Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

2020 Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Orli + Ben: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 6th gorgeous bride from our crop of 2020 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Orli, who will be marrying Ben on 6th September 2020 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK.

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!


How you met

We met on Jswipe, which seems to be a common way to meet these days. We have recently found our first Jswipe messages where I couldn’t help but laugh at his first chat up line which was ‘Birmingham University sounds fun’ to which I replied ‘I graduated three years ago!’.

After speaking for 6 weeks we met up and were pretty much inseparable from the second date where he asked me to meet his brothers and parents.

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An Enzoani Bride for a Fun-Filled Interfaith Jewish Wedding with DIY Touches at Wharfedale Grange, Yorkshire, UK

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We love it when a couple puts fun at the top of their wedding planning agenda. And that’s exactly what STG Brides Club member Sophie and groom David did when planning their interfaith Jewish wedding.

Well, fun AND making sure all of their guests felt included in the big day, regardless of background. Between the non-religious civil ceremony (which included a gospel choir and a poem from ‘Sex and the City’!) and a standard Jewish wedding format including touches like Israeli dancing, we think they hit the balance just right.

Photographers All You Need Is Love were chosen for their relaxed, fun style, and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor York Place Studios handled videography in their trademark documentary style, which meant they captured all the couple’s meaningful moments in a totally natural way.

The other thing we love about this wedding is the beautiful DIY touches. First off, how cool is it that Sophie made her own rose petal confetti?! Such a fun project – and it makes those smashing confetti shots that much more special.

Sophie also happens to have a mega-talented dad who crafted the retro illuminated sign over the dance floor (it read ‘Brand New Isaacs’ to match the couple’s #abrandnewisaacs hashtag – the bride’s name was Brand and the groom’s is Isaacs).

Now over to the bride, who looked beautiful in Enzoani…

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How we met

Sophie, the bride: We met at work in Leeds, when I joined the big accountancy firm that David had already been at a couple of years. We didn’t get together straight away, with David moving to London soon after we met, but a year or so later I moved to London too and we got together at that point.

After several years having the best time living in London we decided to move back to Yorkshire, where we now both work as private equity investors – in very similar roles but at different companies!

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A Reem Acra Bride for an Enchanted Forest Jewish Wedding at Gotham Hall, New York City, USA

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As Karen wraps up her whirlwind tour of NYC, we’ve got another New York-tastic Jewish wedding for you to celebrate her first trip out here on official Smashing The Glass business.

Today’s couple, Charlotte and Nate, went for classic Manhattan glam with a touch of Midsummer Night’s Dream fantasy. First off, can we talk about their chuppah?! In honor of the bride’s love for greenery, the couple’s florist basically created a mini enchanted forest right in the middle of their grand, old-school venue.

With hanging greenery, white blossoms, birch poles, and tons of sparkling lights, it’s truly something to behold. And keeping the magical vibes going strong for the guests, these two even had trees to match placed in the middle of the seating area! Even their gorgeous ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com featured a tree! And the photography team from Fred Marcus Studio and videographers at Current Films captured everything so perfectly.

We’re also obsessed with Charlotte’s gorgeous, classic gown from Reem Acra – with a gorgeous beaded jacket on top for that little something extra. We’ll let this stylish bride take it from here…

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A New York City Wedding

Charlotte, the bride: Gotham Hall is a classic new york city venue that I think stands out from all the rest. It is a super glamorous and grand venue but still achieves the charm and intimacy that I was looking for. I also loved working with the Gotham Hall team, they are all fantastic.

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Real Jewish Brides: Jos Gets Real about Body Image and Planning Curveballs

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Jos will be marrying Daniel on 28th June 2020 at Hackney Town Hall, London, UK. Click here to read all Jos’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Before meeting Daniel, Jos was known for her torrid dating tales – so much so that her friends used to call her Bridget Jonestein! (2) Daniel proposed to Jos in the Greek island of Naxos! (3) Jos is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


Fiction Vs Reality

As a child I grew up with a beautiful view of love. Disney princesses with impossibly small waists and hair that seems to just fall into place meet similarly beautiful men, usually on horseback and then suddenly appear, doe eyed, at their weddings.

Yes, there are a few bumps in the road, a few wicked witches, maybe a poison apple or two, but the end game is always the same. We all live happily ever after. 

So, with such high expectations, the experience of being engaged so far has fallen somewhat short. Don’t get me wrong, I am 100% sure that I am marrying the right guy, he’s an angel. However, there are two things that have been making the past few months difficult, and they are two things that Disney did not prepare me for. 

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A Carolina Herrera Bride for an Elegant Argentinian-American Jewish Wedding at the Gramercy Park Hotel, New York City, USA

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Today’s real Jewish wedding is just SO very NYC… which is appropriate, because this week Karen’s taking the Big Apple by storm! All of us at Team STG are VERY excited for her first official STG trip to the greatest city in the world – check out our Instagram Stories for the next few days to see what she’s up to!

But back to the wedding… wonderful STG Brides Club member Julie and groom Guillermo got married at the Gramercy Park Hotel, which is also where they went on their first date! The fact that it’s got killer NYC views didn’t hurt either.

Everything about this wedding was perfectly NYC chic, from the understatedly elegant floral chuppah to the simple, timeless ketubah the couple chose from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor (and East Village local!) The Ketubah to the artsy, creative photography by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jossef Si (who Julie and Guillermo loved so much they flew him in from Tel Aviv – and no wonder, his style was such a perfect fit for their big day). The pair even brought in quirky entertainment like a tarot card reader and a poet to write personalized haikus for guests!

And in true New York tradition, this wedding was delightfully multicultural, with all kinds of touches incorporating Guillermo’s roots in Argentina, from Argentinian dance music to late night empanadas.

As always, we’re so happy to hear that Brides Club helped make this wedding the smashing success it was – Julie loved our planning resources and vendor recs, and she was able to take advantage of a bunch of amazing discounts offered just to members of the club!

There’s so much more we could say, but we’ll let Julie, who looked stunning in Carolina Herrera, fill you in on the rest…

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Venue

Julie, the bride: We got married at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City. We chose this venue because it is where we had our first date! The story goes… I was moving from Boston to NYC, and while on a trip to NYC for work/apartment hunting, I stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel. We connected through an app the day I arrived in the city and arranged to meet one week later (my last day before returning home). I asked if he could meet me at the hotel bar, since I needed to grab my bags before heading to the train.

Two hours before the date, I got an unexpected job offer in London, which was a city I’d been dreaming of living for 10+ years. I debated with my friends if it was more rude to cancel last minute or to show up and say I was moving to London! Good thing I didn’t cancel 🙂 One year later, we celebrated our engagement with a night at GPH and dinner at the hotel restaurant where we had our first date.

Aside from its significance, we loved the venue because it provided stunning views of New York City and a unique floorplan. Rather than a standard ballroom, the hotel has an outdoor terrace surrounding multiple interior rooms. We did not want to follow the typical wedding structure (skip the long sit down dinner, and let’s get right to the party), and this venue naturally lent itself to something less traditional. Bonus: it is also covered in incredible modern artwork from Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat and more.

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