We always love seeing what Jewish wedding pros choose when it comes to their very own big days, so we were excited for the beautiful wedding of beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rachel of Rachel Flax Events to groom Mikey, a property lawyer (#friendsforever, in honor of their new shared surname!) – especially after hearing the tantalizing tidbits she’s shared with our Brides Club!
Naturally, Rachel opted to plan her own wedding, and she really ended up with the perfect English country garden wedding with a touch of modern sophistication. Take her Perspex chuppah – it was chosen so that guests could have an unimpeded view of the ceremony as they were seated in a circle surrounding the structure, but there’s no denying it also added a hit of contemporary style to the pastoral surroundings.
Photographer David Stubbs and videographer YSD Media captured everything so beautifully, and naturally. Also, how cool is it that the pair had a chuppah painter on hand to paint the ceremony as it was happening?!.
We’re also obsessed with Rachel and Mikey’s gorgeous pocket fold invitations by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor E.Y.I Love in the bride’s trademark colours of dove grey and pale pink, with the couple’s logo in gold on the front to tie it all together.
Rachel and Mikey took advantage of the honeymoon planning prowess of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Abby Taubman to organize their upcoming trip to Japan – we’re sure it’s going to be totally fab!
There’s so much more we could say – we haven’t even gotten to the fact that the couple gave each and every guest a personal handwritten note on the day… and the guests were also treated to a bonfire at the end of the evening with a s’mores table!
Let’s hand you over to the bride, who looked gorgeous in a bespoke gown from Israeli designer Riki Dalal…
An Outdoor Wedding
Rachel, the bride: We got married in Merrydale Manor which is a new venue in Knutsford, Cheshire. It was incredibly important to me that my wedding venue felt as homey, exclusive and modern as possible. As a wedding planner, it was also key for me to have our wedding at a place that I hadn’t worked in before, which was a challenge!
Colour Scheme
I used my company 🙂 . Colour is incredibly important to me so colourwise everything had to work from table décor to bridesmaids’ dresses to the colour of the benchers. Choosing the colour scheme was easy, my favourite colours are dove grey and pale pink (same as my brand) so it was an easy choice what colours I wanted to use.
We also brought in a lot of gold touches which works well with dive grey/pale pink and perspex to complete the modern look. Grey tones work well on most people’s skin tones so it was important to me my bridesmaids looked and felt good in their dresses too. Our venue also has a lot of grey interiors so the venue complimented the colour scheme well.
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us
I love Smashing The Glass and have done for years. Some of my vendors are Smashing The Glass approved.
Pocket Fold Invitations
It was something unique! We had a gorgeous pocket fold invite made by E.Y.I Love with our logo on the front in gold on a dove grey pocket and pale pink on the inside. It was important to me that the invite looked good but was also practical. With a pocket fold the invite and all the information can be held together without cards falling all over the show.
A Riki Dalal Dress
My dress was bespoke Riki Dalal. I am obsessed with Israeli wedding designers; I love the creativity and spirit in their designs. I knew I wanted to feel special on my wedding day so I wanted the dress to feel very different to what I usually wear. I loved the combination of a lace top and puffy sleeves and plain flowing lightweight chiffon material on the bottom.
Accessories
I had a simple pearl hair piece from Etsy and veil from Riki Dalal with lace that matched my dress. I wanted to wear something pretty but not too overpowering. For me, wearing my hair down felt very natural and I didn’t want to have a hair style on the day that didn’t feel like me/didn’t suit me.
Shoes
Shoes were ivory lace to match my top and mid way height. The dress totally covered the shoes so it was important that they were smart and comfortable but weren’t a huge feature.
Hair + Makeup
Hair and makeup is again really important to me. I had multiple hair and makeup trials as it’s very important to know your look for the day and have no uncertainty in this area in the morning of your wedding. For me, it was very important that the artists were talented but also nice people. I knew I would spend my morning with my hair and makeup artist so we needed to get on well. My hair stylist was Charlotte Medford and makeup artist was Amy Curran. Both extremely talented and the loveliest girls!
The handsome groom
My lovely groom Mikey funnily enough was originally in a dove grey suit. I thought the colour would look gorgeous him and the suit went with the colour scheme. However, Mikey felt more comfortable in navy so navy it was. We got our suit from Paul Smith, I really loved the experience choosing a suit with Mikey there, the quality of suits are stunning and the experience is very old fashioned and classic. Make sure if you like Paul Smith to go to their flagship in Covent Garden for a truly authentic experience.
Bridesmaids in Grey
Everyone was in the same colour dove grey dresses. However, the dress shapes were different so everyone felt comfortable and their best selves. The dresses were from Oasis, I loved them because they were really cost effective but looked a lot more premium.
