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

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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

A Magic Secret Garden Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Chappaqua, New York, USA

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Okay, HOW amazing is Samantha and Brandon’s uber-dramatic chuppah for their Jewish wedding?! These two built a raised platform above a hot tub in the groom’s parents’ backyard, where they wed, to form a dramatic perch from which they got to look out at all their guests while making it official. Samantha says they went “a little over the top,” but we think they got it just right. Don’t miss it in Mindy Briar’s epic shots!

The custom chuppah platform is also the kind of thing that would probably be hard to pull off in a traditional venue. The couple, who had originally planned a big black-tie wedding, pivoted to something much more intimate so that they could marry on their original date ofOctober 3, 2020, and we love that they took advantage of all the options afforded them by their Plan B. Gathering with just local family, and including loved ones from outside the New York area via Zoom, Samantha and Brandon shifted gears to pull off the magic secret garden-themed wedding of their dreams – and it was all inspired by their amazing custom ketubah!

These two had a clear vision of what they wanted, and they worked with beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Tallulah Ketubahs to bring their dream ketubah to fruition – and then some! Founder Rachel was ultra-attentive to the couple’s wishes, and, in addition to the gorgeous, colorful hand-painted florals framing the text, she incorporated ultra-personal touches, like the pair’s cats, and passports to represent their love of travel. The level of detail is just phenomenal – we bet you’ll be just as blown away as we are!

Now over to Samantha, who’ll fill you in on all the other special details of the day…


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How We Met

Samantha, the bride: Brandon and I grew up about five minutes down the street from each other and attended the same middle school and high school, but had never crossed paths. I knew who he was because he was the cute, albeit slightly obnoxious, boy in my freshman math class. When he showed up on my Tinder 15 years later I couldn’t resist swiping right. Once we started talking we just never stopped!

Brandon is a Finance and Business Operations Manager for WeWork and I am the President and Creative Director at Auburn Jewelry, a custom jewelry company based in New York. We spend our free time together cooking, baking, dancing, gardening, hanging out with our two rescue kitties and enjoying each other’s company.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Rime Arodaky Bride for a Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Connecticut, USA

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We are absolutely in love with the beautiful backyard Jewish wedding of NYC couple Alexis, a physician, and Marc, a lawyer! Alexis’s work as a front-line provider during the peak of the pandemic in New York made the pair realize it was time to seize the day and seal the deal.

Since Alexis and Marc didn’t want to wait long before making it official, a backyard wedding at the bride’s parents’ home made perfect sense. The couple didn’t have much time to spend planning, so they sought out micro wedding expert Susie Blumenfeld of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Pink House Productions to plan the rustic celebration of their dreams. And are we ever obsessed with the outcome – the perfect intimate romantic day, strewn with white blooms and greenery (including the most beautiful birch chuppah). Don’t miss the gorgeous photos from Dreamscapes Studio – or the stunning ketubah from Our ketubah was from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com.  

We also love that in shopping for the perfect dress for her casual outdoor day – something she had to do all online, since bridal stores were closed due to the pandemic – Alexis sought out French designers whose lines included civil ceremony dresses. And did she ever find her match in the most exquisite Rime Arodaky!

We’ll let her take it from here…


How we Met

Alexis, the bride: We both work very busy and opposite schedules and somehow were lucky enough to cross paths on the app Hinge in January 2019.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A DIY Jewish Garden Micro Wedding in London, UK

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We are absolutely in love with the quintessentially English garden micro wedding of Rebecca, a teacher, and Joel, an engineer. These two needed a convenient all-outdoor venue where they could throw a COVID-safe celebration – and fortunately, the school where Rebecca teaches happens not only to have a gorgeous garden but is also located just around the corner from the pair’s home.

With some help from their friends, Rebecca and Joel put together a beautiful day starting with a tisch and badeken in the couple’s own garden, followed by a procession down the street to their venue. Then there was the ceremony – which came together with lots of participation from not only those guests who were able to attend in person, but also some VIPs who joined in via the couple’s livestream. These included the bride’s parents, who were able to give the couple a blessing, and her brother, who sang to them as they stood under the chuppah.

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Kate Swerdlow captured the day so perfectly in her emotion-filled photos – and Rebecca and Joel can’t stop raving about how much they loved working with a photographer who not only put them at ease on the day with her warm, easygoing nature but also just “gets Jewish weddings”!

Now over to Rebecca…

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Garden Venue

Rebecca, the bride: We got married in the garden of the school where I work which is around the corner from our home. We picked this venue because it was beautiful, surrounded by an orchard, a vegetable patch, with easy parking and close by. It had a big green space where we had small marquees with tables that we used for lunch.

The chuppah was made out of bamboo and designed and constructed by my husband and his friends, and they built it onsite. The location was intimate and green and perfect.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Pronovias Bride for a Reimagined Backyard Jewish Wedding in Armonk, New York, USA

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Here at Team STG, we have been absolutely loving all of the reimagined pandemic weddings we’ve been seeing, Though it’s no easy feat – emotionally or logistically – to change tack when you’re deep in the midst of planning the day of your dreams, so many amazing couples are rocking it each and every day.

Like Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Danielle, a designer at Facebook, and Eric, an attorney. They had originally planned a big Jewish wedding in Washington, DC – but then COVID intervened. Once it became clear their initial plans were a no-go, the pair decided they still wanted to move things forward, and chose to embrace the opportunity to plan a different kind of wedding. Different, but no less beautiful or joyous – photographer Eli Turner’s incredible imagery is proof of that.  

Choosing the groom’s parents’ backyard as their venue, Danielle and Eric leaned into the intimacy that comes hand in hand with marrying in front of just 14 of your nearest and dearest. They opted not to stream their celebration on Zoom (though they did have videographer Tom Bowen of Bowen Films on hand to record a video they could share with friends and family unable to attend), instead letting the tight-knit group set the stage for what became the couple’s favorite part of the wedding: their ultra-personal vows, which Danielle says they never would’ve shared in front of their original 230-person guest list. We’re also in love with the couple’s wonderful nature-inspired ketubah by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Ketubah. 

Danielle and Eric also made an effort to replace other elements that they felt they were “losing” from their big wedding with new features that excited them. The two are both big fans of the band Phish, and while they’d originally deemed the band’s music too quirky to impose on their guest list, with the attendees pared down to just family they opted to go full on by booking a Phish tribute band to perform!

We’ll let the bride – who looked ravishing in Pronovias (yes, the same gown she’d picked out for the big bash) – fill you in on the rest…

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Danielle-and-Eric-private-residenceDanielle-and-Eric-private-residenceHow We Met

Danielle, the bride: We met at a Great Gatsby themed party during college, when I was a sophomore and Eric was a senior. I had a feather in her hair and Eric was wearing a full suit, which is not your regular college attire. We spent the whole night talking and by the end of the party had exchanged numbers. Eric liked that I was in the art school and very creative. I was drawn to Eric’s humor and wit.

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