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Real Jewish Brides: Erin’s Corona Edition

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Erin will be marrying Josh on 1st November 2020 at Congregation Beth Israel, in Charlottesville, VA, USA. Click here to read all Erin’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Erin and Josh are planning an outdoorsy fall wedding on a budget in Virginia’s Shenandoah mountains. (2) Erin recently completed her conversion to Judaism, and she and Josh are looking forward to filling their big day with Jewish traditions while keeping it enjoyable and understandable to friends and family from all backgrounds. (3) Erin is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

Every day we’re getting new updates about the Coronavirus, and we’re learning how to adapt to each new change.

Being in the midst of wedding planning is a strange place to be. How do you plan for a wedding when you don’t know what life will be like in the next few weeks or months?

I’ve seen brides making tough decisions to postpone their weddings and try to pick new dates in the future. I’ve seen brides go through with their weddings, albeit much altered from what they planned on doing. Both of these decisions have shown me how strong and brave these people are, and at the end of the day, how love is what matters most.

Erin and Josh

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A Sassi Holford Bride for an Elegant Countryside Jewish Wedding at High Billinghurst Farm, Surrey, UK

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We just love it when our readers work with our amazing Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors to make the Jewish wedding of their dreams a reality – like Katie, who’s a fundraising manager for an education charity, and Max, an officer in the British army, did in planning their gorgeous outdoor countryside wedding in the beautiful Surrey countryside.

These two knew their top priority was making sure their wedding would be fun for each and every one of their guests – and one of their best decisions was tapping Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Louise Perry to plan the big day. Louise and Natalie brought together the couple’s vision for a relaxed but elegant day focused on connecting with friends and family SO perfectly.

Katie and Max wanted to make sure their ceremony was inclusive too, so they worked with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rabbi Paul Glantz to craft a chuppah that made everyone feel involved. Rabbi Glantz made sure to explain what was happening at each stage of the ceremony so guests of all backgrounds could follow along – and he did such a good job that lots of non-Jewish guests commented afterward that they wished they could have had a Jewish wedding ceremony!

We’re also obsessed with the pair’s beautiful nature-inspired ketubah by Rachelle of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush, as well as their birch tree chuppah decorated with white flowers and greenery – don’t miss Brett Harkness’s beautiful photos!

Putting your guests first means making sure you’ve got not only a beautiful ceremony but also a rocking party, and Katie and Max knew Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The White Keys were just the band to keep their guests on the dancefloor all night long.

There’s so much more to say, but we’ll let the bride – who looked so elegant in Sassi Holford – tell you the rest…

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HOW WE MET

Katie, the bride: We met during our first year at Newcastle University in 2009. Neither of us remember the moment that we first met but we know it was during our very first week in Newcastle when me and the girls on my floor ventured to the floor below to meet the boys living below us.

Sassi Holford Bride High Billinghurst Farm Wedding

A Countryside Wedding

We got married at High Billinghurst Farm in Surrey. It was the first venue that we saw and we fell in love with it, even on a rainy January winters day. It ticked all of our boxes, a beautiful barn, countryside location, easy for our family and friends who travelled from around the world to get to and enough space for all of our guests. Once we saw it we knew that was the venue we wanted and did not even think about looking anywhere else.

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A Lis Simon Bride for a Homecoming-Themed Jewish Wedding at the University of Missouri, Colombia, Missouri, USA

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In uncertain times, there’s nothing like a return to the familiar. Which is why the homecoming-themed Jewish wedding of Savannah, who works as the development director at a Jewish nonprofit, and Josh, who’s starting law school this fall, who opted to wed at the University of Missouri (also known as Mizzou), where they met as college freshmen.

These two truly followed STG’s motto of “your Jewish wedding, your way.” They worked together to craft an ultra-personal ceremony that paired the traditional structure with the couple’s egalitarian values. Since lots of the guests had never before attended a Jewish wedding, Savannah and Josh also put together a program explaining the ceremony – which doubled as a fan, perfect for keeping cool in the Missouri heat! They even FaceTimed the bride’s grandma in, since she couldn’t travel to attend in person – this is such a great way to include long-distance loved ones, and in light of COVID-19 its’s something we’ll probably start seeing a lot more of.

And how special is it that Josh’s dad built the couple’s chuppah, and his mom decorated it? They even made it so it can be taken apart and moved easily, and Savannah and Josh have since repurposed it as a sukkah! Don’t miss it in the beautiful photos from Chase Castor and Cam Wiley of Kindling.

We’re also in love with the couple’s cool contemporary ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent. It’s a true piece of art, which now hands proudly outside Savannah and Josh’s bedroom. These two even wrote their own ketubah text, based on the egalitarian structure with some personal touches thrown in.

