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A Reformation Bride for a DIY Jewish Wedding at Littlefield, Brooklyn, New York, USA

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DIY and NYC aren’t the first two things we think of as going together when it comes to Jewish weddings. But super cool (not to mention resourceful) couple Grace and Barry proved us wrong with their charmingly eclectic indoor garden party celebration in Brooklyn, beautifully captured by the amazing Mandee Johnson Photography — their outdoor photoshoot in the streets of Brooklyn is serious #weddinggoals.

With some help from their families — Grace and her mom DIY’d the floral arrangements, while Barry’s mother fashioned a beautiful, simple chuppah canopy from an old lace curtain — and fun touches like string lights and a BBQ buffet, these two prove that it’s totally possible to craft a memorable wedding on a budget, even in the most expensive of cities.

And how cool does Grace look in her dress from Reformation (which happens to be a fantastic option for brides on a budget who don’t want to compromise on style)?  We’ll leave the gorgeous bride and groom to fill you in on the rest…

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Jewish Wedding Littlefield, Brooklyn USA_0012

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How we met

Grace and Barry, the bride and the groom: Barry is on stage, performing. Grace is in the audience, audience-ing. After the show, she cracked a joke about his shoes, he laughed, that was that.

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Real Jewish Brides: Tragedy and Triumphs on Rebekkah’s Wedding Planning Journey

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Rebekkah will be marrying Jakob on 11th July 2019 at The Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada. Click here to read all Rebekkah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Rebekkah and Jakob were introduced by mutual friends while Jakob, who is from Germany, was in Rebekkah’s hometown of Calgary on a specialized work visa. (2) They are getting married at a beautiful mountain resort in a national park in Alberta, Canada! (3) Rebekkah is a “very satisfied member” (her words) of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


Coping With Wedding Planning Stress

Five months till my fiancee and I smash our glass! Crazy how these major life events are a whirlwind of thinking and planning and anxiety and stress only to be over in 12 hours. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway, “It’s just one day, Bekkah you got this”, “You’re A type enough to pull this off properly!”


Image by Lilly Photography from Jane and Adam’s wedding

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A Francesca Miranda Bride for a Romantic Jewish Wedding with a Touch of Edge at Ronit Farm, Kfar Shmariyahu, Israel

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Wow. This Jewish wedding. It really doesn’t get much better.

Some couples want a delicate, romantic wedding. Others want their big day to be a massive party. May, the marketing manager of a co-working space for doctors, and Yaniv, who’s in real estate investment, managed to make their beautiful Jewish wedding both of those things — with some help from much-loved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Naama Raicher.

Naama, her colleague Yael Kfir Frumkes, and the rest of the team brought the duo’s dream wedding to life, providing their trademark finesse to every stage of the process from the very beginning to the day of – so much so that May reports that choosing Naama Raicher was “the best decision we made” during planning.

Naama and Yael helped the couple formulate their plan of action: first, an intimate late afternoon ceremony, set outdoors at the idyllic Ronit Farm, full of soft colors and romantic touches — like a totally stunning floral chuppah adorned with delicate white flowers.

Then, for the reception, things got a little edgier: May and Yaniv brought a hit of club style to their outdoor dinner and dance party, with moody colors galore — they even brought in professional dancers (who went through four costume changes throughout the night!) to perform on stages set on the sides of the dance floor to set the mood.

May’s Francesca Miranda gown easily made the transition from ceremony chic to party mode: made from 200 meters (!) of tulle and covered with thousands of hand-embroidered butterflies, this dress is most definitely soft and whimsical… but it was also the perfect lightweight bridal attire in which to dance all night.  

We’ll turn you over to May in a second, but before we do we want to alert you to the fact that she and Yaniv provided one of the best favors we’ve yet encountered: loaves of fresh challah! Um, yes please!

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How we met

May, the bride: I was jogging on the beach one day and Yaniv noticed me running. He then found a mutual friend of ours and asked her to make the connection, and the rest is history.

