Real blogging brides Archives - Smashing the Glass

Real Jewish Brides: Charlotte on Getting the Wedding Spark Back

03/12/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Charlotte will be marrying Adam on 25th April 2021 at Swynford Manor in Newmarket, UK. Click here to read all Charlotte’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Adam proposed to Charlotte on holiday in Cyprus (2) Charlotte and Adam met at work in London (3) Charlotte is a member of STG Brides Club!

The last update I wrote was about the latest guidance given by the government and the impact it had on me. The announcement really knocked me and I was devastated. For days after I cried or felt angry. It was comforting to know that I wasn’t alone and all of us felt sad, angry or both.

6 months before the wedding we were due to meet with our wedding coordinator and plan the details of the day. I had been so excited to do this and get those decisions made and start to see our day come together.

Ahead of the planning meeting Adam and I talked, a lot, about a wedding for 15 and how we felt about it and we decided that if it’s a wedding of 15, we will likely postpone the whole day. Our magic number for the wedding to go ahead as planned is 17. Whilst we have so many more we want to be there (it’s planned to be a wedding for 140) without these 17 people there, the day, for us, just wouldn’t be the same. There have been some absolutely breath-taking micro-weddings and whilst I don’t doubt that the day would still be beautiful, Adam and I aren’t can’t envisage our day without our siblings and our grandparents being there.

Real Jewish Brides: Maggie on Wedding Planning Depression

26/11/2020 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

Maggie will be marrying Danny on 6th June 2021 at Stone House of St. Charles in St. Charles, Missouri. Click here to read all Maggie’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Danny proposed to Maggie on his birthday! (2) Maggie is in the process of converting to Judaism (3) Maggie is a member of STG Brides Club!

The idea of wedding planning in today’s society is just plain depressing. In my everyday life I am looking at the occupancy of my hotel going up and down, the possibility of a second round of layoffs, and the continued call of cancelations. In a recent hit to my hotel we found out they are canceling elective surgeries for 8 weeks – we are a hotel near the hospitals so this is a major hit to our occupancy.

Having this perspective on the pandemic just makes me more and more depressed about our day. Getting married on June 6 is the most important thing to me as this was my grandparents’ anniversary. With this in mind we will absolutely not reschedule our wedding, we just know that with this third wave coming we likely will go from a list of 250 guests to about 150 or less.Continue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Erin on Her Wedding Day!

19/11/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Erin married Josh on 1st November 2020 in Charlottesville, VA, USA. Click here to read all Erin’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Erin and Josh planned an outdoorsy fall wedding on a budget in Virginia’s Shenandoah mountains. (2) Erin recently completed her conversion to Judaism, and she and Josh are looking forward to filling their big day with Jewish traditions while keeping it enjoyable and understandable to friends and family from all backgrounds. (3) Erin is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

When DIY-ing is more “doing-it-yourselves” than “doing-it-yourself”

As many brides are, I was working on a strict budget for my wedding, and I really couldn’t afford to pay fabulous artists and creators to make various aspects of my wedding day.

Luckily, Judaism has this notion called “hiddur mitzvah,” which can be interpreted as bringing beauty to ritual objects. I kind of took this notion and applied it to as many parts of my wedding as I could.

I have always loved vintage park posters, and since living so close to Shenandoah National Park means that Josh and I spend a lot of time hiking and driving through the gorgeous Blue Ridge mountains, I decided to try to incorporate their aesthetics into our save the dates. About a year into our relationship, Josh had gotten really into astrophotography, and wanted to start trying to take photos of the Milky Way, and he really took to it.Continue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Orli on Her Yoga Training Journey

17/11/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Orli will be marrying Ben on 30th May 2021 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK. Click here to read all Orli’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Orli and Ben met on Jswipe. (2) Although their venue, the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, couldn’t be more quintessentially London, Orli and Ben are going for a countryside feel. (3) Orli is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

It’s been a couple of months since my last post and whilst I have nothing to report on, wedding related. My last few months have absolutely flown by and I seem to be keeping busy. At the beginning of 2020, I had a plan for my whole year starting with the second weekend of January when I had my first yoga teacher training weekend. It was the best three days that I had had in a long time and I was so happy that I was starting my journey as a yoga teacher, a dream of mine that I had since I finished university.

The first weekend was incredible and it opened my eyes to a totally new journey, I dived straight in embracing myself with the philosophy, the journaling, the breath, the practice and the anatomy.

Real Jewish Brides: Jenna on Keeping Busy

05/11/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

Jenna will be marrying Mat on 13th June 2021 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to read all Jenna’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Jenna + Mat have known each other all their lives – they met when they were both one-year-old at a baby class! (2) Their relationship began at the University of Arizona in March 2012 (3) Mat proposed at Jenna’s parents house in December 2018

I have to say I struggled with this blog post. There hasn’t really been any update in regards to my wedding planning progress, as we were set to be married on September 6, 2020 and postponed to June 13, 2021, so we have been mostly set with our planning process. It has also been hard to get the little details done when my fiancé and I live across the country from where we are getting married. Things feel pretty much the same as when I wrote my last blog post about our postponed wedding weekend and Mat’s birthday.

We have been doing things, like the occasional brunch outside, socially distant weekend afternoons spent with friends in our building, exploring our neighborhood by letting the streetlights tell us where to go on our walks, or taking the ferry between Brooklyn and Manhattan. I guess the main life update for us has been regarding my job becoming a fully remote position. That for sure has been a big change for me and has taken a lot to wrap my head around. With so much changing in the world and my own life, I’ve needed things to keep me feeling grounded.

One has been cooking and especially baking (if you are not a member of the Bride’s Club, join and you will get access to the recordings of the Pumpkin Spice Roll Challah virtual bake I am leading on 11/7) and choir – well, virtual choir.