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An autumnal Jewish wedding with a bride in a Melanie Potro dress at the Intercontinental on Park Lane, London

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Jewish-Wedding-Intercontinental-on-Park-Lane-London Fall has arrived early on STG! If you’re already missing all the seasonal colourful leaves, chunky knits and spicy drinks, then settle in and relive the season with Frances and Rudi’s magically autumnal real wedding, captured by photographer Elegant & Wild. 

Beautiful bride, Frances, wore an astoundingly stunning bespoke gown made by much-loved Smashing Supplier, Melanie Potro. The gown evoked echoes of Audrey Hepburn, and Frances looked like an absolute dream. We’re totally in love! We also highly approve of Frances’s choice to pair the dress with gorgeous, glittery gold heels.

Talented Frances was also able to harness her creative side, crafting the entire autumnal stationery suite for the wedding and even launching her own website selling her gorgeous products.

Melanie Potro wasn’t the only Smashing Supplier at Rudi and Frances’s big day. Amazing party band, Sensation Band, also played at the reception, even saving the day by keeping everyone entertained during a temporary mishap.

We also want to mention the beautiful, sentimental chuppah idea of using tallis from the bride and grooms’ respective grandfathers. The story behind this is so moving and it was a really wonderful way to honour generations of  their families. 

I’ll hand over to our gorgeous bride to tell us more. Take it away, Frances!  

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How we met

Frances, the bride: We have lots of mutual friends, we were friends on Facebook and knew each other from parties over the years, but in the end it was that good old matchmaker, Tinder, that got us together.

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An appropriately named venue: Intercontinental on Park Lane in London

We got married at the Intercontinental on Park Lane, quite simply because it was central and big enough to hold 300 people. My Dad gave a nod to its significance in his speech, commenting on the ‘intercontinental’ nature of our wedding. Rudi’s family is from Iraq and mine from London, although prior to that Austria, Russia and Poland. We had guests from all over too.

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A creative, colourful Jewish wedding with a show-stopping floral Sassi Holford gown at Chippenham Park, Cambridgeshire, UK

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Happy New Year from all of us here at STG! We hope you enjoyed a gorgeous family-packed holiday season and congratulations to all our newly-engaged readers . Welcome to STG and the very special community we have created (you might also want to follow us on Instagram and Facebook and join the private Facebook group for STG Brides too!).

So onto today’s gorgeous real wedding… Hands up who loves colour! And creativity! And phenomenally floral wedding dresses! OK, I briefly have to put my hand down so I can write up this gorgeous real wedding for you, but it remains enthusiastically raised in spirit.

Adam and Amy met in shared halls at university and Amy’s mum immediately clocked him as a perfect match for her daughter, definitively proving the theory that mum knows best.

The pair got married at Chippenham Park, Cambridgeshire, with all the action and their contemporary monochrome and floral colour-pop theme captured beautifully by photographer Adam Cluer from SE3 Productions.

At Smashing the Glass, we see a lot of wedding dresses, all beautiful and unique in our own ways, and yet we say this with emphasis: Look. At. That. DRESS!

Bride Amy wore a stunning floral creation by beloved Smashing the Glass sponsor, Sassi Holford that she purchased at the somewhat legendary bridal boutique, Miss Bush. 

This detail-heavy day is bound to make you swoon. From the groom’s velvet blazer to the bridesmaids in matching monochrome, the collaborative homemade cake effort to the touching and special chuppah design (seriously, maybe grab a tissue before reading that bit), you won’t be able to stop staring.

Over to Amy to tell us all about her Jewish wedding day.

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How we met

Amy, the bride: I met Adam on our first day of University, 12 years ago. In fact, I met Adam’s mum and sister first while unpacking my food into the communal fridge.

As soon as my mum met Adam she knew we’d get together; she just had a feeling about him, so when I told her we were going out a few months later, she asked what had taken us so long!

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A Cymbeline bride for a DIY-detailed Jewish wedding at Parklands, Quendon Hall, Essex, UK

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Brrr… it’s been a bit chilly lately — so we thought we’d bring on an early spring and showcase Ashley and Adam’s bright and beautiful real wedding at Parklands, Quendon Hall, shot by STG fave – Claudine Hartzel.

At Smashing the Glass, we absolutely adore personalised details, and both bride and groom happily rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in creating a wonderfully crafty dà©cor scheme that truly made the day their own. The couple made most of their own decorations, from heart-shaped bunting to burlap-wrapped mason jars, for their relaxed, earthy big day.

In keeping with the natural vibe of the day, the chuppah was built using silver birch wood poles, small floral arrangements and a gorgeous multi-coloured tallit, sourced in Israel by the groom’s parents

To commemorate their dreamy hot air balloon proposal, creative groom, Adam, made a model hot air balloon guest book with a mini basket in which friends and family could leave messages for the couple.

