A kosher Christmas wedding?! Sounds unlikely, but somehow Claire, a therapist, and James, who works in recruitment as a consultant in the City, pulled it off.
With a wedding date just a week before Christmas and the bridesmaids dressed in an unintentionally Christmassy hunter green, the pair decided they might as well go all out with their newfound Chrismukkah theme – even opting for a kosher Christmas dinner for the meal!
We’re also obsessed with Claire and James’s very cool chuppah – made out of copper pipes and decorated with a mix of flowers and hanging bulbs. It was a perfect fit for their stunning Victorian venue, the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel. All of the emotion and elegance of the day was captured so perfectly by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Blake Ezra, whose calm attitude on the day ensured Claire and James enjoyed their wedding photography to the max.
Claire looked stunning too, in her simple, sophisticated Suzanne Neville dress and her effortless natural makeup by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Philippa Louise.
And the fun didn’t stop once the big day was over: Claire and James went on an epic honeymoon to India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, organised by Claudia Newman at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Colletts Travel in London. Claudia made sure the honeymoon ran smoothly and even threw in some extra special touches, like leaving a framed picture of the couple on their wedding day waiting for them in one of their hotel room.
Now over to the couple…
How we met
Claire and James, the bride and the groom: We went to the same university but never met there, we met at a close friend’s birthday party. The friend actually wasn’t sure it was going to work but is very happy now that it did – and was part of the wedding as a bridesmaid and witness to thank her for bringing us together!
A Grand Venue
We got married at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel. The bride’s mum always had her heart set on this hotel because of how beautiful and authentic it is and how much character it has. It links history with celebrity connections such as the Spice Girls, who Claire is a big fan of! It is such a grand building with amazing architecture and the stairs are amazing!
A Fab Planner – with some help from dad
We had a wedding planner, Katy Cresner, who understood the bride very well and often had middle of night chats with her. She was amazing and understood exactly what both the bride and groom wanted, and nothing was too much for her to do, which made planning the wedding so easy, we couldn’t have imagined our wedding without her.
It feels important also to mention Claire’s dad as from the moment Claire and James got engaged, he had a folder ready for them and organised everything perfectly. He could change his career and work with Katy Cresner being a wedding planner too – although we think he might drive her mad!
Claire likes things to be very personal so had little personal touches at the event (photos on table numbers, selfie sticks as Claire loves photos). We themed it around where we were too – luggage labels as place cards.
The colour scheme ended up being very Christmassy. Originally Claire had wanted a summer wedding but in keeping with her being a Christmas baby and everyone being in the festive mood around Christmas we decided to do it a week before and unintentionally ended up with the bridesmaids and maid of honour being in Christmas colours! A Chrismukkah style wedding if you will.
Lastly, Claire is a bit of a hoarder and keeps everything so made a scrapbook throughout the year she was engaged and kept everything that lead up to the wedding as well as from the wedding itself!
Train Ticket Invitations
The groom had the idea of making the invitations in the style of train tickets considering we were getting married in a station! We wanted the invitations to be less formally written so used language connecting to going on a train journey e.g. welcoming our guests onboard etc…
A Suzanne Neville Dress
The dress was from The Bride in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and was a Suzanne Neville dress. Claire visited quite a few shops as she is very indecisive but loved The Bride and how lovely the staff were. In the end Claire’s sister asked her to try a dress she loved on and when putting it on Claire didn’t want to take it off – very different to what she thought but loved it!
Accessories
Originally Claire was hoping to wear her sister’s veil however when trying on the dress at the bride Claire’s tried on a longer veil and fell in love with the intricate design at the bottom and everyone felt because of the design of the dress it needed a longer veil. Again from The Bride – they have an incredible selection of accessories. Claire chose a vine for her hair in keeping with the Christmas feel.
Claire wore her sister’s earrings from her wedding day and a ring of her grandma’s who recently passed away. The ring was Claire’s something old and something blue.
The groom had a diamond bracelet delivered to Claire just before the chuppah which she also wore on the day.
Office Shoes
Claire doesn’t really do heels and is prone to fall over nothing, therefore heels would not have worked. Claire actually walked down the aisle in a pair of Office sandals with a tiny heel! Then quickly changed into her white converse with her new initials engraved on them!
