We always love seeing what event industry pros choose when it comes to their own Jewish weddings – and today’s bride Rachael, who works for Melanie’s Catering, had the most fabulous foodie Jewish wedding to groom Jason!
The London couple opted to wed at One Marylebone, and they turned to their friend Lara of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Uptown Events to bring their vision to life. Needless to say, Rachael reports that “the whole team at Uptown couldn’t do enough for us and put all their effort into making our day everything we wanted it to be.”
Choosing a caterer was obviously a big decision, given the bride’s professional background. Rachael’s own colleagues were all guests at the wedding, so the couple needed to look elsewhere to source exceptional food for the big day. Enter Eat Me Events, who worked closely with the couple to make all their culinary dreams come true – and it really does look incredible, just check out photos by Alex Wysocki and video from Tete-a-tete Films.
Read on for all the magical details of this very special day in Rachael’s own words…
How We Met
Rachael, the bride: With not much to do in lockdown, we both found ourselves on hinge and matched the day before Rosh Hashanah. He had me at ‘Shana Tovah’ and the rest is history. Eventually when we could, our first date was a drink in a pub outside and Jason actually proposed that very night with a paper straw.
Venue
Rachael works for Melanie’s Catering so has worked at different venues over the years, which made the process slightly easier as she knew exactly what she wanted and didn’t want!
We went to see a few different venues but my heart was set on one from the start, which was One Marylebone. Neither of us had been to the venue but I could tell from the photos on the website that it was top of the list. Although it meant cutting our numbers down (our parent’s numbers down) everything about the venue was perfect for the wedding we envisioned. We wanted something a bit different to a traditional London hotel wedding (although those are always so lovely) and the minute we walked into One Marylebone we just knew it was what we were looking for and could picture the whole day straight away.
Theme
Luckily for us, our best friend Lara works at Uptown Events. The whole team at Uptown couldn’t do enough for us and put all their effort into making our day everything we wanted it to be. Thankfully Lara is still our best friend, despite us messaging her every single day with millions of questions and driving her mad, I’m sure she doesn’t get that from all her clients.
At first, I didn’t imagine our wedding to be as pink as it was but once I started, I couldn’t stop! I loved mixing all the different shades of pink in the flowers, tablewear and stationary and when we incorporated the dark green foliage in the chuppah, florals and covered the pillars, it tied everything together with the look of the amazing venue. Jason didn’t have a lot of input in the “look” but he came to every meeting with Lara and I, even the meeting at The Social Kitchen (the day after his stag) where we discussed napkin colours in depth (as well as many other sensational things they have there)!
Hair + Makeup
Dani Levi did my makeup and I can’t praise her enough, she is amazing at what she does and quite honestly a magician in the way she transforms you! She is also the best energy to have in the room with you when you get ready on your wedding day.
Gaby Goldring did my hair- the absolute hair queen! I went for what seems to be her most popular style (half up, half down) and no one does it better than her!
I will never forget how Dani and Gaby looked after me on the morning of the wedding, they were like glam squad/therapists- calming me down, distracting me from the nerves and making the whole morning a lovely experience. They were standing with me until the minute I walked down the aisle. No one tells you how nerve wracking it can be when your bridesmaids leave to walk down the aisle and you’re standing there on your own waiting! But I wasn’t on my own because Dani and Gaby were with me, helping me breathe!
Dress
The dress was from Angelica Bridal who gave us the most incredible, warm and easy experience from start to finish. The dress was by Essense of Australia – I actually tried on a few of their designs during the process, in different boutiques without knowing. I was clearly drawn to their designs. I fell in love with the beading detail on the bodice of the dress and the long, long, long train which also had incredible detail.
Ceremony & Chuppah
We are super lucky that a close family friend is an amazing chazan, Stephen Lees. Not only is his voice special and he made every song so emotional and heartfelt, he is a very funny guy and one of our favourite parts of the wedding video is watching him talk before the ceremony started (which we obviously weren’t there for on the day) and his jokes sprinkled throughout the ceremony.
It was also so great to have Josh Nesbitt play at our chuppah, who I remember playing piano phenomenally when we were at primary school together and now he is playing at every single wedding we go to!
Standing under the chuppah was so special and we were both surprised how emotional it made us, when we stood there and really thought about what the chuppah symbolised (the home we were about to build together), standing there with both of our parents, and thinking about all of the generations before us who have shared in the tradition.
The chuppah design exceeded all expectations and the flowers took our breath away when we walked into the room.
