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A Monique Lhuillier Bride for a Texan Jewish Wedding with a Beer Bar at the Driskill Hotel, Austin, Texas, USA

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Jewish Wedding Driskill Hotel Austin Texas USA_0007
Happy Wednesday, y’all! Today we’re headed to super cool Austin, where Meredith and Phillip held a Texas-themed wedding for the records. Marrying at the iconic, historic Driskill Hotel in the city center, the couple had one objective: to make their day “as Texas as possible.”

They incorporated their fab theme in so many ways, but our favorite has got to be the beer bar! They had 6 local Texas beers on tap for guests to sample — no generic alcohol for this pair! And as a surprise, Meredith’s parents had customized glasses made as wedding favors for the guests, with the couple’s names and wedding date as well as following text: “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something brewed” How clever?!

Neither Meredith nor Phillip being huge cake fans, they decided to buck tradition and serve pie for their dessert instead — so on-theme, too! They had four luscious-sounding flavors: blueberry, strawberry rhubarb, chocolate, and pecan. We’d like a slice of each, please! And they still did a traditional cutting picture — just with pie.

Cory Ryan Photography captured all the details of the day beautifully. Now we’ll turn you over to Meredith, who looked gorgeous in her classic lace Monique Lhuillier gown…

Jewish Wedding Driskill Hotel Austin Texas USA_0007

Jewish Wedding Driskill Hotel Austin Texas USA_0007

Jewish Wedding Driskill Hotel Austin Texas USA_0051

Jewish Wedding Driskill Hotel Austin Texas USA_0007 Jewish Wedding Driskill Hotel Austin Texas USA_0007 Jewish Wedding Driskill Hotel Austin Texas USA_0007
How we met

Meredith, the bride: We met in college at the University of Richmond, at a Hillel event. We were together for nine years and three cities before tying the knot.

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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Our Wedding Gift List With Prezola

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK. Click here to read all Charlotte’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence… on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!)  (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !


Planning a wedding gift list is probably one of the most fun parts of the wedding. And even better — it’s the one part of planning where you don’t need to worry about blowing the budget! There is a lot of choice out there when it comes to gift lists now.

But firstly, why have a wedding gift list? It makes things a lot easier for your wedding guests and saves them the stress of deciding what to give you. Your guests won’t waste their money on gifts you don’t need (or even don’t like!). People who are going to your wedding are going to want to give you a gift for your special day, but they might not have a clear idea of what they want to get you. A gift list just simplifies it for them.

The more choice the better, unless you plan to spend your married life enjoying the 5 kettles and 4 cake knives that no gift list can leave you with!

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A Stephanie Allin Bride for an Ultra-Personal Country House Jewish Wedding at Parklands Quendon Hall, Essex, UK

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Jewish wedding Parklands Quendon Hall UK_0049
We absolutely LOVE today’s bride, Tash, who is an avid Smashing The Glass reader, and looked so elegant in her Stephanie Allin gown (with “the best twirling skirt ever!”).

She made some amazing vendor choices (choosing three STG Recommended Vendors all found on the pages of Smashing The Glass) and she had so many beautiful creative ideas. We particularly love the couple’s extra-meaningful chuppah design inspired by a previous wedding on Smashing The Glass, where the guests helped decorate the canopy with flowers (so gorge).

Their fab florist, the amazing Emma from STG Recommended Vendor Urban Flower Farmer, designed a simple birch pole chuppah laden with greenery and arranged flowers in buckets by the entrance to the ceremony, with a sign asking the guests to add them to the chuppah.

And that’s just one of the beautiful ways Tash and Ian personalized their ceremony while embracing Jewish tradition — you’ve got to read about their ultra-meaningful badeken. Photographer Andy Tyler and videographer Rideout Films did a wonderful job capturing all the emotion of the day.

The pair had a large wedding (230 guests!) with LOTS of children, and to make things easier for the parents in the crowd they hired another fabulous STG Recommended Vendor Safe and Sound Childcare to provide a creche, which kept all the little ones entertained and allowed the adults to enjoy the party.

Tash and Ian knew they wanted a band that could handle some serious Israeli dancing. Turning to Smashing The Glass for ideas, they found STG Recommended Vendor XS Showband. The couple report that the band created a fab atmosphere and kept their guests dancing all evening — and, most important of all, they ably handled not one but two rounds of Israeli dancing! Speaking of which, be sure to check out Tash’s top tips for Israeli dancing in her writeup…

Jewish wedding Parklands Quendon Hall UK_0049   Jewish wedding Parklands Quendon Hall UK_0049 Jewish wedding Parklands Quendon Hall UK_0049
How we met

Tash, the bride: We met online – if you’d told me 5 years ago that I’d end up marrying someone I met online I would have thought you were mad, but here we are!

