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A Magical, Colorful Multicultural Jewish-Hindu Wedding at Mallu Farms, South Delhi, India

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We are so excited to be sharing the gorgeous Jewish-Hindu wedding of our beloved Brides Club with Smashing The Glass member Sara to Deevakar! Like so many couples over the past few years Sara and Deevakar’s planning journey was filled with lots of ups and downs and uncertainty due to the pandemic – but in the end, they pulled off the fairy tale Indian wedding of their dreams – and it is just BEYOND!

From the start, the couple knew it was important to them to honor both of their backgrounds – Sara’s Russian-Jewish and Deevakar’s Indian-Hindu – and they planned the most beautiful interfaith wedding honoring both religions, and highlighting the many commonalities between the two. The wedding was a two-day extravaganza, filled with so many beautiful rituals, delicious food, and, of course, lots of music and dancing! Don’t miss the stunning images from Dhaarna Bhola Photography.

We’re so touched by Sara’s kind words about how valuable Brides Club was to her during the planning stages: “The ladies in Brides Club helped a lot with moral support. I didn’t have bridesmaids, and yet I felt completely supported by the lovely women in the group. From brainstorming creative ideas, to being able to share my planning anxieties, Brides Club had my back. My wedding wasn’t the traditional, cookie cutter Western Jewish wedding I was used to seeing, but because Brides Club is made up of all different types of women who also plan Jew-ish weddings, I didn’t feel alone.”

Sara also used her Brides Club discount to purchase her gorgeous ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com. Designed by artist Shell Rummel, it depicts two colorful, intertwined circles – a design Sara and Deevakar picked for the way it beautifully represents their marriage and life together – aww!

Now over to Sara…

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How we Met

Sara, the bride: Deevakar and I met in Chicago, USA, and currently live in an apartment overlooking the Chicago River. I’m from Boston, MA, USA and Deevakar is from Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India. Our love of family and similar cultures (Russian-Jewish and Indian-Hindu) bonded us. We got married in July 2020 in a minimony. We had a city hall wedding, and a small barbeque at Sara’s family’s home in Newton, MA. We finally had our religious ceremonies in New Delhi, India—both Jewish and Hindu. It was a large, fun-filled, two-day celebration, which melded the two cultures in food, music, and rituals.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Liancarlo Bride for a Multicultural Hindu-Jewish Wedding at Tarrytown House Estate and Tappan Hill Mansion, Hudson Valley, NY, USA

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We love it when a couple combines their backgrounds into one truly memorable day – and that’s exactly what Laura, a registered dietitian, and Raj, who owns two urgent care facilities in New Jersey, did in planning their interfaith Hindu-Jewish wedding.

With two ceremonies in one day – Hindu during the day, followed by Jewish in the evening – the couple approached planning with the overarching goal of crafting a cohesive day illustrating the true merging of their families, lives, and cultures. Take one look at Dave Robbins Photography’s gorgeous captures of the day and you’ll see just how successfully they pulled it off.

Laura and Raj took advantage of the fact that Hindu and Jewish weddings both take place under a canopy – symbolizing the home the couple will build together – and decided to use the same structure for their mandap and chuppah to symbolize the fact that they are building one home that embraces both of their cultures and religions.

And we totally and completely adore the couple’s custom floral ketubah by Rachel Marks of  Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Tallulah Ketubahs. Laura and Raj wanted their text written in English, Hebrew, and Hindi, and Rachel made it happen – plus she incorporated some of the colors and flowers the pair used in their wedding! And, unsurprisingly, Laura reports that Rachel was an absolute dream to work with.

There’s so much more we could say about this awesome wedding, but we’ll leave the rest to the bride, who looked stunning in both her traditional Indian outfit and red and gold as well as her white wedding dress by Azul by Liancarlo…

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How We Met

Laura, the bride: Raj and I met our sophomore year at Franklin and Marshall College. We were in the same friend circle for many years, but did not start dating until 2014. We were nervous we would break apart our group of friends if things didn’t end up working out. In the end, it was definitely worth taking the risk! 

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A Helena Kolan Bride for a Colorful, Multicultural Jewish-Hindu Wedding at Hummingbird Nest Ranch, California, USA

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Get ready to be BLOWN AWAY by the incredible Jewish-Hindu wedding of our beloved Brides Club member Jaime, who has an online fitness business, and Varun, who is CEO of a tech company. These two wanted a one-of-a-kind day that felt larger than life, and did they ever achieve that goal – thanks in no small part to the expertise of their wedding planner, Leora of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Best Bride, who Jaime describes as “the best wedding planner on the planet. Period.”

Blending two different faiths and cultures is no small feat, but Leora made it a breeze, working with Jaime and Varun to craft a jam-packed day – and we do mean a full day; this wedding went from noon until midnight! – including two ceremonies (one Hindu, one Jewish), a positively mouthwatering bicultural food experience featuring Israeli and Indian street food, and, of course, a rocking party to end things off.

