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An Avital Saporta Bride for a Front Yard Jewish Pandemic Wedding in Tel Mond, Israel

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Noam-and-Michael-Israel

Since the pandemic began, we’ve seen lots of backyard weddings. But we’re pretty sure Noam and Michael’s is our first front yard wedding. Why is that relevant, you ask?

Well, Michael just happens to live across the street from a playground, and on the big day, in addition to the couple’s invited guests, they ended up with a couple dozen little observers taking in the action – how cute is that?!

The couple, both students at Bar Ilan University, had originally planned a big wedding, but COVID forced them to rethink their plans (and date, thanks to Israel’s second lockdown). Michael’s garden may have been chosen because due to the circumstances, in the bride’s words, “it was the only place were able to legally get married!” – but luckily it happens to be totally gorgeous, and was really just about an ideal place to carry out the original theme, which was a magical forest combined with rustic elements.

In addition to their 50 in-person guests, Noam and Michael livestreamed their day to friends and family across the globe – at one point, 750 people were tuning in! And throughout the day, the pair took time to chat with their virtual guests through the livestream.

It goes without saying that we’re obsessed with the stunning photos by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman. Due to a last minute change of date, the couple ended up having to find a photographer in just a few days, and were they ever lucky that Herschel was available! As always, his photos are so full of love and emotion while also managing to capture all the details of the day absolutely exquisitely.

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How We Met

Noam, the bride and Michael, the groom: Our story begins in 2015 when we both started new chapters in our lives. Michael had just immigrated to Israel and went to study Hebrew in the North of Israel where Noam had just started her national service in guess where? The exact same place! We became best friends, but duty called and Michael started the army while Noam went away to Australia for her second year of national service.

The friendship didn’t end and when both those experiences were over, our friendship turned into something a little more special and love blossomed. Since then, we’ve been together for the last 3 years.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

An Acquachiara Bride for a Magical Pandemic Jewish Wedding at Villa Miani, Rome, Italy

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Diletta and Stefano, Villa Miani, Rome, Italy

How gorgeous is this incredible chuppah?! We’re totally and completely obsessed with the all-white floral masterpiece Diletta, an architect, and Stefano, a consultant, dreamed up for their big day. Everything looks SO perfect, you’d never guess they had to drastically change their plans midstream due to COVID – including a change of venue to better accommodate their reduced guest list.

Luckily, the pair ended up at beautiful Villa Miani, one of our very favorite Roman venues, and with some help from their wedding planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Deborah di Castro, and their vendor team, everything came together perfectly – despite the uncertainty that came with planning amidst fears of a new lockdown. (As it happened, Diletta and Stefano’s wedding date fell at a time when cases were low in Italy – but one month later, Rome was back in lockdown.)

Diletta had a strong vision for her wedding from the get-go: a sophisticated all-white look, carried out in her florals, that fabulous chuppah, and of course her Acquachiara gown, adorned with hundreds of white fabric “petals.” Don’t miss all the exquisite details in Azeta‘s photos and Sesame Films’ trailer.

Diletta and Stefano, Villa Miani, Rome, ItalyDiletta and Stefano, Villa Miani, Rome, ItalyDiletta and Stefano, Villa Miani, Rome, ItalyDiletta and Stefano, Villa Miani, Rome, Italy
How we Met

Diletta, the bride: We met at a friend’s party.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Liz Martinez Bride for a Last-Minute Pandemic Jewish Wedding at Villa Nova, Beit Nehemiah, Israel

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May & Shachar, Villa Nova, Israel

It’s safe to say that pretty much no 2020 couple had smooth sailing when it came to their wedding. But the Jewish wedding planning journey of May and Shachar, Israelis living in NYC, was even bumpier than most.

These two started off planning a destination wedding in Tuscany. Then COVID hit Italy – hard. So they decided to shift everything back home to Israel. No small feat, but the couple managed to book their venue and vendors (all while living on the other side of the world in New York, of course).

In the midst of all this chaos, May and Shachar decided to pack up their life in NYC and head back to Israel to ride out the pandemic. Finally, living in the same country as their wedding – that should make things easier, right? Well, not quite – just a couple weeks before their wedding date of September 22, May and Shachar were faced with the prospect of a three-week lockdown.

Unwilling to postpone yet again, the duo opted to do the opposite, and move their wedding up to September 15 so they could make things official before the start of the new lockdown. By the time they closed on a new venue, they were left with just two days to pull everything together.

