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10 Luxury Honeymoon Destinations that go above & beyond

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luxury-honeymoon-destinations
Wouldn’t it be great if a super-stylish crack team of travel experts scoured the globe and tracked down the best boutique hotels for you to choose from for your honeymoon? The best that is, according to the really important stuff, for this most romantic holiday of your life. How about the hotel with the most extravagant view from the pool or the most indulgent spa, the sexiest bedroom, the most intimate bar or those places that simply go above and beyond anyone’s expectations?

Well that’s what’s happening right now in the gorgeous, totally dreamy world of Mr & Mrs Smith. Believe me, they are your secret honeymoon weapon.

For those who haven’t yet heard me extol the many virtues of this extraordinary boutique hotel finding and booking site, let me fill you in here.

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Six Senses Yao Noi, Thailand

Mr & Mrs Smith Awards 2016

Ok, so they’re not technically looking for honeymoon destinations in this current global search but, Mr & Mrs Smith are running their annual awards to identify and reward the boutique hotels in their outrageously impressive portfolio – that create THE most special stays. They are singling out those utterly unique, personality-packed places that raise the bar in terms of design, food, service and all- round wow factor.

So that’s great news for us as we get to take a peek at those choice contenders – the best boutique hotels in the world in the most desirable destinations. This has to be the hottest shortlist in travel right now!

Nihiwatu, Indonesia
Nihiwatu, Indonesia

And the award goes to…

The awards are being judged on 12 different categories. Namely: Pool with a View, World’s Sexiest Bedroom, Best Dressed Hotel, Best Date-Night Bar, Best Gourmet Getaway, Most Spoiling Spa, Local Hotel Hero, Best Family Hotel, Above and Beyond, Coolest Creative Hub, Hottest Hotel Soundtrack, Best Smith Hotel 2016.

And reassuringly the top ten hotels in each category have been selected by none other that the King and Queen of Mr & Mrs Smith themselves — company founders James and Tamara Lohan, along with the amazing founding editor Juliet Kinsman. They know, live and breathe their stuff. So any hotel worthy enough to make their short list is good enough for me.

As you can see by the colourful categories of awards — this is a cool company that understands the changing boutique-hotel scene around the world.

There is a new order in what people are looking for and it’s moved on considerably from “how far to the beach?” and “is breakfast included?’. Mr & Mrs Smith recognise those unique aspects for the hotel experience that have particular resonance to today’s traveller. Be that acting as a hub for the neighbourhood creative scene; having the perfect date night bar; being a destination foodie spot or of course setting the stage for an out of this world, memory-making honeymoon.

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Aman Tokyo

Do Judge me

The chosen hotels will be put to a panel of three specialist judges in each category.

And the judging panel? It’s basically across the board cool — a network of travel experts from the fashion, music, food industries, including chef and author Tom Aitken, writer and broadcaster Lauren Laverne, singer Jessie Ware, legendary restaurateur Jeremy King, cocktail maestro Tony Conigliaro … take a look here at the impressive line up.

keemala-thailand
Keemala, Thailand

Above and Beyond

For Smashing The Glass, I really wanted to feature a list of the best of the best — essentially the Above and Beyond category. These are Smith stays that are made even more special by seamless service and generosity of spirit — where going the extra mile is the starting point. Is there nothing this hotel won’t do?

They boast dedicated, flexible and helpful staff who totally rock at enhancing your stay, or maybe the hotel goes above and beyond in terms of products or services — full-size bathroom products, free laundry, transfers by speedboat?

Sometimes, it’s one individual who makes the biggest impact. The sommelier who helps you discover a new favourite wine; the concierge with an unbeatable book of contacts; the chef who keeps the kitchen open a little longer because your flight was delayed.

The Above and Beyond category is by far my favourite, and that’s what you really want for a honeymoon. Natural hosts who instinctively know how to spoil you, anticipate your every need and upgrade your trip beyond measure. Oh yes and it so happens that all the hotels are in sublime and wildly different locations.

A trad twenties hunting lodge on the banks of Waikato, New Zealand to the thoroughly modern English countryside manor with just a sprinkling of rock star style to a remote ecolodge on the rainforest clad coast of Nicaragua. Where would you even start to choose between them?

