Jew-ish wedding ceremony ideas Archives - Smashing the Glass

10 Gorgeous Ways to Cover Your Shoulders Under the Chuppah

30/04/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

Splendid cape cover-up from Ella and Matt’s Jewish Wedding. Image by Barney Walters.

What happens when you’ve bought the dress of your dreams, but later realize that you need some sort of coverup for under the chuppah? Maybe your Rabbi requested that your shoulders remain covered during the ceremony, or perhaps there’s a family member that expects certain traditions to be followed through.

Then again, maybe it’s a personal choice, and while you absolutely ADORE the dress you’ve picked out, covering yourself under the chuppah is something that is important to you personally.

I promise you don’t need to run out and return your dress for a long sleeve option—although a long sleeve dress is a great way to have the best of both worlds

A chuppah covering is not a death sentence for your dress! In fact, there are so many ways to use a cover up to your advantage and add a bit of personal flair and style to your bridal look.

Below are my top ten favorite ways and styles to bring modesty and your personality with you under the chuppah. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

Sensational illusion sleeves from Natalie and Edward’s Jewish Wedding. Image by Ran Bergman.

1. Illusion Sleeves

Illusion sleeves seem like such an obvious fix, but it’s a classic for a reason. I love how glamourous adding illusion sleeves to your dress can look. It’s such a great idea to make sure that every detail of your dress shines through, while still maintaining a certain modesty. One of our own Smashing the Glass Bride’s looked sexy and gorgeous in TWO Lee Petra Grebenau gowns with stunning illusion embellishments.

10 Interfaith Ketubahs we love

17/05/2017 by Smashing The Glass

This is a guest post by Julianna Bright of Bright Ketubah

Ketubahs – or ketubot, depending on your grammatical preference–are sacred wedding documents that few Jewish couples would arrive at the chuppah without. In recent years, however, more and more interfaith and even non-Jewish couples have been inspired to enlist the ketubah’s singular charms. Whatever your background or beliefs, you can find a gorgeous, artful ketubah made specially to consecrate your loving vows.

Historically, the traditional ketubah was a binding legal document cataloging a Jewish husband’s obligation to his wife with provisions for her security in the event the marriage dissolved. But times have changed, and today, we gravitate towards beautiful, personalized documents that sing of our connection, that pay homage to where we come from, that illuminate our aspirations and the sincerity of our pledge to one another.

We want something that speaks to our times, and to our unique bond.

Also, as the rites and rituals stack up in our increasingly diverse partnerships, many couples seek to adapt only the most inspired and meaningful traditions from their family or faith of origin. The ketubah is certainly the cream here! We gravitate towards this loving ritual because it is a distillation of the very best of everything that leads us to our wedding day and everything that is to come afterward.

Indeed, it is something we can sign our names to, hang on our wall and return to for inspiration through the inevitable tests of marriage. The ketubah is a wedding heirloom like none other, focusing our covenant into a poetic and gorgeous piece of art.

To help inspire you, I’ve collected ten designs – including a couple of my own! – that would make a great fit for the interfaith couple. Fond wishes as you prepare for your special day!

1. Peony, Myrtle, Pomegranate Ketubah

Real blogging bride quirky and cool Lauren’s Jew-ish wedding at Stoke Place, Buckinghamshire, UK

10/02/2017 by Karen

Attention everyone: we have an exceptionally exciting real wedding on the blog today and one that I’ve been eager to share for quite some time!

Our real blogging bride, Lauren, who we LOVE, finally married her darling John. She is the first of our 2016 real Jewish brides to be blogged and boy, did she get wed in style. Lauren’s Jew-ish wedding was every bit as chic, contemporary and downright cool as I expected it to be. The day was expertly captured in all its glory by Photography by Krishanthi.

Lauren was a very detail-oriented bride with an exceptional eye for design. This shone through in every quirky and awesome choice the happy couple made for their big day, from their stunning gold-foil calligraphy invitations that they sourced from much-loved Smashing Supplier, The Golden Letter Paper Studio to their absolutely astounding pink ombre meringue shard cake, which almost looked too good to eat (almost).

OK, can we talk about that chuppah, please? What a wonderful sentiment and a beautiful way to involve friends and family in such an important life moment. I won’t ruin it for you, go and have a look — and then come back next week for the DIY tutorial to see how it was made.

Lauren has her own fabulous blog, which I’d encourage everyone to follow, but for now I’ll put you in Lauren’s capable hands, for one more encore on the blog (and then another cheeky one when Lauren posts her chuppah tutorial next Friday, 17^th — I just can’t get enough)! Take it away, Lauren.

How we met

We talked for a few weeks on Match.com before meeting up for our first date on Valentine’s Day. I turned up very late as I was evidently not overly keen at that point. John bought me a present – a rose and a card.

