Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Top Mother-of-the-Bride Shopping Tips from Designer Joyce Young

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This is a guest post by Joyce Young of Joyce Young Design Studios. Photo by Janelle Brooke Photography from Julia and ChiChi’s wedding. 

We’re so excited to share some top mother-of-the-bride (or groom) shopping tips from Joyce Young, a renowned UK-based designer at the very top of the game. If you think your mum could use a little encouragement to get her shopping mojo on, send her right here to take in Joyce’s wise words!

Photo courtesy of Joyce Young

The Engagement

Congratulations! Your darling son or daughter has announced that he/she is to get married to their soul mate.  This is a joyous time, with all the excitement to come of planning a wedding.

Most mothers like to be involved but depending on the couple your involvement can vary considerably. It can and should be a time of quality bonding as you plan and discuss all the aspects of the wedding, but it can also be a frustrating time with a lot of biting the tongue to avoid conflict!

Photo by The Love Hunters from Georgia and Joel’s wedding

Couples are now getting married older and tend to know their own minds and may not ask the opinions of parents. Sometimes this can be hurtful. When my own daughter got married I quickly learned that when she sought my opinion is was only OK when I happened to agree with hers. I learned to become very tactful! 

We have been in business for 26 years dressing mothers of the bride and brides and we hear so many stories some very funny and others quite sad and we know it’s hard to please all of the people all of the time!

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Real Jewish Brides: Jaime’s Final Countdown

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Jaime will be marrying Varun on 26th October 2019 at Hummingbird Nest Ranch, California, USA. Click here to read all Jaime’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Jaime and Varun will be having a Jewish ceremony AND a Hindu ceremony – on the same day! (2) They’re planning a swanky but not stuffy wedding at one of our fave California venues, Hummingbird Nest Ranch! (3) Jaime is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


1 month to go!

Here we are – the final sprint until the big day!

September 1 we had my bridal shower and it was so much fun to be with my family and spend the time. My mom and my aunts threw me the most beautiful shower – where I told her I wanted it to be “all things sparkly, colorful and rainbow” aka ungapatchka, lol!

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A Carolina Herrera Bride for an Elegant Modern Jewish Wedding at Beth Torah, Aventura, FL, USA

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What a chuppah! We’re obsessed with the cool modern acrylic chuppah – complete with luxe hanging white blossoms – Samantha, a kindergarten teacher, and Justin, co-head of corporate outreach for global real estate company Tishman Speyer, chose to marry under. That elegant all-white look, complemented by the bright pops of color from the bride and bridesmaids’ bright pink bouquets – wow! We’re still picking our jaws up off the floor after scrolling through all of Emily Harris Photography’s vibrant, joyous photos.

For that matter, ALL the flowers in this gorgeous wedding were totally wow – don’t miss the incredible ombre flower wall, or the upside down hanging tulips and calla lilies that hovered over the reception ballroom! And in keeping with the bright colorful look, Samantha and Justin chose a wonderful, colorful ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Anna Abramzon, which they now display proudly in their home as a reminder of their big day and their commitment to one another.

But this wedding was about so much more than aesthetics. We love how these two incorporated their beloved late grandparents into their ceremony, with Samantha’s grandfather’s tallit used in the chuppah canopy, a kiddush cup belonging one of her grandmothers used during the ceremony, and the bride’s bouquet wrapped in lace from her other grandmother’s veil.

Now over to the bride, who looks so elegant in her Carolina Herrera gown…

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How we met

Samantha, the bride: My dad and Justin’s grandpa set us up. We were both students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Justin was a senior and I was a freshman. We went out one night and had mutual friends and started talking. We dated for the second semester of his senior year and my freshman year. He was moving to New York after college, and I got back together with my ex-boyfriend. We didn’t communicate for three years.

Towards the end of my senior year at Madison, I started to think of Justin again. He posted a picture on Instagram one night and I messaged him on Facebook because I lost his number. We started talking a little and the next month after I graduated college I was in New York for a weekend visiting my sister. Justin took me out on a date that Friday night May 23rd, 2014 and we’ve been together ever since. For us, timing was truly everything.

I was in the middle of my masters program when we got married and I was working at a school. To say I was busy going to school, working and planning a wedding was an understatement.

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An Eisen Stein Bride for an Equality-Minded Jewish Wedding at Avigdor 22 in Tel Aviv, Israel

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We love it when a couple puts their values first when planning their Jewish wedding. That’s exactly what today’s gorgeous Israeli couple, Talia and Shawn, did. The pair didn’t feel comfortable marrying through Israel’s rabbanut, in light of the lack of marriage equality in the country, so they worked to craft an alternative that was in keeping with their values yet still incorporated Jewish tradition in a way that was meaningful to them.

Talia and Shawn opted to make things official via a City Hall wedding while on holiday in NYC (so fun!), and then back home in Tel Aviv worked with a secular rabbi to plan their Jewish celebration, which combined tradition – smashing the glass, a gorgeous chuppah that’s been passed down through the groom’s family ever since his grandparents made it for his parents’ wedding – with personal touches, like the vows the couple made to each other and the tailor-made blessings they received from their family and friends in place of the traditional seven blessings. We also love that they wrote their ketubah text themselves!

We’re obsessed with the couple’s incredibly cool, contemporary photography from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ben Kelmer – the way he captures emotion and authentic moments while also somehow producing images that wouldn’t look out of place in a glam glossy magazine is really something.

Now over to the bride, who looked effortlessly elegant in her gown by Eisen Stein and party dress from Nili Lotan…

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How we met

Talia, the bride: We have been together for 9 years. I am a dentist and Shawn is a lawyer… We met through a good friend of mine from the army who went out with Shawn’s friend. They didn’t work out as a couple, but we’re still together! We asked both of them to greet us together (as part of the 7 blessings) as a token to their brief relationship that led us to meet and eventually get married.

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2020 Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Janine + Paul: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 4th gorgeous bride from our crop of 2020 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Janine, who will be marrying Paul on 26th July 2020 at Fasque Castle, Scotland, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Janine and fiance Paul met on Bumble. (2) The two of them are planning an interfaith Jew-ish wedfest weekend, to include everything from a whiskey tasting to mini highland games! (3) Janine is a member of  Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


How We Met

Paul and I met “the modern way” via the Bumble dating app – it’s a romance that nearly never happened! When we were due to have our first date, I accidentally locked myself out of my flat, and had to wait for my landlord to bring spare keys so I was forced to cancel on Paul at the last-minute when he was already on his way!

Fortunately, he saw the funny side; both of us were pretty flexible and met the next day. I’ll never forget the beaming smile on his face as I walked into the pub in Greenwich – it’s forever etched in my mind, and really epitomises the person that he is – a smiley, lovely man.

On the other hand Paul will never forget (and often reminds me), of me eating mountains of French Bread with the baked camembert we shared, because I was too embarrassed to tell him that I’m gluten intolerant; at the time we met it wasn’t really ‘a thing’ and more for hipsters – a hipster I am not!

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