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A Riki Dalal Bride for a Wedding Planner’s Own Jewish Wedding at Merrydale Manor, Knutsford, Cheshire, UK

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We always love seeing what Jewish wedding pros choose when it comes to their very own big days, so we were excited for the beautiful wedding of beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rachel of Rachel Flax Events to groom Mikey, a property lawyer (#friendsforever, in honor of their new shared surname!) – especially after hearing the tantalizing tidbits she’s shared with our Brides Club!

Naturally, Rachel opted to plan her own wedding, and she really ended up with the perfect English country garden wedding with a touch of modern sophistication. Take her Perspex chuppah – it was chosen so that guests could have an unimpeded view of the ceremony as they were seated in a circle surrounding the structure, but there’s no denying it also added a hit of contemporary style to the pastoral surroundings.

Photographer David Stubbs and videographer YSD Media captured everything so beautifully, and naturally. Also, how cool is it that the pair had a chuppah painter on hand to paint the ceremony as it was happening?!.

We’re also obsessed with Rachel and Mikey’s gorgeous pocket fold invitations by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor E.Y.I Love in the bride’s trademark colours of dove grey and pale pink, with the couple’s logo in gold on the front to tie it all together.

Rachel and Mikey took advantage of the honeymoon planning prowess of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Abby Taubman to organize their upcoming trip to Japan – we’re sure it’s going to be totally fab!

There’s so much more we could say – we haven’t even gotten to the fact that the couple gave each and every guest a personal handwritten note on the day… and the guests were also treated to a bonfire at the end of the evening with a s’mores table! 

Let’s hand you over to the bride, who looked gorgeous in a bespoke gown from Israeli designer Riki Dalal…


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An Outdoor Wedding

Rachel, the bride: We got married in Merrydale Manor which is a new venue in Knutsford, Cheshire. It was incredibly important to me that my wedding venue felt as homey, exclusive and modern as possible. As a wedding planner, it was also key for me to have our wedding at a place that I hadn’t worked in before, which was a challenge!

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A David’s Bridal Bride for a Disney Meets Midsummer Night’s Dream Jewish Wedding at New West End Synagogue and Jumeirah Carlton Towers, London, UK

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We’re so excited to be sharing the beautiful Jewish wedding of our beloved STG Brides Club member Melissa, a nanny and cake maker, to Nick, a design technician in a secondary school! Melissa, a self-described hopeless romantic obsessed with Disney, fairy tales, and butterflies, had been dreaming of her big day since she was a child, and did she ever bring all that enthusiasm to play when it came to planning!

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Alexandra’s Florist helped the couple merged all these passions with a Midsummer Night’s Dream aesthetic, with plenty of white flowers with ivy, green leaves – and butterflies. Melissa and Nick’s gorgeous rustic chuppah featured was swathed in twigs, white flowers, and silver butterflies, and the wonderful centerpieces for the reception followed suit.

And we adore the unique invitations the pair designed, working with STG Recommended Vendor BigDay Designs and an architectural artist, featuring a hand-sketched illustration of their gorgeous ceremony venue, New West End Synagogue.

We also love that the pair incorporated some awesome DIY projects into their big day, most notably Melissa’s handcrafted arches (see pic above), made from cut up hula hoops and covered in artificial ivy and roses, to keep with the theme (she’s even shared a tutorial inside Brides Club should you wish to follow suit!) – and Nick’s heart-shaped wooden table name signs, each etched with the name of the Disney song the table in question was named for!

Photographer Chiko and videographer and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion captured all the special moments of the day so exquisitely – we really feel as if we were there! And Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Toastmaster Jango kept the day running smoothly and stress-free.

There’s so much more to say about this fantastic day, but we’ll let Melissa, who looked beautiful in Davidʼs Bridal, fill you in on the rest…

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Venue

Melissa, the bride: We got married at New West End Synagogue in St Petersburgh Place – ever since I was a little girl I always dreamed of getting married at this synagogue. The interior is just picturesque, with stunning stained-glass windows, too.

After the ceremony, we made our way to the Jumeirah Carlton Towers in Knightsbridge, which allows the bridal party use of their gorgeous and exclusive private park. This made for a stunning set of photos!

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A Pronovias Bride for a London-Meets-Israel Jewish Wedding at Offley Place, Hitchin, UK

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What do you do when you’re dreaming of a destination wedding in Israel but family obligations keep you closer to home? Well, you could do worse than to follow the example of STG Brides Club member Nicola, a senior business analyst for a technical consultancy, and Dave, the CTO and co-founder of a digital design and marketing consultancy, who made it their goal to bring a little bit of Israel to their Jewish wedding right here in the UK.  

How’d they do it? For starters, they worked with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor XS Showband to put together two party simcha sets with a mixture of Mizrahi and Israeli music that kept everyone on the dance floor in true Israeli style – Nicola also can’t stop raving about how helpful the XS team were in creating the couple’s day of plan and processional order, plus providing day of coordination.