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Fasano, Rio, Brazil

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Basic Invite – Pushing the Envelope on Wedding Stationery

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basic-invite-wedding-stationery
My former life as a graphic designer – pre STG – was awash with Pantone references, fonts, typefaces and paper stock. A love you can’t take out of the girl it seems. So when it comes to wedding invitations, I’m the first in line to coo over a sassy design, a bold choice of colour, thoughtful monogramming, the texture of the invite and the weight of an envelope.     And believe me attention, individuality and quality never go unnoticed.

It’s important to set the tone for your big day and nothing builds anticipation better than the invitation.   It’s the movie trailer, the pre-promote and the amuse bouche to tantalise your guests.

Just as e-commerce for luxury fashion goods has developed over the last decade – think Net a Porter – so too have online destinations for luxury, customised, wedding stationery.

And Basic Invite is one of the best I’ve seen.

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Every paper product you could possibly need

It’s an elegant, online hub for all things printed and wedding –  save the date, invitations, RSVP cards, menus, programs, and thank you cards. And I love that it covers the whole gamut because it’s so important to pull all the threads of your wedding together and coordinate your paper products into one look – it is your brand after all.   But it’s also an incredibly efficient way of organising such an important aspect of the big day, without compromising on style.   Quite honestly, it sometimes feels as though you could make a full time job out of wedding preparation, that is on top of your actual job, so at STG we welcome style-conscious efficiency whole—heartedly.

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Honeymoon all year long with Mr & Mrs Smith

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One of the fabulous perks of being a wedding blogger is being invited to press days and WOW, what a fun time we had when we were invited to brunch with Mr & Mrs Smith at the super cool Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings, a couple of weeks ago on a sunny August morning.

In an enchanting, sun drenched, flower filled, Islington hot spot, along with a handful of other bloggers and press, we were introduced to Mr & Mrs Smith’s fabulous new cosmic-themed honeymoon hub.

The introductions were made by none other than Mr & Mrs Smith’s founder and current CTO — Tamara Heber-Percy. Admittedly we were a little star struck (if you missed the post outlining my obsession with Mr & Mrs Smith, then please allow me to fill you in right here). And as for the location, there’s no real surprise that they chose a stand-out spot for brunch… because that’s what they do.

To give you more of an idea what, and how they do it, Mr & Mrs Smith have rounded up into their stable, 1000 of arguably the most stylish hotels in the world, and as an extension of this, their honeymoon hub is essentially, a call-off-the-search, look-no-further, honeymoon finding and booking service. That’s whether you’re looking for a mini moon, midi moon, full moon or maxi moon. Indeed the terminology has moved on.

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Me and Sharon (STG team writer) at the fabulous Mr & Mrs Smith press breakfast at Bourne & Hollingsworth

We all just need a holiday

Gathered around an enormous farmhouse table laden with fruit salad, yoghurt, granola, smoked salmon bagels and toasted sourdough, Tamara — who, by the way is as smart, stylish, warm and inspirational as we’d heard – ran us through the results of their honeymoon inspired survey. Take a look at the graphic at the foot of the post for a roundup.

Aside from the hysterical number of people who’d been caught in a compromising position on honeymoon, there were some interesting findings in how people would choose to honeymoon again given the chance.

Given the choice between an all-expenses-paid trip to the Maldives or the moon, most people chose, perhaps unsurprisingly, sunbathing on the magical beaches in the Maldives. But let’s face it when it comes to a honeymoon, no matter how adventurous and intrepid we think we are, we all just need a holiday. Especially after organising your dream Jewish wedding and using your very last drop of energy and patience achieving just that.

And isn’t it interesting that only a third of couples opted for the combo-moon, pairing a city/culture stay with a beach break? Most opted solely for the beach retreat. The flying and flopping honeymoon isn’t dead after all.

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Of-the-moment honeymoon trends

So where is everyone going? Mr & Mrs Smith have identified five trending long-haul destinations. Given the choice to honeymoon again this year, half of the already married couples would head to Sri Lanka. There has been a burgeoning boutique hotel movement there for a while now and has become a firm holiday favourite for the big one. If that appeals you really must check out Mr & Mrs Smith’s Sri Lankan gems.

Japan is another favourite. It’s a bit different in terms of honeymoon destination, but it really has everything from skiing to crazy city culture. Considering it’s just got the Olympics, I can see this destination wedding going through the roof in the next four years.

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Where to go when…

That’s all well and good but what’s the best time to go to any of these places?

When’s the sweet spot between the rains and the searing heat, a time when hurricanes hardly ever happen? How many times have you goggled “best time to go to x”? You’re not alone.