There’s so much more we could say about this joyous Jewish wedding, but we’ll let the bride – who looked beautiful in Lis Simon Bridal – tell you the rest…

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How we met

Savannah, the bride: Josh and I met as 18-year-old college freshmen at the University of Missouri. We were set up accidentally by a mutual friend, Clayton, and I didn’t even think Josh liked me that much! I complained to Clayton that I was bored — he was out of town — and he told me to see what Josh was up to. So, that was the first time I talked to Josh one-on-one, and we then proceeded to get locked out of our dorms in the rain.

We spent all night talking outside our dorm and because it was 3 a.m., our friends weren’t answering their phones and the dorm assistant on call was asleep. We were truly locked out until the early risers woke up! The next day, Josh asked me out on our first date, where our friend (and my bridesmaid), Katie, picked out both of our first date outfits without telling either of us. So, thanks to Clayton and Katie, we’re now happily married!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Brides Club: Supporting You and Your Jewish (or Jew-ish) Wedding through the Coronavirus Crisis

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KAREN-CINNAMON
Ever since I launched, Smashing The Glass’s members-only Brides Club – a group for Jewish and Jew-ish brides looking to lower the stress and maximize the fun of planning a big day that’s totally, 100% you – I’ve firmly believed creating the group is one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Brides Club has grown into an incredible, strong community of Jewish and Jew-ish women all over the world, who celebrate each other’s triumphs and support each other through challenges – and never has the community come through more strongly than over the past few weeks. 

With so many of our members faced with incredibly tough choices – things they never would’ve imagined even a month ago – and many forced to postpone their long-planned weddings, the community has come together in the most beautiful way.

The positivity and love exuding from my screen every time I pop into the very active Brides Club Facebook group is just unbelievable. 

While Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club is an incredible community and resource in calmer times, in this crisis it’s truly become a one-stop shop for everything from pandemic wedding planning guidance to social distance socializing and beyond – read on to hear about just a few of the ways we’re supporting our members through COVID-19, and how you can try it for yourself free for 30 days. 


STG Brides Club members came to my home for a Challah Bake a few months ago.. so much fun and so many treasured connections were made!

Wedding Planning Solved, Weekly

For the duration of the coronavirus crisis, we’ve upped the frequency of our Wedding Planning Solved live monthly group chats to once per week. Every Sunday, I’m chatting with you live about any and all wedding planning questions/concerns/struggles you’ve got – related to the pandemic or otherwise. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk through anything – truly, no concern is too large or too small – with me 1:1, as well as to receive support and wisdom from your fellow #coronabrides.

So much positivity and action-taking have come about as a result of these calls and I urge you to join STG Brides Club for this feature alone!

Join our Brides Club for free here to benefit from 1:1 help with your wedding plans.


Some of our members have gotten so close they’ve attended each other’s weddings!

Social Distance Socializing 

Since we’ve had to put our local in-person group meetups on hold, instead we’re hosting a weekly virtual happy hour via Zoom. Brides Club members from all over the world are grabbing their quarantinis and logging on to chat with each other about anything and everything – from the craziness that is the world today to engagement stories to Passover plans. 

We’re even throwing virtual Zoom birthday parties for our members who are missing out on their usual out-of-house celebrations! 

Join our Brides Club for free here to join us at our bride-to-be and newlywed virtual Happy Hour!


If you sign up and join Quarantine Camp, this could be you! Our beloved member Jenna, who led this in-person challah making meetup in NYC last summer, is bringing her skills to you virtually in one of our (many) sessions.

Quarantine Camp

Our members are an exceptionally talented – and varied – bunch, so to keep us all entertained and learning during this time, we decided to tap into the Brides Club hivemind and recruit our members to teach us some new skills as we self-isolate. We’ve got upcoming live video sessions teaching us yoga, challah baking, positive psychology, singing, basic French, beginner weightlifting, and much, much more. 

I’m also joining in teaching a session on how to turn your passion into profit and make money online.

Join our Brides Club for free here to benefit from all the Quarantine Camp sessions!

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Real Jewish Brides: Orli On Finding A Moment Of Peace Amongst The Crazy

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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!

Coronavirus In Our Lives

It’s hard at the moment for the coronavirus not to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. You get on the train and you grab a Metro and it’s on the first page in bold. You look at your phone first thing in the morning and BBC news pops up with the latest figures.

You check your Instagram and someone’s talking about it, Facebook it’s the same. We catch up with friends, we talk to colleagues and we find ourselves slowly broaching the subject, how are they feeling about it. I am guilty of refreshing BBC news every half an hour or so to find the latest information. Yet the more I look, the more I know, the more I feel in control of the situation but the more I know the more I realise it is.

Now this post is not about the coronavirus, it’s really about what we can do to take a step away from all of the news and to find a mindfulness moment, a moment away from the stress of the news and a moment to breathe.

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