Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Real Jewish Brides: Orli On Yoga and Brides Club Quarantine Camp

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Orli will be marrying Ben on 6th September 2020 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK. Click here to read all Orli’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Orli and Ben met on Jswipe. (2) Although their venue, the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, couldn’t be more quintessentially London, Orli and Ben are going for a countryside feel. (3) Orli is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

It’s crazy to think that my last blog was in the middle of March just before lockdown began. Going into lockdown, I realised how much time I was saving everyday by not commuting that I started thinking of new ways to fill my time. Whether it was a banana bread recipe, a new live fitness class or reading deeper into the yoga philosophy and drafting new routines.
 
I realised that it was likely that a lot of us in Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club had some extra time on our hands, so came up with the initial idea to reach out to the Karen for me to start running some yoga classes. Karen couldn’t have been more supportive and was so excited by my idea of asking different members of Brides Club to run all different sessions. 

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How to Create a Memorable Experience for Your Guests {Facebook Live Recap with Michelle Jacobs}

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I’m so excited to share with you my latest Facebook Live with the incredible luxury wedding planner Michelle Jacobs of Elegante by Michelle J. Based in London with a focus on destination weddings and wedding weekends, Michelle is truly one of the best when it comes to working with Jewish and Jew-ish couples to craft standout wedding experiences (and is a favourite among STG brides!), and I was lucky to be able to chat with her at The Wedding Gallery in Central London about ways to make your wedding pop while at the same time keeping everything accessible for guests.

Michelle is just so full of wedding wisdom, and if you’re working to create a one-of-a-kind, ultra-memorable day everyone will enjoy (and honestly, who isn’t?), this Live is 100% worth your time. Starting with the premise that happy guests are what make or break a wedding’s atmosphere, Michelle’s got tips that apply to weddings of any budget and style.

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Chloe and Danny‘s Tuscan Jewish wedding, planned by Michelle! Photo by David Bastianoni

Focus on Guest Experience

We started off by chatting about how you can make sure your guests have a fantastic experience at your wedding from start to finish. This starts from the moment you send out those invites: pumping your guests up for your big day is step 1 to creating a killer atmosphere on the day. 

How to do it? First off, if you’re getting married somewhere far off or out of the way, make sure they know how to get there and what kind of arrangements you’ve made to help get them home (or back to their hotels) at the end of the night.

Second, if you have guests who may not have attended a Jewish wedding before, make sure to keep things accessible for them. Creating a wedding program outlining and explaining the elements of the ceremony is a wonderful way to do this. It’s also thoughtful to let guests know in advance about anything that might catch them off guard, like if they’ll be asked to wear kipper, or if you’ll be having separate dancing or separate seating for the ceremony.

Another type of guest who might need some special looking after? Anyone attending alone who doesn’t know any of the other guests. One idea is to assign a group of people to take care of your solo guests on the day (and seat them all together); another is to start a Facebook group for your guests in advance of the big day so they can get to know each other a bit beforehand!

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An Enzoani Bride for an Elegant Jewish Wedding in White at Farmington Hills Manor, Farmington Hills, Michigan, USA

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It’s always a special day when we get to feature the Jewish wedding of one of our beloved STG Brides Club members, and we’re especially psyched to see the beautiful day Nargiz, an attorney, practicing criminal defense and real estate/business litigation, and Ryan, a mechanical engineer pulled off.

Nargiz did such a beautiful job chronicling her efforts to include her late mother in the celebration so movingly (which she wrote about in this moving blog post for STG) – not to mention the couple’s work to craft a day that reflected both the bride’s Azerbaijani Jewish background and the groom’s Ashkenazi American one.

She and Ryan also happen to have put together an absolutely gorgeous wedding. With an all-white theme – how elegant is that chuppah?! – and a glam mermaid gown by Enzoani, this pair’s aesthetic was on point, as captured exquisitely by photographer Visi Productions and videographer was Blue Racer Productions.

Getting married without a beloved parent is always a bittersweet experience, and we’re so moved by some of the special touches Nargiz worked in as remembrances of her mother, from attaching a picture of her mom to her bouquet to making a contribution in lieu of favors to the American Cancer Society and Mazon.

And we love how Nargiz brought her heritage into the day with Azerbaijani food (plus bottles of vodka on all the tables!) and Russian singers performing traditional Kavkazi songs.

As a member of STG’s Brides Club, Nargiz loved trading stories and advice with Jewish and Jew-ish brides from all over the world. If you want to join the Club too (we’re currently particularly supporting brides-to-be whose wedding plans are affected by the pandemic) click here.

We’ll let Nargiz – who blogged her wedding planning journey on STG – tell her story from here…

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How me Met

Nargiz, the bride: We met through mutual friends 6.5 years ago.

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Join Me For STG’s 3-Day Virtual Bridal Retreat {Save Your Free Space}

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When you’re planning an event of a lifetime no-one dreams of doing it in the context of a global pandemic – my heart goes out to you. Maybe you’re feeling apathetic, unmotivated, tired, stressed and a bit over it. You’re most likely disliking the uncertainty too.

So I thought what can I do? How can I help brides-to-be caught up in the pandemic feel more positive, and bring back the excitement and exhilaration to your wedding planning again?!

How can I help you have fun, feel restored, nourished, and move you forward with your wedding plans, even in the face of the uncertainty?

And that’s how the idea of Smashing The Glass’ 3 day Virtual Bridal Retreat came about.

What’s more it’s completely FREE for all brides caught up in the pandemic.

So brides – mark May 29-31 in your diary, and save your free space here! We’ll be covering everything from how to move forward with wedding planning (even in the face of the uncertainty), to yoga sessions, mani-pedi’s, Shabbat candle lighting, make-up tutorials, how to deal with unwanted opinions, home made face masks (the banana and avocado kind!), cocktail making, journalling, a ‘dance-it-out’ party, DIY crafting activities, and 1:1 help with your wedding plans.

Nourish yourself, make your uncertain wedding plans a certainty, and surround yourself with lots of other brides whose weddings are impacted by the pandemic, for positive and uplifting support.

The virtual bridal retreat is happening one time only from May 29-31.

Please note: the retreat is ONLY for brides-to-be.

>> Save Your Free Spot on our Virtual Bridal Retreat

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An Eve of Milady Bride for a Magical Jewish Wedding with a Floating Cake at Temple Beth El, Cedarhurst, NY

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We throw the word “magical” around a lot when talking about the beautiful Jewish wedding we’re privileged to feature… but this one brings it to another level! You see, the groom, Eric Wilzig, is a professional magician and illusionist, and the big day took its cues from his background – with some fun inspired by Eliana’s career as a gymnast, gymnastics coach, and manager at a gymnastics gym.

The couple’s “floating” chuppah (thanks to lucite columns) is pretty cool, but there’s no question that the piece de resistance was the couple’s wedding cake, which was actually levitating – no strings or wires involved.

Not many bakers could pull off a cake like this, but luckily Eric and Eliana found the dream team at Peboryon, lead by Christine and and Phil Jenson, and they worked out a design that would allow the top tier of the cake to float and spin. The couple were so taken with their concept and craftsmanship they ended up flying the Peboryon team out to New York from the UK to make it happen… and 228 (no, that’s not a typo) hours of work later, they did! Don’t miss the incredible pics from White Light Photo!

There were plenty of other magical touches to this one-of-a-kind wedding, but we’ll let Eliana, who looked ravishing in Eve of Milady, tell you about all of that…

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How we met

Eliana, the bride: We met through a mutual friend in NYC. A few minutes after Eric met Eliana, he did a magic trick to get her phone number…true story!

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