Wedding Planning Archives - Smashing the Glass

Your Chuppah – Everything You Need To Know

17/04/2018 by Karen Leave a Comment

This is a guest post by Lauren Dubell-Beadle, founder of The Chuppah Design Co who created the chuppah above
Image: Babb Photo from Clelia & George’s Jew-ish wedding

{If you are a Smashing The Glass VIB, you can watch Lauren’s video masterclass, ‘Everything You Need To Know About Your Chuppah’ here}

Before the dress, before the center pieces and before the personalized cocktails, your guests will see the symbolic chuppah that you will be married under. If you are like me, you will want that first impression to pack a punch and tell a story at the same time.

Why have a chuppah?

The chuppah goes back a long way and holds a lot of tradition within its simple four-posted structure. Its symbolism is vast, but ultimately the chuppah represents a couples first home that they will build together.

It is open on all four sides to represent the open hospitality the couple will give in their home to their family, friends and acquaintances… fitting more than a handful of your guests under the chuppah would be a challenge!

So the open sides help all your guests feel part of your ceremony. Today many non-Jewish couple choose to include a chuppah in their wedding for its symbolic nature and Jew-ish couples (like my husband and I) also want to have a chuppah, but may come across some challenges finding a rabbi who will willingly marry them or bless them under a chuppah.

US couples may not have the same issue, but if you are lucky enough to find Rabbi Paul Glantz free for your UK (or European) based date then make sure you snap him up! The chuppah was the first ‘Jewish thing’ we knew we wanted at our wedding and our insistence on having one led us to planning a wedding that was truly done ‘our way’. We wanted it to be the start of our meaningful and personal day.

Image: The Image is Found from Michelle & Joseph’s Jewish wedding

Where to get inspiration?

So where do you start with planning your chuppah? Most people make the decision if they want to DIY their chuppah or not before they actually decide what they want… and you can definitely do that… we did.

We knew we wanted to make it ourselves in keeping with the idea of the new couple building their home together and we really didn’t want anyone else’s help for this one part of our day. However, it is important to decide what sort of chuppah will fit in with the overall style of your wedding.

Do you want something simple and traditional (that could be relatively easy to DIY) or do you want a massive eye-catching art installation style that will be pinned and shared all over Instagram after the big day? The latter you may wish to get some help with!

There are three places I’d suggest looking for inspiration at this stage; Smashing the Glass (particularly this post), Pinterest and Instagram the hashtag #chuppah always works a treat!

Whilst you’re scrolling you can begin to think of the style you are heading towards and how you might be able to turn those inspirational images into a reality. Here you might decide if you are DIY-ing or looking for some support from a florist and a rental company or a design service (like me!) for the truly one-off personal chuppah.

Image: Dave Robbins from Jessie & Craig’s book-themed Jewish wedding

How to turn your vision into reality?

So, you are a newly engaged bride-to-be with a massive wedding Pinterest board and a whole load of new hashtags to follow on Instagram… so how do you turn all these ideas into something for your big day?

Do you go for it and DIY the whole thing or get someone in to do it for you? Both definitely have their merits. If you choose to DIY your chuppah then I’d suggest doing a bit of research before you plan it all out.Continue Reading

5 Things to Make with your Smashed Wedding Glass from your Jewish Wedding {DIY Tutorial}

13/07/2017 by Karen

This is a guest post by Lauren Beadle :: Image: John Nassari Photography

A wedding day is a crazy day. The patter of advice in the lead up to the big day is always the same… take the time to absorb everything as it will go so fast, don’t forget to have some alone time together, don’t panic about things you can’t change, no-one will know… You have spent so much time working up to this day, it’s exhausting and thrilling and the adrenalin runs through you and adds to your amazing day.

The next day you are running late to catch a Eurostar for your mini-moon, and are clearly about to miss your train and then you literally fall out of the Uber because you’re so tired (sorry was that just me?!). What I’m trying to say is that as soon as the day ends, the tiredness kicks in and you just want to look at the pictures and catch up on sleep. All that stuff you said would be easy to do after the wedding gets put to the side and forgotten. Here I am 7 months post wedding; we haven’t chosen the pictures yet for our album, my wedding dress is still sitting in my childhood bedroom having not yet been to the dry cleaners and I have yet to do something with the glass my husband smashed at the end of our ceremony.

