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Home > Wedding Planning > Page 12

Save £1000’s on your wedding essentials with money saving offers exclusively for Smashing The Glass readers

01/01/2016 by Karen

Smash-and-grab
We’re into  2016, and to celebrate the New Year I want to tell you all about  ‘Smash & Grab’! These are my personally curated money saving  offers from some of the very best wedding vendors in the business  (believe me, I’m  incredibly  fussy about who I partner  with).

So below  you’ll find my exclusive collection  of discounts, exclusively  for Smashing The Glass readers, from photographers, videographers, planners, make up artists, DJ’s, bands, florists, wedding websites, and more! I suggest you  bookmark this page for speedy  reference, as many  of these offers expire in  February 2016 (some even sooner).

I’m a huge fan of  each and every one of the wedding vendors listed, and I have handpicked them for these offers, not only because  they love Jewish  weddings (and  know every little detail about them) but because they  are some of the most fabulous, creative, and talented  people you could ever wish to  work with.

To redeem any of the offers listed, simply quote SMASHING THE GLASS.

If there’s a supplier type you’re looking for that’s not listed, please email me at karen@smashingtheglass.com and I’ll help you in whatever way I can.

Happy wedding planning!

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Jewish wedding program 101: How to create a ceremony program that’s perfect for your special day

27/11/2015 by Karen

Jewish-Wedding-Program
Image by Hales Studio taken from Sarah & Mike’s Jewish DIY Wedding

How to produce the perfect Jewish (or Jew-ish) Wedding Program

When it comes to Jewish weddings there are a few highly recognisable traditions that many of us look forward to seeing, like, as this blog’s name suggests, the smashing of the glass. However, as any bride well knows, there are a myriad of other customs that a couple may or may not include depending on their preference and level of observance. Most choose to spend their big day with their closest family and friends and in today’s modern world, this typically includes individuals from a diverse set of backgrounds with varying understanding of a Jewish wedding ceremony.

Consequently, the wedding program has become an increasingly important tool as it both enables wedding guests to navigate the marriage ceremony and allows them to feel included by providing the appropriate context. Despite the wedding program’s growing importance, we were surprised to learn firsthand how difficult it can be to write one. For those facing a similar predicament, please read on to hear our tips for putting together a ceremony program perfect for your special day!


Pre-planning

Jewish wedding program
Image by W2 Photography taken from Sydney & William’s handmade Jewish DIY Barn Wedding

Know your guests

Without having a sense for your guest’s familiarity with relevant Jewish traditions it can be difficult to approach the program writing process. For a guest list that includes people who may be attending their first Jewish wedding, we suggest keeping your program more high level and focused on sharing the appropriate context, without being overwhelming. For one that has a largely Jewish audience, you may include less information on the ceremony basics and more time on specific custom details or interpretations. It’s also important to ask yourself how familiar your guests may be with the traditions you choose to incorporate into your ceremony. After all, the non-observant Jewish guest may not be familiar with a highly orthodox ceremony. Similarly, the highly observant may not follow egalitarian interpretations of tradition.

Determine your ceremony details

This may go without saying, but before writing your wedding program it’s best to have a clear understanding of what your ceremony will look like. Are you doing a badeken and tisch? Are you inviting all of your guests to your ketubah signing? Will your ceremony be more modern or traditional? A more formal or casual affair? Are you including a flower girl? These are just a handful of examples of things that need to be finalised prior to beginning your program.

Think about tone

As you want to the voice of the program to reiterate the tone of the event overall, it’s important to think about what this is prior to beginning the writing process. A black tie wedding will call for a more formal and restrained voice. In contrast, a more casual ceremony will be amenable to a lighter and playful narrative.


Writing your program

Jewish wedding program
Image by Corey Torpie taken from Sarit & Ari’s Jewish DIY Wedding

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How to add WOW to your wedding day

01/10/2015 by Karen

How-to-add-wow-to-your-wedding
This is a guest post by Aron Schlagman, owner and creative director of WHiTEPAPER event

A friend told me recently that the best part about creating that ‘stand-out moment’ for an event, and especially a wedding, is that it doesn’t have to cost very much at all. In fact, some of the most beautiful moments that are created for weddings are done so by the couple themselves – touching moments of real thought that express love for those attending their most special of days – leaving the longest lasting memories in the process.

So, where do I get me some of that WOW?!

I’m going to share a few top line tips and ideas in the hope that they may spark a flash of light in your own heads to create your own wedding stand out moments.

A traditional Wedding vs. a DIY Wedding

If you are planing a DIY wedding from the off, the opportunity to WOW might be greater, but so will the potential stress given just how much and how far you can go. For my own wedding, created in a very DIY style for 50 of our closest friends at an outside space in North London, everything had to have a personal touch. From ladies parasols to shade them from the sun to hay bales for seating with vintage throws as covers. Multicoloured water in antique crystal decanters as decor for a cheese table, to the herb used for the wrapping of the napkins. Afternoon tea with a twist through to the vintage 1920’s dress my beautiful bride wore on the day (and of course my yellow Converse). We’re also talking about shawls for the ladies (this was England in June after all and not the South of France) and a great selection of Whiskey’s for the gents.

What was one of the nicest elements though? Possibly the one which didn’t even relate to a design aspect of the day. For us, it was important that all of our friends could be there, and still be home in time to bath and put their kids to bed. Our event began at 3pm, was over by 6.30pm, and we said goodbye to our guests before heading up to town (still dressed up) for dinner at J Sheekey and an evening in a 5* hotel. Our guests appreciated it, stayed until the end, and avoided an expensive evening of babysitters and hangovers.

Some, all, or none of this might have worked had the event been in Claridge’s, but the point is that it might not have had to. A wedding recently attended in this very hotel was simply beautiful because tradition was where the WOW beauty was to be found, in of course, an already stunning space.

creative-Jewish-wedding
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The legal requirements of a Jewish wedding ceremony in the UK

05/08/2015 by Karen

legal-requirements-of-a-Jewish-wedding-ceremony

Granted  it’s  not the most exciting of topics, but one that definitely needs addressing, so thank you, Emily, for highlighting it! I asked  Emily  to provide me with an exact list of questions that she wanted answering and  then called upon the expertise of STG regular, the wonderful Rabbi Paul Glantz  to  shed light on the the legal requirements of a Jewish wedding ceremony in England, and the UK.

For any American readers, or brides holding  a  destination Jewish wedding in the USA, a post detailing  the legal requirements of a Jewish wedding in the USA will be up on the blog in he coming weeks  too.

farmhouse-wedding
Deborah & Hernan’s  Jewish wedding in a farmhouse.  See the full wedding here :: Image by York Place Studios

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How to find your ideal wedding venue

22/07/2015 by Karen

find-your-wedding-venue
Finding a wedding venue is, I’m guessing,  right at the top  of your to-do list (as well as finding a  phenomenal dress of course!)  Aleisha McCormack,  author of the wedding planning guide Smart Wedding, and host of the Save The Date wedding podcast, is here  to tell you how to find and secure your ideal wedding venue  in a stress-free, easy-peasy and super-productive  way.

The ‘Perfect’ Wedding Venue doesn’t exist…

Your idea of a ‘perfect’ wedding venue (if there is such a thing) is, most likely, vastly different to mine. I’d say besides deciding that the person that you are marrying is ‘the one’, your wedding venue is the biggest choice that you will make when it comes to wedding planning… a big decision in which many smaller decisions rely and revolve around…so no pressure then!

Thanks to the magic of the interwebs, some fabulous new specialty apps and lateral thinking, the search for the venue that fits you is super easy.

Oval Space
Image: Oval Space wedding venue, London

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