We’re so excited to be sharing the gorgeous Jewish wedding of another of our Smashing The Glass Brides Club members today! Not only did Laura, a nutritionist, and Josh, a project management consultant, have the quintessential London wedding at the stunning St Pancras Renaissance, but they also worked with some of our very favorite Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors to make sure their big day was nothing less than a smashing success, as evidenced in the joyous photos from Chiko Photography.
First off, we’re all about Laura’s elegant bridal look, featuring a classic gown by Sassi Holford and the chicest updo by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Hair by Slo. Stylist Sarah-Louise is so loved by #STGbrides, and reading Laura’s kind words it’s no wonder why: “She was always at the end of the phone when I needed both hair and non-hair related advice, and on the day she blew me away with how she did everyone’s hair and made everyone feel.”
And then there’s the cinematic masterpiece that is the couple’s wedding video from beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion. We’re not at all surprised to hear that the team made Laura and Josh feel super comfortable on the day – or that they’re obsessed with their video and the amazing memories it brings back. This is one trailer not to be missed!
We’re also crazy about the couple’s modern ketubah by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Elena Berlo, in the most wonderful palette of blues, greens, and golds. It’s a true piece of art, which Laura and Josh now proudly display in their living room as a memento of their special day.
Now over to the bride…
Venue
Laura, the bride: We got married at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel in London. I have worked around the corner from the venue for 5 years and every time I walked past it, I fell in love with it a little bit more. Soon after we were engaged, I made Josh come with me to have a look at the hotel. After we had been shown around, I couldn’t imagine getting married anywhere else.
We loved all the rooms and the iconic stair case, which all could be used as part of the wedding and how the spaces were naturally beautiful and didn’t need too much dressing.
What ‘Smashing The Glass Brides Club’ Did For Us
I love being a member of Smashing The Glass Brides Club, although I only joined a month before my big day, I found having the support and reassurance from all the other brides/brides to be and Karen really helpful. Since getting married I joined Smashing Life and have truly made some life long friends.
Invitation
We used Esther from The Creative Touch for our invitations and wedding stationery. We knew we wanted something simple yet chic and stylish, and Esther helped us create this. Together we chose a cream, navy and gold design which set the colour theme for the rest of the wedding.
Hair + Makeup
As soon as we got engaged I knew I wanted Sarah at Hair by Slo to do my hair. I had been following her Instagram for a while and loved everything about her work.
Sarah is AMAZING at what she does and kept me cool, calm and collected throughout the whole process. She was always at the end of the phone when I needed both hair and non-hair related advice, and on the day she blew me away with how she did everyone’s hair and made everyone feel.
Sarah recommended Natasha Stone to me for make up, as I told her that I wanted make up that was really natural but looked like I was wearing make-up (if that makes sense).
After my trial with Natasha, I knew she would be perfect on the day. She guided me in choosing a very natural glowy look and I couldn’t have been happier. She also did my Mums make up and I am so grateful to her for how she made us both look and feel.
A Sassi Holford Dress
I visited 5 wedding dress shops and completely fell in love with The Bride Boutique in St Albans. All the staff I met were so lovely and made me feel so comfortable. They were happy for me to come in with my Mum, Mother in law, Auntie and Grandma in law and they made us feel so welcome with prosecco and tea. Before I went dress shopping all I knew was that I wanted a dress with buttons and pockets.
I fell in love with Adele by Sassi Holford – I loved the simple yet classic design, the scooped neckline and the tiny flower details all over the fabric, I was lucky enough to actually meet and be measured by Sassi herself, which made the experience even more memorable.
I actually knew it was “the one” when I was trying it on and Josh called me and I burst into tears thinking “I am wearing the dress I will marry you in”.
Accessories
I chose a simple short veil and a sparkly belt by Sassi Holford and my hair piece was designed by the super talented Clemmie from Miss Clemmie Accessories. The hair piece was custom made and had simple, white, sparkly and flower detail which helped pull my whole look together.