Hair + Makeup
Hair took Claire a few trials! Zoe Norris who also did her sisters hair for her wedding was Claire’s hairdresser. Zoe was amazing and incredibly patient as well as being hugely talented! On the day Claire planned to have her hair up for the ceremony and then half down after however after being very hot and thinking the hair suited the dress being all up more she stayed with it up!
Make up was Philippa Louise who also has the patience of a saint! Philippa did Claire’s cousin’s wedding about five years ago and Claire wanted to use her again and loved how she was able to understand exactly the simple look Claire wanted – not looking to different from now all but a little more awake!
The handsome groom
The groom James had a custom suit made by Dress2Kill in Waterloo, London. He differentiated the suit by wearing a custom velour dinner jacket with the lining in dark green – the same as a the bridesmaid dresses. The suit was very much a classical style in keeping with the grandeur of the location.
Claire got delivered to James room the night before the wedding a box, containing a few gifts and another box inside it with letters she has written to him over the past few years.
Bridesmaids in Green
Claire had five bridesmaids, one maid of honour and one flower girl and also two page boys. The bridesmaids all wore green – the dresses were from David’s Bridal and Claire fell in love with the forest green colour and thought after seeing that it went well with the time of year and also meant the flowers could be bright – more her mum’s idea wanting the wedding very bright and bold!
Claire’s sister only got her dress two months before the wedding and ended up ironically loving a red dress which tied in with the Christmas theme well! The flower girl – Claire’s niece, wore a little white dress with a belt matching belt to the maid of honours – her mum’s dress.
The page boys wore matching suits and green bow ties matching the green of the bridesmaids and ushers and best men.
The morning of the wedding all the wedding party had t-shirts either saying team bride or team groom which they all wore while getting ready! Claire is quite big on detail so liked planning all of this. Her niece and nephew also had jumpers to wear from her too.
A Copper Floral Chuppah
Claire’s mum had quite an influence on this, wanting the wedding to be very vibrant. The chuppah was made out of copper pipes and was decorated with both flowers and hanging bulbs. Claire and James felt it went well with the time of year as well as with the design of the building.
Ceremony
The rabbi that did the ceremony also conducted Claire’s bat mitzvah. He is very close to her family. The ketubah took a long time to choose as Claire and James wanted one that meant something to them and were quite specific in the words they chose. The design of the ketubah includes symbols associated with a Jewish home, Shabbat and Chanukah.
Our music choice
Our first dance song was ‘Always A Woman’ by Billy Joel. Claire and James recently saw Billy Joel live in New York just after they got engaged and love his music. For the procession it was modern Jewish music, Claire walked down to ‘Meheira’ and the music during the ceremony was sung by Marc Finer the chazan who has a very beautiful voice and also did the bride’s sister’s wedding. We ended the wedding with ‘Ho Hey’ by the Lumineers as we both have always loved the lyrics to it.
Flowers
We had Liz from Funky Flowers who is amazing! The flowers were all bright and mismatched which made the wedding very vibrant! The bride’s were just red. Claire was keen to just have a red bouquet both keeping with the themes and matching her red nails!
Liz also decorated all the tables and made the whole room look quite spectacular! Liz understood exactly what we wanted and when the bride first saw the chuppah she was blown away.
Photographer
Claire knew she wanted Blake Ezra from the start. Claire has seen Blake at some of her friends’ weddings. Blake is such an amazing person, and this comes through in his pictures. He is very calming throughout the day and makes the photography so fun. He creates the most incredible photos and will always use his surroundings in the shots.
Claire is a big fan of baths and has one every night so Blake even let us do a shoot in the bath in our outfits which turned out to be very cool! We also had an engagement shoot with him which we had in trendy Shoreditch, London. It gave us a chance to get to know him and build a rapport before the big day – it wasn’t hard to build a rapport with him though as he is so great!
Videographer
Paul and his team at Atmotion were there for the very beginning filming from the room set up right until the end of the dancing. We met Paul in advance to plan the evening and discuss the filming and music choices. Paul and his team were fantastic, they captured ever special moment and we so discrete we hardly knew they were there!
