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Juliette & Nick | Interfaith Jewish Christian wedding at The Brewery, East London, UK

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Some of you may be aware that at traditional Jewish weddings, the couple enter the reception under an archway of hoops to the sound of raucous clapping and cheering. Juliette and Nick chose to enter their party with that tradition but they added their own personal twist: Nick was a university fencer so they alternated the hoops with fencing swords. Brilliant! I love it when couples take age-old Jewish wedding traditions and make them their own and these are exactly the kind of personal details that ‘grab’ me when I look through a submission.

Juliette and Nick’s ceremony embraced both their faiths (Christian and Jewish) in a truly beautiful way, and it made me smile from ear to ear when Juliette told me that in the run-up to her big day, she loved seeing the range of mixed faith weddings on the blog. She was inspired by how other couples had worked out ways to incorporate two faiths into their day in their own unique way. Helping interfaith couples plan a meaningful Jew-ish wedding was one of the big aspirations I’d had for STG when I originally set it up so I’m one very happy blogger!

So what else do I love about this wedding? Well for one, there are some AWESOME musical choices – make sure you listen to those YouTube links further down the post. There’s also a groovy gin cocktail bar by those cool dudes, the Travelling Gin Company  and there’s beer imported from Brussels, as that’s where Nick used to live. And there’s an alternative to the traditional wedding cake made out of 20 kilos of cheese. That would have gone down VERY well in my house.

The venue is The Brewery and it gives this wedding an urban East London vibe that’s the perfect backdrop for a city-chic W day.

Photography today is by a much-loved STG-recommended supplier, Blake Ezra Photography. You can view more of Blake’s work and all his other STG weddings in his listing in my hand picked supplier directory, Smashing Suppliers.

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A Carolina Herrera bride and an Alexander McQueen groom for a Jewish Irish wedding at the Senate House Library, London, UK

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From the moment I started reading Francesca’s wedding report, it took all of five seconds for me to warm to this beautiful, sassy, witty woman. This really is one of the loveliest, and most entertaining, wedding reports I’ve read to date, so if you can spare five minutes to sit and read Francesca’s words as well as look at the stunning photography by Christian and Erica Ward I promise you, you’ll be inspired.

I can’t resist giving you a little snippet… Here’s how Francesca broke the news to her Jewish mother that she was dating Andrew, a non-Jewish guy:

When I told my mother that I was dating someone non-Jewish (the first time it had happened) and that it was serious, I softened her up first: “he’s not Jewish… but he is a tall, handsome trilingual rocket scientist!”. She agreed that my cost/benefit analysis was sound.”

Yes, what you’re about to see and read is truly special. This is how to do a super cool, super chic, interfaith wedding that blends traditions to perfection and oozes personality by the bucketload.

There are so many things I love about this wedding that I’d be here until midnight listing them all, but I will say that the table numbers and signs are old law reports that Francesca hand-painted (she’s a barrister), the confetti cones are made out of the Financial Times (Andrew works in finance), there’s an ‘Alhambra disco’ (Francesca will explain that later), an Irish harpist, and a traditional hora, personalised iced biscuits for each guest, and the most incredible invitations that perfectly symbolise the fusion of Francesca and Andrew through the art of paper-cut!

On the fashion front, there are the most exquisite pair of Harriet Wilde shoes, a Carolina Herrera dress (with a story and half to it), and a groom in an Alexander McQueen blue velvet tux… Need I say anymore? Over to the gorgeous Francesca.

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Yana & Archita | Jewish-Hindu-Indian-Russian multicultural lesbian wedding at Trust, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

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Now this wedding is not just special, stylish or merely a good day out – it’s a totally spectacular cocktail of uber-chic modernism, elegant traditionalism, multi-cultural funkiness and fun, all blended and shaken to perfection.

For any of you who are wondering how to mix two completely different backgrounds into one smooth and stylish day — get ready for some serious pinning action.

Yana and Archita seamlessly melded their loves, tastes and cultures together to create a unique day at Trust — a neoclassical styled art and event space gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

An art event in itself, our two gorgeous brides amalgamated a colourful and awesome blend of Russian, Jewish, Hindu and Indian traditions against the ridiculously gorgeous, all white, architectural splendour of a soaring 10,000 square foot, turn of the century building.  Simple.  Ahem.

