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Two extraordinary brides for a sumptuous bohemian Jew-ish Wedding at Broger’s End Kangaroo Valley, Australia

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Today’s wedding  reaches new heights  on the wedding spectrum and  I am entirely and whole-heartedly in love with every little bit  of it. The attention to detail and the  amount of creativity is phenomenal. I hardly know what to talk about first because it’s  such a total feast for the eyes, but what I love the most is that Lara and Cass’s  union remains as the focal point throughout.

On the other side of the lens for a change, Lara is one of the world’s most renowned  creative wedding photographers, and indeed I have  featured her work  on Smashing The Glass several times. She’s a girl after my own heart wearing  not one, not two, but THREE  wedding gowns, accessorised by a simply astonishing bouquet by  Mikarla Bauer + Jardine Botanics  — truly one of the best I’ve ever seen.

So much  originality permeates Lara and Cass’s day from choosing to  get ready and walk down the aisle together, to all sorts of gorgeous DIY like a ‘Guess Who’ game handmade by Cass using their  family members, to  an idea that I’ve never seen before: a flower crown station for the  guests to accessorise with before the ceremony  so that when the couple walked  down the aisle they saw all their guests with flowers in their hair. Love love LOVE!

Sheree from  She Designs Events  blended their two very different loves into one creative  theme which works brilliantly even though it combines everything from  Country & Western  to Vintage Romance! I love the idea of not compromising to one theme but rather merging both your loves.

Our  two brides  come from different religious backgrounds and  chose to incorporate Lara’s Jewish  culture with  some crazy  Jewish Dancing that  really set the tone for the evening.  Lara said:

We had the Jewish dancing  before entering the reception and it really loosened everyone up! We were being thrown up and down on chairs and tossed in the air and running around in circles and forming conga lines around the fire pit! It was a definite highlight.”

And there are so many… You truly have to savour every one of  Dan O’Day‘s astonishing images to take it all in. Oh, and there is a wonderful  film by  Light Noise Films  at the end which you just must watch. What a total treat!

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Planning the wedding ourselves

Lara: I think I completely underestimated how time consuming planning an entire wedding from start to finish can be, never mind running a business at the same time.

Cass was great as she really let me take full control of everything but was always there when I needed her to bounce ideas with and make final decisions or to get things done.

We had spread sheets and documentation for everything — its really quite overwhelming how many things / vendors there are to keep track of and all the little details to organise — but well worth all the effort in the end.

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Sarah & Dan | Rustic Jewish wedding held at their own farmhouse in Connecticut, USA

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Sarah and Dan purchased a Connecticut farmhouse during their engagement — their first home together — with the dream of getting married on the property. They made it happen with their wonderfully intimate orthodox Jewish wedding on December 6th 2015, the first night of Chanuakah! Sixty of their closest friends and family joined them to celebrate the happiest days of their lives. I certainly can’t think of a better way to  commemorate owning your first joint home!

This informal yet elegant affair just goes to show that you don’t necessarily have to incorporate a rainbow of colour or an abundance of details to have the wedding of your dreams. Mazal Tov Sarah and Dan!

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Choosing to get married in our new home

Sarah, the Bride: After having both lived in studio apartments in New York City our dream was to live on a quiet retreat within arms reach to the city. We found a farmhouse dating back to 1790  in Connecticut, that we purchased during our engagement ,with the dream of being married on the property.

Farmhouse Rustic Jewish wedding

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A Stephanie Allin bride in a blue and white wedding dress for an English country garden Jewish wedding at Adwell House, Oxfordshire

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Girl crush, girl crush!  Oh my goodness,  today’s bride, Claudia is utterly gorgeous, and what amazing fashion choices she made — an astonishing  Stephanie Allin wedding gown  adorned with blue flowers, followed by  a party dress to dance the night away in, not to mention some spectacular jewellery. She made a speech too (a smashing-the-glass-ceiling bride if ever there was one!) and  I could literally write pages about Claudia’s creative talents alone… She’s definitely one clever and very accomplished woman.

But full credit to her dashing groom, Edward, too… Claudia was working as a doctor in Africa for much of their engagement so Edward spent many a weekend wedding planning and venue-hunting with Claudia’s mum. Hat’s off, Edward!

Details-wise, I can’t kick off with anything but that glorious  chuppah… The groom’s  father cut branches off a tree in his Norfolk garden where the couple  got engaged and together with Edward built the chuppah in his  back garden. The delightful  Liz from  Blue Sky Flowers  worked her magic on the chuppah structure with the most sensational blooms, and for the canopy, one of Claudia’s  friends assisted all the  hens in decorating fabric ‘Stars of David’ on the  hen weekend. The stars were then  sewn on  to a simple white tablecloth and it  felt  like the most wonderfully personalised starry sky.

What’s more the couple are  now repurposing the chuppah poles as a gazebo in their  garden and growing flowers up it in time for summer. Perfection!

What makes this wedding all the more special is that both families had known each other long before Claudia and Edward had ever got together. Oh, and as an aside, Claudia has  a twin brother and identical twin sisters — how extraordinary  is that?!) Claudia told me.

During the ceremony our Rabbi asked us to turn around to look at all our family and friends. It was overwhelming…  To have so many people you love all there for you. Our families have been friends for 40 years and lots of people commented that they’ve never been to a wedding before where they love all the people under the chuppah – we are incredibly lucky and were completely surrounded by love all day.

There are  lots more treats, surprises, advice, tips and just a wonderful account of a glorious  day  so if you can get five minutes with a cuppa to sit down and read Claudia’s wonderful words,  as well as look at the stunning photography from  Ria Mishaal,  I promise you will get so much out of  this  wedding story.

