Jewish Corona Wedding Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Smashing the Glass

A Pronovias Bride for a Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Santa Barbara, California, USA

11/12/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

It’s a familiar story: Hailey, an attorney at a technology company, and Jeffrey, a management consultant, had planned a Labor Day weekend Jewish wedding at a historic Santa Barbara club, with a weekend’s worth of plans for their 150 guests flying in from all over the world.

That was pre-COVID. Once the pandemic hit, the couple made the decision to go forward with a 12-guest micro wedding on their original date, which the bride’s aunt and uncle generously hosted in their backyard. We’re obsessed with Hailey and Jeffrey’s cool copper chuppah adorned with greenery and white and pink blossoms – not to mention their beautifulblue and white paper cut ketubah was purchased from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com. Don’t miss Wedding Nature Photography’s gorgeous pics!

We also love the favors the pair put together for their guests, each containing a mask hand-sewn by the mother of the bride, a kippah, and a personalized embroidered handkerchief, plus a “Jeffrey and Hailey” granola blend.

And how sweet is it that the mother of the groom secretly reached out to the original guest list and asked them to submit a video with stories and well wishes?! She kept it all under wraps until the night before the wedding, when she surprised Hailey and Jeffrey with an incredibly touching video. Awwwww!

There’s so much more to say about this beautiful day, but we’ll leave the rest to Hailey, who looked stunning in her Pronovias dress (which she’d bough for the big bash, but happened to work perfectly for this intimate celebration)…

How we met

Hailey, the bride: We were matched on a dating app called Coffee Meets Bagel. After we met in person, we realized that we had one mutual friend in common: a Jewish matchmaker!

A Magical Rustic Jewish Micro Wedding in the Forest at San Moritz Lodge, Crestline, California, USA

04/12/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

We are beyond thrilled to be featuring the incredibly gorgeous wedding of our beloved Brides Club member Ashley to Jeff! These two nature loving attorneys dreamed of making it official in the middle of a forest – and they found the perfect spot in San Moritz Lodge, two hours east of their home in Los Angeles.

Then came the pandemic. Ashley and Jeff knew they wanted to get married on their original date, whatever it took, and while the wedding they had looked very different from the one they’d planned initially – they had to cut their indoor reception and catering, in addition to a vastly reduced guest list – it was totally and completely exquisite nonetheless. Karissa Breann Photography’s dreamy images absolutely blow us away.

We’re so touched to hear that that this wedding’s success was in part due to the incredible support and inspiration Ashley received as a member of Smashing the Glass’s Brides Club, which she joined just a month before her big day hoping for help dealing with the stress of planning a wedding during the pandemic. And, in her words,

Once I experienced the overwhelming support of the community and took advantage of the resources, I wondered why I had not joined sooner. Using the plethora of helpful guides and checklists and seeing how other brides were navigating this time made such a difference for me. The brides in Brides Club found so many creative ways to make their weddings safe, unique, and absolutely gorgeous during the pandemic.

One fab idea Ashley picked up from the group was writing each guest a personalized thank you card for making the effort to attend the wedding in the middle of a pandemic – as suggested by none other than Karen Cinnamon gave during one of Brides Club’s monthly Wedding Planning Solved Zoom chats.

Ashley and Jeff worked with wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent to create the custom ketubah of their dreams, incorporating an image of a couple painted by Chagall, an artist who holds special meaning for the pair. We’re totally in love with how Adriana of Ink with Intent put it all together!

We also love how these two adapted the pre-ceremony tradition of kabbalat panim (“welcoming of the faces”), where the bride sits, surrounded by her mother and soon-to-be mother-in-law, as guests line up to approach her for an individual chat and a wedding day blessing, for the COVID era. Traditionally, only female guests participate, but Ashley and Jeff opened their kabbalat panim up to everyone – and since every household came up to speak with Ashley individually, it was the perfect pandemic-safe way to socialize.

There’s so much more we could say about this wonderful wedding, but we’ll leave it to Ashley to fill you in on the rest…

How we met

Ashley, the bride: We met on JSwipe the very same night my stepdad suggested I expand my geographical search radius for matches. My mom and stepdad were interested in learning how JSwipe worked, so I walked them through the process as we all looked at the screen together.

I previously had my search radius at 15 miles, but my stepdad suggested I increase it to 50 miles. (When he and my mom were dating, the two lived 100 miles apart, and he drove to see her every weekend!) Right after I changed my filter from 15 miles to 50 miles, a picture of a curly-haired cutie feeding a chipmunk popped up. He lived 22 miles away. We seemed to have similar interests, so I swiped yes on him. Continue Reading

An Eddy K. Bride for a Jewish Interfaith Backyard Micro Wedding in Connecticut, USA

27/11/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

We’re so delighted to be sharing the gorgeous interfaith Jewish micro wedding of our Brides Club member Julia, a social worker for the Department of Veteran’s affairs working to hose homeless veterans, and Josh, an EMT and US Army veteran!

Julia and Josh had originally planned for a 200-person wedding at a local park, but when COVID hit they downsized their guest list and shifted the festivities to Julia’s mom’s property – which, luckily for the couple, just happens to be a beautiful farm filled with green fields of wildflowers.