We met through Mysinglefriend, which is the site where your friends write your profile, which means you get slightly more interesting descriptions than the classic “I like eating out with friends and country walks.”

But it turns out it doesn’t actually mean you get more truthful profiles, as Ian’s friends Jo and Stu wrote lots of things that I’ve subsequently discovered were complete lies – like the suggestion that Ian is not a football obsessive!

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A Vine-themed Gay Jewish Wedding with a Grapevine Chuppah at Chalk Hill Estate, Healdsburg, California, USA

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Jewish wedding at Chalk Hill Estate, Sonoma County Healdsburg, California USA_0027

Today’s wedding makes us want to book a one-way ticket to California, stat. Would you just look at that light? Those rolling hills? And the grapevine chuppah?!

Yes, Adam, a real estate developer, and Lowell, who owns and operates a group dental practice, had a grapevine chuppah. The dapper duo married at Chalk Hill Estate, a winery in Sonoma County – just north of their San Francisco home – and their forest floor-themed wedding was basically an ode to the stunning venue.

The couple mixed traditional wedding flowers in favor of vines, branches, and forest foliage, and nowhere did they put this policy into better use than in choosing to have their chuppah constructed from vines and grapes from Chalk Hill’s vineyards. I just can’t get over how cool it looks — you’ve got to check out the close-ups. And if you were too nervous to eat pre-ceremony and found yourself feeling a little peckish, chuppah grapes to the rescue! Bonus?!

Photographer Belathà©e and videographer Dareen Baca of Reel Eyes Media captured everything about this day so beautifully, from that wonderful golden autumnal sunlight to the love between the couple.

On a poignant note, the devastating 2017 Northern California wildfires started on the night of Adam and Lowell’s wedding, and several towns surrounding their beautiful venue were destroyed in the course of the disaster. As the couple put it, “Like smashing the glass, this was a reminder that even at our happiest moments, there is struggle and hardship all around us.”

With that, we’ll turn you over to Adam and Lowell…

Jewish wedding at Chalk Hill Estate, Sonoma County Healdsburg, California USA_0027

Jewish wedding at Chalk Hill Estate, Sonoma County Healdsburg, California USA_0084

Jewish wedding at Chalk Hill Estate, Sonoma County Healdsburg, California USA_0027

A Winery Venue

Adam and Lowell, the grooms: We were married at Chalk Hill Estate, a winery in Sonoma County. We’d always envisioned a fall wedding in Napa or Sonoma for a number of reasons – the food, the colors, the serenity, and because, for us, it’s a local “destination.” We toured many venues in Napa and Sonoma and were drawn to Chalk Hill because its vast landscapes had a rugged elegance that felt right for us.

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We’re crazy about Ketubot!

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mashing The Glass Ketubahs
Artisan I by Ruth Mergi I $795 I Available to buy from Ruth Mergi 

Here at Smashing The Glass, we’re totally, insanely, ridiculously crazy about Ketubot! Funnily though, when I got married to Mr STG, I didn’t actually realise there were so many amazingly talented Ketubah artists out there. When our Rabbi asked us if we wanted him to source us a standard Ketubah we just said ‘yes of course’ and didn’t think much of it.

It was only after I started Smashing The Glass that I realised there were SO many beautiful Ketubot available to couples and they literally come in a design that will suit EVERYONE.  From luxe, to paper cut, to art deco, to traditional – there really is something for every taste.  What’s also super amazing is that the Ketubah text can be customised for every wedding whether you’re having an orthodox, reform, inter-faith or LGBTQ. 

We are so thrilled (and lucky) to have some amazingly talented Ketubah designers featured on Smashing The Glass over the years, so we have pulled together some of our favourite designs currently available. Let us know which is your favourite in the comments below and of course happy pinning! 

mashing The Glass Ketubahs
Sasson Papercut Luxe – Indigo Ketubah I By Enya Keshet  I $750 I  Available to buy at Ketubah.com

Super Luxe

We love this beautiful cut-out design. This ketubah features the quotation from the seventh blessing of the marriage appears in Hebrew in the cut-out design, and in English, in coloured print, around the ketubah text and vows of commitment and love. This Luxe Collection Ketubah is hand adorned with 23K gold leaf and Swarovski crystals making it literally shine.  Available at the amazing Ketubah.com


Good Earth Circle Botanical Ketubah I By Adriana Sape I $300 I Available to buy at Ink with Intent 

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