Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Free 7-Day Rosh Hashana Challenge – We Start Tomorrow!

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Image: Peace Love Light Shop 

Happy Wednesday! Just a quick one to say that we start our Rosh Hashana challenge tomorrow!

With the New Year coming up, how about making some new Jewish friends inside the challenge community?

Whether you’re Jewish or Jew-ish, married, engaged or single, you’ll meet new people, and go from unprepared and “where do I start?” to leaning into your identity to create a fun, meaningful and fabulous Rosh Hashana.

FUN PRIZES!

I’m also giving away Starbucks vouchers, Amazon vouchers and a mystery grand prize!

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

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Real Jewish Brides: Jenna on Making the Most of Postponement

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Jenna will be marrying Mat on 13th June 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


It’s so crazy to think that our wedding was supposed to be in 16 days (from the date I’m writing this post, 8/21/20). September 6, 2020 was supposed to be our wedding date. But we postponed at the end of May to June 13, 2021 due to being cautious with Covid (the dreaded C-word), and that we wouldn’t be able to have the wedding we dreamed of with all our friends and family there.  For my fiancé and I, while we hate having to wait 9 extra months to get married, not having all of our friends and family at our ceremony especially (and the fact that dancing looked like it wouldn’t be able to happen) made us feel strongly that we wanted to postpone the wedding.

Jenna and Matt
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Free 7-Day Rosh Hashana Challenge (Starts in 48 hours!)

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Rosh HashanaRosh Hashana will be different this year, with communities unable to get together in the way they’ve done so for thousands of years.

But it doesn’t mean that this year Rosh Hashana can’t be just as memorable and meaningful… And whether you’re a Rosh Hashana regular, or you’ve never ever done this before, I want you to celebrate it beautifully (fun cocktails and pretty tablescapes included!) with a little help from Smashing The Glass!

I’m running a FREE 7 Day Rosh Hashana challenge (whether you’re Jewish or Jew-ish, married, engaged or single) that will take you from unprepared and “where do I start?” to leaning into your identity to create a fun, meaningful and fabulous Rosh Hashana.

We’ll be talking easy Rosh Hashana recipes, fun cocktails, music playlists, table decor, and also more symbolic themes of reflection and intentions for the New Year.

I’ll be going live every day inside the RH challenge pop-up Facebook group to talk about a different element of RH and everyone who takes part will get a ‘Rosh Hashana challenge’ bingo card too!

Each square will have something different on it ranging from very basic things like ‘buy or make your Rosh Hashana challah’ to making table decor to more meaningful squares about new beginnings etc. We’ll all have fun trying to get a line on the bingo card – or even a full house…. and there will be PRIZES too!

On yes – prizes like Starbucks vouchers, Amazon vouchers and a mystery grand prize that I will reveal during the Challenge!

The challenge starts on September 10 2020 and it’s for everyone whether you’re Jewish, Jew-ish, married, engaged or single… come on in!

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A Dorit Izbizki Bride for an Intimate Israeli Jewish Wedding at The Garden, Ma’ale Hachamisha, Israel

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Yosepha-and-Sam-The-Garden-Maale-Hachamisha

If not for the customized face masks, you’d barely know today’s picture-perfect Jewish wedding was impacted by COVID-19. But while childhood sweethearts Yosepha and Sam were lucky enough to wed before the tightest pandemic restrictions kicked in, the spread of the coronavirus still meant that many overseas friends and family were unable to attend, leaving them with a small (by Israeli standards) guest count of 150.

Though it was obviously disappointing to have so many loved ones missing, Yosepha and Sam focused on the positives – both of having a more intimate gathering, and of being able to go through with their big day at all, under the circumstances! And we love that the couple’s siblings surprised them by collecting videos of their relatives who couldn’t be there wishing them mazel tov and letting the pair know how much they wished they could celebrate together – it was a total surprise to Yosepha and Sam, and they were so touched by the gesture.

As always, we’re in love with the emotional photography Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman Photography. His images are so full of joy and love, and they really capture the pure elation Yosepha and Sam clearly felt to be able marry in the setting of their dreams, in the presence of so many of their loved ones. We’re totally not surprised to hear these two have been receiving endless compliments on their photos!

There’s lots more to say about this wonderful wedding, but we’ll leave the rest to the bride, who looked so beautiful in her wedding dress by Israeli designer Dorit Izbizki…

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How we met

Yosepha, the bride: Sam and I met about 12 years ago when his family made aliyah. They moved in to the house right next door and lived there for about 2 years. We were all really young, I think I was 9 and Sam was 11. We would hang out with our siblings and neighbors together.

Our sibling wrote us a “story book” about how we met and our relationship. It was really cute and funny. Everyone would joke about how I always had a crush on the boy next door, though I think it was the other way around 🙂 

A few years after Sam and his family moved, we met again at scouts camp. We spent a lot of time together talking and hanging out. We started going out when I was in 9th grade, Sam in 10th. We’ve been together for over 6 years now, together throughout high school, Sam’s army service and my national service. It wasn’t always easy, not seeing each other for weeks at a time when Sam was on base, and dealing with stuff that you never imagined happening. 

We were so young when we got together, we both grew up a lot and changed together. It’s interesting to think about how we used to be and where we got to today. We’re both so different from how we used to be but with every change we always grew closer. We both feel extremely lucky to have had each other all these years. 

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A Pronovias Bride for a Reimagined Backyard Jewish Wedding in Armonk, New York, USA

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Here at Team STG, we have been absolutely loving all of the reimagined pandemic weddings we’ve been seeing, Though it’s no easy feat – emotionally or logistically – to change tack when you’re deep in the midst of planning the day of your dreams, so many amazing couples are rocking it each and every day.

Like Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Danielle, a designer at Facebook, and Eric, an attorney. They had originally planned a big Jewish wedding in Washington, DC – but then COVID intervened. Once it became clear their initial plans were a no-go, the pair decided they still wanted to move things forward, and chose to embrace the opportunity to plan a different kind of wedding. Different, but no less beautiful or joyous – photographer Eli Turner’s incredible imagery is proof of that.  

Choosing the groom’s parents’ backyard as their venue, Danielle and Eric leaned into the intimacy that comes hand in hand with marrying in front of just 14 of your nearest and dearest. They opted not to stream their celebration on Zoom (though they did have videographer Tom Bowen of Bowen Films on hand to record a video they could share with friends and family unable to attend), instead letting the tight-knit group set the stage for what became the couple’s favorite part of the wedding: their ultra-personal vows, which Danielle says they never would’ve shared in front of their original 230-person guest list. We’re also in love with the couple’s wonderful nature-inspired ketubah by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Ketubah. 

Danielle and Eric also made an effort to replace other elements that they felt they were “losing” from their big wedding with new features that excited them. The two are both big fans of the band Phish, and while they’d originally deemed the band’s music too quirky to impose on their guest list, with the attendees pared down to just family they opted to go full on by booking a Phish tribute band to perform!

We’ll let the bride – who looked ravishing in Pronovias (yes, the same gown she’d picked out for the big bash) – fill you in on the rest…

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Danielle-and-Eric-private-residenceDanielle-and-Eric-private-residenceHow We Met

Danielle, the bride: We met at a Great Gatsby themed party during college, when I was a sophomore and Eric was a senior. I had a feather in her hair and Eric was wearing a full suit, which is not your regular college attire. We spent the whole night talking and by the end of the party had exchanged numbers. Eric liked that I was in the art school and very creative. I was drawn to Eric’s humor and wit.

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