We just love it when a couple works with a fabulous team of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors to make their Jewish wedding dreams a reality – which is exactly what today’s couple did!
Rebecca, a primary school teacher, and Dexter, a portfolio manager specialising in charities, have busy professional lives, and so they made the smart decision to work with a great planner, who really got them and their vision. They found the right match in Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Louise Perry Weddings, who “completely understood our vision of an elegant wedding, with accents of bright autumnal colours (inspired by Rebecca’s parents’ southern African roots).”
The couple’s venue, Four Seasons Hotel, Hampshire, hit all the right notes with its classically luxe style and varied event spaces providing plenty of options for the tisch, ceremony, reception and party – it’s truly a beautiful setting; don’t miss it in the photos by Luke Hayden!
Rebecca picked Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Sensation Band for music, and they couldn’t have been more thrilled with the way Sensation kept the energy going all through the night. The pair wanted dancing between courses, with speeches split across the evening, which the band was happy to accommodate and they even let Rebecca and Dexter lead dancing from the stage at the end of the night!
We’ll let Rebecca – who looked so classically elegant in Suzanne Neville – take it from here…
How we Met
Rebecca, the bride: We met in in 2012 – our penultimate year of school – through mutual friends at a tea party for the Queen’s Jubilee. We clicked instantly, and have now been together for 10 years. Since then, we have gone on to university together (Nottingham University), and now live in north London.
Wedding Weekend
Our preference was to get married out of London, so that we could have a magical weekend away with all the people most important to us. Due to Rebecca’s time constraints with school, Dexter and Rebecca’s mum, Philippa, had to do all of the venue visits! Through FaceTime and recorded videos, they kept Rebecca up to date with all the various options and initial thoughts about the venues in and around London.
When they visited the Four Seasons Hotel, Hampshire, the reaction was immediate for both Dexter and Philippa – for Dexter it was as soon as they drove up towards the hotel! They loved the classic style and luxury vibe of the hotel, the distance from London, and the varied event space that gave several options for the wedding, with rooms for the tisch, ceremony, reception and party. A week later, Dexter, Rebecca and her sister visited Four Seasons Hampshire (FSH) and all agreed that it had to be this venue!
Theme & Wedding Planner
When we first got engaged, I contacted a couple of planners and Louise Perry from Louise Perry Weddings was recommended. From the first Zoom meeting with Louise, we felt instantly that our wedding was in the best possible hands! She completely understood our vision of an elegant wedding, with accents of bright autumnal colours (inspired by Rebecca’s parents’ southern African roots).
Louise and her team did an amazing job over the year, understanding our preferences and guiding and suggesting where they could. Throughout the process they co-ordinated with the Events team at FSH and finally on the day ensured everything ran smoothly.
There was no theme for the wedding, although Rebecca knew she wanted the bridesmaids to wear burgundy, which started off the colour palette! We wanted a ballroom wedding but we didn’t want to lose the natural colours and textures of the Hampshire landscape around us. This idea carried through the décor and style of the wedding – the chuppah design, the reception and the design of the room for the wedding breakfast were echoed in the autumn sunset portraits photos.
A Suzanne Neville Dress
I have been a fan of wedding dresses for a long time, and have always loved Suzanne Neville’s designs. As soon as we got engaged, I immediately booked an appointment at their Knightsbridge store. I found the dress process exciting but also overwhelming with so many beautiful choices. However, I eventually decide on an A-line organza layered skirt, with a V-neck bodice. The style was classic and minimalist as I found I didn’t love flowers or lace, preferring to accent with accessories instead. I loved how I felt in the organza skirt, comfortable but also relaxed and I knew it would feel beautiful all day.
Hair + Make-up
The wonderful Cat Parnell from Unveil UK did our hair and make-up. She was fantastic to work with, being incredibly professional and experienced, and also a lovely person to spend the morning of my wedding with! I knew I wanted my hair half-up with waves, and that I wanted to have pearl pins in my hair. For makeup we decided to keep it glowy and bronzed, with bronze tones around my eyes.
Accessories
For the veil we chose a pearl Suzanne Neville veil with a blusher.
Bridesmaids
I had three bridesmaids – my sister, Dexter’s sister and my best friend. I wanted the bridesmaids to all feel comfortable in their dresses so we went to David’s Bridal in Watford where they could try on a range of dresses. In the end, they all picked the same dress! It was a beautiful wine burgundy which fit perfectly with our colour scheme.
