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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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2018/19 Real Blogging Brides: Introducing Harlie + Ben: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 3rd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2018 and 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Harlie who will be marrying Ben on 19th August 2018 at the Landmark Hotel, London, UK.

THREE FACTS: Harlie met Ben on an ‘Aish’ trip to Israel during their university years (2) They will be bringing in lots of Spanish influences into their London wedding, for a variety of reasons, not least because that that’s where they got engaged! (3) They will be having a fairly traditional orthodox London wedding, but are including lots of modern twists.


How we met

Ben and I met in Israel during our University summer of 2013, on a tour that was part of a Jewish youth programme for students. I was at University in Leeds and Ben was at law school in London. We got talking over Shabbat lunch in the beautiful, spiritual city of Tzfat, and in the spirit of romance completely ignored each other for the rest of the trip!

It wasn’t until December that year when we both ended up in Spain with the same organisation that the sparks started flying. On the last night after a few shots of tequila, we both plucked up the courage to start chatting. After some grafting in the weeks to follow (although he wont admit it!), Ben won my heart.

Our dating days… up and down the country.

We only had a few low key casual dates back home, and it then wasn’t long until Ben was travelling up to Leeds and back from London to visit me at University. We went on a five week travelling stint around South East Asia that summer after only five months of dating, and have since made many amazing memories around the world. That was our story for the next three years, both travelling up and down the country every other weekend to see each other and spending many summers together jetting off around the globe.

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2018/19 Real Blogging Brides: Introducing Jennifer + Charlie: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 2nd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2018 and 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Jennifer who will be marrying Charlie on 5th August 2018 at Dartmouth House in Mayfair, London, UK

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!


How We Met

Charlie and I met when we were 17 years old. We shared our first kiss on the tennis courts in Hampstead Garden Suburb. Six months later, I was cruelly dumped in the window seat of a coffee shop in full view of every school girl and boy in Highgate Village. 

Ten years later, having successfully avoided each other – despite living in the same postcode – our paths crossed once again in the Steeles pub on Haverstock Hill. All it took was one misinterpreted pat on the knee for Charlie to think I was interested (again) and before I knew it we were on our second ‘first’ date.

One month later we went away on holiday together, where I essentially forced Charlie to be my boyfriend. Our history allowed us to skip those first few awkward months of dating. There were no doubts about where our relationship was going. We share such similar values and goals; it was as if we were meant to grow up apart to meet again at the right time in our lives.

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2018/19 Real Blogging Brides: Introducing Alyssa + Colin: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 1st gorgeous bride from our crop of 2018 and 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Alyssa who will be marrying Colin on July 20th 2018 at Latitude 41 in Mystic, CT, under a chuppah right on the water…

THREE FACTS: (1) Alyssa first met Colin when she was just 13 years old! (2) They are planning a Jew-ish wedding where they hope to highlight the religious traditions most important to them as an interfaith couple (3) They envision their wedding to have a nautical theme with a relaxed summer atmosphere, great seafood, a fire pit complete with a s’mores station (oh yes!), and lots of drinking and dancing with their nearest and dearest.

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES
How We Met

I met my fiancà© Colin at just 13 years old. He was a silly kid in the back of the school bus and to be honest one of the only Jewish people I knew. We spent countless rides to school laughing and teasing each other relentlessly. Senior year of high school we reconnected and rekindled our friendship. I was drawn to his humor, easy-going demeanor, kind nature, and his ability to be friends with everyone! Our friendship effortlessly evolved into an amazing relationship that I never expected.  

Our Dating Days

The sweet summer quickly faded and we were abruptly faced with the decision of either calling it quits or maintaining a relationship at different colleges. Colin had been offered a golf scholarship to the University of New Haven where as I had wanted to pursue teaching at Central Connecticut State University. We decided to follow our hearts and see where the future would take us as a couple. Yet, in the back of my mind I always knew the reality of high school sweethearts lasting was extremely slim. Dating somewhat long distance provided it’s slight hiccups, but being with Colin was almost suspiciously easy.

A majority of our dates both then and now have been simple nights at home involving a home cooked meal and a movie.  But no matter how basic the dates were we always found ourselves in a fit of belly laughter. After dating throughout all 4 years of college I realized this was much more than teenaged puppy love, this relationship was different. From the college daze, to the post college unemployment, and now full time adulting we have already been through so much together and I cannot wait to see what life has in store for us as a married couple!

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Real Blogging Brides: Clare – Advice to myself to get me through my final two weeks of wedding planning!

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Clare will be marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Clare is not Jewish but discovered Smashing The Glass via her Jewish sister-in-law and during her wedding planning journey it has (in her own words!) became her favorite and most useful wedding blog (2) She finds STG refreshing in a sea of wedding blogs as she loves reading stories of couples for whom the ceremony itself is as pivotal as all the other details. (3) Due to falling in love with so many amazing Jewish weddings through the blog, and then booking a wedding consultancy session with STG founder, Karen, it confirmed to her that there were a number of Jewish elements she was going to bring into her wedding that symbolise a lot of things that are very important to her and her fiancà© in their future marriage – she will be having a ‘Jewish-inspired’ wedding!

As I write this it is only a couple of weeks until my wedding day. I cannot believe the time has gone so quickly. Having a near two year engagement I assumed everything would be done really easily, I’d be stress free, have my dream body for my wedding and be totally ready for the big day. 

Oh how wrong I was! 

I’ve definitely been experiencing the stress and pressure in the last few weeks. I’m not sleeping well, every moment is taken up by thinking about weddings and the minutiae of my day. 

So as I considered what I could write about at this stage in the day, when I don’t want to give much away regarding what the actual day will look like; I decided to give myself a bit of a talking to and some good advice to get me through the next couple of weeks as stress free as possible. In doing this I called to mind all the many pieces of wedding advice and wisdom that have been passed on to me by friends, family and anything I have read that has stuck with me. 

So here is a summary of the advice I have come across. The good, the bad, and the bits I might have ignored!


Image by Shane and Lauren Photography from Taylor and David‘s Jewish wedding

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