Regardless of the location, Julia’s top priority was always to create a relaxed and inclusive celebration that embraced both her Jewish faith and Josh’s Puerto Rican heritage. In her words,

My husband is Puerto Rican and most of my friends are not Jewish. While I am rooted deeply in my faith, sometimes I feel isolated by my Jew-ishness. Brides Club felt like this beautiful validating hug. I was able to get so much out of the articles and vendor tips. I wish I had found Smashing the Glass earlier!

The pair opted for a mostly Jewish ceremony under a chuppah (covered by a Puerto Rican flag with a Star of David at is center – designed by the groom!), officiated by Julia’s mom’s best friend, who is the rabbi of an interfaith Jewish congregation. And we love that they incorporated their daughter (who also gave a beautiful speech and sang a song for the couple!) into the ceremony, too.

Don’t miss the beautiful images from Abigail Renee Photography – or the rest of the story of this very special day, as narrated by the bride…

How we met

Julia, the bride: Josh and I met working at a group home for teen girls. We both worked third shift at the time. When he started, he requested to have Fridays off and I lost my Shabbats off, so I decided I was not going to like him. (Boy did that backfire!) Turns out the reason he couldn’t work Fridays was because of his daughter. He used his weird sense of humour and a few honeydew melons to get me to talk to him.

When the group home closed, he asked me out (I was his supervisor). I said no. Josh was deployed a few weeks later and when he got to his post, he asked me if he could take me on a date. I agreed when he got home to go on a date with him. When he got home, he drove four hours from the airport home, showered and came right to pick me up.

About four years later he proposed in front of Boston Harbour.

An Asaf Dadush Bride for an Ultra-Personal Summer Jewish Wedding at Luca, Israel

20/11/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

Can’t you just feel the love seeping out of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jossef Si’s photos of bride Stav, an M.Sc student in biomedical engineering, and groom Ran, a CPA?

This beautiful Israeli Jewish wedding was SO full of emotion, and we are here for it! We love that Stav and Ran read letters they’d written to each other aloud during their ceremony – and how sweet is it that the couple’s families and friends wrote new lyrics to a favorite song all about the pair’s relationship, along with a cute video?! Possibly even more adorable, Stav’s father wrote new lyrics to‘What a Wonderful World,’a song they’d often danced to together when Stav was little, and which turned into the soundtrack to their father-daughter dance – awwwww!

Back to those incredible photos by mega-talentedSmashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jossef Si – it’s worth saying again that we just can’t get over how dreamy these pics are. And we’re not at all surprised to hear that on the day, Jossef was a calming presence who made the camera-shy couple feel totally comfortable.

Now over to Stav, who looked ravishing in her Asaf Dadush gown…

How we Met

Stav, the bride: We have been dating for the past 5 years, but we know each other from before. It all started ten years ago, in 2010. Ran had just resigned the army and I was a senior in high-school, we met at the beach in Eilat city, where we both went on vacation with friends. Ran played the guitar and sang funny songs with his friends, and we all bonded. Since then, I had my eye on him, and tried to start a little conversation afterwards on Facebook but it didn’t go well.

A year after I decided to do the SAT test before joining the army, and Ran took the same course at the very same time. We met again, started learning together, had a very good time (very platonic I must say) and when I joined the army the connection faded. 5 year later when I came back from my after-army trip around the world and Ran was a CPA student, he sent me a message, we went out and from that point on it’s all history.Continue Reading

A Picture-Perfect 25-Person Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding at an Airbnb in Connecticut, USA

13/11/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

We are consistently so, SO impressed with the gorgeous Jewish micro weddings flooding our inbox these days. We know not too many 2020 couples planned on getting married in a backyard with a guest count that, in some cases, barely climbs above the single digits – and yet you’re all totally rocking it.

Take Rebecca, a consultant, and Yosef, a third-year law student. These two had originally planned a big wedding near the bride’s home of Potomac, Maryland, but when the pandemic struck they had to go back to the drawing board to come up with a COVID-safe outdoor affair for 25.

The couple, who live in the New York area, found the perfect solution in a Connecticut Airbnb that happened to have not only a stunning backyard, where the festivities were held, but also super considerate owners who went above and beyond to make Rebecca and Yosef feel at home on their big day.

Rebecca’s dad, who happens to be a rabbi, not only married the couple but also built their chuppah, Rebecca did her own makeup and found the perfect simple white dress to wear in lieu of her gown – which she’s planning on saving for the bigger celebration she and Yosef hope to have when it’s safe to do so – and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor C. Schvarcz photographed the day SO beautifully. Initially, Rebecca and Yosef were considering skipping pro photography altogether, given the tight limit on the number of people who could be present, but now, looking back, they are unreservedly delighted that they opted to work with Chaim. In Rebecca’s words, “Having the photos to look back on feels like the only sense of normalcy from the entire event.”

Relatedly, we love Rebecca’s advice that, even though a micro wedding will likely feel very different than the wedding you had originally hoped for, it’s still absolutely worth treating it like the real thing! Whether or not you plan to have a big celebration later on, don’t skimp on the touches that will make your small wedding special – whether that’s hiring an amazing photographer like C. Schvarcz, wearing something that makes you feel amazing, having an epic cake, or anything else.

Now over to the bride…

How we Met

Rebecca, the bride: We met 3 years ago at a Simchat Torah party, we actually lived a block away from each other so he offered to walk me home, and then we ended up seeing each other a lot after that and naturally drew closer to each other.

How we met

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