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An Ines Di Santo Bride for a New York-Meets-London Jewish Wedding at the Gramercy Park Hotel, NYC, USA

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Where do we even start with this epic Jewish wedding? Catherine’s sensational bridal style? The way she and now-husband Perry, combined their NYC (hers) and London (his) backgrounds? The ceremony they crafted to reflect their “Judaism Lite” approach to religion? The editorial-style photography from Christopher Lane Wedding?

Or maybe the fact that the bride is a beloved member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club?

Okay, we’ll go with that last one… Catherine has the absolute sweetest things to say about the advice, tips, and resources she found through being a member of our Brides Club (and also her SMASHED IT bag for her smash glass)!

In Catherine’s own words: 

“Karen (founder of Brides Club) was absolutely SMASHING in everything from her one-on-one advice inside Brides Club, to daily tips, and as neither my husband and I are very religious, the vast breadth of Jewish related questions and answers I was able to get answered was priceless.”

So back to Catherine’s bridal fashion sense… this super stylish bride, and she had not one but TWO gorgeous dresses: for the ceremony, an uber-glam long-sleeved Ines di Santo, and for the reception an edgier custom gown by the bride’s friend designer Paul Raymond — and we’re TOALLY obsessed with both looks.

There’s so much more to say, but we’ll let the bride take it from here…

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New York Meets London

Catherine, the bride: We got married a the Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC. I had wanted to get married in the UK as my husband is from London… plus who doesn’t want to be an English countryside bride?!

However, my mother put the kibosh on that (after we had already traveled to and picked the venue in England), claiming the wedding should be in the bride’s hometown. As I am born and bred NY’er, there was no shortage of venue options. We decided on the GPH as it embodied the perfect symbiosis of New York City glamour and London chic. Additionally, my parents’ first apartment was also on Gramercy park and the rooftop terrace has a Robert Mapplethorpe by Andy Warhol portrait… given my mother was Robert’s publisher while he was alive, it further supplanted the idea that the GPH was the venue for us.

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A Valentine’s Gift from Smashing The Glass to 50 Brides-to-be! {today only}

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Happy Valentine’s Day! What are you up to today? I’ll be having a cosy, intimate dinner at home with Mr STG this evening which I’m really looking forward to.

And as it’s the universal day of love, I can’t let it pass by without showering some Valentine’s love on 50 of my gorgeous bride-to-be readers too!

So I’m gifting 50 (yes 50!) brides-to-be a FREE 30 day membership to Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club! I have never done anything like this before, but I’m doing it today as I’m in a very celebratory Valentines-y mood!

BUT there are only 50 free places, and they’re only available today, Thursday February 14 . Once they’re gone they’re gone!

The doors to Brides Club are closing for this quarter’s intake this Monday February 18, so if you’ve always wanted to try Brides Club, and haven’t quite got round to it, today’s the day to join!

(If you’re already a member of Brides Club, another little Valentine’s gift is awaiting you! Check your emails, or inside the Brides Club Facebook Group, and go claim it and spoil yourself!)

But wait…what exactly is Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club?

Brides Club is my members-only community for planning your perfect Jewish (or Jew-ish) wedding. It’s my biggest passion, and my 3rd baby (after my two little princesses)!

I set up Brides Club a year ago, in response to receiving 100’s of daily emails and DMs from brides-to-be wanting to know how to tailor Jewish wedding traditions / music / family dynamics / timelines / levels of Jewish-ness / mixing of cultures and faiths etc. to their personal Jewish wedding.

I was also receiving daily requests for vendor recommendations  and creative wedding ideas, and I absolutely LOVE helping with this kind of stuff (seriously – this is what I live for!). The spark was lit for creating Brides Club, a members-only community, dedicated exclusively to Jewish and Jew-ish Brides, and now, one year later, I’m proud to have helped 100’s of awesome Jewish and Jew-ish brides create the Jewish wedding of their dreams.

Inside Brides Club I’m able to take away all the wedstress and all the ‘wedding information overload’. I help you plan every element of your wedding, ensuring you make decisions with clarity and confidence whilst keeping family and friends happy. I also ensure you get the most ‘bang for your buck’ with your wedding budget, and, most of all, ensure that planning your wedding is as fun and stress-free as the day itself!


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