It’s always a special day when we get to blog the big day of one of our beloved Smashing the Glass Brides Club members, and Shelley’s gorgeous interfaith Jewish wedding is no exception. She and groom and Chris not only crafted an ultra-personal celebration full of creative touches, they used some of our very favourite vendors to pull it off too!
First and foremost, we love that the bride, who’s Jewish, and the groom, who isn’t, chose to work with the wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rabbi Paul Glantz (who they found right here on Smashing The Glass!) to craft an individual Jewish blessing that truly reflected the pair as a couple – complete with a lovely floral ketubah reflecting their theme of rustic elegance from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubata.
This wedding is just so full of love and emotion, perfectly captured by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rafe Abrook in the exquisite photos. And speaking of photos, we love that Shelley and Chris gave each table an ‘Instagram Challenge’ to complete, with instructions like ‘your whole table must take a photo that recreates a famous movie scene’ – what a great way to get everyone involved and socializing, right?!
Lovely Shelley could not have looked more radiant on the day, and we’re in love with her gorgeous bridal beauty look from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Makeup by Katy. Between the beautiful makeup and perfect gown from Enzoani, it’s no wonder she felt like a princess all day!
And we love that Shelley and Chris worked with the wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Abby Taubman of Colletts Travel to plan their fab honeymoon to Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong.
We so loved having Shelley in Brides Club and helping her along as she planned this amazing day – if you’re planning a Jewish or Jew-ish wedding of your own and could use a little support, guidance, community, referrals to great vendors, or anything else you can think of that will help make your day the very best it can be – do sign up for your free 30-day trial and join us!
Now over to Shelley…
How we met
Shelley and Chris, the bride and the groom: It’s Chris writing this part! Shelley and I are teachers, as you probably would have guessed from all the crafty things we incorporated into the wedding! We met training on our PGCE, where I knew that she was the one I was going to ask to be my wife. 6 years, two houses and one cat later, we are now Mr and Mrs Amoss ☺
A Venue Close to Home
We got married in Offley Place, in the brand new Hester Ballroom, which was simply stunning. We chose it because we wanted to get married in Hertfordshire, where we had both grown up, and we also wanted to get married somewhere with beautiful green space in the countryside. Offley was just 20 minutes from our home and the perfect fit. We later found out that in the past, Offley had been used as a teacher training centre – which made it even more perfect as Chris and I are both teachers and met when we were training!
Rustic Elegance
Our theme was “elegant rustic,” which we chose to reflect us as we love the rustic style of the English countryside, but also wanted to add a bit of elegance and glamour to our day. We therefore kept the wedding palette fairly neutral with dusty pinks and greys, but threw in little hints of elegance with copper accessories and the beautiful chandelier features at Offley Place.
With Chris and I both being teachers, we wanted just a little nod towards our profession, as we wouldn’t have met if we weren’t both teachers! Therefore, we had our table names as letters, reminiscent of “A is for apple, B is for ball, C is for Cat…” However, we renamed the letters to reflect us, such as “A is for Amoss, B is for Budapest, C is for Cheese, D is for Dexter (the name of our cat!)” We also had people’s name places as little blackboards with white chalk writing.
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us
I found the numerous checklists provided in the Smashing the Glass Brides Club really helpful and just loved looking at everyone else’s wedding pictures on the blog and Instagram!
DIY Invitations
We actually made the invitations ourselves with the help of one of Chris’s close friends. We used a photo of the flowers from our engagement party, which were a mock-up of what our wedding flowers would be like, and Chris’s friend cleverly photoshopped them into a geometric design. Chris and I then spent hours, cutting, trimming and sticking the various parts of the invite together.