A Perspex Chuppah
I have seen many beautiful chuppahs over the years. It was important the chuppah was perspex so people could look into our ceremony and feel a part of it. It was also important that the top of the chuppah was transparent. It is said that your grandparent’s souls circle around the top of the chuppah so it was important to us we felt connected with them. Aesthetically, I knew I wanted overspilled florals and greenery over the top of the chuppah. For me this is stylish and effective without being too over the top.
Ceremony
The ceremony was extremely special. Everyone was sat around in a circle around the chuppah as I wanted the ceremony to feel very intimate. The chuppah was made of perspex itself so everyone could see and feel a part of the ceremony. We had a curved floral aisle so aesthetically there was something a little different and we also had an incredible chuppah painter called Stephanie Struth painting our ceremony as it was happening, you don’t get more special then that!
We also had Rabbi Alby Chait, who is simply incredible and spoke about our personalities throughout.
The most important part of our ceremony was seeing our grandmas in the front row. Mikey’s grandma unfortunately passed away a couple of months after our wedding so it was incredibly special to us, she was there.
Ketubah
Our ketubah was very pretty and was supplied by the shul, for us a ketubah from the shul where we got married was important. We wanted to keep this traditional aspect.
Our music choice
We had ‘Boi Kallah’ (Halleluyah) for me and ‘Meheira’ for Mikey, two strong classic Jewish ceremony songs. We explored the idea of choosing alternate songs but I think those are two very spiritual songs and it is nice for guests as these songs carry special significance for a lot of other people too from previous weddings.
Flowers
Verdure, we adore them! We had a lot of roses and foliage. We used a special early grey rose as it complimented our colour scheme wonderfully.
Photographer and videographer
We used David Stubbs (photographer) and YSD Media (videographer). We chose David Stubbs as he is simply incredible, his style is documentary style photography. We wanted the pictures to have a natural but artistic edge so David was our guy. Stefan from YSD Media is also very talented, we forgave him asking us walk through the fields on our wedding day as he got some epic shots. Both also incredibly nice guys to work with.
Food
We had Celia Clyne. She was incredible and pulled out all the stops for us. We had a gorgeous duck salad, sea bass and sweet potato for mains and a chocolate and mango dessert. Everyone honestly raved so much about the food. It was fun, fresh and so tasty. We also had a bonfire at the end of the evening and had a smores table, it was delicious! Having a bonfire was a really great way to end the evening.
A Fab Band
We had Creation. Creation are just incredible and were absolutely electric. We chose them because we wanted a real party and that’s what they created. The energy in the room from start to finish was insane! We also had sax/piano for our ceremony and vocals and guitar for our bonfire session after the party by Jonny Horkin, he was awesome.
Personal Notes
I wrote everyone a personalised handwritten scroll. For me, I knew I wouldn’t get chance to have a long chat with everyone so it was important to me everyone felt valued for being there. This was actually what people commented on most! It took me hours to write them but it was totally worthwhile as everyone felt an important part of our day.
Whiskey bar
We had quite a few special touches. One was the bespoke whiskey bar during our drinks reception which went down excellently with the boys, Mikey is obsessed with whiskey and people absolutely loved it! Jonny Cocktail provided this.
Special touches
Other special touches included the chuppah painter, bonfire with acoustic guitar singer and s’mores, prosecco on arrival before the chuppah, personalised colouring in favours for the kids, personalised notes for the adults, bespoke table plan (which I made), Johny Cocktail, extremely interactive bar men with the guests…
We also had lots of little people as little flower girls and a page boy who all tied in well with the theme with the girls in their tutus and little silver converses and the page boy in a cool grey suit, having little ones really adds to the warmth of the day! We also had fabulous personalised sliders from the amazing idosliders!
Honeymoon
We are going to Japan in a few months, this is being organised by the wonderful Abby Taubman (a STG supplier) and we can’t wait! For us, we love going places which are culturally completely different so Japan fit the bill for us. Abby has such an extensive knowledge of properties around the world so we had to go through her!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
I have an interactive video session taking places insides Brides Club to discuss so I have heaps of tips. The main tip I would say is get everything organised as early as possible so you can enjoy the build-up. Also, get ready with people in the morning who make you feel most comfortable.
Rachel & Mickey’s little white book
Photography – David Stubbs
Videography – YSD Media
Wedding planner – Rachel Flax Events {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Invitation – E.Y.I Love {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Honeymoon – Abby Taubman {offers a free travel guide to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Merrydale Manor
Extra coordination – Inspire Events
Bride’s dress and veil – Riki Dalal
Bride’s earrings – Etsy
Groom’s attire – Paul Smith
Hair + Makeup – Charlotte Medford and Amy Curran
Bridesmaids – Oasis
Flowers – Verdure
Catering – Celia Clyne
Band – Creation
Production – Luminate Events
Bar – Jonny Cocktail
Live painter – Stephanie Struth
Rabbi – Alby Chait
Sliders – idosliders
Smash The Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