Ceremony and Chuppah
For our ceremony, we wanted to keep a lot of traditional elements but bring some personal details in as well. For our tallit, we used one belonging to Dexter’s late grandfather, but instead of using it in the canopy, our brilliant florist Paula Rooney draped it at the back so it was clear to see. Although there was an option to have the ceremony outside in the walled garden, we knew that in October it was more likely to be inside so we wanted our chuppah to resemble the autumnal grounds outside.
We requested a natural flowing arrangement of flowers, with an emphasis on foliage and addition of South African proteas. We were stunned by the beauty of the chuppah when we finally saw it come together!
In our ceremony, we made meaningful choices that were important to us in the Reform tradition. We opted to have our guests sitting in a semi circle around the chuppah. We also chose to sign our ketubah in the ceremony, and used this as a chance to involve close friends in our wedding. Finally, we chose a series of readings in English to accompany the sheva brachot.
Ketubah
Our ketubah was designed by Ardyn Halter. This was a personal choice for Rebecca as Halter designed the stain glass windows at her synagogue Alyth, and it was lovely to have the link in the design and features of the ketubah. The ketubah we chose was designed to represent stained glass windows featuring images of the sheva brachot.
Our Music Choice
For our music, we chose the amazing Sensation Band. Their brilliant Israeli singer Guy performed, alongside Jason on the piano, through our ceremony. Guy’s incredible voice was a big part of what drew us to Sensation so we were so glad he was available. We had a pianist to accompany the reception, before being welcomed into the ballroom with a fantastic 9-piece band.
The music was a real highlight of the wedding, and Sensation did an excellent job of keeping the energy high throughout the evening. A favourite moment for me was our first dance. We chose ‘Grow as We Go’ by Ben Platt, which Sensation performed acoustically. It was so beautiful, that when we welcomed friends to join us part way through, they were crying too much to dance!
Flowers
For our flowers, we worked with the amazing Paula Rooney. She was fantastic at completely understanding my vision and ideas, and transforming it into something I could never have dreamed of. She kept the flowers natural and flowing as I had requested, without the flowers appearing overly ‘red’ as autumnal flowers sometimes can! My bouquet was a collection of everything that was in the chuppah, featuring one protea as well, and a range of larger and smaller blooms to complement the bouquet.
There were baby protea button holes for the groomsmen, and the bridesmaids had dusty pink roses. Paula did an excellent job of creating a beautiful vision with the flowers. She also repurposed as much of our chuppah as possible for the wedding breakfast by decorating the stage and bar area with the flowers. This ensured all the flowers were fully utilised throughout the evening.
Photographer
Our photographer Luke Hayden was recommended (along with all our suppliers) by our planner Louise. We wanted candid, documentary style photography that would capture the beauty of the day without being intrusive or forced. Luke was excellent at setting everyone at ease, and captured all the best moments of the wedding. We also had an engagement shoot with him in August which helped to make us feel more relaxed and comfortable with the experience.
Extra details
We wanted to keep energy high throughout the wedding, and so wanted to have dancing between courses and speeches split up across the evening. Rebecca’s dad spoke to open the wedding breakfast, and hamotzi was then done by her aunt Elaine. The best man and sister of the bride then spoke, finishing with the groom. At the end of the night, Sensation allowed Dexter and I to lead the dancing from the stage, which then seamlessly allowed me to steal the microphone for a last speech at the end of the night!
Honeymoon
We are planning to honeymoon next summer during the school holidays in Central and South America. As we both went straight from school to uni to work, we wanted to take some time to travel and explore somewhere new. We are looking forward to food, exciting adventures and celebrating our wedding!
Advice to other couples planning their wedding
Our advice to any other couples would be to try and take moments throughout the day to step back and watch everything happen before it all speeds past!
Rebecca & Dexter’s LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Luke Hayden
Wedding planner – Louise Perry Weddings {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Four Seasons Hotel, Hampshire
Band – Sensation Band {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Bride’s dress – Suzanne Neville
Bride’s accessories – Suzanne Neville
Bridesmaids – David’s Bridal
Hair + Makeup – Unveil UK
Flowers – Paula Rooney
Catering – Four Seasons Hotel, Hampshire
Ketubah – Ardyn Halter
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.
