We’re so excited to be blogging the beautiful Jewish wedding of STG’s very own features writer, Sam Levitz! We got to know Sam as a beloved member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club, and based on her talent for writing, wise words of advice, and great sense of humor, we realized she was just the person to join Team STG.
Sam, who in addition to serving as STG’s features writer works in publishing, and Ethan, a patient coordinator, had a totally gorgeous, 100% heartfelt wedding that also happens to have been 99% gluten free! Both bride and groom are GF – and Sam, who’s been allergic to wheat her whole life, never thought she’d be able to eat cake at her own wedding. But thanks to the baking wizardry of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor By the Way Bakery, the pair were able to have their (gluten-free, dairy-free, and kosher pareve) cake and eat it too! They can’t stop raving about what a delight By the Way’s owner Helene was to work with – or how scrumptious the cake was! Plus, how cute is that rubber duck cake topper, which now sits proudly in Sam’s prized rubber duck collection?!
Lest you think this wedding was all about the food, Sam and Ethan also had an exceptionally moving ceremony. The two incorporated lots of personal touches: they wrote and read their own vows, were wrapped in the groom’s late father’s tallis under the chuppah, and instead of Sam circling Ethan seven times per tradition they each circled each other three times and then simultaneously did a circle together – symbolizing their equal partnership. We also love the beautiful Lori Loebelsohn ketubah they ordered from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com.
We’ll leave it to Sam, who looked positively ravishing in her Allison Webb gown, to fill you in on the rest…
How we met
Sam, the bride: We met on OkCupid right before New Year’s Eve going into 2017. We were a 98% match, but because of different traveling obligations we couldn’t meet up for almost 3 weeks after meeting. After that first date we were pretty much inseparable.
A Brooklyn Wedding
At the El Caribe in Brooklyn, NY. We picked this venue for a number of reasons. We needed a venue that could do a kosher wedding, allow us to bring in our own kosher caterer (who is located in Brooklyn) and wouldn’t require us to use their catering services, allow mixed dancing and a reform rabbi to perform the ceremony, and look gorgeous while staying in budget.
This was a venue that I’ve known about my entire life since I had my 5th and 8th grade proms there. While that didn’t play a role in our choosing, it was pretty funny how that worked out. The space itself is just gorgeous and the minute I saw the hanging lights and branches on the ceiling I knew that was where I wanted to have my reception.
Theme
We didn’t have a specific theme or style (whenever friends or family asked me this question I liked to joke that the theme was “wedding”!), but we tried to put some little touches around like pictures of ourselves at different ages on the tables, pictures of our parents grandparents, and great grandparents weddings. I loved the idea of being surrounded by love and also our loved ones, many who unfortunately aren’t with us anymore.
We also had soup as one of the courses (everyone knows my obsession with soup), and rubber duckies as our cake topper (which everyone knows I have a collection of as well. We also tried to pick music that was very special to us, and music styles we would want to dance to. So although we didn’t have a planner or a specific scheme, we felt we were in the details everywhere you looked.
What ‘Smashing The Glass Brides Club’ Did For Us
My parents work in the wedding photography business so they had connections to a lot of wedding vendors. We did use a Brides Club discount to get our ketubah from Ketubah.com. Fell completely in love with Peacock design by Lori Loebelsohn.
It was something simple, but incorporated some beautiful illustrations of things that felt meaningful to us and our Judaism. The best part was the “I Am My Beloved’s And My Beloved Is Mine” written in both Hebrew and English. We had this written on our invitations so it was lovely to have those matching.
Invitation
It was important for us to have simple and clean invitations. The most important part was to have some Hebrew on there. We wanted guests to know right off the bat that this was a Jewish wedding.
The popular phrase “I Am My Beloved’s And My Beloved Is Mine” has always been so special to me and so we put that at the top, and we included our Hebrew names under our English ones. We didn’t want to overwhelm guests (especially our non-Jewish guests) with too much Hebrew—especially since they wouldn’t be able to read it anyway. Just enough to have an effect.
Hair + Makeup
My hair stylist was a family friend, Adele Sabag, who I’ve known my whole life and call aunt. I trust her completely with my hair and she does bridal hair for a living. She recommended my makeup artist.
An Allison Webb Dress
I found my dress at the Glamour Closet in NYC. Dress: Ti Adora by Allison Webb bridal gown.
My mom and I had been wandering around the city two weeks before my dress appointments at David’s Bridal and another dress shop in Brooklyn. She heard about a walk-in store so we decided to look just for fun to get an idea for styles. Little did I know it would be the second dress I tried on. I saw myself in the mirror, I teared up, and that was that. I knew I had found the dress!
Accessories
My jewelry and veil were all my something borrowed. The necklace was my great aunt Evelyn’s that my mom lent me. The earrings my mother-in-law lent me. And the veil was from my cousin’s wedding back in 2011. I wanted something that was just mine and special so I bought a beautiful hair piece from Bridal Styles Boutique on Avenue U in Brooklyn.
I was looking at a few hairpieces and the saleswoman pointed this one out. I didn’t like it in the display, but she asked me to trust her. The minute it was in my hair I knew it was the one. It felt so perfect, and matched my dress completely.
Shoes
I chose a kitten heel by Le Papillon Style on Etsy because I’m already a pretty tall girl and I’m not great in heels. I wanted to be comfortable the whole night and figured with a low enough heel I would still feel special and wouldn’t fall! The lace and pearls got me right away. I LOVED the vintage look of them.
I also had one of my bridesmaids who is an artist Becca Shmuluvitz, paint the bottoms of my shoes with the wedding date and also our wedding Hashtag #2Heftand2Hold. It was my something blue and she did a fantastic job! It was fun having a little secret under my shoes.