With thanks to the lovely Alex from  The Bijou Bride for submitting this very original Jewish  wedding (and although heavily pregnant at the time, spot how ‘on theme’ Alex  was in her beautiful blue and white ‘ceramics pattern’ maternity dress… I love you girl!)

Speaking of which, you’ll see Alex holding an umbrella over Claudia in one or two  of the images. Claudia  quite rightly says, “don’t stress about the weather – it poured with rain all day for us but we had so much fun no-one even noticed and if you’ve surrounded yourself with the right professionals they’ll make the reorganisation needed completely seamless. We walked around the grounds having our picture taken through the rain and you’d never know from the pictures!”

Spot on, Claudia… SPOT ON! Enjoy every last detail of this very special Jewish  wedding.

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how we met

Claudia, the Bride:  Our families have been friends forever but somehow Ed and I didn’t meet until a few years ago. We hid our relationship from our mothers for the first few weeks because we thought they’d start planning our wedding after the first date! He took me to the Zetter Townhouse for cocktails, and we ended up in the games room playing Jenga until they closed. When Edward  walked me home, we narrowly missed my brother who I lived with at the time who got home minutes later. He took me for a picnic two days later and cooked me dinner after a set of night shifts later that week and the rest was history!

I’m a doctor and had always planned to work abroad for a year and Ed was unwavering in his support for me doing this even though he couldn’t come with. He proposed in our favourite place in Norfolk just days before I left the country to work in Zanzibar. He didn’t realise he’d signed himself up to months of Sunday lunches with my mum planning and Saturday expeditions to wedding venues!

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Sarah & Anne | Super stylish Same Sex Jewish Wedding at Hart House, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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I couldn’t name this blog anything but smashing the glass. It is THE moment of a Jewish wedding and images like the one above just make me so happy. Two beautiful women, crazy in love, performing this hugely symbolic tradition under a gorgeous chuppah. I’m telling you, one of the best things about this job is definitely how uplifting it is to look at images like these.

And like all the real Jewish weddings on Smashing The Glass, this W-Day is completely refreshing. Both brides chose to forgo the traditional wedding dress style in favour of a two super sleek and contemporary creations by Carolina Herrera and Judith and Charles respectively, accessorised in Anne’s case by the most delicate headpiece.

And that’s not the only thing that has me swooning. There are gorgeous dainty florals and rustic table runners by GLP Events that not only look delightful (Anne wanted a simple arrangement of flowers that reminded her of the fields in the small French village where she grew up), they’re cost-effective too.

And the guests…well if the photos at the end of the night are anything to go by, then it’s clear that everyone had a darned good time!

Back with a bang for his 3rd feature on STG, Niv Shimshon has captured the mood perfectly with these terrific shots. Prepare to swoon.

Lesbian Wedding at Hart House, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
how we met

Sarah and Anne, the Brides: We met one cold winter’s evening in Montreal and have been together nearly every day since. On the night we met, Anne was sick with a nasty flu. Sarah, a germophobe, knew it was love at first sight because she didn’t want the date to end despite Anne’s coughing, sneezing, and significantly high fever. Anne is calm, cool and collected, and Sarah is witty, funny, and shows pictures of her dog to strangers every time she has a chance.

Lesbian Wedding at Hart House, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Jodie & Joel | Woodland-style rustic Jewish wedding at Luton Hoo, Hertfordshire, UK

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Happy 1st of the month  everyone! I hope that 2016 has been kind to you so far and that your wedding planning is going brilliantly.  If you haven’t booked  your wedding photographer yet, you might want  to enter our win your wedding photography competition with Claudine Hartzel, the brilliantly  talented camerawoman behind today’s gorgeous  Jewish wedding. Have a read of what the bride had to say about working with Claudine, further down the page — you’ll see that  if you’re the lucky couple to win this competition you’ll be starting the celebrations early!

So onto this beauty of a W Day. Although set just outside London, Jodie and Joel wanted to create a woodland-style wedding amongst  the lush gardens, lakes and waterfalls  of the beautiful  Luton Hoo  in Hertfordshire.  Initially Jodie, who runs her own mobile juicing business, wanted to get married in the middle of a forest so this setting was a perfect compromise. The table centres by  Platinum Raspberry  are particularly exceptional, and really bring the woodland theme to life.

This is a truly  inclusive wedding with family and friends involved every step of the way, from Jodie’s  step-brother singing a prayer under the chuppah (to the Indiana Jones theme tune no less), to  one of Jodie’s  oldest friends singing  Ellie Goulding’s  How Long Will I Love You   for the couple’s  first dance. Jodie’s  mum had secretly arranged  this as a surprise along with a few other  touches    – how thoughtful  is that?

Jodie has  some brilliant advice for all of you at the end of the post — I particularly love ‘Remember to say prayers for everyone you love as you circle  your groom —  it makes the ceremony that much more meaningful’.

Not only do we have the lovely images from Claudine Hartzel, but we also have the film from  Bloomsbury Films, which includes a heart warming speech from Jodie’s mum.  Without further ado, I give you Jodie and Joel.

Woodland-style rustic Jewish wedding at Luton Hoo
how we met

Jodie, the Bride:  Joel was one of my martial arts instructors. I later found him on Facebook, gave him my number, and the rest is history!

We got married in the grounds of beautiful  Luton Hoo  in Hertfordshire, just outside London. We just fell in love with the gardens — there was a lake and a waterfall and it was surrounded by trees and greenery. Initially I wanted to get married in the middle of a forest so this was a perfect compromise.

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