The invite followed our “rustic elegance” theme with brown kraft card, the geometric floral design and a copper edging. It was hard work making the invitations ourselves, but it really paid off and we were really proud of ourselves. (Despite an incident involving our cat Dexter knocking over a glass of red wine and having to remake a large batch of invitations…)
An Enzoani Dress
My dress was from a simply amazing shop called Heritage Brides in Hatfield House. It was the most beautiful wedding dress shop I visited, in an old barn loft covered with fairy lights – it was magical! My dress was by Enzoani, a designer I hadn’t looked at before I tried my dress on. I actually didn’t pick my dress out at first. My mum suggested I try it on and at first I actually wasn’t sure if it was for me, but as soon as I put it on I knew it encompassed everything I had been looking for and I absolutely loved it, so well done to my mum!
My mum, as a surprise, asked the seamstress to sew a little bit of her old wedding dress into the under lining of my dress. So, I had a little flower from my mum’s wedding dress inside my own dress. That was an incredibly special thing.
Accessories
I bought a veil from Heritage Brides which matched my dress perfectly, even though it wasn’t by the same designer! I also bought a real dried flower hair vine from a seller that I found via Instagram. Her shop is called Folky Dokey and I absolutely adored it.
Blush Peep Toe Shoes
I knew that I didn’t want classic white bridal shoes, as I wanted something that I could wear again and that showed a bit of my personality. I also didn’t want to spend too much on them, however, when I saw my dream pair of shoes by Rachel Simpson, my budget went out the window! They were soft blush pink heels, with a peep toe and a little delicate strap. They were a crushed velvet material with a solid rose gold glitter heel! They sound a bit odd but they were perfect!
Hair + makeup
I knew that for my hair I wanted a soft, relaxed and romantic look, so I looked for local hairdressers who could do that. I found the wonderful Claire at Barberella who specialises in ‘Boho Festival Bridal’ hair. She was wonderful!
For my makeup, I used the amazing Katy Angelidi at Makeup by Katy. She did my make up, as well as my mum and sister. I also used Rosie Tredgett at Makeup by Rose for my bridesmaids. I was so pleased with both makeup ladies and knew I could trust them from the word go. I felt like a princess all day!
It just so happened, by sheer coincidence, that both Katy and Claire lived in our small town, both just a few minutes’ walk from my house! I really liked that we were supporting local businesses.
The handsome groom
The handsome groom wore a gorgeous suit by Marc Darcy, a brand that I spotted at the National Wedding Show in London. It was a blue suit, with a matching beige waistcoat and bowtie, in a subtle tweed print. It was topped off by a gold pocket watch that his parents gave him on the morning of the wedding. He looked very dapper!
Bridesmaids in Grey
We had 7 bridesmaids, so I knew it could be tricky to find a dress and colour that suited them all. We got the bridesmaids dresses from David’s Bridal in Watford. It worked perfectly because I found a gorgeous style of dress that had a floaty skirt and floral lace bodice to match our rustic theme, which came in all different shapes. The girls each chose the shape that suited them most, such as one shouldered, halter or boat neck.
I then chose 3 different shades of grey, to match our theme, and gave each bridesmaid the shade I thought would suit her best. It worked really well and it ended up with each girl wearing a different dress, so no one was matching, which I wanted, but as a whole they still matched and looked beautiful in their grey ombre hues!
The junior bridesmaid and our flower girl, who both stole the show, wore white leotards and grey ballerina tutus. Our little flower girl, aged 2, walked down the aisle holding a rose gold balloon that said “Here Comes the Bride!” which was adorable!
Chuppah
Our chuppah was built completely from scratch by Chris’s amazing stepfather, and within the chuppah was my late uncle’s tallit, which made the chuppah incredibly special and poignant for us. It was made even more special that, because we had a chuppah that needed to be held up, we had 4 close relatives and friends holding our chuppah throughout the ceremony. We had so many compliments after the wedding on how lovely and personal our ceremonies were.
An Interfaith Ceremony
Chris isn’t Jewish, so we started off our wedding day by having a civil ceremony in which we were legally married, followed by a Jewish blessing, led by Rabbi Paul Glantz, who we found via Smashing The Glass. We were really intent on our Jewish blessing being as special and individual to us as possible. We achieved this in a few ways. We chose 7 of our close friends and family to read us a humanist version of the seven blessings, the sheva brachot, which was really special.
