Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

A Pronovias Bride for a Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Santa Barbara, California, USA

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Hailey-Jeffrey-Private-Residence-USA

It’s a familiar story: Hailey, an attorney at a technology company, and Jeffrey, a management consultant, had planned a Labor Day weekend Jewish wedding at a historic Santa Barbara club, with a weekend’s worth of plans for their 150 guests flying in from all over the world.

That was pre-COVID. Once the pandemic hit, the couple made the decision to go forward with a 12-guest micro wedding on their original date, which the bride’s aunt and uncle generously hosted in their backyard. We’re obsessed with Hailey and Jeffrey’s cool copper chuppah adorned with greenery and white and pink blossoms – not to mention their beautifulblue and white paper cut ketubah was purchased from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com. Don’t miss Wedding Nature Photography’s gorgeous pics!

We also love the favors the pair put together for their guests, each containing a mask hand-sewn by the mother of the bride, a kippah, and a personalized embroidered handkerchief, plus a “Jeffrey and Hailey” granola blend.

And how sweet is it that the mother of the groom secretly reached out to the original guest list and asked them to submit a video with stories and well wishes?! She kept it all under wraps until the night before the wedding, when she surprised Hailey and Jeffrey with an incredibly touching video. Awwwww!

There’s so much more to say about this beautiful day, but we’ll leave the rest to Hailey, who looked stunning in her Pronovias dress (which she’d bough for the big bash, but happened to work perfectly for this intimate celebration)…

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How we met

Hailey, the bride: We were matched on a dating app called Coffee Meets Bagel. After we met in person, we realized that we had one mutual friend in common: a Jewish matchmaker!

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Free 8 Days of Hanukkah Festival – Come join us!

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Happy Monday.. and Happy Hanukkah week! Just a quick one to say that we start our 8 Days of Hanukkah Festival tomorrow, Tuesday Dec 8! 

Hanukkah starts this Thursday December 10, so get festival-of-lights ready by joining us in the Hanukkah Festival.

The accompanying pop-up Facebook group has already opened and it is POPPING in there!

You’ll be welcomed inside the group with open arms, whether you’re Jewish or Jew-ish, married, engaged or single – you won’t find a more inclusive, welcoming bunch!

FUN PRIZES!

As it’s the season of gift-giving, I’m also giving away prizes to Festival-goers from ModernTribe every day of the Festival!

So whether you’re able to get together with family or not, come and join our warm and inclusive Hanukkah Festuval community and have fun, win prizes, and have an even more authentic and beautiful Hanukkah than you ever thought possible.

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An Enzoani Bride for an Elegant Jewish Wedding at Warren Weir at Luton Hoo, UK

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There’s not much that makes us happier than seeing a couple pull off the Jewish wedding of their dreams thanks to the work of some of our very favorite Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors. So as you can imagine, the wedding of Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Natasha, a marketing manager, to Simon, a recruitment consultant, is giving us ALL the feels.

Natasha reports that she loved her time in Brides Club – in her words, “it was so great to know there was a group of other brides going through similar things that you could confide in, get advice from or just get support where needed” – and she also found two of her wonderful vendors through the group! Natasha and Simon’s toastmaster, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jango, is a firm favorite among Brides Club members, and true to form he kept everything running smoothly on the big day. And a recommendation via Brides Club led Natasha to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ann Louise Bridal, where she found her gorgeous Enzoani dress and veil! Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Alexandra’s Florist was responsible for the incredible floral chuppah, featuring an elegant mix of white hydrangeas, white roses, and greenery.

We’re also obsessed with the fact that Natasha and Simon opted to open their ceremony with a flashmob by the amazingly talented Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor XS Showband! What a fun surprise for the guests – and indeed, Natasha reports that people are still talking about it to this day!  

This is truly a special wedding – be sure not to miss the emotion-packed photos by Chiko and trailer from AtMotion!

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How we met

Natasha, the bride: We were set up by Simon’s sister. I became friends with her through some mutual friends and she always said that she wanted to set us up. Simon was living in Manchester at the time and one day we arranged to go on a blind date at Dim T in Hampstead. As the say, the rest is history…

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These Menorahs Are Guaranteed to Light Up Hanukkah 2020

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Nosh Menorah by Modern Mensch via ModernTribe
(10% discount for Smashing Life members)

PSA: Hanukkah’s less than a week away! (It starts the evening of Thursday, December 10.)

Are you ready?

Here at Team STG, we definitely are! We’re putting up our Hanukkah decor, mailing out some carefully selected gifts and cards, planning our Hanukkah menus, listening to the new Daveed Diggs Hanukkah song on repeat – and, most importantly, dusting off our menorahs!

Lighting the menorah (aka chanukiah aka hanukkiah), a nine-branched candelabra lit, is the key ritual performed each night during Hanukkah. Each night, one additional candle is lit – so there’s one candle on the first night, two on the second night, three on the third night, and so on, until the final night when all eight candles are lit. That extra ninth candle? It’s the shamash (which means “helper” or “servant”), set aflame first on each night and used to light all the other candles.