And in good Israeli wedding style, Nicola and Dave had the “reliable and fantastic” (in the bride’s words) Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Magniv mobile photo magnet team taking photos of everyone throughout the festivities so that people could have a keepsake to take home.

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Crawleys photographed the whole day so beautifully in their trademark artsy documentary style, and we’re so touched to hear Nicola say that the ultra-supportive community of STG Brides Club was “literally the only thing that kept me sane” during wedding planning

Now over the bride, who looked simply smashing in Pronovias…

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How we met

Nicola, the bride: We met in the good old fashioned way… on a dating app – Jcrush to be precise (seems this is the only way to meet your soulmate these days).

There was an instant connection when we met but both of us were not long out of relationships and not ready for anything serious so we maintained a strong friendship. Even as friends, we would go out for regular dinners and lunches together, him insisting on paying for every single one being the kind and generous soul that he is.

It wasn’t until a mutual friends party, and the help of a bit of dutch courage (tequila), that we both realised what was right in front of us and shared a kiss. The first of many more to come.

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A Reem Acra Bride for an Enchanted Forest Jewish Wedding at Gotham Hall, New York City, USA

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As Karen wraps up her whirlwind tour of NYC, we’ve got another New York-tastic Jewish wedding for you to celebrate her first trip out here on official Smashing The Glass business.

Today’s couple, Charlotte and Nate, went for classic Manhattan glam with a touch of Midsummer Night’s Dream fantasy. First off, can we talk about their chuppah?! In honor of the bride’s love for greenery, the couple’s florist basically created a mini enchanted forest right in the middle of their grand, old-school venue.

With hanging greenery, white blossoms, birch poles, and tons of sparkling lights, it’s truly something to behold. And keeping the magical vibes going strong for the guests, these two even had trees to match placed in the middle of the seating area! Even their gorgeous ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com featured a tree! And the photography team from Fred Marcus Studio and videographers at Current Films captured everything so perfectly.

We’re also obsessed with Charlotte’s gorgeous, classic gown from Reem Acra – with a gorgeous beaded jacket on top for that little something extra. We’ll let this stylish bride take it from here…

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A New York City Wedding

Charlotte, the bride: Gotham Hall is a classic new york city venue that I think stands out from all the rest. It is a super glamorous and grand venue but still achieves the charm and intimacy that I was looking for. I also loved working with the Gotham Hall team, they are all fantastic.

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A Carolina Herrera Bride for an Elegant Argentinian-American Jewish Wedding at the Gramercy Park Hotel, New York City, USA

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Today’s real Jewish wedding is just SO very NYC… which is appropriate, because this week Karen’s taking the Big Apple by storm! All of us at Team STG are VERY excited for her first official STG trip to the greatest city in the world – check out our Instagram Stories for the next few days to see what she’s up to!

But back to the wedding… wonderful STG Brides Club member Julie and groom Guillermo got married at the Gramercy Park Hotel, which is also where they went on their first date! The fact that it’s got killer NYC views didn’t hurt either.

Everything about this wedding was perfectly NYC chic, from the understatedly elegant floral chuppah to the simple, timeless ketubah the couple chose from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor (and East Village local!) The Ketubah to the artsy, creative photography by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jossef Si (who Julie and Guillermo loved so much they flew him in from Tel Aviv – and no wonder, his style was such a perfect fit for their big day). The pair even brought in quirky entertainment like a tarot card reader and a poet to write personalized haikus for guests!

And in true New York tradition, this wedding was delightfully multicultural, with all kinds of touches incorporating Guillermo’s roots in Argentina, from Argentinian dance music to late night empanadas.

As always, we’re so happy to hear that Brides Club helped make this wedding the smashing success it was – Julie loved our planning resources and vendor recs, and she was able to take advantage of a bunch of amazing discounts offered just to members of the club!

There’s so much more we could say, but we’ll let Julie, who looked stunning in Carolina Herrera, fill you in on the rest…

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Venue

Julie, the bride: We got married at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City. We chose this venue because it is where we had our first date! The story goes… I was moving from Boston to NYC, and while on a trip to NYC for work/apartment hunting, I stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel. We connected through an app the day I arrived in the city and arranged to meet one week later (my last day before returning home). I asked if he could meet me at the hotel bar, since I needed to grab my bags before heading to the train.

Two hours before the date, I got an unexpected job offer in London, which was a city I’d been dreaming of living for 10+ years. I debated with my friends if it was more rude to cancel last minute or to show up and say I was moving to London! Good thing I didn’t cancel 🙂 One year later, we celebrated our engagement with a night at GPH and dinner at the hotel restaurant where we had our first date.

Aside from its significance, we loved the venue because it provided stunning views of New York City and a unique floorplan. Rather than a standard ballroom, the hotel has an outdoor terrace surrounding multiple interior rooms. We did not want to follow the typical wedding structure (skip the long sit down dinner, and let’s get right to the party), and this venue naturally lent itself to something less traditional. Bonus: it is also covered in incredible modern artwork from Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat and more.

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