Ketubah
Our ketubah reflected our floral invitation design and matched the general theme of our day. It was from Ketubata, via Etsy, and we loved it!
Our music choice
Music is really important to Chris and I. We had so many songs that were special to us that it was hard to decide! For walking down the aisle, we had ‘The Book of Love’ by Gavin James. During our circling in the ceremony, we had ‘A Million Dreams’ from the Greatest Showman, sung in Hebrew, which was really special.
During our ceremony we had an amazing singer called Lilac Sheer. We booked her as we loved her voice, and only after that we found out that she was Israeli, so she could sing some of our ceremony songs in Hebrew which was an added bonus!
Flowers
Our flowers followed our rustic elegance vision, with cream and blush pink roses, lots of eucalyptus foliage and some other flowers such as thistles and astilbe. We didn’t have a florist, as Chris’s mum’s best friend very kindly arranged all of our flowers for us for the table centres, bouquets and button holes, doing a fabulous job!
A special touch, which again, lots of people commented on, was that we wrote a special card to one woman on each table, asking them to take the flower centre piece home at the end of the evening. It made people feel really special and was a good opportunity for us to thank some important ladies in our lives!
Photographer and videographer
Our photographer was Rafe Abrook, another local supplier from Hitchin. We found him and knew that his style was exactly what we were looking for. He was absolutely exceptional and we would recommend him in a heartbeat. He captured the day perfectly and also is just genuinely such a nice guy who made us both feel so comfortable. He brought an assistant with him, Karl, who was also just lovely.
We had a videographer named Steve from Video4ADay who was brilliant, really reasonable, and has given us a lovely little trailer video whilst we wait for our main videos to come through.
Cheese cake
We love cheese! So, naturally, our cake was 5 tiers of different cheeses, served with crackers and grapes. Our guests loved the idea of cheese and crackers to nibble on throughout the later part of evening. The cheese tower cake itself was from Costco.
First dance
Our first dance was ‘Lucky’ by Jason Mraz and our final song of the night was ‘You Make My Dreams’ by Daryl Hall and John Oates, which we love as it is in one of our favourite films, 500 Days of Summer!
We surprised my dad and Chris’s mum with mother/son and father/daughter dances, straight after our first dance. My dad and Chris’s mum absolutely loved this – Chris’s mum cried all through the dance!
Entertainment
As we mentioned earlier, we had a fantastically talented singer for our ceremony called Lilac Sheer. She was very accommodating and learnt a handful of song for us! She even learnt a greatest showman song in Hebrew which she sung whilst we were under the chuppah.
For our wedding breakfast and evening of dancing we had Creation, a well-known wedding band in the Jewish community in the UK. We had the DJ live option which consisted of three singers, a brass player, a drummer and the DJ. DJ Live worked really well for us as the showband wasn’t really very ‘us’ but we wanted more than a DJ, so this was the perfect mix!
For Chris and his friends, it was a highlight for them seeing such a talented band. The evening of dancing was brought to life though the band’s engagement and versatility, not to mention the absolutely wild Israeli dancing set! We would thoroughly recommend them!
Photo Booth Favours
We decided not to have favours on the tables, but instead had a brilliant photo booth with a roaming selfie pod that could be taken out onto the dance floor, which printed out photos and also sent the photos straight to the guests’ phones. We thought this would be a fun substitute for regular favours.
The company we used, which we would highly recommend, was Ready Steady Smile Events. In fact, Andy at Ready Steady Smile also provided our lighting for the night and were amazing to deal with and very reasonable.
Creative touches
Our home made table plan which we made from a large wooden frame, some string, and decorative card pegged onto the string.
Order of the day signs, which we made ourselves using copper frames and letter pegs.