We got on so well and then watched Impractical Jokers until two AM while eating my homemade cookies. Lots more details are in my first blog!

A BHLDN bride for a brunch-style Jewish wedding at Park Tavern in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, USA

08/11/2016 by Karen

It’s a Big Day in America today (erm… understatement!) and I couldn’t possibly let the day pass without posting a gorgeous real American Jewish wedding, if nothing else, to divert us from all the madness!

Menucha & Austin are just the cutest and I’ve got an extra special treat in store for you today in terms of the bride’s FABULOUS frockage from BHLDN, one of my favourite bridal fashion brands — super sassy and achingly cool.

Austin isn’t Jewish, but is going to convert to Judaism and in the meantime, Menucha wanted to find a way to show that he was included and invited into the Jewish tradition.

So he had a tisch before the ceremony, and when they danced Austin in to see his bride for the badeken, he carried out the act of placing her veil over her face, but then she carried out her own really special addition to the short ceremony — she placed a white kippah on his head, to symbolise his future conversion to Judaism. It’s personal details like this that make for a truly smashing wedding…

The wedding ceremony itself was jam-packed with intimacy, personality and so much joy. Menucha’s father was the officiant, and the bride’s and groom’s siblings held the chuppah poles. Menucha’s mother also made the ketubah. Truly a family affair.

The images today come from Alyssa Kapnik Samuel — thank you for submitting this gorgeousness, Alyssa!

How We Met

Menucha, the bride: Austin and I met in college. He was roommates with my best friend from high school. And it was a long journey from there!

What is a Jew-ish wedding? It’s whatever you want it to be…

18/09/2016 by Smashing The Glass

In my opinion the important part of any wedding is the actual ceremony itself. Many people can get lost in the details of the party that comes after and the ceremony just happens through the guidance of a rabbi, priest or registrar. However when you are getting married to someone of a different faith (or no faith at all) then there are some significant choices to be made.

This was something John and I discussed before we were even engaged and knew there was one non-negotiable element to our wedding day. We wanted a chuppah. I had discussed the Jewish wedding ceremony with John who is atheist (unless football is considered a religion??) and we both loved the chuppah’s representation of our first home together, supported by our family and friends. It is universal and whilst it comes from a practice of my Jewish heritage, it also will represent the joining of our two families.

Missy & Yoni’s Jew-ish wedding ceremony. Click here to read their wedding story

Jew-ish wedding ceremony options

One thing we weren’t certain of was what the ceremony itself would comprise of. I knew that there wouldn’t be an affiliated rabbi (someone connected to a synagogue organisation) in the UK who would be able to conduct a ceremony or a blessing under a chuppah. Initially I was very frustrated by this. I felt that it was ridiculous that a non-Jewish couple could choose to get married under a canopy after seeing it at a Jewish wedding and liking the symbolism, but I was not able to have a legal wedding or blessing conducted by a rabbi under the same symbolic chuppah.

We could easily have had a civil wedding and then a Jewish blessing straight away, but I didn’t want a long meaningless ceremony followed by a Jewish blessing AND not under a chuppah. Our guests would get bored and so would I for that matter! Many options were bandied about. A civil ceremony earlier on in the day with close family and a blessing that we would invite our guests to? Just a civil ceremony with some sort of Jewish readings? But we didn’t like any of these ideas, they didn’t mean anything to us and I felt like me, my bridesmaids and my mum might need that extra time earlier in the day to put on our war paint! We wanted our wedding to mean something special to us and represent who we are. We said no to the two ceremonies in one day and no to the rabbis.

We decided that we were going to get married legally a few days before our wedding day in a registry office near where we live, just with our close family, and then have a ceremony that truly represents us. This meant that we would be able to get married under a chuppah, with whatever elements we choose and get our family and friends fully involved.

We decided that we wanted to have sheva brachot (seven blessings) written and given to us during the ceremony by seven members of our family and friends, so they will be truly personal to us, a chuppah that we will make ourselves that will showcase the family and friends that have helped to shape us individually until now and John will smash that glass at the end of the ceremony.

Other than that we were excited about all the extra details we would be able to add to our ceremony. But who could we get to ‘officiate’ this ceremony? So along came my charismatic brother Josh who we felt would be a perfect ‘officiant’ for a wedding with his witty banter and strong understanding of Jewish practice and ease of speech that would ensure that all our guests would understand what was going on. Josh has been instrumental in creating this ceremony, yet he still wants to keep a few secrets from John and I. Initially this scared the controlling me, but once I gave him a list of the basic bits we want included and the people we wanted involved, I realised my brother wouldn’t mess up such an important part of the day and let him carry on with his scheming.