Jewish Country House Weddings Archives - Smashing the Glass

An Enzoani Bride for a Family-Focused Jewish Wedding with a Stuning Floral Chuppah at Offley Place, Hitchin, UK

05/09/2022 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

The wonderful Jewish wedding of Sophie, a sustainability executive, and Daniel, a legal technologist, has so much going for it – stunning florals, a gorgeous chuppah, rockin’ music, and an exquisite venue, to name just a few things.

And we adore them all. But most of all, we love that these two made it their highest priority to make sure their big day felt like a big, welcoming community, centered on happiness, love, and family. Especially meaningful was the fact that Dan’s dad – who’d been in hospital and rehab for 8 months recovering from Covid – was able to be there, and you can just feel the emotion come through in each and every one of the photos from Jo Russell of Chiko Photography, and every frame of the epic wedding video by Max from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion.

Sophie and Daniel opted to work with a number of our beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors, including their venue, #STGvendor Offley Place – which “ticked every single one of our boxes and then some” between its welcoming staff, beautiful grounds, and accessible spaces – and #STGvendor Toastmaster Jango, who helped to ensure the day ran smoothly – and also provided invaluable assistance in the runup to the big day. They also opted to make their wedding gift list with #STGvendor The Wedding Shop, who we love for their fab selection of not only general home goods but Judaica too!

There’s so much more to say, but we’ll leave it to Sophie – who looked simply ravishing in Enzoani – to fill you in on the rest…

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How we Met

Sophie, the bride: The story of how we met depends on who you ask! However, we can both agree we met at the University of Manchester, and have been together coming up to 10 years.Continue Reading

Ethereal Garden Vibes for an Afternoon Tea Same Sex Jewish Wedding at Fowler House Mansion in Lafayette, Indiana, USA

15/08/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

This gorgeous Jewish wedding is a very special landmark for us: it’s the very first we’ve published featuring not one but two members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

Both Eliza, a graduate student in Purdue University’s Rhetoric and Composition program, and Jean, a data analyst at an e-commerce marketing tech start-up, were beloved members of the Brides Club community, and we’re so glad to hear their kind words about how helpful and supportive they found the group as they planned their afternoon tea wedding.

We’re in love with the sweet vintage vibes of their day – don’t miss the wonderful photos by Jasmine Norris Photography – featuring lovely touches from a five-course French-style tea, a chuppah built by Jean’s dad, fun loose-leaf tea favors for guests to take home, and a colorful folk art-inspired ketubah by Celia Lemonik, purchased through Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com. Eliza and Jean especially loved ketubah.com’s wonderful options for personalizing the text and making it egalitarian and gender-neutral.

There’s so much more to say about this very special Jewish wedding – but we’ll turn you over to the brides to hear the rest…

How we Met

Eliza: We met at a bar in Indianapolis (while Jean was on a date with someone else!).Continue Reading

A Watters Bride for a Summer Colors Jewish Wedding Weekend at Elmore Court, Gloucestershire, UK

06/06/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

Over the past months, it’s been so beautiful to see big, festive Jewish weddings coming back. And for so many couples, it’s been all that much sweeter getting to celebrate together with loved ones after spending so much time apart.

That was very much Ilana and Sam’s experience – from day one, their vision included a big, fun party for their nearest and dearest, and while the pandemic certainly added stress and uncertainty to their planning, it made the end result – just three weeks after UK COVID restrictions had been lifted! – that much more meaningful.

To make the most of having everyone gathered together after so long, Ilana and Sam opted to turn their Sunday wedding into a full-on wedding weekend, renting out a nearby house with both their families to host Saturday welcome drinks and generally get in some extra bonding time.

We also love Ilana and Sam’s “summer colors” theme, beautifully shown in the photos by James Davidson – complete with vibrant pink and orange florals in the bouquets, on the tables, and adorning their beautiful birch chuppah rented from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Happy Chuppah People. Speaking of which – note how Ilana and Sam went for flowers just on two corners of the chuppah. This is a great example of how doable it is to incorporate gorgeous florals into your chuppah design without breaking the bank.