Our table names, which were all named after things that we loved as a couple, and included photos of each thing, or us with that thing, as part of the table decor.
Our table place cards, 180 mini blackboards, lovingly written by hand with the help of my mum, Chris’s mum and one of my bridesmaids, Carys. They were a labour of love but I was so pleased with how they turned out and it felt really special to have made them all by hand.
Shelley decorated hangers for each of the bridesmaids, which was great fun and made them more personal.
Speech
My dad’s speech was hilarious and was really unusual. I knew he would go a little ‘off piste,’ so I was a bit worried, but it turned out brilliantly! He did his whole speech based around snippets of songs and pre-recorded the whole thing in a recording studio! It was incredible!
Instagram Challenge
Each table during the wedding breakfast had an ‘Instagram Challenge’ to complete. This was great fun and got everyone really involved and getting to know each other. It involved challenges such as ‘your whole table must take a photo that recreates a famous movie scene’ or ‘get a photo of a high five (which involved people climbing up trees, being on each other’s shoulders and all sorts!) or ‘get a photo with a bridesmaid or usher’.
Sweets table
People keep talking about our sweets table! Again, we did this all ourselves, buying the sweets from a wholesalers and the jars and sweetie bags from Amazon. For some reason, people couldn’t keep away from the sweets all night and even though there was loads, they’d all been demolished before about 11pm!
A Minimoon and a Honeymoon
Straight after the wedding we went for a weekend away to the Cotswolds. We stayed in a fantastic spa hotel call Dormy House. The food, service and hotel were all perfect, made even better by the scorching weather over Easter weekend. It was a lovely weekend before going back to the normalities of teaching!
We waited for the summer holidays to go on our honeymoon, which we planned with the help of the amazing Abby Taubman of Colletts Travel – can’t recommend her enough! We went to Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Spend time with your hubby! We had some evening shots with Rafe, and it was so nice to just spend 15 minutes out of the madness, walking around under the starlit sky, just chatting and catching up on the day!
Talk to as many people as you can but don’t worry if you don’t get around to everyone.
Make sure you get a drink and a few canapes brought to you whilst you are having photos taken during the reception.
Be as organised as you possibly can! It was hard at times, but give yourself a plan and stick to it. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for help!
Having an on the day planner really helped to alleviate any worries on the day. Katy Cresner was an angel sent from heaven and made our day totally stress free!
Don’t be afraid to do ‘you’. It was SO important to us that our wedding really reflected us, our beliefs, our loves and our personalities. People didn’t always fully agree on our ideas at times, but it all paid off and was the most perfect day that really did truly reflect us as a couple.
Don’t be afraid to look around for different suppliers. The majority of our suppliers actually ended up being based around North Hertfordshire where we live, but weren’t suppliers we had heard of before. We conducted our research and it paid off, as we loved all of our suppliers and it was nice to support local businesses, not just the known ‘Jewish Wedding’ suppliers.
Go with the flow and enjoy the ride!
Shelley & Chris’ little white book
Photography – Rafe Abrook
Videography – Video4ADay
Bride’s makeup – Makeup by Katy {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Ketubah – Ketubata {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Rabbi – Paul Glantz
Venue – Offley Place
On the day planner – Katy Cresner
Bride’s dress – Enzoani found and fitted at Heritage Brides
Brides’s shoes – Rachel Simpson and Nike
Bride’s accessories – Folky Dokey
Bridesmaids – David’s Bridal
Groom and groomsmen – Marc Darcy
Hair – Barberella
Bridesmaids Makeup – Makeup by Rose
Singer – Lilac Sheer
Band – Creation Band
Photo booth and lighting – Ready Steady Smile Events
Rings – Harriet Kelsall and Hyde Park Designs
Cheese cake – Costco
Stationery – Lottie Louise Designs
Minimoon – at Dormy House
Honeymoon planning – Abby Taubman of Collett’s Travel {offers a complementary travel guide to your destination to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Smash The Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
