Anyone else have goosebumps? Scroll down. How about now? The sensation you’re experiencing is a result of extreme wedding prettiness combined with the unparalleled artistic prowess of much-loved STG Recommended Vendor and photographer extraordinaire, Blake Ezra.
In fact, Tash & Jason’s magical secret garden-inspired wedding was a total STG Recommended Vendor-fest, with an appearance from fabulous makeup artist Philippa Louise. The couple also won their photo booth with Mega Booth in a Smashing the Glass competition.
Now that we’re done blowing our own horn, let’s talk about the wedding horn (shofar) which was also blown (yes, smooth segue, we know). The wedding was Rosh Hashanah themed, with beautiful fresh fruits incorporated into the wildflower floral arrangements, honey pot and honey cake recipe favours and the blowing of the shofar during the ceremony.
Gorgeous bride, Tash, is an art director and, as such, was delighted to be let loose on a wedding theme – and boy, does it show. Tash’s expert eye and attention to detail created a cohesive, overwhelmingly beautiful (and delightfully purple) theme that looks outstanding in photographs. And that wildflower-adorned Chuppah – a masterpiece! Bravo, Tash! If you fall in love with the images below and simply can’t get enough, check out her Instagram!
We also adore Tash’s customised Suzanne Neville gown, with little embellishments to bring in her own personality and tastes.
Tash and Jason’s Badeken and ceremony were full of heart and meaning, especially as the couple hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in a whole week! What willpower! We also adore the couple’s joint words of wisdom at the end of this post – so much fantastic advice.
We’ll let Tash take over now to tell you all about how her and Jason’s big day came together. Tash – the stage is yours!
How we met
Tash, the bride: Despite having huge amounts of friends in common, and probably attending the same parties during our university days, we didnt meet until after uni, at a mutual friend’s birthday party, where else but Camden?
We were in a Blues Bar and got chatting. The instant Jason heard that I love to bake, and did gluten-free cupcakes (he was GF at the time) the match was made, and we set our first date after partying the night away! Our relationship hasn’t really changed. I still bake for him, and our worlds pretty much centre around food, family and friends.
A ‘secret garden’ wedding venue
We got married in the lovely walled gardens of Braxted Park. Jase is from Essex, and I’m from north London, and this venue was nearly in the middle.
Neither of us wanted to get married in a London hotel, as we had a vision for an outdoor, secret garden style wedding. It took a lot of searching, visiting and calling venues, and a lot of “nos” from other venues before we found Braxted Park, who said “yes” to pretty much everything we asked from them!
When we found our venue, everything else fell into place. We decided to plan a chilled out wedding, family-centric wedding, set in the fantastic walled garden.
An art director’s wedding theme
Rosh Hashana is a big thing for both of us, Jason is the Bal Tokea (shofar blower) in his childhood community of Westcliff, and it is a very spiritual time for us both. We decided to theme the wedding around Rosh Hashana, a time of new beginnings, which was particularly apt for starting our new lives together.
We also love bright colours, and chose a central colour of purple. I’m an art director, so I have extreme attention to detail. I planned the room and table dà©cor – bringing together traditional Rosh Hashana fruits with natural, loose flower arrangements, including my favourite succulents. The Chuppah dà©cor also followed a similar theme, including hanging tea lights, which gave the ceremony a magical feel.
Simple, natural and bright invitations
I worked with a friend on the design of the invitation. We wanted something simple, but natural and bright. We worked with Kisharon print shop to print everything for the wedding. We love the fact that we not only donated to charity this way, but also provided work for those with learning disabilities.
We also added our own hashtag to the invitations and encouraged everyone to use it on the day, which they did. We chose something that was playful and not just our names – #JaseTashGlassSmash.
Light-as-a-feather airbrush makeup
My makeup was done by the fantastic Philippa Louise, who used airbrush makeup. I didn’t feel like I was wearing anything at all, and it stayed on for 16 hours! My hair was done by the lovely, local Tara Cox.
