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Real Jewish Brides: Jennifer’s Wedding Tips From The Inside (She’s a Pro Wedding Photographer!)

02/08/2018 by Smashing The Glass

Jennifer will be marrying Charlie this coming Sunday (!) at Dartmouth House in Mayfair, London, UK. Click here to read all Jennifer’s planning posts to date. Jennifer we are SO excited for you!

THREE FACTS: (1) Jennifer and Charlie first met when they were just 17 years old! (2) They are planning an intimate elegant black tie trad(ish)ional Jewish wedding incorporating plenty of personal touches, their sense of humour, and love of all things rose gold (3) Jennifer is a wedding photographer herself so is planning her wedding as an industry insider!

Working in the Wedding Industry

When Charlie and I set the date for our wedding, I naively assumed planning the wedding would be easy.

Working as a wedding photographer within the industry, I knew exactly which suppliers I wanted on the day, so I presumed that wedding planning would be a breeze…

Well working within the wedding industry definitely has its perks. Having attended more weddings than I can count, I have been able to make a mental list of my favourite suppliers. Being able to watch different photographers, videographers, toastmasters, bands and florists doing their job to make each clients wedding day perfect for them has allowed me to know what I want for our wedding.

A Pronovias Bride for an Ultra Chic Floral-ful Jewish Wedding at the Conservatory at the Luton Hoo Walled Garden, Luton, UK

01/08/2018 by Karen Cinnamon

There’s not much we love more than a good signature cocktail. Except for, say, FOUR signature cocktails, like today’s couple had at their gorgeous Jewish wedding.

Lauren, a beauty journalist, and Phil, a business development manager in financial services, went all out and came up with a Manchester Margarita (the groom is from Manchester), a Quinn & Tonic bar (Quinn is the couple’s last name), a Lauren’s Lychee Martini, and a Phil’s Passion Fruit Mojito. Um, we’ll take one of each!

But it’s not just the drinks we’re mad for at this wedding; the aesthetics were pretty fab as well. Lauren and Phil ran with the walled garden venue theme and crafted the coolest flower wall (they did it themselves) and decked their gorgeous pink(!) chuppah out in flowers and eucalyptus leaves. Photographer Grace Pham captured all the details SO perfectly.

Also we LOVE that these two met in the security line of Luton airport (like something out of a movie, right?!) and so chose a venue in Luton, near to where they first met.

Let’s hand over to Lauren, who looked ever so dreamy in her sparkling beaded gown from Pronovias…

How we met

Lauren, the bride: We met on a Jewish university trip to Israel. Specifically, we met in the security line in Luton airport. Phil cut his knee when he was going through security and I rushed up to him with a plaster (I always carry an emergency bag – haha). It went from there, and our incredible holiday romance turned into a long-distance relationship – we travelled between Manchester, where Phil lived, and London every weekend for a year and a half. Following this, he finally moved to London!

Top Jewish Wedding Tips from a Wedding Photographer’s Point of View {with Claudine Hartzel}

31/07/2018 by Karen

Claudine Hartzel is one of the most experienced Jewish wedding photographers on the planet and I’m utterly thrilled to be chatting to her live the Smashing The Glass Facebook page this Thursday 2nd August!

I have a deep personal love for Claudine… I met her right when I started Smashing The Glass back in 2013, and we now work together on all my shoots – she is super talented, has amazing ideas and she always knows how to put me at ease – I unashamedly love her! (Sorry to embarrass you Claudine).

Anyway I’m beyond thrilled that Claudine will be revealing her top Jewish wedding tips based on the 100’s of Jewish weddings she has lovingly captured (see some of my fave real Jewish weddings of Claudine’s that have been featured on Smashing The Glass here!).Continue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Jay Finds Her Perfect Wedding Dress

31/07/2018 by Smashing The Glass

Jay will be marrying Tom on 24th November 2018 at Hyatt Churchill, London, UK. Click here to read all Jay’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: Jay and Tom met on Tinder (Tinder For The Win!) (2) These two are planning a big fat Jew-ish wedding (Jay is Jewish, Tom is not) but in Jay’s words: “Tom was brought up in Edgware and has more of a love for chopped liver and bagels than I do!” (3) Jay is a Personal Trainer and Fitness Instructor and Tom works at Facebook.

Finding My Dress: Where To Start?

From the moment I got engaged, finding my dress was the one thing I was most excited for, but also the most nervous about!

We are surrounded with programmes like ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ and as soon as you get engaged your Instagram and Pinterest boards are filled with images of beautiful women in amazing wedding dresses! Where do you even begin? That was the question I kept asking myself, as I had never really thought about what style of wedding dress I would one day wear.

Image by Blake Ezra from Francesca and Ziek‘s wedding

Not Like In The Movies

I would like to think of myself as someone who is quite decisive and has a good understanding of what suits me, however, when it came to finding a wedding dress I went in with an open mind and wanted to take on board all the advice I could.

I started to scour Pinterest and pulled together some dresses I liked. I found a dress that I quite liked the look of by Jesus Peiro, and by pure co-incidence my mum had also been doing some online browsing and had come across the same dress (we often do this!). Continue Reading

A Hayley Paige Bride for a Sparkling Winter Jewish Wedding at The Allan House, Austin, Texas, USA

30/07/2018 by Karen Cinnamon

You spend so much time and energy coming up with a beautiful chuppah design for your Jewish wedding — isn’t it a shame that it only really features for the duration of the ceremony?

Lindsay, who produces TV commercials, and Ben, a project manager for Google Fiber, thought so. And when you see the photos of their fantastic rose-strewn canopy, by Gia at Cory Ryan Photography, we think you’ll see why.

Loving the symbolism of the chuppah as their“new home,” after the ceremony they set up underneath it so that guests could come talk to them. They even stayed put under the canopy for dinner — such a great way to resolve that mealtime seating dilemma, right?!

Speaking of the meal, we just cannot get over Lindsay and Ben’s Fantastic Mr. Fox-themed wedding cake, inspired by the pair’s favorite movie. The cake topper, naturally, was bride-and-groom foxes, and the bottom layer featured the sweetest quote from the film.

Now over to the bride, who looked smashing in her striped dress by Hayley Paige…