Mr & Mrs Smith, always with an eye on service and those added extras, have created a simple but effective month-by-month breakdown of the globe’s best getaways.

January

Keemala Phuket, Thailand
Nestled in glorious greenery — a short drive from Patong beach , Keemala Phuket‘s holistic philosophy proposes healing spa rituals, healthful homegrown cuisine and an eco-friendly ethos. And did I mention that the swimming pools are on stilts?

January in Phuket = Very little rainfall and lower humidity.

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There are ketubahs, and there are ketubahs…

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Timeless-Ketubah-Sculptural-Ketubah
One of the best things about working on Smashing The Glass is stumbling across great finds that I can’t wait to show you, or in this case, being contacted by people who completely get the Smashing The Glass ethos and have something brilliant to share. David Master and his incredible sculptural ketubot are truly one-of-a-kind and it gives me great pleasure to introduce his creations to you today.

David and his wife, Elana, recently opened their boutique online ketubah store — Timeless Ketubah — where they create and sell the world’s first truly sculptural ketubah, and just like the story of Smashing The Glass, their venture started when they were planning their own Jewish wedding. They were unable to find a ketubah that captured both the essence of rich Jewish tradition, as well as their individual and collective personalities, and from that experience their unique ketubah design was born, meaning you can now literally carve your individuality onto your wedding day and beyond.

So what exactly is a ketubah?

For the uninitiated, the ketubah (which means “something written” in Hebrew) is an integral part of the Jewish wedding and it outlines the rights and responsibilities of the groom to the bride. The contract dates back to ancient times but it’s come a long way since then!

These days ketubahs (or ketubot, the Hebrew plural) are less about the business of marriage and more about the beauty. They have come to symbolise the love and commitment of a couple, and are often beautiful designs that the couple want to display prominently in their home well after their big day is over — and this is exactly where David’s creations come into their own.

The story of the sculptural ketubah

As already mentioned, the idea of creating a sculptural ketubah was born when David and his wife, Elana, were planning their own Jewish wedding.  A true ‘Smashing The Glass’ couple, they took a very hands-on approach by conceptualising and creating many elements themselves, from their in-depth ceremony program, to a family tree showing several generations of wedding photos, to creating their invitations by hand, to name but a few. Of course they looked around at other ketubot, but none had that truly ‘one-of-a-kind’ factor; so they decided to create their own.

They knew that their ketubah would be a focal point of their wedding, but the response from their guests was even more positive than they had imagined it would be.

Seeing a need for this type of ketubah, and wanting to share their experience with others, the idea of creating and selling sculptural ketubot was born. After almost two years of creating prototypes, working through operations and logistics, and creating a website, Timeless Ketubah is finally here!

Timeless Ketubah Sculptural Ketubah

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Win your wedding photography (worth £1950) with Soraya Photography

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Soraya-Photograpy-Win-Your-Wedding-Photography
I love sharing  good news and wonderful prizes with you,  and  today I’m thrilled to be  partnering with  award-winning wedding photographer,  Margaret Soraya  to offer one lucky couple  FREE wedding photography, anywhere in the world!

I’m a huge fan of Margaret’s work and it goes without saying that she’s one of my handpicked  Smashing Suppliers. She  specialises in capturing moments, expressions and emotions in a gentle and unobtrusive manner, and  having  photographed almost 400 weddings she’s  seen a huge variety of wedding styles and worked with all sorts  of gorgeous  couples.

Based in the beautiful highlands of Scotland but shooting weddings all over  the UK and beyond, Margaret regularly photographs weddings in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and the USA. During the quieter winter months she works as a travel photographer and takes on commissions all over  the world meaning she is no stranger to travel and is  comfortable with photographing your wedding wherever  it may be.

Her  primary focus at any wedding, be it a large lavish wedding at an exclusive high end venue, or a small couples-only shoot, is to record emotions and real expressions and to produce striking images that  are full of love and laughter.  She works in a quiet, unassuming  manner and is continually seeking out special moments.

If you’re getting married between 1st March 2017 and 1st October 2018, I highly  recommend you enter the competition! Margaret would love to shoot your Jewish (or Jew-ish) wedding, so  don’t miss all the giveaway details below.

If you’re not fortunate  enough to win, Margaret  would like to offer you  10% off your  wedding photography if you then decide to go on and hire her.

Thank you so much Margaret! Be sure to check out more of her work at Soraya Photography and on Instagram and Facebook.

Soraya-Photography

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