Our music choice
We had the incredible Totem who completely made the whole night epic. The main thing everyone says about our wedding (especially those from abroad who haven’t been lucky enough to experience Totem until now) is how good the band was. They made sure there wasn’t one part of the evening where there wasn’t a great vibe and they even had to extend the DJ set during dinner because we were having too much of a good time. They also added a small UK garage set at our request, which was amazing and Rach got up on stage to rap to ‘Do you really like it’, which no one would have expected from her.
Flowers
Funky Flowers gave us everything we could ask for and more. Liz completely got the vision straight away and outdid every expectation. We then repurposed all of the incredible chuppah flowers for things like the table centres, stage decor, etc.
Even touches like covering the pillars in the room with foliage gave the whole room that extra special feeling and made it more WOW.
Another personal touch we wanted to bring to the wedding was to do with the bridesmaids bouquets, which were small hoops rather than traditional bouquets. Rachael’s mum has Multiple Sclerosis and when she got married, her florist made her a hoop bouquet to hold, which was easier for her to walk with down the aisle. When Rach’s mum saw the bridesmaid’s hoops on the day, it was a very special moment.
Photographer and videographer
Our photographer was Alex Wysocki who is beyond talented! Not only are we obsessed with her style of photography but she is so good at what she does and the way she does it. We are the most awkward people in front of a camera but she made it so easy to relax and pretend as if nothing was happening.
Our videographer was Tete-a-tete Films. As soon as we were introduced to Steve we knew the video was going to be amazing. They seemed to capture every single amazing moment and fit it into not only a highlights video but also a 2 hour film, which we just watched (for the millionth time) on our first anniversary. Both Alex and Steve managed to capture everything big and small and we are so grateful to have it all to look back on forever!
Food and cake
As someone who works in event catering and we are both complete foodies, the catering was extremely important to us. Rach’s colleagues were all guests at the wedding and it was important to us that both them and Rachael would be able to relax and be guests for once! Therefore it wasn’t even a question that we were going to use Eat Me Events. Having been guests at their functions before, we knew we were going to be in great hands. Stuart and his team are exceptional, so friendly and constantly making sure that you are always happy, from start to finish. Obviously Rach had plenty of ideas and Eat Me were more than happy to make whatever was requested and went to great lengths to make it happen. Their food, drinks, staff, service are outstanding.
Extra Details
We wanted to add a few personal touches to our special day. Firstly, and most importantly we had to incorporate our first love… tequila. Our very close family friend Steven (60 year old man) was a “flower girl” at Jason’s brother’s wedding the year before, however for our wedding, our real flower girl was Jason’s one year old niece, therefore we had to find a role for Steven- he pushed a tequila trolley down the aisle, serving shots to everyone before we walked down. We also assigned two of our friends as shot girls for the night to ensure the tequila was flowing and had the legendary John (if you know, you know) serving shots to the dance floor all night long.
Jason is South African and quite a few of our guests were hoping for a Cape Town wedding however it wasn’t completely practical for us for different reasons. We wanted to make a nod to South Africa so Jason’s mum managed to bring home 250 beaded animal key rings, which we used as our escort cards and over a year later, we still see these on our friend’s keys and it’s so special.
We also couldn’t leave out our fur babies from our special day so we got giant cardboard cutouts of their faces and brought them out onto the dance floor.
Honeymoon
We were recommended to the best travel agent who I will be using for all future trips- Lara Harris. She gave us so many amazing ideas and options for once in a life time trips. In the end we chose to go to Thailand where we had a good mix of adventure and luxury, chill time.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
You always get the same advice from people and I remember thinking “yeah yeah, whatever” but everything everyone says is so true- you really have to take in everything on the day, it goes so fast and make sure you eat something! I think we heard those two things over and over again but I’m glad that people did tell me that because I remember purposefully taking moments throughout the day and soak it in, like under the chuppah, sitting at our table during dinner, on the dance floor. It’s truly amazing when you look around and see everyone you both love, all in one place, it’s probably the only time you’ll get that again.
Another piece of advice I would give, speaking from my own experience is that you can drive yourself absolutely mad about making everything perfect but whatever you end up doing, whatever decisions you make in the planning and lead up, the day will be as special as you make it. Only YOU will remember what shade of pink your napkins are 😂
RACHAEL & JASON’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Alex Wysocki
Videography – Tete-a-tete Films
Venue – One Marylebone
Planner – Uptown Events
Bride’s dress – Essense of Australia found at Angelica Bridal
Hair – Gaby Goldring
Makeup – Dani Levi
Flowers – Funky Flowers
Music – Totem
Live piano – Josh Nesbitt
Catering – Eat Me Events
Tableware hire – The Social Kitchen
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.
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