The handsome groom
Josh knew straight away that he wanted to wear a classic black tie suit. We visited a couple of shops but found his perfect suit at the Savoy Tailors Guild on the Strand, London. On the day he wore his Hugo Boss suit, accessorised with a black bow tie, a black cummerbund, patent shoes from Kurt Geiger. He also wore his late-Grandpas watch, which his Grandma gave to him for the occasion.
Bridesmaids
I had 3 bridesmaids, two of my cousins, my (now) sister-in-law and my best friend as my maid of honour.
I was worried it would be difficult to bridesmaid dress shop as one of my cousin’s lives in Ireland and my sister-in-law lives in Israel but it was actually really simple, I found a dress I loved on ASOS – a gorgeous blue colour, with a sparkly top half, an open back and a tulle bottom. I then ordered the dresses to their houses and luckily they all loved them and looked stunning.
Ceremony
Josh and I decided not to see each other or speak from the auf ruf to the day of the wedding. I moved back in with my parents and he moved back in with his. It was a really strange week but made it all more exciting.
Josh gave me a box filled with really thoughtful gifts and a messages to open once a day. My favourite gift was an engraved padlock with the our names and the date our wedding for us to lock on the bridge when we got to our first minimoon destination, Amsterdam.
Having spent years listening to chuppah music on YouTube (sad, I know), I knew exactly which songs I wanted. We were very lucky to have the super talented Avi Kraus from Muzika sing at our chuppah and he was truly magical. I used a Hebrew version of ‘A Thousand Years’ for when I walked down the aisle, Josh walked down to ‘Mehara’ and our bridesmaids and Josh’s Grandma walked down to ‘Bereshit Olam’.
An unexpected but amazing moment was when Avi sang the sheva brachot, and rather than using the normal tunes, he used tunes from Joseph/Fiddler on the Roof etc. It brought a smile to everyones faces and had them all singing along. It really helped build the moment up towards the party that was to follow Josh smashing the glass.
Our amazing Rabbi was Rabbi Andrew Shaw. Rabbi Shaw has known Josh since he was a teenager and it meant so much for him to officiate at our chuppah.
Ketubah
Our stunning ketubah was a gift to us from Josh’s sister Talia and her boyfriend Alex. We chose a design by Once upon a Paper by Elena Berlo who we found on Etsy and the colours ended up matching the colours of our invitations. It is now hanging in our living room and is a constant reminder of our special day.
Our music choice
For our first dance we chose the song ‘Beautiful Life’ by Zak Abel. We heard it for the first time a couple years ago on Love Island and both immediately loved it! We thought it would be a bit different form the usual first dance songs, and the band pulled it off perfectly.
Flowers
Sunflowers have always held a special place in my heart, a beautiful, happy reminder of my Nana. I knew that I wanted to make sunflowers the focal point and they are something that you don’t usually see at weddings.
After meeting with Alina from Flowers by Alina, we chose to compliment the sunflowers with white, green and blue flowers to match everything else in our wedding. The men had a small sunflower for their button holes and the bridesmaids each had a smaller version of my bouquet.
We also knew that we wanted our chuppah to be really simple, with wood, white fabric and flowers. We worked with Alina to include our chosen flowers along with some candles along the aisle.
We had an idea of what we wanted it to look like in our minds and she managed to pull the design off perfectly! Honestly, Alina and her team blew us away on the day, the flowers were a real focus and talking point for our wedding.
We tried to make a few of the décor/props ourselves, in the weeks leading up to the wedding, such as the postbox and the table numbers. This gave us something to work together on and only helped build up the excitement for the big day.
Photographer and videographer
For our photography we chose Chiko Photography and for our video we used Denee Motion. After seeing their work on Instagram and Facebook we loved their styles and after meeting both of them we knew we wanted them capture our day.
Jo and Michael from Chiko Photography and Sophie, Eddie and David from Denee Motion did the most fantastic job helping us to feel comfortable throughout the day, and they have provided us with the most amazing memories.
Food and cake
Our caterer was Philip Small, he blew us away at our food tasting with the choice of food available which would suit all our guests. For the appetiser, we wanted something light and fun, and so we went for an Israeli mezze style sharing plates.
For mains we took a risk and went for beef – we were unsure whether to do so as everyone likes theirs cooked a different way, but when we tried it at the tasting we couldn’t not choose it. I really think our faith in Philip paid off as everyone raved about it.
