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A Made With Love Bride for a Luminous Jewish Wedding on the Beach at Kochav Hayam, Caesarea, Israel

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What is it about beach weddings? Whether they’re in Israel, Florida, or somewhere further afield, we just cannot get enough of them. That blue water, the sound of the waves… throw in a palm tree (or several) and we’re sold.

And oceanside venues don’t get much dreamier than Kochav Hayam, where Milen who works in HR, and Arad, an accountant who also owns a judo club, held their stunner of a Jewish wedding.

From the exquisite sunset ceremony to the magical twinkly lights in the indoor reception hall to the lovely floral chuppah decked out in white flowers and greenery, it’s a seriously beautiful day — captured so exquisitely by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman, who worked his photographic magic to capture the most luminous, elegant images.

Videographer Roey Harazy was no slouch either — he surprised the couple with a drone (!) on the day, which he used to capture some absolutely breathtaking footage of the Caesarea coastline.

Milen was the epitome of a radiant bride in her two dresses — one for the ceremony that she custom designed from a simple gown with the help of a seamstress, and the other (for the reception) from Made With Love — and we’re delighted to put you in her capable hands for the rest of the story…

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How we met

Milen, the bride: We both graduated from IDC – we met in the cafeteria!

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2019 Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Lindsay + Dan: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 4th gorgeous bride from our crop of 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Lindsay, who will be marrying Dan on 25th August 2019 at Kochav Hayam in Caesarea, Israel.

THREE FACTS: (1) Lindsay and Dan were set up by Lindsay’s cousin! (2) They are planning an English-style destination wedding with a few modern twists in Caesarea, Israel. (3) Even though they are both Jewish, Lindsay is more interested in the religious element of the day than Dan, so they are working to balance tradition with their personal style – our favorite!


How We Met To The Present Day

Dan and I were introduced by my cousin. We’d both tried swiping, but after a long list of terrible dates, neither of us had been particularly lucky.

I was on a big family weekend away, and was kindly told that I must find a boyfriend because I was the next in line to get married — no pressure! This meant that I spent the whole weekend being shown pictures and Facebook profiles of all my potential “future husbands.” Dan was the one who got the seal of approval from me (and of course the rest of my family).

At the same time, Dan was at a friend’s wedding, surrounded by couples and received a text from an old school friend he’d only just got back in touch with (my cousin). She had the “most amazing girl” (definitely an exact quote) for him. After he did some of his own Facebook stalking, he agreed to take me out.

We planned to go on a date later that week, and on the day he told me he had been offered two tickets to see James Bay that evening. I panicked. Who goes to a concert on their first date?! But my colleagues convinced me that even if he was terrible, at least I’d get to see James Bay. Fortunately, it was a success, and here we are two and half years later, planning a wedding!

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A Theia Bride for a Jewish Wedding at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, New Jersey, USA

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Okay, how adorable is Carly and Seth’s antique chuppah?! So unique, and such a perfect fit for their country venue. And we also love that they went on an antiquing trip — a tradition in Carly’s family — with the intention of finding their wedding canopy — aww! The one they chose needed a little extra TLC, but you’d never know to look at it in their beautiful photos by Kathy Thomas.

Carly, who runs HR at a private equity firm in NYC, and Seth, a retail operations consultant, opted for just some light floral accents — in the form of roses, natch — so as not to detract from the vintage structure, and we think they got it just right.

Between the gorgeous rustic-chic aesthetic and the fab party, courtesy of Reggie Woods from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Hank Lane — who led an 11-piece band in funk and oldies all night long— this is one wedding we seriously wish we could’ve attended.

Now over to Carly, who looked so effortlessly elegant in her Theia dress…

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Jersey Chateau 

Carly and Seth, the bride and the groom: We got married at the Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, NJ. We were trying to find a place in between where our families were (New York > Southern New Jersey). Carly’s father had a friend who had attended a wedding at this location which prompted a visit.

We really wanted an easy outdoor feel. The Pleasantdale Chateau offered the structure of a well organized wedding venue with the ease of an outdoor ceremony and cocktail reception. They also have an amazing solarium. When we (Seth and Carly) saw that room in our initial visit, we decided that we would have the first look in that room.

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An Essense of Australia Bride for a Jew-ish Wedding at Poundon House, near Bicester, Buckinghamshire, UK

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One of the things we most love here at Smashing the Glass is hearing how we’ve helped couples plan the Jew-ish wedding of their dreams. So when lovely bride Philippa (who just happens to be a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club) told us she found STG while looking for interfaith wedding inspo, it melted Team STG’s collective heart — and even more so when she told us reading other brides’ writeups of their Jew-ish weddings “made me realise we weren’t the only ones out there!”

So you can only imagine out delight in finding out that she and groom Jerome booked their officiant, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rabbi Paul Glantz, via STG! Rabbi Paul helped the couple — Philippa is Christian, Jerome’s Jewish — craft an ultra-personal ceremony that reflected both of their backgrounds and traditions, complete with plentiful description of the Jewish parts of the ceremony so everyone could follow along, plus an explanatory order of service crafted by the bride. This is such a smart idea if you know you’ll be having guests who are unfamiliar with Jewish wedding traditions!

We also love that toward the end of the ceremony, after the rabbi recited the traditional Jewish seven blessings in Hebrew, the couple invited some friends and close family to give seven humanist blessings in English!

And with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor the Function Band performing, this wedding was no slouch from an entertainment standpoint either. The Function Band are renowned far and wide for their ability to get the party started, and we’re not surprised that guest after guest came up to the couple to tell them how awesome the band was!

We haven’t even gotten to the fab rustic elegance aesthetic, the gorgeous floral chuppah, or Philippa’s stunner of a dress from Essense of Australia, but we’ll leave it to the bride — with some support from the fab photography by Pascal from Reportage, and videography by Cedar House Productions — to fill you in on all of that…


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How we met

Philippa, the bride: Jerome and I both work in the media industry – I’m a producer at a creative agency making commercials and promotional content, and Jerome is head of strategic development at a creative studio, working in VR and CGI.

We met through a mutual friend whom Jerome lived with at the time and we finally got together on a big group trip to Ibiza where we started kissing in the middle of a Hardwell gig at Ushuaia! We didn’t stop kissing after that. It didn’t take long for us to realise that it was meant to be and we moved into together after 3 months.

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Why York Place Studios’ Street Photography Style Might Be Perfect for Your Wedding

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This is a guest post by Dom & Liam Shaw of York Place Studios 

It’s Time To Stop Saying Cheese

As kids we’re all taught that when someone has a camera we should stop what we’re doing and smile sweetly into the lens. It’s an approach that’s really helpful for group shots but outside of that more formal setting having photographs of people sharing the same fixed smile tells us nothing about who they were or what was really happening.

We all have albums full of friends and family pulling that same pose through the landmark trips and occasions of our lives and we love them: they remind us of happy times and the places we’ve been and show the ways that we and the world around us have changed over time. The thing is though that a photograph has the potential to be so much more powerful than that.

For us a wedding isn’t really about tradition, elaborate settings or decoration (although all those things are wonderful additions!), it’s about sharing something very special with all the people you know and love from all the different phases of your lives so far. In fact it’s probably the only time all of these people will be in the same room at the same time, brought together from all walks of life by one common denominator: their affection for you.

So when we look at a photograph we don’t just want to see practiced smiles and unnatural poses, we want to see the gestures, expressions, private jokes and little personality quirks that remind you who all of these people really were, the dynamic of your relationship with them and what they meant to you.

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