Because we can all use a bit of springtime cheer right now, we’re excited to share the beautiful Jewish wedding of two high school sweethearts: Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Elizabeth, a lawyer, and Bernie, a doctor (#cantTARASaPART).
It’s always a pleasure blogging the weddings of our Brides Club members, and we’re so touched by the bride’s kind words about how the group helped her plan her big day. Elizabeth especially loved the personal vendor referrals Team STG provides to Brides Club members on a daily basis – we connected her with her fab planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Amy Katz Events, who did SUCH an incredible job bringing the couple’s vision for their day together and keeping everything running smoothly on the day, as well as the couple’s ketubah designer, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Melanie Dankowicz – the gorgeous floral papercut she created was the absolute perfect fit for the soft springtime vibes that characterized the day.
Speaking of springtime vibes, how about that chuppah?! We adore the profusion of roses and peonies in soft pinks, corals, and whites – and those hanging floral strands just add that little something extra. The mirrored frame keeps the whole structure looking contemporary, too – don’t miss it in the wonderful photos from Maya Myers and video from Motoko Fukayama of Love in Progress.
We’ll let Elizabeth, who was a total knockout in Vera Wang, take it from here…
A Chateau Wedding
Elizabeth, the bride: We got married at Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, NJ. We are both from NY so neither one of us had any particular ties to NJ, but we were struggling to find a venue that spoke to us. Then someone suggested Pleasantdale and we fell in love from the moment we walked in.
Spring Elegance
We tried to keep the wedding as elegant as possible and incorporated a lot of rose gold accents and bright colors to make it a spring wedding and a little bit different than a classic pallet. We used a wedding planner for the last 2 months.
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club’ Did For Us
The best part about Smashing the Glass’ Brides Club for me were the recommended and trusted vendors. Karen really vouched for my planner and she truly delivered. Similarly, I found other random vendors through Smashing The Glass like the person who I ordered my ketubah from, Melanie Dankowicz. I never heard of her before finding her through Smashing the Glass.
Invitation
We tried to incorporate our rose gold accents into the design and did a rose gold bevel. We also used a black and white sketch of Pleasantdale Chateau as the envelope liner, and used a custom picture of us for our stamps. People really loved those added touches!
Hair + Makeup
I wanted to look like myself just a slightly more glam version so I kept it simple with hair and wore it down like I usually do and did soft curls. For makeup, I did several trials and when I found my girl I knew it. It was the exact look I was going for and my makeup lasted the whole night without budging.
A Vera Wang Dress
My dress was from Vera Wang. I tried on a ton of dresses and everything was either too poofy, too bedazzled, too lacey, or too plain. Then I found this dress. It was from a pretty old collection and I found it while looking up Vera Wang dresses on Google images. It was perfect- just the right level of lace and so many little details, but it wasn’t overwhelming.
Jewelry
The veil was from Vera Wang. The hair piece I found on Untamed Petals. I looked for hairpieces for months. Most hairpieces were crystals or stones which wasn’t the look I was going for. I finally found this one which had flowers that perfectly matched the detailing on my dress.
Shoes
I wore Manolo Blahnik Hangisis in cobalt as my something blue.
The handsome groom
The groom wore a custom tux by Enzo Custom. He wore Tiffany cuff links with our wedding date engraved that I gifted him and a rose gold watch to match our rose gold vibe.
No bridesmaids
No bridesmaids, just a maid of honor. She wore a rose gold dress to keep our theme going strong.
Chuppah
We wanted to do something a little different and really took our ceremony setting into consideration. We did a tall mirrored chuppah with hanging flowers and the chuppah being by the water gave it an ethereal look.
Ceremony
Our rabbi asked us to write up 7 things we love about each other so he could share it at the wedding. It was a great idea because it made our ceremony more personal and it was touching because we didn’t read them in advance so it made the moment even more sentimental.
Our music choice
For processionals we had a string quartet and the groom walked down the aisle to their version of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, the Best Man and Maid of Honor walked out to ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love With You’, and I walked out to ‘La Vie En Rose’.
