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Jessie & Craig | Spectacular book-themed Jewish wedding at the New York Public Library, New York, USA

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I’m not sure you can get much cooler than Jessie and Craig’s New York City nuptials. Their Jewish wedding has it all. The glamour, the style, the chic, and the unique. I almost died when I first clapped eyes on their chuppah design — I’m telling you, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen, and you’ll have to excuse me for including so many pictures of it.

Prepare to be green eyed folks as I cannot possibly deny that this W-Day may cause some serious wedding envy, namely because of the exquisite fashion that bride Jessie sported on the day itself. Firstly there are her Christian Louboutin clear heels with silver studs, swiftly followed by her divine Reem Acra dress. Honestly Jessie has the most wonderful sartorial taste.

And what with getting married in the iconic New York Public Library, I haven’t even begun to tell you about how well-executed their literary bookish theme is. I’m talking real-life librarians helping guests find their seats, library card catalogue escort cards, and a chuppah made entirely out of antique books! But wait, it gets better. Their chuppah was topped with hundreds of lightbulbs, so when it came to smashing the glass at the end of the ceremony, the groom picked out a light bulb from their chuppah to smash, and swiftly stamped on it. Have you ever?

So if you want to take a page from Jessie and Craig’s wedding (see what I did there?!), now’s the time, as I’m handing over to the beautiful bride for the story behind her big day. All of the fantastic photography is by the wonderfully talented Dave Robbins, and design is by AaB Creates.

book-themed wedding at the New York Public Librarybook-themed wedding at the New York Public Librarybook-themed wedding at the New York Public Library
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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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Danny & Aaron | Extraordinary Gay Jewish Wedding, with the Couple Arriving on a Unicorn, at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA

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Gay-Jewish-Wedding
OK guys, we are starting the week at TRULY EPIC on the wedding spectrum. Are you ready for what I have in store for you?

The truth is, I actually don’t know where to start with all the love that I have for Danny and Aaron’s immense Jewish wedding. And by the time you lot are through you won’t know what to do with yourselves either.

To begin with these two rode down the aisle to their chuppah atop a tallit-wearing horse dressed as a unicorn (or Jew-nicorn, as they dubbed it!) to the tune of Madonna’s Like a Virgin. What’s more Joss Stone (yes, the Joss Stone) undertook the role of cantor, singing Circle of Life as Danny and Aaron circled each other under the chuppah, and a 16 person gospel choir was on hand for a few of the ceremony songs as well.

When I asked Danny and Aaron what advice they’d give to brides and grooms currently planning their Jewish wedding, they told me, “be unique to your personalities. You can create new Jewish traditions by adding a personal flare to more traditional Jewish rituals, making your wedding unique to you as individuals and as a couple”, and boy did they live up to their own advice!

Danny and Aaron certainly know how to throw a phenomenal party. And throw a party they did. At their reception, John Legend, Ciara, Joss Stone, and Korean rapper, Psy (aka Mr. Gangnam Style!) performed live  keeping guests entertained till well into the small hours. But as much as there was world-class entertainment and flamboyant gestures, Danny and Aaron’s W Day was absolutely all about sharing, loving and being together. An ethos that the pair stood from the very start as they decided not to uphold the traditions of being apart until the ceremony, instead opting to get ready together — sharing every single moment of their wedding day.

Thank you to Danny, Aaron and Maya Myers Photography for letting me give you the most incredible start to your Smashing The Glass week!

Gay Jewish Wedding at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Choosing Paramount Studios in Hollywood as our wedding venue

Danny and Aaron, the Grooms: We both work in the music and television industries. We wanted to have our guests experience a Hollywood studio and wanted to create a grand overlaying look of our wedding and so Paramount Studios was a perfect fit for us. We wanted to design the whole room.

Gay Jewish Wedding at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles
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Emma & David | Elegant tropical garden Jewish wedding at Boca Raton Resort & Club, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

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Emma and David’s big day is absolutely exquisite, and for a summery garden wedding I don’t think you can beat their beautiful colour scheme and all their ‘beachy’ touches. I’m talking Emma’s starfish-topped heels, the elegant palm-patterned wedding stationery, the pretty florals with an almost coral reef-like feel, and  the cutest kissing flamingoes cake topper!

Emma’s wise words at the end are nothing short of perfect, reminding us all of the most important things in wedding planning and your lives together thereafter. But never mind that — check out their multi-coloured sprinkles covered cake. O.M.G!

I must also mention that our beautiful bride tragically lost her grandma very suddenly on the morning of her wedding. It must have been unbelievably difficult to genuinely celebrate the day, but these two managed to come through, and their rabbi sensitively incorporated the heartache into their wedding ceremony (which incidentally took place beneath one of the most beautiful chuppahs I’ve ever seen on Smashing The Glass).

Justin DeMutiis has taken some amazing shots that perfectly illustrate Emma’s tale of her big day with David…

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Renata & Jonathan | A Monique Lhuillier bride for a 3-day French Riviera Jewish wedding at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Cap Ferrat, South of France

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Weddings by the sea are my absolute favourite, so I’m a little bit obsessed with today’s gorgeous French Riviera Jewish wedding coming to you from the à¼ber-glamorous Cap Ferrat — a quite breathtaking part of the world that I was fortunate enough to visit last summer.

When STG regular, Polly Alexandre revealed the sneak peak to me, I just knew that Renata and Jonathan’s three day wedding extravaganza would be seriously fun to blog. This gorgeous destination wedding has more than a touch of class about it and I thought it would make for the perfect pick-me-up in the first week of January. Thoroughly elegant and sophisticated, the flowers in particular are unbelievably dreamy, with lots of beautiful pink and white peonies, roses and hydrangea. I’m also loving the sweetheart table, the macaroon pyramid, the suite of ‘magnificent garden’ themed stationery (complete with flower seed sachets!), and the jaw-dropping ceremony backdrop.

It’s quite the fashion fest too. I love the classiness of an outdoor black tie wedding, and Jonathan’s Tom Ford tuxedo is an absolute showstopper. Renata chose a Monique Lhuillier gown paired with Manolo Blahnik shoes, and then changed into a bespoke Femmes Fatales dress by Ella Tatarinova for the evening. I told you it was a fashion frenzy!

I’ve got the wedding film for you from Allora Visuals at the end of the post, as well as all the breathtaking imagery by the supremely talented Polly Alexandre. Take it away Polly and Renata…

French Riviera Jewish wedding at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Cap Ferrat, South of France
How we met

In the words of Polly Alexandre, their photographer, Renata and Johnny’s love story involves two jetskis, two cities, one sea urchin, 40 spikes and a hospital.

Polly Alexandre, “This may seem like an unusual story and it’s definitely one of the most original I have heard for sure, but like all good fairytales it has a happy ending. The couple met on a group holiday in Kenya where Johnny persuaded Renata to come out on a jetski ride with him. However Johnny *may or may not* have gone a little bit fast and consequently Renata was thrown from the jetski into the shallow waters. She stepped on the seabed to catch her footing and “ouch!” immediately trod on a sea urchin that immediately shed over 40 spikes into her foot. So it was off to hospital to have them removed.”

“Feeling slightly responsible for her fate, Johnny arranged to take Renata for dinner in London a few weeks later, by way of apology. Except that this was a little more than an apology as rumour has it Johnny actually booked several restaurants for this rather special date…… finally opting for dinner at Daphne’s. The connection was immediate and soon blossomed into a beautiful romance. Despite living in different countries, the couple took it in turns to fly to each other for the weekend so they could be reunited each week.”

French Riviera Jewish wedding at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, Cap Ferrat, South of France

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