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A Martina Liana Bride for a Modern Romantic Jewish Wedding by the Ocean with a Willow Chuppah at Eau Palm Beach, Florida, USA

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Close your eyes. You’re on a beach. You can hear the waves crashing, in and out…

For Leigh and Chad (#HappiLeighEverCassett), this wasn’t just a soothing meditation. It was their ACTUAL wedding. The sound of waves crashing was the soundtrack to their dreamy ceremony took place on a terrace overlooking the Atlantic (Palm Beach, no less), and the scenery… well, we’ll let Emily Harris’s photos and Senderey Video’s trailer speak for themselves.

As if that weren’t enough, the couple also had a totally gorgeous chuppah made of willow branches and dragonwood (see, it even SOUNDS magical), adorned with flowers — just the thing to complement the natural surroundings.

Oh, and can we talk about how AMAZING Leigh looked in her fitted trumpet gown from Martina Liana? It looks like it was absolutely designed with her in mind… pure perfection.

She’ll fill you in on the rest of the details — like the surprise confetti blast during we had a confetti blast during the hora!

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Modern Elegance

Leigh, the bride: We got married at the Eau Palm Beach. We picked this venue as we wanted to get married overlooking the ocean and the Eau has an amazing terrace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

We both grew up in South Florida, and Palm Beach was far enough away for even in-town guests to make a weekend of the event. In addition, the hotel is a 5-star resort, yet is quaint and inviting, and the lobby feels like your living room.

The hotel was formerly a Ritz Carlton, and the style is pure  Ritz elegance. Our theme throughout the weekend was modern elegance and the Eau captured that perfectly. The service, food, and staff were top notch!

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A Pronovias Bride for a Glam Garden Party Jewish-inspired Wedding at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, Hertfordshire, UK

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Squeal! Proud mom moment… yes, another one of my beautiful blogging brides is married! I’m so sad to say goodbye to lovely Clare, but also delighted to share her GORGEOUS Jew-ish wedding with you today…. and my goodness doesn’t she look gorgeous?!

Clare, a nursery school teacher, and Chris, a planning manager for a property developer in London (#onclouddeeks), started off their Smashing The Glass journey with a session with me as part of my wedding consultancy service. We worked together to to help bring her vision to life for what would eventually become her spring garden-themed day, and Clare reports that gained some incredible vendor recommendations from this session too — awww – that’s the best news!

Neither Clare nor Chris is Jewish, but the couple have Jewish family and opted to incorporate some traditions they found especially meaningful. I love the modernized, personal rewriting of the seven blessings their friends and family read to them (some of the blessings guests came up with are pretty hilarious!) and, of course, the magical birch chuppah with lanterns and candles strewn around the base.

Speaking of candles… the couple made liberal use of luxe scented candles throughout the day, which not only made their venue smell amazing but also made for wonderful memories: Clare reports that every time she smells, say, Jo Malone’s ‘wild fig and cassis’ (one of her picks), it immediately brings her back to the big day. Such a clever idea!

Photographer Catherine Carter and videographer Jeff Woods captured all the emotion — not to mention the fab creative touches — to perfection, and Clare looked beyond stunning in the exquisitely beaded fishtail-style Pronovias dress she purchased from STG Recommended Vendor The Wedding Club in South Kensington (where she had “the most amazing experience” — not that we’re surprised).

Okay, enough from us… take it away, Clare!

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How We Met

Clare, the bride: We met in 2014 by swiping right!

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An Isabelle Armstrong Bride for a Jewish Wedding with Killer Manhattan Views and an Orchid Chuppah at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, New York, New York, USA

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There are no words for how obsessed we are with epic orchid chuppah. With lucite columns draped in strands of gorgeous flowers, it’s just SO dreamy. And don’t even get us started on the backdrop of Central Park and the Manhattan skyline.

It doesn’t get much more quintessentially NYC than the Jewish wedding of Vlada, who works in corporate banking, and Joshua, a corporate and bankruptcy litigation attorney (#2beepst). Between their venue — high atop the landmark Mandarin Oriental Hotel — their magnificent New York skyline cake by none other than Ron Ben Israel, and the bride’s Isabelle Armstrong dress purchased from Kleinfeld.The couple even had a wedding announcement in the New York Times!

It wouldn’t be the ultimate NYC wedding without a touch of celebrity, and Kevin Osborne Band from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Hank Lane provided that and then some — Kevin is a backup singer for Billy Joel, in addition to being an awesome band leader in his own right.

