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A Sachin and Babi Bride for a Beachy Jewish Wedding Weekend at Guemes Island Resort, Washington State, USA

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There’s something so special about bringing all your nearest and dearest together to celebrate your nuptials not just for a few hours but for a full-fledged wedding weekend – which is exactly what today’s couple, Lucia and Jared, did.

The pair rented out Guemes Island Resort in Washington State from Friday-Monday so their guests could enjoy a whole weekend together with them – and what a place to do it! The venue was RIGHT on the water with majestic views of the San Juan Islands in the background, which inspired the décor for the day.

How special is it that Jared’s dad and cousin built the couple a chuppah, using driftwood from the beach?! Even the couple’s ketubah by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Brit Colors was totally on theme. Lucia and Jared loved Brit’s unique designs and personal touches, and they picked her Sea Glass Ketubah design for its beachy feel and calming colors. They loved the process of working with Brit, and are even planning to meet up with her when they next travel to Israel! Don’t miss it in the beautiful photos by Mio.

We’ll turn you over to Lucia, who looked so elegant in her Sachin and Babi dress from BHLDN, for all the rest of the details of this very special day…

 

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How we Met

Lucia, the bride: Jared and I met through mutual friends at Stagecoach music festival in Indio, California. After teaching me a country dance in the honky tonk tent, we were inseparable all day. A few days later Jared went to Las Vegas for a work trip and offered to fly me out for the weekend. After “thinking about it” for a few days, aka consulting my girlfriends, I agreed to go. It was such a fun weekend, and we have been inseparable ever since! He proposed in 2019 in Kauai, Hawaii at Hanakapiai Falls, a beautiful and secluded waterfall.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Wed2B Bride for an Egalitarian Jewish Wedding at Kew Gardens, London, UK

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Anya and Soren, Kew Gardens, London, UK

We love it when a couple makes their values the center of their Jewish wedding. Which is exactly what Anya, who works at an international development NGO, and Søren, a PhD student and research assistant working on DNA repair, did in their gorgeous Kew Gardens wedding.

The couple’s egalitarian values were front and center in their ‘shutafut’ (partnership) ceremony — an egalitarian alternative to the traditional ‘kiddushin’ marriage service under the auspices of Masorti. Their rabbi rabbi helped them create a ‘shtar shutafut’ (partnership contract), also known as a ‘brit ahuvim’ (lovers’ covenant), for their ketubah text, where they mapped out their commitments to each other and values they wanted to focus on in their marriage – how special is that?!

We also love that Anya and Søren opted to work with a whole bunch of our beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors to make their dreams a reality. The duo chose #STGvendor Claudine Hartzel as their photographer for the way she beautifully captures candid moments, and they could not have been more thrilled with the results.

#STGvendor Dvash provided outstanding catering, meeting special dietary requirements with aplomb, and Anya and Søren report that guests are still raving about their favorite canapes!

#STGvendor Happy Chuppah People provided the couple’s birch chuppah – a perfect fit for the setting – and, continuing the botanical theme, and Anya and Søren found their exquisite Tree of Life ketubah via #STGvendor Ketubah.com.

There’s so much more to say about this very special Jewish wedding, but we’ll let the newlyweds take it from here…

Anya and Soren, Kew Gardens, London, UK Anya and Soren, Kew Gardens, London, UK Anya and Soren, Kew Gardens, London, UK Anya and Soren, Kew Gardens, London, UK
How we Met

Anya, the bride and Soren, the groom: We met through JSwipe in October 2016.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Colorful, Multicultural Colombian-Israeli Jewish Wedding with Garden Vibes at Bustan Abu Ghosh, Israel

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We are absolutely in love with today’s gorgeous multicultural Jewish wedding – not to mention the awesome globetrotting love story of Laura, who’s in business administration, and Daniel, a lawyer, whose relationship took them from Madrid to New York to Israel, where they now live!

Celebrating the merging of their two backgrounds – Laura originally hails from Colombia, while Daniel is Israeli – was the theme for this very special day, and the couple carried it through in everything from their flowers to their music to their ultra-personal ceremony to their venue: they chose to make it official at Bustan Abu Ghosh, which is not only stunning but also happens to be run by a Muslim owner who loves Jewish weddings! In the couple’s words, “We thought it would be fitting to exchange our vows in a place where two different religions and cultures came together to create something magical, as this was precisely what happened with our relationship.” How special is that?!

Laura and Daniel chose Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ben Kelmer to document their big day – as an amateur photographer herself, Laura knew she wanted someone who could take natural, authentic photos capturing special moments in time. And no one does that better than Ben Kelmer!

