Jewish DIY Weddings Archives - Smashing the Glass

A BHLDN Bride for a Literary Jewish Wedding with DIY Touches at the Bride’s Parents’ Family Home in Falmouth, MA, USA

01/11/2019 by Karen Cinnamon

We love it when a couple makes their Jewish wedding 100% truly THEM. And that’s exactly what Leah, a project manager, and Alex, a lab tech and soon-to-be nursing student, did in their literary-themed backyard wedding, which celebrated the pair’s love of reading, family, and of course their beloved cats!

Their wonderful wedding planner, Luba Gankin from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Primavera Dreams, helped them pull all these strands together to make one ultra-memorable day. We can’t get enough of all the fun details like centerpieces made of old books and escort card bookmarks made of recycled book pages – plus the super colorful chuppah canopy, made from a piece of traditional Egyptian wedding tent cloth the bride brought back with her after spending three years living in Egypt! Photographer Alex Gordias captured it all so beautifully.

Oh, and did we mention that the bride – who looked lovely in her wedding dress from BHLDN – baked the wedding cake (for 150 guests) herself?!

Now over to the couple…

How we met

Leah and Alex, the bride and the groom: The bride and groom first met 16 years ago at age 15 when they were competitive Latin ballroom dancers in high school! The groom claims he had a crush on the bride at the time.

Fast forward 14 years, and the groom moved in with one of the bride’s closest friends completely by chance. When the bride came to visit her friend, she was surprised to find Alex there but impressed with the excellent job he’d done growing up. And the rest is history! True to their roots, the bride and groom performed a sensual tango to Leonard Cohen’s ‘Dance Me To The End of Love’.
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A Free People Bride for a Colorful DIY Backyard Artists’ Jewish Wedding in Zichron Ya’akov, Israel

04/10/2019 by Karen Cinnamon

When a pair of artists plan a DIY Jewish wedding, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be something special. But even so, the boho backyard wedding of Britt and Adir exceeded our wildest expectations.

The bride, Britt, is the mega-talented ketubah artist and beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor BRITcolors – she makes incredibly unique ketubot, and as far as we know is the only one out there making embroidered and beaded designs – and as if that weren’t enough, she’s also a freelance interior designer.

Groom Adir is a poet-singer-songwriter who’s also working on his master’s degree in clinical social work, running sales for a friend’s construction company, AND moonlighting as a private kosher chef.

So clearly there’s a ton of talent going on there, and it doesn’t hurt that pretty much all of the bride’s family are artists too – plus plenty of the couple’s friends. And they all came together to throw one amazing, unique, ultra-personal wedding in Britt’s parents’ backyard in Zichron Ya’akov, Israel.

The couple focused on making the most of the lush greenery and bright colors of the garden, working lots of watercolors (the bride’s specialty) and florals into the day. We’re obsessed with photographer Tomer Ben Simhon’s luminous photos, which capture all the emotion AND the gorgeous artistic details so perfectly.

Naturally the bride designed her own ketubah, and we’re in love with the one-of-a-kind creation she came up with. In her work she regularly utilizes embroidery, layered watercolors, and gold flake paint – but until crafting her own ketubah, she’d never combined all these elements together into one. The finished product is a real stunner – you don’t want to miss this beauty.

We also love that in keeping with her DIY, low-key style, the bride opted for a non-traditional boho chic dress from Free People. There’s so much more to say about this awesome wedding, but we’ll let Britt tell you the rest herself…

How we met

Brit, the bride: In October of 2013 I was living in Florentine, Tel Aviv. I was starting my second year at the Holon Institute of Technology and went to my local print shop to print out an assignment. It was very early in the morning and I was the only one there, right when they opened.

Moments later, Adir walked in, dressed to impress (he was working in finance) and stood next to me waiting for his order. Excited to finally meet what I thought was a slightly older, more “serious” guy, I struck up a conversation only to learn that he was just another musician printing flyers for a show … and was a few months younger than me. He insisted on giving me a flyer even though I said I wouldn’t come. When I heard his music, I knew I had to send him a message. He responded by asking me out on a date. We met the following night, and have been together ever since.