The results were thoroughly, breathtakingly beautiful – we’re equally obsessed with the color and energy of the Hindu ceremony and the romance and drama of the sunset Jewish ceremony. And how beautiful is the couple’s floral ketubah, created by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush?! Jaime can’t stop raving about her experience working with founder Rachelle to create the perfect design to match the color and décor scheme for her Jewish ceremony.

You really, really don’t want to miss the fantastic photos from Clane Gessel and Sanaz Photography. Because their day had so much going on, planner Leora encouraged Jaime and Varun to hire two photography teams to make sure none of the good stuff went undocumented, and Jaime is SO glad she followed that advice. And the trailer by AndHer Visuals is equally unmissable.

Now over to the bride, who had not one, not two, but THREE dresses for the big day – her gorgrous, vibrant dress for the Hindu ceremony was made by Vama Designs, and her gown for the Jewish ceremony was custom made by Israeli designer Helena Kolan (who also created Jaime’s reception dress)…

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How we met

Jaime, the bride: We met on OKCupid in San Francisco when we were both working in the start up scene. 

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A Romona Keveza Bride for an Indian-Jewish Wedding at Bel Air Bay Club, Los Angeles, CA

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We love it when a couple works to combine their backgrounds into a totally unique wedding that’s 100% them, so naturally we are so excited to feature today’s beautiful Indian-Jewish wedding of Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Wendy, who works on HR software, to Nagesh, who works in healthcare data analytics.

Wendy is Jewish, Nagesh is Indian, and the pair made it top priority to ensure both cultures were represented in their celebration. They incorporated Hebrew and Hindi text wherever they could, and used symbols that reflected both cultures throughout their stationery and design. For their rehearsal dinner, they held an Indian sangeet, a musical pre-wedding party, at an Indian restaurant. The couple wore traditional Indian dress and encouraged their guests to follow suit, and they even brought in Indian dancers to help get everyone on the dance floor.

Then, the next day, the pair had the most stunning outdoor chuppah overlooking the Pacific Ocean – seriously, don’t miss the epic imagery from photographer Laurie Bailey and videographer Yours Truly Media – with so many beautiful personal touches, from their cantor, who officiated, including the couple’s own words about their hopes for married life that she’d requested they write in advance, inviting friends and family to read the seven blessings in English after their cantor read them in the original Hebrew, and using Wendy’s great-grandparents’ gold wedding bands.

And did we mention that Wendy looked absolutely stunning in her Romona Keveza gown? Because she most definitely did.

Take it away, STG Brides Club member Wendy! (and if you want to join Brides Club (STG’s members-only community that removes wedstress and indecision, and gives you what you need to plan with confidence, join here. We’re closing the doors to free entry on Thursday so now is the time!).


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How We Met

Wendy, the bride: Nagesh and I met in our MBA program at the University of Maryland in 2015. We hit it off as soon as classes started and the rest is history!

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Yana & Archita | Jewish-Hindu-Indian-Russian multicultural lesbian wedding at Trust, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

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Now this wedding is not just special, stylish or merely a good day out – it’s a totally spectacular cocktail of uber-chic modernism, elegant traditionalism, multi-cultural funkiness and fun, all blended and shaken to perfection.

For any of you who are wondering how to mix two completely different backgrounds into one smooth and stylish day — get ready for some serious pinning action.

Yana and Archita seamlessly melded their loves, tastes and cultures together to create a unique day at Trust — a neoclassical styled art and event space gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

An art event in itself, our two gorgeous brides amalgamated a colourful and awesome blend of Russian, Jewish, Hindu and Indian traditions against the ridiculously gorgeous, all white, architectural splendour of a soaring 10,000 square foot, turn of the century building.  Simple.  Ahem.

What could have been contrived or clunky – trying to shoe horn different traditions and styles together — is instead thoughtful and elegant.

But the simplicity really lies in their motivation — to unite two families into one, representing both cultures.  Even more, what underlined and defined the wedding was FUN. They wanted a huge, huge party and they got it, right down to the last few bars of Bohemian Rhapsody.

I’m still grinning from ear to ear at the image of the couple being raised high on chairs by friends and family, old and young — all partying together with the help of some homemade “traditional” vodka — to the Black Eyed Peas’ I Got a Feeling!

Even their choice of traditional wedding dresses had a twist… Archita wore a sari, whilst Yana wore a white wedding gown but with a sash around her waist made from the same material as Archita’s sari — a beautiful and subtle symbol to truly demonstrate the bond between the two.

All of the fantastic photography is by Michael and Melissa at M2 Photography. Now over to our beautiful brides…

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How we met

Yana & Archita, the Brides: We met in undergrad at Penn at the largest party of the year called “Spring Fling”. To this day we debate about who made the first move. Chita’s friends were having a small party in a dorm room, and Yana crashed it. It was only three weeks before summer break began, so this was supposed to be just a fling… but we fell in love before the summer.

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