accessories to a minimum. Some studs, and a little lace head piece the wrapped round the side of my hair do!

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Classic White Heels

Comfy Rainbow wedding shoes from John Lewis. White with some pearls on the front. Pretty classic with a high heel. I’m already tall so not sure why I got high heels, but why not ay! As comfy as they are… they came off straight after the Israeli dancing and I wore flip flops the rest of the night!
 
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The handsome groom

My lovely husband wore a suit from Impeccable and his waistcoat, cravat, and hanky were from Mia Sposa in Cockfosters. He looked very very handsome. He has a pony tail which I love, but kept hinting that he should get Sarah to blow dry it and put it up in a nice neat bun so that it’s a bit smarter than normal… and he did!!! I was very impressed he went for it! He looked so handsome!

  Jewish-wedding-Stockbrook-Manor-Country-Club-in-Billericay-Essex-UK Jewish-wedding-Stockbrook-Manor-Country-Club-in-Billericay-Essex-UK
Bridesmaids in Cream

I had 3 adult bridesmaids and 5 little girls and boys, plus Ziek’s ushers. I got a bit OCD when it came to color coordinating and became obsessed with getting everything in cream to match my dress. Everyone looked amazing, and the kids just looked adorable! The little page boy suits in particular were sooo cute.
 
 

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A Pre-Ceremony Flash Mob

We had a musical flash mob just before the procession started. Our toastmaster, Howard Robbins, made the usual “everyone please turn phones off and take your seats” announcement. So everyone sat in silence as though the procession was about to start.
 
Instead, the whole band were hiding amongst the guests and behind bushes etc. and came out playing How Sweet It Is as a surprise. It was just amazing, and I stood watching it with my dad in the distance. It got me sooo excited, and all of our guests raved about what a fun idea it was. Having the band be part of our ceremony was so important as they are a huge part of both of our lives, and I just knew they would do an amazing job.

A Floral Chuppah

The chuppah was mainly down to our fab florist, Alex. We told her what we wanted and she made it happen! Beautiful bright green and white flowers that looked amazing in the outdoors setting. Instead of an aisle runner we had hundreds of petals scattered down the aisle. This looked so pretty. My band does production, so we had a chuppah stage also.

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An 18-Piece Band

So owning a band means that I had the freedom to do anything I wanted! We had a whopping 18-piece band, including a 5-piece horn section, which surprisingly didn’t look or sound too big or loud. We only had 150 guests, and they were all on the dance floor the entire day! It was pretty epic!

I walked down the aisle to All I Ask Of You (in Hebrew). Our first dance was Evergreen, Barbra Streisand, which 2 of my close friends sang beautifully. We had a big grand entrance for our guests to Hello Dolly (because both me and my mum nickname everyone Dolly).

Going along with the “music” theme, we went through all the eras of music throughout the day. We started this with some pre-chuppah Disney tunes on the violin. Then throughout the night we had a rock n roll set, a big band swing dinner set, motown set, 90s and current set, plus some old fashioned musicals. Numbers that stick out: Sing Sing Sing with those horns was just unbelievable, and Jump Around had everyone going wild too! 

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Flowers in White and Cream

Alexandra’s Florist did our flowers. We were so happy with everything and Alex is so nice. We had lots of hydrangeas, roses, and some other funky looking flowers that I don’t know the names of! I kept my bouquet to simple white/cream roses.

Jewish-wedding-Stockbrook-Manor-Country-Club-in-Billericay-Essex-UK Jewish-wedding-Stockbrook-Manor-Country-Club-in-Billericay-Essex-UK Jewish-wedding-Stockbrook-Manor-Country-Club-in-Billericay-Essex-UK Jewish-wedding-Stockbrook-Manor-Country-Club-in-Billericay-Essex-UK
Our fabulous Photographer and Videographer

We used Blake Ezra for the photos and Denee Motion for the videos. Having worked with both suppliers, we choose them not just for their amazing work, but because we had great chemistry with them and loved seeing how great they are with their clients. Both are so passionate about their work. Once the day is finished you can relive it through the video and photos, and this was really important for us.

 

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Entertainment by the Bride’s Own Band

We used my own band, XS Showband! We had an 18-piece setup and it was truly epic! I was scared I’d go into work mode on the day, but I didn’t once think about the timetable or the set list or anything else, I just let go and had so much fun.

Every band member did an amazing job, and our runners on the night helped keep the band organised. It was so surreal being on the other side of it, but I have now had the opportunity to experience what all of our clients experience on their wedding day and it’s just made me even more excited to do the job I love.

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Personalized Thank-Yous

We had fans at the chuppah for all the ladies and also flip flops later on. We also hand wrote personal thank-you cards to each of our guests, which I think everyone appreciated. Took us a long time, but we thought it would be a nice touch to tell each person how grateful we were for them being there to celebrate with us. 

I suppose the main focus of our wedding was to go over the top with the music and food. It’s not every day you have a band this size at your fingertips. For our guests, we wanted to give them a show-stopping day with lots of theater.

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Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

My advice on organizing a wedding would be to allow yourself to take a few days COMPLETELY off and away from work every now and then so that you can dedicate a set amount of time to make good decisions for your big day.
 
Doing things on lunch breaks and after work usually involves rushed calls and rash decisions. Take your time and if possible, try to enjoy the process. It can get stressful, but it shouldn’t be. It’s such a special day, so make the most of every minute. 

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Francesca & Ziek’s little white book

Photography – Blake Ezra
Videography – Denee Motion
Band – XS Showband
Venue – Stockbrook Manor Country Club
Bride’s dress – Riki Dalal
Bride’s shoes – John Lewis
Groom’s attire – Impeccable and Mia Sposa
Hair + Makeup – Sarah Louise Okin and Natasha Klipp
Flowers – Alexandra’s Florist
Catering – Celia Clyne
Toastmaster – Howard Robbins

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Filed Under: Outdoor, Real Jewish Weddings Tagged With: John Lewis, Online dating success story, Alexandra's Florists, Celia Clyne, Stockbrook Manor Country Club wedding venue, Riki Dalal wedding venue, Blake Ezra Photography, Alexandra's Florist, Denee Motion wedding videography, UK, XS Showband

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Comments

  1. Denis Potasnikov says

    17/05/2018 at 12:26 pm

    Thank you Karen 🙂

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