Felix from Fred Marcus captured all the glam details and jawdropping views with aplomb, and Frank Ahn from Frank Ahn Films recorded the emotion of the day so well.

Okay, now over to the bride…

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How We Met

Vlada, the bride: We were introduced by a mutual family rabbi named Joseph Potasnik.

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A Pronovias Bride for an Ultra-Emotional Winter Glam Jewish Wedding at Two Temple Place, London, UK

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We’re totally obsessed with today’s fantastic (and first time featured on STG) London venue. Two Temple Place. It’s positively bursting at the seams with Edwardian opulence, from the epic wood paneling to the lovely gold fixtures to the massive stained glass skylight!

Lucinda, who works in marketing, and Max, a lawyer (#teamopptiedtheknot)could not have picked a cooler spot for their winter glam Jewish wedding, and we love how they played it up with awesome candelabra centerpieces, a beautiful gold chuppah, and the perfect wintry florals in deep berries and greens.

We’re totally not surprised to hear the bride’s report that the kosher catering from STG Recommended Vendor Food Story was stellar (and that the catering manager was a huge help in coordinating the day, even beyond food), and we’re totally craving some of those luscious canapà©s in the photos. The cocktails look pretty swanky themselves, for that matter…

But this wedding is more than it’s luxe style. The emotion captured in Barney Walters’ wonderful photos is just something else — his captures of the couple under the chuppah are truly unmissable. We love that, since Lucinda’s father had passed away, Max’s dad stepped in and gave a beautiful speech — the fact that Lucinda was so bowled over with emotion after listening to his speech, plus Max’s, the MC’s and best man’s, that she couldn’t deliver her own bride’s speech she’d prepared for herself really says it all!

Now we’ll hand you over to Lucinda herself, who looked so elegant in her simple, chic Pronovias dress…

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How we met

Lucinda, the bride: We met through mutual friends in a London nightclub… and the rest, as they say, is history!

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A Monique Lhuillier Bride for a Jewish Wedding at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, UK

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For years, we’ve been dreaming of blogging a Jewish wedding at one of the most spectacular venues in all of London: the majestic Natural History Museum in lovely South Kensington. An absolute masterpiece of Victorian architecture, it doesn’t get much more iconic than this.

And today, our wedding blogger dreams are coming true with the epic wedding of Orly and Zak! Following a ceremony at the New West End Synagogue in Bayswater — no slouch in the architecture department itself — the pair and their guests decamped to the museum’s stunning Hintze Hall — if you’ve been, or seen it in pictures, it’s the main space with the whale skeleton overhanging! HOW awesome is that?! And how cool are the epic action shots from Pascale at Reportage Gallery?

Orly, an OB/GYN, and Zak, who works in property development, rounded out their marvellous day with kosher catering from fabulous STG Recommended Vendor Food Story (the pair are STILL getting compliments on their unique canapà©s, cocktails, and everything else by the amazing Food Story team), and they also benefitted from the ultimate day-of coordination (plus a little assistance wrapping up the last few weeks of planning) from the amazing Georgia of Moriarty Events.

Orly’s princess-perfect Monique Lhuillier gown purchased from much-loved STG Recommended Vendor The Wedding Club (who added the PERFECT lace straps to keep Orly’s shoulders covered for the ceremony).

If that’s not enough to catch your attention, there’s also a super sweet story about the couple’s history with the venue, plus a dramatic Hora incident (don’t worry, though, it all ended well!).

We’ll hand you over to the bride in a moment, but first a quick reminder that our FREE online event, ‘The secrets to an unforgettable Jewish wedding’ with our founder and editor, Karen, is happening next Monday November 12 and spots are filling up FAST! Grab your place now to ensure that your Jewish or Jew-ish wedding is as unforgettable as Orly and Zak’s…

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An Iconic Venue

Orly, the bride: We got married at the New West End Synagogue in Bayswater and had our reception in Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. The synagogue is really one of the most beautiful in London with such magnificent architecture and such a warm, welcoming community.

The Natural History Museum has always been a really special place for us as a couple — on our very first date I told Zak about a little mistake I had noticed on a poster in the dinosaur exhibition. A few weeks later, unbeknownst to me, Zak had already decided we were going to get engaged and started trying to convince them to give him the poster for when he proposed.

It took him a few years, but eventually the NHM gave him the poster and he surprised me with it during his speech on our wedding day! Now it’s up in our hallway! Hintze Hall is such a stunning space and it was such a privilege to party under Hope the whale in such an iconic London venue!

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