But that wasn’t Adam’s only project. In a romantic move that has set the bar ludicrously high for grooms everywhere (if you listen carefully you can hear a distant, sarcastic chorus of “cheers, mate”), Adam ordered a custom-made bow tie using a design of a painting that Ashley had created for him. It was a wonderful surprise on the day and Ashley was blown away.

The meaningful details were sprinkled through every aspect of the day. Ashley customised her Cymbeline dress with a vintage brooch and wore a bracelet with a trinket from her grandmother so they she could feel connected. And a final, adorable touch was the hand-stamped mini succulent plants as favours for each guest — a lasting memento of a beautiful celebration.

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How we met

Ashley, the bride: My best friend, Tash, knew Adam from uni. One day she invited me to come with her to his birthday drinks and we were introduced there. We met again at Tash’s infamous Seder night parties and then we hit it off again on a camping trip with a group of friends – the rest is history!

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Melisa & Mickey | A chic Tel Aviv wedding with an incredibly moving ceremony

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It’s freezing cold today in London and I think we could all do with  a little injection of sunshine and romance! Well we have just the real wedding to put a smile on everyone’s faces. Beautifully captured by photographer Alon Gruber of Studio AGS, Melisa and Mickey’s effortlessly chic, urban Tel Aviv W Day. is guaranteed to  light up your Wednesday!

First of all, we’re blown away by the totally unique tale of how they met— on a niche Chinese messaging app of all things. Their engagement followed after just one year and the wedding was planned in two and a half months, Melisa and Mickey are a living example of the phrase ‘when you know, you know’.

While we absolutely adore getting carried away with the fun of planning a wedding, it is really telling that bride Melisa spoke with the most passion and in the most detail about her feelings during ceremony. The dress, the dà©cor and all of those little details paled into insignificance in comparison to the intense emotion felt by the couple.

These two brought their happy outlook to the dà©cor scheme, infusing the day and details, like the flowers and invitations, with accents of bright yellow, their favourite colour. And if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, Mickey, the groom, walked down the aisle to Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.  We really do love these two…

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How we met

Melisa, the bride: We met against all odds on a Chinese messaging app called WeChat we both used to communicate with colleagues and clients (even stranger when you think about where we come from – Mickey’s family is originally from the States, and I come from Argentina).

We fell in love right away, got engaged after a little over a year, and planned our wedding in two and a half months!

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Yvonne & Craig’s rustic chic, beautifully personal Jewish wedding at Micklefield Hall, Hertfordshire ,UK

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Some weddings are a feast for the eyes — some are a treat for the heart. And some weddings are beautifully both! Yvonne and Craig’s contemporary rustic chic wedding at Micklefield Hall  in Hertfordshire, UK, shot by our inimitably talented Smashing Supplier  Laura Babb, was a beautiful blend of eye-catching dà©cor and eye-dabbing personal detail.

Bride Yvonne, who recently converted to Judaism, works in design and boy can you tell. The wedding was dotted with perfectly pulled together design details; a colour scheme in soft blush pinks and whites, rustic ladders, chalkboards featuring gorgeous typography, a naked Victoria sponge — and then there was that stationery.

Yvonne took on the brave and loving task of designing and creating her whole stationery suite: from her box-set themed table signage to the 150 lovingly handcrafted (and hand gilded) invitations received by her guests.

Oh, and adorable favour idea alert: Yvonne and Craig treated each guest to a hand-decorated personalised mini bottle of pink champagne and stripy straw so they could be enjoyed during the festivities. How cute is that?

Yvonne and Craig’s big-hearted wedding also involved some astoundingly touching personal details, including a framed photograph of Yvonne’s late mother, which took pride of place during the ceremony. Yvonne and her father made the chuppah together from materials from both sides of the family, and don’t even get me started on the lovely personalised gift that Yvonne sent to Craig on the morning of the wedding…

I hope you love staring at this divine, detail-laden dream as much as I did — and make sure you check out the quirky and cool Marryoke video at the end? What’s that, you ask? I won’t ruin it for you. Enjoy!

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How We Met

Yvonne, the bride: Craig and I met in a pub in Islington after Craig walked over to me and announced that he ‘had to  introduce  himself’! Craig played it very cool after that and waited another three  weeks until he  asked me out on our first date. We  have been together for six  years now and have made some incredible memories together.  I decided to convert to Judaism a couple of years ago and although it was extremely hard work, it really was the most incredible experience and really  brought me and Craig even closer together. Craig was a great support  and  spent hours helping me to revise and learn all the Jewish customs he was familiar with.

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