Image: Stak Studios

The symbolism of smashing the glass

Smashing the glass is such a symbolic part of the wedding ceremony. There are many reasons behind this iconic moment (can be seen here). For me at my wedding it symbolised the breaking of many potential barriers that my husband and I could face in our lives and when he broke the glass we were able to consider the difficult times that may come in our future. It also was a moment when that one damaged item can be turned into something new and exciting. The shattered glass is often thought of as a reminder of negative times in the past and potential rocky situations in the future, but by taking that shattered glass and turning it into something new and beautiful, you are creating a new symbol; one that says the bad times can lead to new and exciting situations. This is why my smashed glass is still sitting quietly on my shelf waiting for me to do something with it… I couldn’t decide what to with it!

It is becoming more and more popular to buy a special glass and send it off to someone after your wedding to have it transformed into something like a mezuzah or a picture frame. I did look into this before our wedding, but to be honest, I couldn’t find anything I liked enough. Especially when I saw the prices!

Image: Dima Vazinovich

So we decided to utilise my crafty streak and bring along one of the thin and unused glasses we had at home and post-wedding I would make something that we would love to display somewhere in our home. Obviously we forgot the glass and remembered on the way to our venue… cue a panic call to our mothers, who both brought a variety of different glasses to choose from. In the end I think my brother picked a pint glass (apparently it was the thinnest!)

So one day, many months after the wedding I sat down and thought about all the different things I could do with this glass. I came up with a list of about 10 different ideas; some were clearly easier than others. But I love trying new crafty techniques, so thought I would give each of them a go and share the first five with all you wonderful STG readers!

Before I head into the list of ideas I’ll add a little safety note if you choose to try any of these ideas – you are working with sharp smashed glass so be careful and wear gloves (this may seem obvious… but you should have seen my husband dive into the box of smashed glass without his gloves before I stopped him!) If you have access to a multi-tool such as a Dremel, then there are many attachments that work wonders at smoothing the edges. I prepared the glass in a large batch so when I was working with the glass I didn’t have to worry about cutting myself.

DIY 1: Resin Jewellery and Key rings

This is a really good idea if you have lots of tiny fragments left and works even better if you had a colourful glass. It looks really effective and is something you can carry around with you everywhere you go; a perfect reminder of a special moment.

It looks like it would be really difficult to do, but once you’ve got the hang of it it’s surprisingly easy. For this I used this Resin Keepsake Casting Kit that comes with all you need and some extra sparkly bits to add to your work if you wanted to use it too.

After a practice I decided I wanted to use a silicone mould and I found this so much easier to use. The key to success is to read the manufacturing instructions, practice first with something you don’t necessarily want to keep and take it slowly.

The instructions in my kit were very clear for how to mix the resin and pour it, but less clear on how to add elements in. But after watching a youtube video and having a practice I worked out the best way to get the best result. One layer, leave for 20 minutes, add the glass, add another layer slowly and leave to cure for 12-24 hours(dependant on how warm your room is!)

The final step was to add a keyring or a pre-assembled necklace. I always have some of these knocking about.

Continue Reading

Stress Free Wedding Planning with the Tap of an App… Hello Bridebook!

12/04/2017 by Karen

Don’t you kick yourself sometimes when someone else comes up with those brilliant inventions that in hindsight are so obvious? Those relatively simple concepts that make life so much easier. Step forward Bridebook.

Bridebook is a sophisticated, FREE digital wedding planner that’s taking the bridal world by storm. And for good reason.

It’s SUCH an inspired idea – a website and app that has EVERYTHING you need to plan your wedding all in one place

And not before time. With the soar in seriously useful apps, we now expect everything to run a bit more smoothly. How often do you hear the phrase “don’t worry I’ll Uber it”? It’s now almost a verb. And Deliveroo, the (quality) takeaway app, has all but revolutionised my world for sure.

And so yes, we are ready to tap an app and do everything ‘wedding’ calmly and un-complicatedly.

Good bye wedding stress

If you’re not employing a wedding planner (and let’s face it, not all of us can or want one) creating your dream single-handedly can be a beautifully rewarding thing but for lots, it can be stressful and all consuming.

Did I double-check the venue can give us 10 more places? Shall I spend less on flowers and go for candelabra centrepieces? Do I do paperless invitations? Where’s that RSVP list? Is this the most recent cost sheet?

It can seriously take over your every waking thought.

The entrepreneur founder of Bridebook – Hamish Shepherd – saw brides (who were booking his wedding venue [Hedsor House, above]) drowning under this preparation process and knew a digital solution was needed.

So what does Bridebook actually do?

With Bridebook you can just grab your phone and see in an instant the current status of your wedding planning and action any part of it. Toodle oo spreadsheets and a million print outs. We’re moving on.

The site is comprised of 5 wedding planning tools, so you can get organising wherever you are …

Checklist
Budget
Supplier Shortlist (and Directory)
Guest list
Advice

Each of these tools has their own special features that set them apart.