For recessional we did something a little different. When the groom broke the glass we had ‘Siman Tov’ playing and by the time we walked off the aisle and everyone else started to recess, it flowed into ‘This Will Be an Everlasting Love’.
Flowers
For my bouquet I did a huge bouquet of bright coral peonies. My maid of honor’s bouquet was a mix of the coral peonies and peach Juliet roses. My husband’s boutonniere was a single bright coral peony and the best man’s boutonniere was a single peach Juliet Rose.
Our center pieces were the bright coral peonies, peach Juliet roses, pink spray roses, white snaps, and lemongrass. The flowers were done by Debbie’s Designs.
Photographer
Maya Myers was really the only photographer we spoke with and we loved her from the start. We just clicked and knew that we would be most comfortable with her being such a big part of our special day. Plus she came so highly recommended and her work just speaks for itself.
Videographer
Our videographer was Motoko Fukayama. She was excellent. Super flexible, relaxed, and easygoing. But the best part was how invisible she was the whole day/night. She wasn’t one of those videographers that gets in your face to get the perfect shot, disrupting everything. She was nowhere to be seen yet got all the moments.
Food
The venue did our catering. People are still raving about the food to this day (especially the truffle lobster Mac and Cheese station from our afterparty and the fresh mozzaralla station).
Our cake was provided by the venue. It was cannoli flavored. We wanted to keep the design clean and elegant so we had it decorated with coral peonies.
Entertainment
We hired Aldo Ryan as our MC and D&E Entertainment as our band. They were phenomenal. Aldo is a true professional and the band kept the energy going the whole night and really knew how to read the room. We hired D&E because we had a mix of an American and Russian crowd.
Favours
We did flip flops for the ladies and glow sticks with our hashtag #cantTARASaPART on them.
Weather
We were really stressed about the weather. Our venue is beautiful both indoors and outdoors, but having an outdoor ceremony was something we both really wanted from the moment we saw our venue. It was showing rain on our wedding day, and only on our wedding day, for the whole week leading up to the wedding. We thought the weather would shift, but it didn’t. I downloaded 6 weather apps and kept refreshing every 3 minutes, every day leading up to the wedding. I was incredibly upset and we started to make arrangement for an indoor ceremony. The morning of the wedding I woke up and it was beautiful and sunny.
The rain was pushed to 1 PM and our ceremony was at 4 PM. So it was looking like it would rain during our pictures and ceremony, but the more time that passed the more the rain started getting pushed back. We ended up taking pictures outside and it was beautiful. We also had our ceremony outside. The second we stepped off the aisle after the ceremony, it started to rain. It was pretty incredible. That rain was short lived and our guests were able to enjoy an outdoor cocktail hour. Then during our reception inside there was a downpour which obviously didn’t affect us. I later found out that there was a torrential downpour in Manhattan and even 15 minutes away from the venue during the exact time of our ceremony. I don’t know how we got so lucky.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding.
It’s hard to tell people to stress less! There’s a lot of work and a ton of money that go into a wedding and of course you want things to go perfectly. My biggest piece of advice is to just try and remember that the most important two people that day are you and your husband. We spent a lot of time worrying about other people’s reactions, worrying about the details, etc. and forgot to be in the moment a lot. People warn you about that but I think you don’t appreciate it until after. People get flustered when there are a ton of guests and forget who the wedding is actually about. Don’t forget to only really pay attention to your husband that day!
Elizabeth & Bernie’s little white book
Photography – Maya Myers
Videography – Love in Progress
Wedding planner – Amy Katz Events {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Ketubah – Melanie Dankowicz {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Pleasantdale Chateau
Bride’s dress – Vera Wang
Bride’s shoes – Manolo Blahnik
Bride’s jewellery – Verstolo and Untamed Petals
Groom’s attire – Enzo Custom and Tiffany
Hair + Makeup – Elena Usyk and Olga Khizver
Flowers – Debbie’s Designs
Music – Aldo Ryan
Smash The Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
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This was a very beautiful jewish wedding! I really liked the overall tone and theme. Congrats!