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Real Jewish Brides: Jenna on Slowing Things Down

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Jenna will be marrying Mat in November 2021 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to read all Jenna’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Jenna + Mat have known each other all their lives – they met when they were both one-year-old at a baby class! (2) Their relationship began at the University of Arizona in March 2012 (3) Mat proposed at Jenna’s parents house in December 2018


As many of you may know by now from my past blogging bride posts, we moved back to Arizona!  On top of that, I just started a new job on 4/12 (and loving it), we are trying to get back into the wedding planning, and we get our second Covid vaccinations this week.  A lot going on, but it all leads to us being able to have, not just the wedding, but the wedding we want. 

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A Lee Petra Grebenau Bride for a Winter Jewish Micro Wedding at Home House, London, UK

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Amelia and Shaun, Home House, London, UK

Get ready to be blown away by the positively breathtaking Jewish micro wedding of Amelia, a senior women’s fashion buyer, and Shaun, head of mining sales for a procurement company!

Like most 2020 couples, Amelia and Shaun went through a couple changes of plan (and date) – but the wedding they eventually pulled off, an intimate 15-person gathering in December, could not have been any more gorgeous. Home House, a venue built from three Georgian townhouses, was the absolute perfect spot for the couple’s moody winter wedding, adorned with dark florals, amber lighting, and over 1,000 candles.

And thanks to the dream team of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Claudine Hartzel, who perfectly captured all the emotion (not to mention the wonderful details) of the day in her photos, and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion, who worked his magic on the couple’s wedding video, we feel as if we were right there with them.

And can we talk about how stunning Amelia looks in her gown by Israeli designer Lee Petra Grebenau?!

Now over to the bride…

Amelia and Shaun, Home House, London, UKAmelia and Shaun, Home House, London, UKAmelia and Shaun, Home House, London, UKAmelia and Shaun, Home House, London, UK
How we Met

Amelia, the bride: My best friend Jade was dating Shaun’s brother Andy and introduced us to each other about 11 years ago now.

He actually cancelled our first date! But pulled it out the bag when we actually went out properly. The rest was history and Jade is now my sister in law – she also planned the wedding!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Martina Liana Bride for a Chic Jewish Wedding at Hyde House, Tampa, Florida, USA

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Mickey-and-Scott-Hyde-House-Tampa-Florida

We’re absolutely in love with the Florida chic Jewish wedding of Mickey, a doctor specializing in otolaryngology, and Scott, a director of business development. The couple, who live in Tampa, wanted to show their friends and family – the majority of whom were coming in from out of town – the best of their adopted home city.

Fortunately for them, they were able to find a gorgeous venue just blocks from their home. And even more fortunately, despite getting married during the pandemic, they were able to keep most of their pre-COVID plans in place (though with a smaller guest list, naturally).

We love that Mickey and Scott worked with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush to custom design the most exquisite ketubah, featuring gold leaf and a Star of David. And how beautiful are the photos from Justin Demutiis Photography and trailer by Connor Halden?!

We’ll leave it to the bride, who looked stunning in  Martina Liana, to fill you in on the rest…

Mickey-and-Scott-Hyde-House-Tampa-FloridaMickey-and-Scott-Hyde-House-Tampa-FloridaMickey-and-Scott-Hyde-House-Tampa-FloridaMickey-and-Scott-Hyde-House-Tampa-Florida

How we Met

Mickey, the bride: We met in 2018 through a mutual friend. I was living in Tampa, Florida, where Scott had lived previously and moved away in 2012.  Even though Scott was living in Nashville, Tennessee, at the time, a mutual friend in Florida was trying to set us up for months, I wasn’t even sure if this Scott guy was a real person!  Finally, my friend called me up and said “Clear your schedule, Scott is coming down to meet you.” Turns out he was very real, came to visit, and even stayed and extra day we were having so much fun. We have spoken everyday since then and in May 2019 he moved down to Tampa. We got engaged that October and married one year later.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Samantha + Brian: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our latest 2021 Real Jewish Bride! Please give a warm welcome to Samantha, who will be marrying Brian on 9th October 2021 in Nags Head, NC. 

THREE FACTS: (1) Brian proposed to Samantha on July 3rd on the beach (2) Samantha + Brian met on JSwipe (3) Michelle Obama was part of the proposal!


The Beginning

Brian and I met as many couples do these days – online, via the JSwipe app, in the summer of 2017. He was new to the DC area and I was finally finished with my graduate program that I completed while working full time and actually had time to date! I was 35 at the time and I’m not gonna lie, when I saw that Brian was almost 8 years older than I am, I almost didn’t swipe right.  But, there was something about his beautiful blue eyes and his short, witty profile that changed my mind – and I’m so glad!

After a few weeks of chatting on the app, our first date was meeting up for a drink at Woodmont Grill in Bethesda, MD. (I’m only mentioning the name of the place because it eventually served as inspiration for the name of our furbaby, a 15 lb. shih tzu, named Monty who we picked up during the height of the pandemic in June of 2020.)

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A Liron Partouche Bride for a Jewish Pandemic Wedding Inspired by China at Yama, Herzliya, Israel

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Michal and Sam, Yama, Hertezlya, Israel

Israeli couple Michal and Sam, both of whom work for hi-tech start-up companies, first met in Chinese class at university. They got engaged at the end of a year spent living and studying the language together in Shanghai. So it was only natural that when it came to planning their Jewish wedding, they turned to their shared love of the language as inspiration for their Jewish wedding – along with the best of their home country, of course!

The pair made table numbers out of Chinese characters they wrote themselves and used the character 囍 (which symbolizes wedding in Chinese, meaning double happiness) on each napkin and on the wedding invitations. They even had the Chinese character for love embroidered on their chuppah canopy!

Michal and Sam dreamed of getting married by the sea at sunset – what better way to showcase Israel’s natural splendor? – and though COVID forced them to postpone twice (and change venues), in the end they were still able to have the wedding of their dreams at a gorgeous seaside venue in Herzliya (albeit with fewer guests than originally planned, and further-flung loved ones tuning in via livestream).

As always, we’re absolutely in love with the luminous photography by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jossef Si – an incredible talent Michal had had her eye on since before getting engaged.

Now over to the bride for all the details…

Michal and Sam, Yama, Hertezlya, IsraelMichal and Sam, Yama, Hertezlya, IsraelMichal and Sam, Yama, Hertezlya, IsraelMichal and Sam, Yama, Hertezlya, Israel
How we Met

Michal, the bride: We met in my first Chinese class of my first year at university. It was so coincidental because it’s not Sam’s major (he was taking the class as an enrichment class) and I switched my major to Chinese at the last minute. We became friends and after a year of friendship we began to date.Continue ReadingContinue Reading