A customised Suzanne Neville gown
My dress was a gorgeous creation by Suzanne Neville, from the The Bride, St Albans. I never found “the one” dress or had that moment…. until I made the alterations I wanted to the dress. I extended the lace sleeves, changed the skirt material to tulle and put a sparkly belt on it.
These shoes were made for dancing
Jase and I both had smart shoes for most of the day, but we did both change into trainers about halfway through the evening!
Jase wore a fab pair of grey Converse, and I wore sparkly Kate Spade keds.
The handsome groom
Jase wore a gorgeous three-piece blue suit custom made for him by Moss Bros. He chose everything from the material to the lining. It also has our wedding date stitched into the jacket.
Bridesmaids in mismatched purple
I had four bridesmaids, my sister, my sisters-in-law and my cousin, who is so close to me in age that we might as well be sisters!
I took the girls to Just Bridesmaids and let them choose their own dresses. It was most important to me that they felt comfortable and gorgeous on the day – I only specified that the colour be purple. They all looked so stunning on the day, each also choosing how they wanted their hair and makeup.
A dreamy wildflower Chuppah design
The venue was in a beautiful garden, already filled with flowers, and we didnt want anything to detract from that.
We chose a simple design: four birch poles, topped with an array of cultivated and wildflowers. At the last minute, we added spheres of glass with tealights burning in them, which gave the Chuppah a magical, spiritual and ethereal feeling.
An electric Badeken and surprise Shofar blowing
The ceremony was the most important part of the day to us. We decided not to see each other, speak to each other, or even text each other for the week leading up to the wedding. That week was hard, but wow, it was worth it!
From the moment we saw each other in the Badeken room, surrounded by our family, we couldn’t stop smiling and crying with joy. Words can’t express how we both felt on the day, and we urge every engaged couple to try and not be in contact the week before – it just adds an extra spiritual dimension to the day.
We had our entire families in the Badeken room, from our siblings to our aunties and uncles, and they made the atmosphere electric. We also had my grandpa give us both the priestly blessing in the Badeken room on behalf of all our grandparents, including ones no longer with us.
Our parents walked us both down the aisle which was important for us. Even though my parents are divorced, they united for the wedding, and the whole experience brought our families even closer together.
We also had my grandparents with us under the Chuppah, and remembered the grandparents no longer with us. Jason had a picture of his grandparents in his pocket, and we used my grandpa’s bekhor to drink from. Our Rabbi, Marc Levene, was just amazing. He and his wife, Lisa, gave us our marriage lessons leading up to the wedding, and they both gave us the spiritual and life support we needed.
We also had my childhood and present Chazan, Avromi Freilich singing. Just before the smashing of the glass, Jason surprised us all by blowing the shofar under the chuppah, an incredible moment that we will both never forget.
An abundance of wildflowers
I really wanted simple arrangements for flowers that didn’t feel too set up, and incorporated fruit for our Rosh Hashana theme.
I went to Alexandra, who totally took on board my vision, and we worked together to create some stunning designs.
She is used to doing quite traditional flowers, in contrast to what we wanted, so I sent her a ton of photos and went to her workshop quite a few times to get the flowers right.
We used succulents, lots of wildflowers and natural elements like bark to get the flowers looking like a wild garden. On the day, she did an absolutely stunning job, so all the effort and collaboration was worth it!
Our fabulous photographer…
We chose Blake Ezra as our photographer. Not only is he hands down the best photographer, but he is someone I have known through my youth movement since I was about 15.
From the moment he arrived to shoot me getting ready, to the last picture of the night, Blake and his team didn’t get in the way, made us feel at ease, and shot the most amazing, unstaged wedding photos, capturing every moment.
…and videographer
We chose Matt Posner as our videographer, who we found through Smashing The Glass. When we met with Matt, he understood our vision of an upbeat, unstaged wedding video that captured the joy of the day.
Delicious kosher catering
We are both HUGE foodies! We met with a few caterers, and decided to go with Salt Caterers, who understood our vision for an asian-themed menu, and prepared one of the most delicious kosher meals I’ve had in my life at the tasting!