Lighting the menorah, reciting the customary blessings, and watching the candles do their thing is such a special experience – and it’s even more special when you have a menorah you love using, whether that’s because it’s a family heirloom, you crafted it yourself, it was gifted to you by someone special, or its style is a perfect fit with yours.

These days there’s such a diversity of menorah styles, and we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of our favorites – so if you’re currently using one that doesn’t spark joy, have a look through our roundup and see if you find something that speaks to you.

Another thing that can make your Hanukkah extra bright this year? Smashing The Glass’s FREE online 8 Days of Hanukkah Festival, starting this Tuesday, December 8. Come together with our wonderful community of Jewish and Jew-ish women from around the world to share recipes, crafts, decor, music, and more – and to make some new friends, of course! Sign up to reserve your spot today.

RBG “I Dissent” Menorah by the Glamorous Elephant via ModernTribe
(10% discount for Smashing Life members)

You went crazy for this menorah honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg when we shared it on Instagram @yourjewishlife!

Leah Menorah  by Joy Stember via ModernTribe
(10% discount for Smashing Life members)

How fun is this modular menorah? You can arrange it however you like (even a different setup each night if you want!), while the sleek design of pewter blocks keeps things firmly grounded in contemporary style.

Brass Bird Chanukiah by Jonathan Adler via Contemporary Judaica
(10% discount for Smashing Life members)

This elegant brass bird menorah is just the right of amount of unexpected to bring some fun to your Hanukkah setup while still keeping things chic.

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A Magical Rustic Jewish Micro Wedding in the Forest at San Moritz Lodge, Crestline, California, USA

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Ashley & Jeff, San Moritz Lodge, California

We are beyond thrilled to be featuring the incredibly gorgeous wedding of our beloved Brides Club member Ashley to Jeff! These two nature loving attorneys dreamed of making it official in the middle of a forest – and they found the perfect spot in San Moritz Lodge, two hours east of their home in Los Angeles. 

Then came the pandemic. Ashley and Jeff knew they wanted to get married on their original date, whatever it took, and while the wedding they had looked very different from the one they’d planned initially – they had to cut their indoor reception and catering, in addition to a vastly reduced guest list – it was totally and completely exquisite nonetheless. Karissa Breann Photography’s dreamy images absolutely blow us away.

We’re so touched to hear that that this wedding’s success was in part due to the incredible support and inspiration Ashley received as a member of Smashing the Glass’s Brides Club, which she joined just a month before her big day hoping for help dealing with the stress of planning a wedding during the pandemic. And, in her words,

Once I experienced the overwhelming support of the community and took advantage of the resources, I wondered why I had not joined sooner. Using the plethora of helpful guides and checklists and seeing how other brides were navigating this time made such a difference for me. The brides in Brides Club found so many creative ways to make their weddings safe, unique, and absolutely gorgeous during the pandemic. 

One fab idea Ashley picked up from the group was writing each guest a personalized thank you card for making the effort to attend the wedding in the middle of a pandemic – as suggested by none other than Karen Cinnamon gave during one of Brides Club’s monthly Wedding Planning Solved Zoom chats.

Ashley and Jeff worked with wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent to create the custom ketubah of their dreams, incorporating an image of a couple painted by Chagall, an artist who holds special meaning for the pair. We’re totally in love with how Adriana of Ink with Intent put it all together!

We also love how these two adapted the pre-ceremony tradition of kabbalat panim (“welcoming of the faces”), where the bride sits, surrounded by her mother and soon-to-be mother-in-law, as guests line up to approach her for an individual chat and a wedding day blessing, for the COVID era. Traditionally, only female guests participate, but Ashley and Jeff opened their kabbalat panim up to everyone – and since every household came up to speak with Ashley individually, it was the perfect pandemic-safe way to socialize.

There’s so much more we could say about this wonderful wedding, but we’ll leave it to Ashley to fill you in on the rest…

Ashley & Jeff, San Moritz Lodge, CaliforniaAshley-Jeff-San-Moritz-Lodge-CaliforniaAshley-Jeff-San-Moritz-Lodge-CaliforniaAshley-Jeff-San-Moritz-Lodge-California
How we met

Ashley, the bride: We met on JSwipe the very same night my stepdad suggested I expand my geographical search radius for matches.  My mom and stepdad were interested in learning how JSwipe worked, so I walked them through the process as we all looked at the screen together.

I previously had my search radius at 15 miles, but my stepdad suggested I increase it to 50 miles.  (When he and my mom were dating, the two lived 100 miles apart, and he drove to see her every weekend!)  Right after I changed my filter from 15 miles to 50 miles, a picture of a curly-haired cutie feeding a chipmunk popped up.  He lived 22 miles away.  We seemed to have similar interests, so I swiped yes on him. Continue ReadingContinue Reading