Being a huge dessert lover and foodie myself, I was given the choice of choosing the dessert. I couldn’t make a decision between two so we ended up giving the men one of the options and the women another option with the hope that it meant most guests would get a taster of both.
Entertainment
Our band was Muzika who provided the entertainment for the chuppah all the way to the end of the night. We know that they are top of their game and so there wasn’t really much we had to give them in the way of guidance.
They kept the whole room on the dance floor or dancing on their chairs all night.
The production was provided by Jon and Jen from WHPH Agency who did such an amazing job with the staging and lighting. We wanted to keep it simple and not take away from the beautiful room itself and what they helped us choose really enhanced everything. We couldn’t believe it when we saw the room for the first time.
Our toast master Craig Haslam ensured everything ran to plan, his attention to detail was second to none and he really went out of his way to make sure our day was perfect for us.
As Josh’s sister lives in Israel with her boyfriend we thought it would be perfect for them to make the toast to the President and State of Israel. Luckily for us, Talia has an incredible singing voice and Alex is a talented guitar player so their performance really blew us and our guests away.
Favours
As our wedding was the week before Rosh Hashanah we decided to have our name places as miniature honey pots. We sourced the honey pots and labels online, hand wrote each label with the message “Wishing you a happy, healthy and sweet new year. Lots of Love Mr and Mrs Welka xx” and called family in to help us tie the labels around the pots.
Speeches
Josh’s dad wanted to give a little speech as well as my dad (we fitted this in with the cutting of the bread) and during this he presented the bottle of wine that was drunk by Josh at both his brit milah and his bar mitzvah. We all had a drink from it, and it was a really special moment that we hope to carry on as a family tradition – even if the wine did taste a bit strange.
Josh mentioned in his speech how I had spent the last year saying how I wished our cat Winston could be at the wedding. I couldn’t believe it when he said that he had brought him with to give me a quick cuddle, and as I looked around, one of his ushers came over to me with a mask on that looked exactly like Winston! It got a good laugh.
Honeymoon
We decided to do a few mini moons instead of one big honeymoon. The day after the wedding we travelled to Amsterdam on the Eurostar and spent 4 days there exploring. We then visited Lisbon in January and stayed in The Vintage Hotel. We couldn’t speak higher of it, everything was perfect.
With all that’s going on at the moment, we had to put the next leg of our extended honeymoon on hold, but before the lockdown, we were able to use a wedding gift for a stay at the Pig On the Beach Hotel on the South Coast, and can’t wait to go back when the weather is a bit better! Hopefully when all this has blown over we can start to think about our next destination.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Enjoy and take in every second, from the minute you get engaged, to every dress you try on, all the food you eat at the tasting right up until the last song is sung on the night of your wedding. It goes by in such a flash but it is truly the best day of your life.
Remember that all of the amazing vendors you hire have worked on lots of weddings, and don’t be afraid to put a little more trust in them than you may be comfortable with because they really do everything to ensure you have an amazing day and everything runs smoothly!
LAURA & JOSH’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Chiko Photography
Videography – Denee Motion {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Ketubah – Once upon a Paper by Elena Berlo via Etsy {offers 20% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – St Pancras Renaissance
Bride’s dress – Sassi Holford found and fitted at The Bride Boutique
Bride’s accessories – Miss Clemmie Accessories
Groom’s attire – Hugo Boss found at Savoy Tailors Guild, Kurt Geiger
Bridesmaids – ASOS
Hair + Makeup – Hair by Slo, Natasha Stone
Flowers – Flowers by Alina
Band – Muzika
Catering – Philip Small
Stationery/Invitation – The Creative Touch
Rabbi – Andrew Shaw
Production – WHPH Agency
Toastmaster – Craig Haslam
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.
Fabulously written laura. The wedding was the most beautiful ever. From beginning to end every detail was orchestrated perfectly. The most beautiful bride and the most handsome groom. I am definitely not biased…..!!!! I will never forget the most wonderful day made more than special by so many peopke. However, You and Josh worked the hardest to make sure everything was more than fabulous – and boy did you do a good job!!! Xxx.