A Lihi Hod Bride for a Tropical Boho Jewish Wedding at Ronit Farm, Kfar Shmaryahu, Israel

12/07/2019 by Karen Cinnamon

We are loving the tropical vibes of today’s gorgeous Jewish wedding – Shahar and Or really pulled off the perfect carefree outdoor Israeli wedding at beautiful Ronit Farm. The bright colors, unconventional florals, lanterns, and colorful glassware all come together to create a serious party vibe.

The couple knew they wanted their wedding photos in natural daylight, so they opted to marry on a Friday at noon – love that these two knew what they wanted and went for it!

And that chuppah! With natural wooden poles wound with tropical vines, greenery, and exuberant flowers, we’re totally transported to an island paradise. Asaf Kliger’s colorful, warm photos capture it all so perfectly, and videographer Nir Tenenbaum’s fantastic trailer makes us feel like we were there for the big day.

There’s so much more to say about this fun wedding – like the top-secret performance by a famous Israeli rock star that the couple surprised their guests with! – but for that we’ll turn you over to Shahar, who looked radiant in her boho chic dress by Israel designer Lihi Hod…

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How we met

Shahar, the bride: Our story is the story of two highschool lovers. We met back in high-school 11 years ago, where Shahar had the guts to send Or the first text message.

Since then we have been through everything together. Army service, travelling South America for 7 months and many vacations in Europe. We’ve been through university together – both bachelors and masters. 2 rental apartments in Tel-Aviv and the list goes on and on.

Nowadays, Shahar is a MA student for clinical psychology at IDC Herzliya, whereas Or is finishing med school at TAU university.

We live at a small and cozy apartment in central Tel-Aviv, and are thinking about adopting a new doggy friend for our family soon!

An Amanda Wakeley Bride for an Interfaith Irish-Jewish Wedding at Millhouse and Slane Castle, Slane, Ireland

06/05/2019 by Karen Cinnamon

One of our favorite things here at STG is seeing all the different ways couples bring their backgrounds together in crafting their Jewish weddings… and today we’ve got a great example of exactly that in the Jewish-Irish wedding of Rebecca, who works in property, and Colm, a musician and client services director for a tech company.

The London-based couple opted to marry in Colm’s native Ireland, but they made sure each spouse’s traditions got equal billing, with clever touches like kippot inscribed with both Irish and Hebrew phrases (from STG Brides Club vendor Hebrewear), boxes at each table filled with Yiddish and Irish phrases, an Irish singalong AND a hora – oh, and a beautiful bright ketubah by Micky Caspi, purchased from beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com.

We’re also obsessed with Rebecca’s cool non-traditional bridal style. Her ethereal silver silk gown (and second strappy red number) from Amanda Wakeley just go to show that you don’t have to go white to be a totally gorgeous bride – plus we can’t go without mentioning her awesome starry veil (so on trend for 2019)! Photographer Marianne Chua captured the look splendidly – not to mention all the emotion, action and fun of the big day.

We’ll let Rebecca fill you in on the rest…

How we met

Rebecca, the bride: We met running up and down fields in Central London playing tag rugby. It’s a non-contact version, men and women, and we ended up on the same team. One sunny weekend tournament, I saw him glancing over and suspected he might be interested. We had a friendly chat, made our way to an afterparty together and were pretty much inseparable from there.Continue Reading

A Reformation Bride for a DIY Jewish Wedding at Littlefield, Brooklyn, New York, USA

22/02/2019 by Karen Cinnamon

DIY and NYC aren’t the first two things we think of as going together when it comes to Jewish weddings. But super cool (not to mention resourceful) couple Grace and Barry proved us wrong with their charmingly eclectic indoor garden party celebration in Brooklyn, beautifully captured by the amazing Mandee Johnson Photography — their outdoor photoshoot in the streets of Brooklyn is serious #weddinggoals.

With some help from their families — Grace and her mom DIY’d the floral arrangements, while Barry’s mother fashioned a beautiful, simple chuppah canopy from an old lace curtain — and fun touches like string lights and a BBQ buffet, these two prove that it’s totally possible to craft a memorable wedding on a budget, even in the most expensive of cities.

And how cool does Grace look in her dress from Reformation (which happens to be a fantastic option for brides on a budget who don’t want to compromise on style)? We’ll leave the gorgeous bride and groom to fill you in on the rest…

How we met

Grace and Barry, the bride and the groom: Barry is on stage, performing. Grace is in the audience, audience-ing. After the show, she cracked a joke about his shoes, he laughed, that was that.