Luckily, May and Shachar had a stellar team on their side. To look at Shai Ashkenazi’s incredible photos, you’d never guess it all came together on such short notice – every single detail is picture perfect, and, like May says, the images look like they came straight out of a glossy fashion magazine.

There’s so much more to say about this incredible day – but we’ll leave the rest to the bride, who looked stunning in her Liz Martinez dress (followed by a custom glittery jumpsuit by Mor Morstein she changed into for the reception)!

May & Shachar, Villa Nova, IsraelMay & Shachar, Villa Nova, IsraelMay & Shachar, Villa Nova, IsraelMay & Shachar, Villa Nova, Israel
How we Met

May, the bride: Our story begins a little bit before New York. Before I moved to New York, I posted on a Facebook group called “Israelis in New York” that I’m moving to the city and looking for help with some information about the work I’m starting and some information about the city. I got a message from a guy who was familiar to me from his picture, and it turns out he is the brother of a friend who worked with me, and I met him in the past (about 5 years ago) at her house when he was visiting his family in Israel.

Since I recognized him, I decided to answer his message and we started talking, he really helped me with some questions and asked if I could bring something for his business with me to New York, of course I agreed (by the way – he didn’t link me to his sister and had no idea about our little meeting a few years ago). When I arrived to NY after the long flight I realized, that from all of Manhattan neighborhoods, the hotel I got from work was right next to his apartment! So he arrived really quickly to get his delivery – just a few minutes after I arrived at the hotel with my luggage. And from that day we never parted. We have been together for more than 3 years, living together in New York.

Shachar planned the marriage proposal in the summer, in New York. He toured locations in central park and ordered me an engagement ring from Israel based on a photo I once showed him.  It turns out that when the ring arrived on delivery to New York, I showed him a picture of another ring that I liked more, which is not similar to what he ordered for me.  He decided to change the ring and make another one exactly according to what I liked, and the whole procedure of preparing and sending the new ring took time. Until the winter.

Of course I didn’t knew there was a ring before. We arrived to Central Park on a really cold day, claiming that his brother had to choose a location for a photoshoot there.  We walked around Central Park to get to the “photoshoots” place, which turned out to be the place for the proposal – the Central Park lake.  The place was just beautiful and pastoral, and the proposal was exciting and intimate. Of course I immediately said yes!  And I cried. His brother documented everything and it was just perfect!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

An Alexandra Grecco Bride for an Ultra-Emotional Jewish Wedding Celebrating Life at the Dorint Park Hotel in Bremen, Germany

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Louis-and-Eunice-Dorint-Park-Hotel-in-Bremen

Like lots of 2020 couples, Eunice, a Brazilian criminal lawyer, and Louis, a Dutch mathematician (who met in Hebrew class in Bremen, Germany!) had a very different wedding than the one they’d originally planned. However, in their case it wasn’t due to the pandemic: tragically, Louis’s father, Theo, was diagnosed with terminal cancer this year. Getting married without him there was, in the bride’s words, “not an option,” and so the couple shifted their plans from a June 2021 beach wedding in the Netherlands to a local affair close to home in Bremen in September 2020.

It wasn’t easy – not least since, due to COVID, only Eunice’s mother was able to make it to the wedding from Brazil – but Eunice and Louis managed to plan the most incredibly beautiful, joyous day with Theo present to bless them, deliver an ultra-moving speech, and even dance with them in his wheelchair. It was incredibly bittersweet – Theo passed away just three days after the chuppah – but the couple were so grateful to have him present, and for the way their photography and videography team, made up of Sabine Lange and her sister Beate of Photo Lauricella, managed to capture not only the love and happiness of the day but also the sorrow of the pair’s impending loss.

Every so often, we come across a wedding that really shows us what it’s all about – and this was most certainly one of them. In Eunice’s words:

I honestly can say it was the best day of my life. I can’t say it was the setting I dreamed, but it was the setting I needed to grow and to become a stronger woman and closer to G’d. For that I’m grateful.

Read on for more wisdom from this wonderful bride.

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How we met

Eunice the bride: We met while trying to improve our Hebrew. We ended up signing up for the same class at the university of Bremen, where we met, live and got married.

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

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Ran-and-Stav-Luca-Israel

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…


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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 ReadingContinue Reading