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Real Blogging Brides: Clare – My First Time At ‘Brides The Show’

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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!


Heading to ‘Brides The Show’

Having been mentally preparing for my wedding since around the age of five, going to a wedding show was always one of those essential activities that had to be done with my mum. Since getting engaged I had noticed the vast number of shows going on in London with even keener than normal interest.

It was therefore with much excitement that my mum and I went to Brides The Show on October 1st. Waiting to meet mum outside the tube, a constant stream of mums and daughters, sisters, grandmothers were making their way to the design centre in Islington.

Treated like VIPs

When we arrived, VIP tickets in hand I wasn’t sure quite what to expect from this experience. Would it meet my childhood wedding expectation dreams?! The first ten minutes or so were spent navigating our way around the exhibitors, glancing at our maps for those that we had pre planned to visit and taking in the overwhelming amount of dresses, photo booths, wedding cakes, stationery…

Our first stop was to the VIP lounge. We had debated the purchase of the VIP tickets but had decided we would treat ourselves to the promised goods that would be in store. The lounge was busy but with plenty of seating, and a lovely place to have our complimentary glass of bubbles and plan out our hit list of what we needed to see.

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Real Jewish Brides – Amanda: My New Perspective

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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.


Eight weddings in 15 months…

It most certainly is wedding season in the Yaffe-Parker household. In the 15 months between our engagement and our wedding, Adam and I will have attended no fewer than 8 weddings and, one manic week in September. We actually attended 3 weddings in 3 different cities, across 2 different countries.

So it really is fortunate that we love attending weddings. There’s something about celebrating the marriage of close friends through song, dance and food that never gets old. In fact, I’d bet that if you watched the highlights of any weddings we’ve been to, you’ll see Adam and I throwing shapes like madmen.

Jewish-wedding
Image: Adam Van Bunnens

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Real Jewish Brides – Mel: An Interview with my Fiancà©!

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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!


The Groom’s Perspective

Every post I have written so far is about my thoughts and experiences to planning the wedding so I thought it was about time to have a role reversal. This is all about Mitch and his perspective on planning our wedding.

Picture the scene, Mitch and I sat comfortably on our L-shaped sofa in our lounge. Me wrapped in my blanket with a cup of green tea. And Mitch in his grandpa slippers trying not to laugh at my attempt at being a chat show host. I wanted to ease us both in to this ‘role play’ so I started with an easy question…

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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Picking our Wedding Vendors

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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 !


The venue is booked, now begins the search for vendors. Having been to many weddings over the past few years you get to know what you like and just isn’t your style or taste. Do your research and look at reviews, I found that vendors Instagram feeds are really useful and really show what they can do in abundance. ­

Make sure you go to each vendor with a clear idea of what you want and have your questions ready. This is your wedding and the one day in your life where you get to celebrate your marriage. Make sure you stick to what is right for you both. I’m very fortunate that James has the same vision as me for our big day, and that I have very open minded parents as well.

Tony Page Kosher Caterers
Image: Robert Shack from Georgia & Sam’s Jewish Wedding (Catering by Tony Page)
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Real Jewish Brides – Leah: 8 Months Until Our Destination Wedding… Update

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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

When Zak and I got engaged, we hadn’t really put a lot of thought into the details of our wedding beforehand. Immediately we were flooded with questions asking when and where we would be wed, especially since our family and friends are spread out throughout the country. One of our favourite things to do together is travel, so it didn’t take us long to decide that we wanted a destination wedding, but we didn’t realize how many small hurdles we’d have to overcome by planning a wedding from afar.

Finding an Officiant

Finding someone to officiate our wedding was harder than we originally thought. It’s important to both of us that we have a more traditional Jewish ceremony but finding a rabbi in a predominately catholic country proved difficult. Luckily for us, our wedding planner, Becky from Barcelona Brides, was able to help us locate a wonderful rabbi that we began working with to help us craft a custom ceremony that is meaningful to us. Thank goodness for modern technology as we are able to have Skype sessions with our rabbi leading up to our wedding. This was one of our top priorities after choosing a venue and I urge others to begin this process early if their options are limited.

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