There’s so much more to say about this fabulous wedding, but we’ll turn you over to the couple for the rest of the story…

How we Met

Laura, the bride and Daniel, the groom: We met in January 2018, the day we started our MBA at IE Business School in Madrid, Spain. From there, it took a while for us to formally become a couple. Laura was immensely scared of commitment due to previous experiences and did not come to the MBA with any plans to fall in love, let alone to be in a serious relationship. She was also very scared of getting involved with someone from a different religion (Laura is  Catholic and Daniel is Jewish). Laura  thought she would expose herself to being hurt if she fell in love with someone whose family might not accept her.

After we did get together, we applied and got accepted to Yale School of Management, for a dual degree program. We left Madrid together in August 2018 and graduated from Yale in May 2019. We then moved in together in New York City and got engaged in January 2020. We were planning to get married in October 2020, before COVID changed all of our plans… Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Two Beautiful Brides for an Ecofriendly Same-Sex Jewish Wedding in the Redwoods, Old Mill Park, California, USA

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Margeaux and Zoe, Old Mill Park, California, USA

How can you not love a wedding featuring California redwoods, two brides in matching Teva sandals, and a bouncy house? Just one of those things would be enough to set our hearts aflutter  – and the fabulous Jewish wedding of Margeaux and Zoe included all three, and so much more!

It’s hard not to fall for a wedding with as stunning an outdoor setting as this one – and we love that Margeaux and Zoe worked with Rachelle of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush to design a custom nature-themed ketubah reflecting their big day. Featuring some favorite flowers, plus greenery in honor of the venue, it’s an absolute stunner – and how cool is it that these two wrote their own ketubah text in English and Hebrew?! Don’t miss it in the exquisite photos by photographer Hellena Cedeno!

We’re also pretty smitten with the brides’ attire – not just their dresses from BHLDN (Zoe) and Jenny Yoo (Margeaux), but their comfy footwear too. Yep, the couple really opted to wear matching Teva sandals the whole day! Such a fun personal touch – and how great must they have felt to dance in?!

There’s so much more to say about this very special Jewish wedding, but we’ll leave it to Margeaux and Zoe to fill you in on the rest…

Margeaux and Zoe, Old Mill Park, California, USA Margeaux and Zoe, Old Mill Park, California, USA Margeaux and Zoe, Old Mill Park, California, USA Margeaux and Zoe, Old Mill Park, California, USA
How we Met

We are both rabbinical students at Hebrew Union College. We met at List College, the undergraduate program between the Jewish Theological Seminary and Columbia University.

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A Dorit Izbizki Bride for a Pandemic Jewish Wedding at Xanadu, Petach Tikva, Israel

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When they first started planning their wedding, Eliana and Pinny, both Americans who made aliyah on their own, put a premium on choosing a date that would allow their parents and siblings to fly in for the simcha.

However, the Omicron variant had other plans, and the week before the wedding, Israel shut its borders – even to first-degree relatives. As devastating as it was for the couple to accept that so many important family members wouldn’t be able to make it, they decided to forge on – and despite the sadness that comes with being far away from loved ones (though Eliana and Pinny did find some clever ways for their long-distance siblings to participate via Zoom!), the pair pulled off a truly amazing day. And that was largely thanks to the incredible network they’ve grown in their time in Israel – so much so that, even with international guests out of the picture, they still had a 300-person wedding!

Lucky for Eliana and Pinny, one key VIP who was able to make it was their photographer, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman Photography. From the moment they got engaged, these two knew Herschel was the only photographer for them – so much so that, in Eliana’s words, “I wouldn’t have considered a date that we couldn’t have had Herschel Gutman as our photographer!” And Herschel and his team didn’t disappoint – in addition to being a total delight to work with on the day, they also did an incredible job capturing all the emotion and energy of this very special day.

There’s so much more we could say about this wonderful Jewish wedding, but we’ll leave it to the bride – who looked radiant in Dorit Izbizki – to fill you in on the details…

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How we Met

Eliana, the bride: Mine and Pinny’s older sisters, Shosh and Yael, have been friends for years now. Ever since I moved to Israel, 2 years after Pinny did, my sister has been saying “You have got to go out with Shosh’s little brother!” For years though the timing was never right. He’s in his fourth year of the army, and I just began law school. Finally, last May, my sister brought up his name again and we both said yes.

The day after his first text to me we went out on our first date… and we just clicked right away. Six months later, on my 21st birthday, he proposed!

After our engagement, with both of our parents and most of our siblings living in America, it was important to choose a date that everyone would be able to fly in and share in the simcha! (We had no idea of the impending omicron variant…at the time, it really seemed like we arrived at the light at the end of the tunnel with the third vaccine open for everyone in both Israel and America.) We then chose a date in December that would be the last time all of our siblings can fly in for a while, with that said, we had a pretty short engagement.Continue ReadingContinue Reading