Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Home > Real blogging brides > Page 35

Real Blogging Brides: Clare – Difficult News, Learning Calligraphy, and Some DIY Wedding Projects…

by

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!


Losing my father and my aunt

Planning a wedding when your father is terminally ill is never going to be easy and when in July the news hit that my aunt had stage three cancer, the future looked even more bleak. Sadly they have both passed away since my last post, going just six days apart from one another. I have felt broken.

For my main wedding planning partner in crime (my mum) and I, there have been funeral plans to make rather than wedding. But thinking of this upcoming celebration has been the chance to share times of joy rather than sadness and has definitely kept us going!

Celebration of friendship

Weddings are a time for family, and the thought of neither of them being there was never much fun. Fortunately I’ve had some time to prepare for the lack of a ‘father of the bride’ and some wonderful friends will be fulfilling the roles of walking me down the aisle and giving a speech… Let’s just hope they don’t go too cringey in a bid to be an embarrassing ‘dad’!

Friendship is something that I have come to truly value since planning my wedding amidst this trauma. Our wedding will be a true celebration of friendship, and for me, my friends have and continue to fulfil a vital role in my life that can’t always be met by family relations.

So what better thing to write about than all the wonderful things we have been doing as part of the planning process, and the different ways in which they will be involved in the build up to the big day, never mind on the day itself!

 Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides – Amanda: Top Tips For Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

by

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.


Shopping with my Bridesmaids

In my opinion, there’s no better feeling than coming home from a shopping trip with a new dress… or three. There’s something about the smug sense of achievement that comes with a successful shopping trip, made even better if you had no intention of buying anything. For me, wedding dress shopping was the epitome of this feeling. I had never expected to find something and so, with no pressure at all to buy ‘the dress’,  I managed to come away with something I absolutely loved. It was the dream scenario (but without the drama of Say Yes To The Dress). 

But with wedding dress shopping, there’s one dress, one person and one opinion. It’s about finding something you love and are comfortable in, and can imagine yourself getting married in. It is not about finding dresses for four separate individuals, each with their own personality and style. It also tends to be less rushed, because it’s one of the first things brides-to-be will do! 

Bridesmaid dresses

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides – Mel: Our Ceremony, Our Way

by

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!


As I eluded to in my previous post, it’s so easy to get lost in the ‘luxuries’ of a wedding and forget about the actual marriage part!

Like most brides I got extremely excited to start planning our wedding as soon as we got engaged. The first task for us was finding a venue. We were really clear about what we wanted, and what we didn’t want. Which meant our search for a venue was proving difficult — it wasn’t as easy as I expected to find a venue outside of London that was big enough to accommodate our guests and have enough indoor space to avoid ‘changing over’ rooms between the ceremony and meal. Having a March wedding, we couldn’t rely on the weather being good enough to have an outdoor ceremony. After hours of research and many trips visiting venues all over Essex and Hertfordshire, we found our dream venue –Warren Weir… in Bedfordshire.

Our next task was finding a band. Followed by a photographer, videographer and florist.

Warren-Weir-Wedding
Jodie & Joel’s Jewish wedding at Warren Weir by Claudine Hartzel Photography

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides – Gillian: DIY-ing Our Own Ketubah

by

Gillian will be marrying Pete on 8th September 2017 (just 3 days from now!) in a Jew-ish wedding at the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, so today is her final blog before her Big Day! You can click here to read all Gillian’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Gillian is Jewish and Pete is Catholic (2) A Rabbi and a Priest will officiate at their wedding (3) Gillian is a Health & Wellness Coach and Pete is a Travel Occupational Therapist.

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES_Gillian_new
What’s The Right Ketubah For You?

Anyone who has started planning a Jewish or Interfaith Wedding has thought of what they want their Ketubah to look like. It’s an important part of the Jewish wedding ceremony and it’s something that you will hopefully hang on the walls of your home forever. So where does any modern bride start when planning this element of her wedding? Obviously Smashing The Glass, Pinterest, Etsy, and the World Wide Web. Only to realize that Ketubot (plural form of Ketubah) also come with their own gammat of choices to be made.

What text should you choose, should you have English and Hebrew, who should you ask to sign your Ketubah, what size paper do you want, and how much do you want to spend? The choices are endless, and then you have to pick an aesthetic you like to match – that you and your future spouse both like!

DIY-ketubah

Gillian’s DIY Ketubah!

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides – Hayley: Finally Jewish… and the Final Countdown!

by

Hayley will be marrying Ashley on 17th September 2017 at El Cortijo De Los Caballos in Spain.

THREE FACTS: (1) Hayley & Ashley met on Tinder (2) Ashley proposed with a Haribo ring (after which he pulled out the actual engagement gem!) (3) Hayley is converting to Judaism to marry Ashley.

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES_Hayley-Ashley
Officially Jewish!

Yay! I’m officially Jewish!!  I had my Mikveh on the Monday which I can honestly say I left feeling refreshed and just different, I can’t explain but a good feeling of different! 
 
The Thursday came around very quickly and off I went to the Liberal Beit Din. I loved everything about it! I felt Ashley was more nervous then I was but  I had three fantastic Rabbi’s talk to me and ask me all different questions about Judaism and my essays. What was meant to be fifteen minutes long, ran fifteen minutes late! I literally did not stop talking!
 
I then left the room for the rabbis to make a decision, I came back into the room with Ashley. I was then explained that I was officially accepted into Judaism. Happy was an understatement! I have worked so hard to become Jewish and I can say that I genuinely feel Jewish. I have a lot of Ashley’s (now mine) friends to thank for my constant texting and having to answer all my Jewish questions especially Amy!
 
Rustic chuppah
Chuppah from Jade & Adam’s Jewish Wedding on Smashing The Glass

Continue ReadingContinue Reading