What could have been contrived or clunky – trying to shoe horn different traditions and styles together — is instead thoughtful and elegant.

But the simplicity really lies in their motivation — to unite two families into one, representing both cultures.  Even more, what underlined and defined the wedding was FUN. They wanted a huge, huge party and they got it, right down to the last few bars of Bohemian Rhapsody.

I’m still grinning from ear to ear at the image of the couple being raised high on chairs by friends and family, old and young — all partying together with the help of some homemade “traditional” vodka — to the Black Eyed Peas’ I Got a Feeling!

Even their choice of traditional wedding dresses had a twist… Archita wore a sari, whilst Yana wore a white wedding gown but with a sash around her waist made from the same material as Archita’s sari — a beautiful and subtle symbol to truly demonstrate the bond between the two.

All of the fantastic photography is by Michael and Melissa at M2 Photography. Now over to our beautiful brides…

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How we met

Yana & Archita, the Brides: We met in undergrad at Penn at the largest party of the year called “Spring Fling”. To this day we debate about who made the first move. Chita’s friends were having a small party in a dorm room, and Yana crashed it. It was only three weeks before summer break began, so this was supposed to be just a fling… but we fell in love before the summer.

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Carys & Baz | Super glam, super stylish destination Jewish wedding ‘in the desert’ at The Parker Palm Springs, California, USA

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How about we all jet off to Palm Springs to revel in the à¼ber glam destination wedding of Londoners, Carys and Baz?

Carys is half Welsh, half American (with Jewish heritage) and Baz is half English, half Persian, and they had the most exquisite wedding full of stylish, creative details and more than a hint of Palm Springs glitz and glamour.

It’s swoon-inducingly pretty… I just love every element — from Carys’s entire outfit — a divine gown by Israeli wedding dress designer, Berta, a sweeping, full length veil, and glittery Louboutins — to the pink ombre wedding cake, the glittery details, the dreamy flowers, and the Mexican mariachi band that played during the cocktail hour. It’s all just so much fun and beautifully stylised.

One thing that might not have gone so much to plan was the breaking of the glass… A member of the cleaning staff had mistaken the bulb and napkin for rubbish, but fortunately the groomsmen spotted the slip-up at the last minute before Carys and Baz had even noticed, and the equipment was saved!

This wedding proves that you don’t necessarily need to hire a destination wedding planner for a big day abroad. Anything is possible if you have a clear vision, great suppliers, and some helpful friends.

Let’s hand over to Carys for the inside story, but before I do, I must just mention Mi Belle who took all the gorgeous imagery on the page today.

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Sarah & Ben | Jewish Muslim Bangladeshi Wedding at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

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I hope you are ready for elegance, sophistication and a touch of magic this Tuesday afternoon. Sarah and Ben’s’s gorgeous wedding embraces four vastly different cultures (Judaism, Islam, USA, Bangladesh) and has more than a touch of class about it.

It’s a vibrant fusion of culture, tradition and romance, and they absolutely nailed it when it came to creating the perfect balance of rituals. They chose to have two wedding ceremonies back to back so that they could incorporate all their separate traditions and still have one unified moment when they could walk out together as husband and wife. They also tried to incorporate little touches that reflected their personalities, such as having their ring “bear” be a giant stuffed panda that Sarah had given to Ben when they first started dating. What a super cute idea!

Aside from all the wonderfully rich cultural details, I love that their wedding cake and petit fours came from the same bakery that had created Ben’s parents’ wedding cake thirty-seven years ago…

It’s also so lovely to see a non-white wedding dress on STG this afternoon. Sarah really is  the most breathtakingly beautiful bride, don’t you think?

Images come from the fabulous Joy Marie, back with a bang to Smashing The Glass with this wedding. As always, she captured every last detail beautifully — I really struggled to chose the images for this post! Joy Marie is a Smashing Supplier, so can always be relied upon for beautiful images. And at the end of the post there’s the wedding film from Matt Giesler too – watch out for a magical sparkler exit followed by a horse-drawn carriage. Oh my!

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