Kosher Christmas
Jason Milan did our catering and the menu also had a festive twist. The reception food had three stations and mulled wine being served. We did the reception in the booking office of the hotel with live music so we hoped that it had a nice warm feel to it. The main food tied in nicely with our Christmas theme, it was was a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings – kosher of course! Jason Milan and his team were amazing and listened to everything that we wanted and made it amazing for us and our guests!
Entertainment
We chose Creation for many reasons. We’ve been to many of their functions and absolutely love the way they perform and get involved with the crowd from start to finish. They also know how to play in our venue which has very specific acoustics. We met Simon Cooper many times to discuss the set up and music choices. His band were truly fantastic, playing our favourite Israeli songs, old school classics and new chart favourites. Everyone was dancing from start to finish!
Favours
Not so much a wedding favour but instead of escort cards we had a book giving our guests there table numbers and at the front a poem from the bride and groom:
‘We welcome you to
Our special day
To celebrate our wedding
In a festive way
With dancing, drinks
And tasty food
We aim to get you
In the mood
Please eat, drink and dance
till late
enjoy the fun… we can’t wait.
With our love,
The new Mr and Mrs Graham’
This was very brilliantly written by the brides dad!
We had selfie sticks on each table with a little quote for our guests to use too.
Remembering people that are no longer with us
It was important for both of us that those that are no longer with us were still part of our day. Behind the top table were shelves and so Claire put each of the grandparents and parents wedding day photos in frames and on the shelves so it could feel like they were there somehow.
Claire’s grandma passed away early on in the year and so Claire had a photo charm attached to her bouquet of her grandma so she could be at the chuppah with her. Claire was very close to her grandma and her grandma loved to party so it was important to Claire that she was part of it.
Bride’s speech
The bride did make a speech and only told the wedding planner and her mum she was doing it! Claire felt it important that she was able to say a few words about James her family and her friends. Claire wanted to talk about the groom in her speech as she knew he was speaking about her and it felt important for her to mention how important and special he is to her.
Importance of family and friends
I don’t think we really stopped moving the whole day so in terms of involving family and friends we just celebrated with them all day – including the bride and groom making it to the reception to see everyone. It was really important for both the bride and groom to be with both their family and friends as much as possibly as thy are what made the day and the lead up to the day so special.
Our toastmaster
We also wanted to mention Jamie Paskin our toastmaster. He is just the best. Our wedding would not have gone the way it did without him. He made the whole day run smoothly and checked on both the bride and groom’s family throughout the night checking they were all okay. He even delivered a lychee martini to the bride as soon as she sat down. We think every wedding needs a Jamie Paskin.
Honeymoon
Claire and James went to India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives on honeymoon. We decided on the location as we’d never been to Asia and the climate allowed us to enjoy the sunshine. We’re also big fans of the cuisine and did some amazing cooking classes out there. Claire has a big love for elephants too and so was very excited to meet them!
It was a real adventure, from seeing one of the wonders of the world – the Taj Mahal, to exploring Sri Lanka and ending in what can only be called paradise in the Maldives. Everyone on the whole trip treated us so well and have such kind natures that just made our trip extra special. The honeymoon was organised by Claudia Newman at Colletts Travel in London and we’d recommend her highly. Claudia put such special touches to the honeymoon and in one room even getting a framed picture of us both from our wedding day waiting for us.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
My advice to other brides to is stay relaxed and enjoy every moment. Don’t wear a watch or look at the time – just be in the moment and whatever happens, happens! A final tip make sure you order Nutella pancakes and pizza at the end as there is nothing better than being in a white wedding dress and the end of the night eating both these things!
Claire & James’ little white book
Photography – Blake Ezra {offers a free 12″ x 8″ luxury lustre print to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Makeup – Philippa Louise {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Honeymoon – organised by Colletts Travel
Videography – Atmotion
Wedding planner – Katy Cresner
Venue – St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel
Bride’s dress – Suzanne Neville found and fitted at The Bride
Bride’s shoes – Office
Groom’s attire – Dress2Kill
Bridesmaids – David’s Bridal
Hair – Zoe Norris
Flowers – Funky Flowers
Catering – Jason Milan
Band – Creation
Toastmaster – Jamie Paskin