A Cool Jewish Wedding Gift List with Prezola

29/03/2017 by Karen

If you’re unsure whether to have a wedding list, let me tell you, from experience, you really do need one. Your friends and family will WANT to buy you a gift to show the love. But unless you direct them, you’re in danger of receiving presents that are either too chintzy or a tad off piste. Without a list you could be the proud recipient of something you already have or ever worse – never ever want to have.

Prezola really is THE modern wedding registry for our stylish Jewish couples. It’s super polished, eclectic and cool with over 300 top homeware brand to choose from. Including The White Company, Habitat, LSA, Jo Malone, Sonos, Joseph Joseph…

And hot off the press, I can reveal that the truly stunning Graham and Green and Soho Home (my absolute faves!) have recently just added themselves to that illustrious list. So it’s not without reason that Prezola is now the UK’s favourite independent (multi award-winning) wedding gift list and honeymoon fund.

Why I love Prezola

I would have LOVED to have known about Prezola when I got married. It’s such a beautifully curated site with the most gorgeous selection of homewares I’ve seen in one place. It feels so hand picked whether your style is urban and cool or pretty and rustic, glamorous and shiny. And they’re SUCH a lovely company to work with. They’re one of my favourite STG finds and in fact I’ve already made a dream list with them.

Prezola understands the modern Jewish bride

Hugely exciting news is that Prezola now caters specifically for Jewish weddings. Alongside the perfect modern gifts (30,000 to be exact), they now also offer the more traditional Judaica style gifts that relatives just LOVE to buy you.

These range from Challah boards and Matzah plates that you can use every Shabbat to Passover Seder plates used only two nights in the year

But get this, with brands like Alessi and the fabulous Jonathan Adler, Prezola now have traditional gifts with a modern twist. So STG!

Modern Traditional Gifts

A wedding list is a beautiful thing – it allows you to let people know exactly what you want without the embarrassment of actually telling them personally.

For an engagement present, a beloved aunt bought me and Mr. STG a challah cover, which lets say, left a lot to be desired in terms of design. It now spends its life in the messy drawer in our kitchen. If I had a list at Prezola, I could have chosen a more ‘us’ traditional gift and not feel guilty every time I catch a glimpse of that lavishly embroidered cover.

I love tradition but I also love design. Who says I cant have both?

Prezola certainly knows how to do Friday night, STG style..and it makes me smile whenever I look at this Jonathan Adler brilliant brass bird Menorah below. Here are my dream Judaica picks from Prezola (never thought I would use the word ‘dream’ and ‘Judaica’ in the same sentence till I saw Prezola’s list!)

To see all their fabulous Judaica, click here.

The Modern Take

If you’ve already set up home, it’s especially important to have a wedding list. You simply don’t need two toasters. And the best part is that you can browse and go a little wild. You know those things that you possibly wouldn’t have bought when you had your sensible head on. Prezola’s list lets you get the big stuff – think gorgeous linens and stunning cookware, but also the fun, cool additions to your home.

How to Make Your Wedding Wow: You Dream It and Extraordinary Wedding Planner Jenna Keller Will Create It…

15/03/2017 by Karen

It’s officially spring, and I don’t know about you but I’m so ready to see a bit more colour. Goodbye grey skies, hello blue!

You’ve just got to love this time of year, with the season’s natural beauty popping with pastels and bursting with vivacity. It’s so incredibly romantic. And with energy, romance and colour in mind – I’m can’t wait to introduce you to a supremely creative, innovative, and exciting wedding planner – Jenna Keller.

Jenna Keller – Manchester born but raised in South Florida – is the ultimate event superstar. She is the brains and beauty behind Jenna Keller Events – a creative, dynamic company, based in gorgeous Cheshire, working on weddings and events all across the UK and abroad.

Jenna and her team specialise in the full management and production of truly memorable events. Transforming ordinary spaces into the extraordinary – think suspended floral installations and chandeliers – she does drama. She brings the buzz and creates the wow moments but behind the scenes Jenna is exceptionally meticulous and detail led.

Keep it Kosher

Jenna Keller entered the event scene working for Celia Clyne, one of the largest kosher caterers in the UK. She successfully ran their events – a mere 200 a year – and well and truly earned her stripes. That wealth of experience paved the way for Jenna to create her own event company.

Why Jenna Keller?

Jenna Keller is now one of the most renowned and sought after wedding planners in the UK. And for good reason. Her incredible experience, microscopic attention to detail, creativity, passion and USA-level of customer service has got Jenna a pretty darn good reputation.

She puts her heart and soul into every single wedding. In fact Jenna is so dedicated, that she even met her husband through her work. According to former boss, kosher caterer Celia Clyne, it couldn’t have been any other way.