There’s so much more to say, but we’ll leave the rest to Ilana, who looked so glam in her gown by Watters…

How we Met

Ilana, the bride and Sam, the groom: We met seven years ago at a house party on a crowded ‘dance floor’ – Sam took Ilana’s number, didn’t text her for a week, then cancelled their first date because he’d started dating someone else. Ilana proposed a friendly coffee instead; Sam upped that with a trip to the Tate Modern. One seven-hour “non-date” later, Sam decided he might want to organise a real date, and the rest is history.Continue Reading

A Lee Petra Grebenau Bride for an Elegant Jewish Wedding at Holkam Hall, Norfolk, UK

08/04/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

How gorgeous is Lucinda and Zac’s fabulous Norfolk Jewish wedding?! The setting, the chuppah, Lucinda’s fabulous gown by Israeli designer Lee Petra Grebenau… It’s all just perfection, as you’ll see if you scroll through Andy Davison Photography’s wonderful images.

Lucinda, an optometrist, and Zac, who works in finance, pulled off a wedding that was not only beyond-words beautiful, but also an awesome party! That was in large part thanks to the couple’s band, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jam Hot, who started with an awesome Israeli dancing set and went on to keep the dance floor packed all night.

In Lucinda’s words, “I think I can say on behalf of every guest at our wedding that Jam Hot Showband really were the highlight of the event. We keep on trying to think of another excuse to have the band again for another party, they created memories that we are forever grateful for and will never forget.” Doesn’t get much better than that!

We were also pleased to hear that Lucinda and Zac also bought their ketubah from much-loved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com –they wanted something they could hang in their home as a work of art, and needless to say they found just the thing.

Now we’ll hand you over to Lucinda…

How we Met

Lucinda, the bride: Zac and I met when we were about 15 years old on holiday, Zac being from London and myself from Nottinghamshire, we were just friends until around the age of 17. Around this age, Zac took me on our first date in London, we started out as a long distance relationship through university. Once I graduated, I moved to London and we have since bought a house and moved in together, and then got married 2 years later, despite all the odds with covid. We had been together for over 8 years before we got married.Continue Reading

A Caroline Castigliano Bride for a Whimsical English Countryside Jewish Wedding at Langley Park, Cotswolds, UK

20/12/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

We couldn’t think of a better way to close out the year than with the fabulous English countryside Jewish wedding of STG Brides Club member Alice, who works in advertising, and Micael, founder and CEO of a licensed medical cannabis producer!

The pandemic forced these two to postpone four times, and to make a pretty drastic pivot in locale from Israel to the UK – but you’d never know it from how absolutely picture-perfect their big day turned out! While COVID meant a long-haul destination wedding wasn’t in the cards, Alice and Micael opted to keep that destination feel by booking Langley Park in the Cotswolds for an all-weekend bash.

Alice was a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club during her wedding planning, and we’re so touched by her kind words about the group:

The biggest thing in Brides Club was the support network. During the pandemic, it felt as though we would never have a wedding. It was very reassuring to be amongst people going through the same thing and there were lots of resources to help navigate through it the best way possible! We also got a discount with the brilliant Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Big Day Designs, who printed our invitations. It was the first Jewish wedding for the majority of our vendors and Smashing the Glass was great for giving them all the information they needed.

We’re absolutely obsessed with the glam photos by Elena Popa and second shooter Emily Rose Hamilton – can you believe it was their first time photographing a Jewish wedding?!

There’s so much else to say about this beautiful day – from the surprise South African touches Alice added for Micael, who had lots of guests from home who sadly weren’t able to attend in person due to the pandemic; to the incredible private badeken the pair shared after not seeing each other for a full week; to the sweet custom illustrations Alice and Micael commissioned from The Millustrator. But we’ll leave it to Alice to fill you in on all that…

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How we Met

Alice, the bride: We usually just say long story! But we met in 2009 at a party in London. He is South African and was visiting his cousins who live in London. He never actually spoke to me on the night but later messaged me on Facebook. We dated long distance for several years whilst he was at university in Israel. He finally moved to London and we had a few make ups and break ups before getting engaged in 2019.Continue Reading