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Real Jewish Brides: Orli on Her Upcoming Wedding

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Orli will be marrying Ben on 22nd July 2021 in Orli’s parents’ garden, UK. Click here to read all Orli’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Orli and Ben met on Jswipe. (2) Orli & Ben will marry in an intimate setting in Orli’s parents’ garden (3) Orli is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

A couple of days after I sent off my blog previous post we made the difficult and heartbreaking decision to postpone for the second time and to find what we hope and pray is our final wedding day. After all third time lucky. We met with the caterer and ran through the options that we had with a wedding on the 30 May with the restrictions lifting alongside the roadmap. This would mean we could have 30 people but there would be no dancing and social distancing in place. Whilst we had accepted only being able to have thirty people, we had thought that we would be allowed to dance and to celebrate with our closest 30 people or 28 including us.

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A Beachy Jewish Wedding Weekend at Nautical Club, Limassol, Cyprus

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Israeli couple Hila and Tamir wanted the magic of their Jewish wedding to last more than a few hours – and so they decided to make a magical destination weekend of it! With the help of their fantastic planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Moran Goldstein, the couple settled on Limassol, Cyprus, a breathtakingly beautiful spot just a 30-minute flight from Tel Aviv.

The celebration was spread out over four days, with different activities each day – including fun stuff like a boat trip to a blue lagoon (complete with DJ!) and a pool party – with the centerpiece being Hila and Tamir’s gorgeous oceanfront outdoor ceremony. We love that the pair had two of their best friends officiate, and instead of the traditional Seven Blessings, they had friends and relatives come up and give brief original speeches.

We’re in love with photographer Chen Belachnes’s vibrant images, and we bet you will be too.

Now over to Hila…

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How we Met

Hila, the bride: We met at a 24h cross-country relay race. Continue ReadingContinue Reading

An Amsale Bride for a Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Boynton Beach, Florida, USA

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Like so many 2020 couples, Marissa, a physical therapist and reiki master, and Rory, an accountant, ended up with a Jewish wedding very different from the one they’d originally planned. The NYC couple had originally opted for a jam-packed wedding weekend on the beach at a private club in Florida’s Palm Beaches. Everything was just about ready to go for their May 2020 date when the pandemic hit.

Despite all the work and dreams that went into planning their dream wedding, two changes of date later Marissa and Rory ultimately had to make the hard decision to cancel their original celebration and plan a micro wedding for ten in Marissa’s parents’ backyard from scratch. For the most part, the pair had to find new vendors, but two of the ones they’d originally booked were able to make the shift: first, there was Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Nava Shoham, Marissa and Rory’s rock star ketubah designer, who came through with not one, not two, but THREE versions of the couple’s gorgeous ketubah, to account for all of their changes of date. Second was Emily Harris Photography, who’s responsible for the couple’s exquisitely joyous pics.

In Marissa’s words, “The day and night was the most perfect imperfect celebration and ended up being so much more than we imagined. We do hope to get the big party eventually but the night will always be so incredibly memorable.” We’ll let her take it from here…

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How we Met

Marissa, the bride: We met online 6 years agoContinue ReadingContinue Reading

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