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Real Blogging Brides: Clare – My Prediction for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Royal Wedding

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Meghan-Harry
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{Clare will be marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK — Click here to read all Clare’s planning posts to date}

Speculating On The Royal Wedding…

Since the announcement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement I have been watching with extremely keen interest. For a while there, whilst we waited to find out when this Spring wedding would actually take place I panicked that Meghan and I would be wedding twins. This was far from ideal. I need to be watching that wedding live. I will be waiting with bated breath to find out every fine detail. That, and the fact that I really would have liked to have seen what Meghan went for, in case I could pick up any last minute inspo, meant that I was keeping it all crossed that the big day would fall before my own on May 5th 2018. 

Well, as luck would have it, Meghan and I are not sharing the same wedding day, so I will at least be able to enjoy hers live; but I do sadly have to go first and will not be stealing any of the royal wedding plans for myself!

So, as I get into my final stages (eeeekkk) of wedding planning, I have been speculating (with a little bit of help from some questionable sources of research) on what the (second!) wedding of the year is going to include!

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Real Jewish Brides – Amanda: My Top Ten Wedding Tips After One Year Of Planning

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Amanda will be marrying Adam on 25th March 2018 in a Jewish wedding at Braxted Park, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Amanda & Adam met outside in a bar in Tel Aviv (2) Adam has a ridiculous sense of humor (as described by Amanda!) and we love him all the more for it (3) Amanda & Adam’s wedding is 100% focused on all the people and things that mean the most to them. You can click here to read all Amanda’s planning posts to date.


365 days later…

Well, here we are. At the time of writing, it’s been 365 days since Adam and I got engaged. And what a year it’s been! Aside from celebrating our engagement and planning a wedding, we’ve had a crazy kind of year. We’ve celebrated eight weddings and received invitations to seven more. We’ve moved house five times (yep, that’s right), have travelled the country visiting the new homes and babies of our friends and celebrating milestone birthdays with our family and friends.

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Image by Stark Photography from Brooke and Boaz’s Jewish Wedding

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Real Jewish Brides – Mel: Choosing The Right Menu for our Jewish Wedding

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Mel  will be marrying Mitch on Sunday 18 March 2018, in a Jewish wedding at Warren Weir at Luton Hoo, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Mel and Mitch met online on JDate (2) Their Jewish wedding will be classy and traditional with plenty of modern touches  (3) Mel is a member of Smashing The Glass’s private Jewish & Jew-ish Brides Facebook Group. Not yet a member? Come join us here!


Food glorious food

Imagine you’re arriving in New York. What’s the first thing you would do? Visit Times Square? Go shopping? Stroll round Central Park?

Mitch and I went to New York in 2015. “Mel, what did you and Mitch do when you arrived in New York?” I hear you cry.

We ate.

Then got on a train to Hoboken in New Jersey. For one reason and one reason only. Not to visit the United Synagogue of Hoboken. Nor to visit the Hoboken Historical Museum. But to visit one of my dream places. Somewhere to tick off my bucket list.

Carlo’s Bakery.

For those of you who have watched Cake Boss will understand why. Or simply if you have an appreciation for delicious baked goods. Travelling all that way meant that it was only right to sample a selection of sweet treats; Cupcakes. Cookies. Brownies. Cannoli’s. Carlo’s famous lobster tails (not actual lobster). There is a Carlo’s Bakery on Times Square which would have been easier, quicker and arguably a much more sensible option. But of course I had to visit the original bakery. We did also pay the Times Square bakery a visit (Read: several visits).

I would be lying if I said this one wasn’t of the main reasons I wanted to go to New York…

I am a massive foodie. I love food. Luckily Mitch loves food just as much as I do — a recipe for a happy relationship!


Image: Blake Ezra from Lauren and Mark’s Jewish Wedding (Catering by Food Story)
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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Designing Our Wedding Stationery

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.

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 !


Choosing our wedding stationery

In September 2016 I had been to the bridal show with one of my bridesmaids, looking for invitation inspiration. I think it is a good way to speak to vendors and get sample packs, and also to look at what the brands are specialist in, there are so many different categories and styles available on offer, and I found it really good to see the stationery in real life. 

I had already used Papier for our engagement party invitations. Which were great quality and also allow you to do a mix of printed and online. They offer such a huge variety of styles, and you can personalise them to suit you. They are also really affordable! They suited the need for our engagement party but we decided against them for the wedding, as we wanted to go for something bespoke for our wedding stationery.

Knowing that I wanted the calligraphy feel, I actually designed our save the dates myself. I downloaded a lot of calligraphy and handwriting fonts on dafont.com. And created them in a Word document and got them printed with Vistaprint. I was lucky that I tested them out before ordering nearly 200 copies, as they originally came out blurred (!). Which then followed with me on a live chat with Vistaprint for over two hours to try and remedy this, luckily they refunded my original order, and actually sent my complete order out for free! It sometimes pays to complain!

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Real Jewish Brides: Leah – Flying To Spain To Plan My Wedding

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Leah  will be marrying Zak in a Jewish wedding on 1st June 2018 at Masia Notari in Spain. Click here to read all Leah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Leah knew she wanted to convert to Judaism long before she met Zak. She feels that having a Jewish wedding is another milestone in her Jewish identity and is an opportunity for some of her family to experience new traditions. (2) Leah & Zak met on JDate (3) Leah and Zak are planning a beautiful black tie destination wedding in Barcelona, Spain


The difficulties of planning a wedding from afar

I’ll admit, wedding planning has been the furthest thing from fun for me. My family and friends live a 2.5 hour flight away, and my wedding venue is thousands of miles away, which makes planning very hard. When we chose a destination wedding, we didn’t consider that we wouldn’t have the traditional experiences.

Zak and I wouldn’t be going to taste cakes or try our wedding food, meeting with my florist wouldn’t be in person, and I would have to put a whole lot of trust in my planner, Becky of Barcelona Brides, who I had never actually met in person.

The process was becoming overwhelming for me, so I scheduled a trip to Barcelona in November to meet with my vendors and help narrow down a caterer and live music. Zak wouldn’t be able to make it as it’s the busiest time of the year for him, so I planned to go alone.

When I mentioned to one of my bridesmaids, Cristin, that I had found a cheap ticket to Barcelona, she opted to come with me. Later, I mentioned to my other bridesmaids and couldn’t believe it when they all took time off work and opted to come with me to Spain! Becky and I scheduled a full wedding planning day to cross as many items off my list including: a hair and makeup trial, two full menu tastings, a visit to the venue, and meetings with a DJ, my florist and the videographer.


Picture of my girls and I with Becky

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