The handsome groom
He wore a black tux and white tie/vest from Men’s warehouse with a white kippah. He got a great haircut the day of the wedding and looked so handsome.
Ethan and all of his groomsmen also wore different superhero socks! They were so cute and it was a fun secret detail.
Bridesmaids
I had 1 maid of honor and 7 other bridesmaids. I wanted them to look uniform, but also be as unique as they are individuals. We went to David’s Bridal and I chose the color, Marine, and told them they needed a floor length dress. The rest was up to them, whatever they wanted. They all chose beautifully unique dresses and looked incredible together.
Chuppah
Since we couldn’t use Ethan’s father’s tallis as the chuppah (too small!) we let the florist put up a regular white sheet. We wanted something simple, and I love the look of vines so I asked that some vines be dangling down the poles.
The Rabbi was the father of one of the groomsmen. He had been the Rabbi at the camp Ethan, and all of the groomsmen attended and it was incredibly special that he had such a long history with all of them. Ethan was basically the first of his friend group to get married and it was so lovely having them all there.
The rabbi gave us a blessing and Ethan and I were wrapped up in his late father’s tallis. It was incredibly special and moving to have all of our parents represented under the chuppah with us.
We also decided to modernize the ceremony. Instead of circling Ethan 7 times, I circled him 3, he circled me 3, and then we each circled each other. I felt it was important for us to do this to show we were in a partnership and taking this next step as equals, together.
We also wrote and read our own vows. They were so special and everyone agreed that it was their favorite part of the whole ceremony. We were told by many family members and friends that they’ve never seen a bride and groom so in love before. It truly meant the world to me.
Our music choice
We played a bunch of ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘00s, and some recent hits. All of the music was fun, upbeat and familiar. The highlight was ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ by Meatloaf. We had the DJ play the entire 8 minutes. All of my USY Youth Group friends rallied like in our high school days. We did hand motions, a giant skank (dance move) circle, call out lines, and even the baseball diamond. It was incredible.
Groom walking down the aisle: ‘Edelweiss’ (Instrumental) from The Sound of Music
Bride walking down the aisle: ‘How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)’ (Acoustic)
First dance song: ‘Rainbow Connection’, by Trespassers William in honor of The Muppets, a favorite of Ethan’s late father.
Cake cutting Song: ‘Africa’, Toto – it’s weird, but it’s our song. We realized it was a really hard song to dance to for a slow dance, so we wanted to incorporate it in any way we could.
During the dancing (specifically ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’), a bunch of my USY friend pulled out yellow bandanas to surprise me and represent my old division Kiryah! Our color was yellow and I was Maccabiah co-chair my senior year. It was such a blast from the past and so cute. I also got to lead a giant conga line!
Flowers
Gold Florist in Brooklyn. I didn’t care too much about the flowers (it’s just not my thing). I really only like tulips so we got those for the bridesmaids bouquets. For my bouquet I really wanted succulents, but my parents were really against it. They said it wouldn’t fit the feel of the hall, and that it was too rustic for a fancy venue. So I relented because when it comes to flowers I don’t really know what looks good. My parents ended up surprising me on my wedding day with little succulents poking out of the bouquet. I loved them and it was such a fun surprise!
Photographer and videographer
My parents have worked in the wedding photography/videography industry forever. I’ve known all of the photographers for years and it was really fun getting to work with these guys I grew up around.
Food and cake
Ira Tanenbaum, from First Bais catering. Ira and my dad have been best friends for 45 years. I’ve known Ira my entire life and he was really incredible working with Ethan and I when it came to all of our allergies. We’re both gluten free, and we had a few guests with some other serious airborne food allergies. It was really a load off my mind knowing that almost 100% of the food served would be gluten free. One of the courses of the 4 course dinner was a soup course. Anyone who knows me knows my favorite food is soup! It was such a fun detail that I loved having. He was even able to make gluten free matzo ball soup for us!
The cake we got at By the Way Bakery. 100% gluten free, dairy free, and kosher! We did a vanilla cake with a vanilla bean frosting. Helene Godin was a pleasure to work with. She was so accommodating and made the most beautiful cake. Plus it was so scrumptious. The most delicious cake I’ve ever had. I never thought I’d ever be able to eat my own wedding cake because of my gluten allergies. This was truly a dream come true.
Our cake also had a duck cake topper! I have a huge collection of rubber ducks and it was so much fun getting to add a cute little unusual element to our cake. Plus I now have two new ducks for our collection!
Honeymoon
Going to Southeast Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam in December!)
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
It’s true what they say. The day really does go by in an absolute blur. Try to take it all in, and don’t stress out if you feel like you’re not “doing it right.” At one point after the bedeken, but before the ceremony I was with my mom in the bridal suite and a little freaked out that I wasn’t “enjoying” it the way I was supposed to be. Whatever that means.
She reminded me things were going to be a blur, and that it happens to everyone and it’s okay. That’s what the pictures and videos are for. It really calmed me down to be reminded that I wasn’t the only one. I enjoyed everything much more after that.
SAM & ETHAN’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Lenny Groysman, Anatoly Shlemovich, Derrik K, David Dooley
Ketubah – Ketubah.com {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – Vlad Kataev and Simon Mitteff
Cake – By the Way Bakery
Venue – El Caribe
Bride’s dress – Allison Webb found at Glamour Closet
Bride’s shoes – Le Papillon Style on Etsy
Bride’s accessories – Bridal Styles Boutique
Groom’s attire – Men’s warehouse
Bridesmaids – David’s Bridal
Hair + Makeup – Adele Sabag
Flowers – Gold Florist
DJ – C4 event group and DJ Anthony Mace
Catering – El Bais Catering
Smash Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
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