They went all out with the food, and made us the most amazing sweetie bar for the evening instead of a cake. Stephanie, Sharon, Matthew and the team went above and beyond – so much so that they are catering my mum and my sister’s weddings.
An amazing party atmosphere
Fil and the Strong Sensation Band really made the dancing atmosphere incredible. They did all the usual Israeli dancing music, as well as some of the more modern stuff.
They even arranged a bespoke first song mashup of our favourite artists, Robbie Williams for me, and Coldplay for Jase. We also had a swing set – my favourite type of music!
We won a photo booth from Smashing The Glass with MegaBooth, who were were fantastic, and provided a fab activity for guests – and ourselves of course for the whole night.
Honey pot favours
Our venue was near Tiptree, who make gorgeous British jam and honey that we tasted at tea every time we went to visit Braxted.
I decided to make favours of little honey pots with our wedding date on, and my very own honey cake recipe to keep with the Rosh Hashana theme. My mum and I stayed up late the night before the wedding putting these into little bags filled with confetti.
The bride’s speech
We had hanging paper lanterns of different shades of purple from the roof of permanent marquee where we held the dinner and dancing, which gave the room a more relaxed feel. We got so many ideas from Smashing The Glass, my favourite being the table numbers, which I designed myself, showing pictures of Jase and I at the age of the table number.
We had both of our dads speak at the wedding. They are both important people in our lives, so we felt they both should say a few words. We both also spoke. It made the roster of speeches slightly longer, but I’ve never been the silent one, so of course on my wedding day I felt I had to say a few words too!
Advice to brides and grooms currently planning their wedding
Tash: Atmosphere is definitely key. The most important thing to us when planning the wedding was to make every single person there feel like part of our family. We achieved this through small details, like creating a customised booklet explaining the wedding ceremony, baby photos of ourselves everywhere, and having our family involved in all aspects of the wedding, from speeches to sheva brachot.
The ruach on the day was the most amazing feeling, which was due to having all the right people there – not only our fantastic family and friends, but our hand-picked suppliers.
Jason: A few key practical pointers from me, mainly on anticipating stumbling blocks and sometimes, even keeping the peace!
When you get engaged, make sure every member of your close family and friends know first (from you directly if possible) before it hits the web. The world doesn’t need to know immediately, the important people do.
Planning a wedding is an incredibly fluid process and changes every day, unpredictably. Be prepared to have levels of compromise, and always come across as agreeable, but assertive on your vision.
Perspective is one of your most important assets during the rollercoaster. Take a step back, think logically and don’t forget the most important asset of them all – each other. You are a team, stick together and always approach each decision and conversation together. Believe it or not, you learn to adopt some serious strategy tactics!
As a matter of principle, and my number one rule, pick good, agreeable, friendly and professional suppliers to work with. Don’t conform with the known names in the wedding market just because of their name. Go with ones you want for the right reasons – who share and support your vision. Any supplier who ends up being your confidant is incredibly valuable, and they will do anything for you to make it work, especially if there is mutual respect.
Finally, it’s common advice, but so critical – take a step back on the day itself. All the madness, brain power, every conversation revolving around the wedding is about one day. Enjoy it, don’t drink too much too early, eat some food (!) go and say hello to your guests tables, dance and have an amazing day.
Tash & Jason’s little white book
Photographer – Blake Ezra Photography
Videographer – Matt Posner
Venue – Braxted Park
Bride’s dress – Suzanne Neville purchased at The Bride
Bride’s shoes – Kate Spade
Groom’s attire – Moss Bros and Converse
Bridesmaid dresses – Just Bridesmaids
Hair – Tara Cox
Make-up – Philippa Louise
Flowers – Alexandra’s Florists
Chazan – Avromi Freilich
Band – Fil Straughn and Strong Sensation Band
Caterer – Salt
Invitations – Kisharon print shop
Photobooth – MegaBooth
Rabbi – Marc Levene
