Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Real Jewish Brides: For Lindsay It’s All About The Ceremony

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Lindsay, a member of Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club, will be marrying Dan on 25th August 2019 at Kochav Hayam in Caesarea, Israel. Click here to read all Lindsay’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Lindsay and Dan were set up by Lindsay’s cousin! (2) They are planning an English-style destination wedding with a few modern twists in Caesarea, Israel. (3) Even though they are both Jewish, Lindsay is more interested in the religious element of the day than Dan, so they are working to balance tradition with their personal style – our favorite!


Ceremony is the most important thing to me

Whilst the most important aspect of the wedding for Dan is music, for me it’s the ceremony. It’s safe to say I’m slightly more in touch with my religious side than Dan is (he’s only just agreed to go prawn-less post-wedding), so when it came to choosing a rabbi it was so important we found someone with a connection to us – if anything just to keep Dan awake during the ceremony!


Image by Andreas Markakis from Nitsan and Oren‘s wedding

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A Reem Acra Bride for a Romantic Jewish Wedding at the Conrad Hotel, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

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Would you just LOOK at that chuppah?! The all-white floral scheme, the mirrored columns, and above all, the height! Total masterpiece. And would you believe that every last detail of Melissa and Joey’s beautiful Jewish wedding is just as stunning?

Take Melissa’s jawdroppingly gorgeous Reem Acra gown. It’s truly the ultimate princess fantasy dress, with gorgeous detailing as far as the eye can see – don’t miss the closeups in  El Marco Rojo’s exquisite photos of the day. Pure romance.

We’d also like to mention that Melissa and Joey had 420 (!) guests at their wedding – and yet they managed to assemble sweet welcome bags (made of straw and pompoms, channeling those beachy local vibes) for each and every one. The bags highlighted the couple’s wedding hashtag, #joeytienesasson (the bride’s last name is Sasson), and were stuffed with hangover packs, water, and welcome snacks– including some traditional Colombian sweets.

Oh, and this also happens to be Smashing The Glass’s first ever Colombian wedding, which we’re pretty jazzed about – read on for all the rest of the details…

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How we met

Melissa, the bride: We met through mutual friends –  our families had also known each other for many years. After a few years of getting to know each other, we met again at Joey’s cousin’s wedding and that is where our story really began.

I was living in Bogota, Colombia, and my husband Joey, lived in Miami, so we saw each other every 15 days or more if we could.

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A Naeem Khan Bride for a Cozy, Outdoorsy Jewish Wedding at The Hideout, Kirkwood, California, USA

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We love it when a couple isn’t afraid to do their Jewish wedding their own way – after all, helping couples do just that is really at the core of our mission. So naturally we were psyched when Kathleen and Carter’s wedding popped up in our inboxes.

These two knew their priority was a warm celebration with their loved ones, minus the stress that can so easily dominate wedding planning. They also knew they wanted to honor the groom’s love of the outdoors.

So they went right for the stuff that mattered to them and scrapped what didn’t when crafting their super fun wedding weekend at rustic venue The Hideout, in the mountains just outside Tahoe, full of hot chocolate, giant lawn games, and – above all – plenty of quality time with the couple’s nearest and dearest.Photographer Lindsey Gomes captured the wedfest in all its cozy glory.

We love that the wedding party made breakfast together in the lodge on the morning of the wedding, and Kathleen took the DIY approach to her own and her bridesmaids’ hair and makeup, “because I wanted everyone to be relaxed and feel like they were just getting ready with friends.” The best!

Another thing we love? The couple’s gorgeous ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Tallulah Ketubahs, inspired by the breathtaking mountain setting.

There’s so much more we could say about this fab, laid-back wedding, but before we hand you over to the bride (who looked simply smashing in Naeem Khan), we’ll leave you with one last tidbit: she and Carter opted to exchange vows to each other in private on the morning of the wedding before saying them in front of their guests during the ceremony so they could have that special moment together, just the two of them. Awwwww!

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A Wedding in the Mountains

Kathleen, the bride: Carter is a consummate outdoorsman, and he has slowly but surely brought me into his world (I own a backpacking pack, a pair of skis, and climbing shoes, to name just a few new acquisitions since we started dating!), so it was a goal of mine to find a venue and plan a wedding that he would be super excited about – and that’s exactly what happened!

I knew it needed to be outdoors, remote, preferably in the mountains because that’s his happy place. The Hideout was exactly that – secluded, breathtaking, unique, and just outside Tahoe. Carter loved it as soon as I brought him on the first visit.

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The STG Brides Club Challah Bake Meet-up happened in NYC and it was EVERYTHING!

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You’ve probably noticed that we talk a lot about Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club, our members-only community for planning your perfect Jewish (or Jew-ish) wedding. That’s because Karen and I are genuinely really excited about it – from the stage-by-stage planning breakdown for every step of the way, to the extensive library of must-have Jewish wedding planning resources to the amazing array of discounts we’ve secured with some of our very favorite vendors, to the incredible stories we hear from our members about how it’s transformed their wedding planning.


Above all, the thing that really makes Brides Club tick is the sense of community among our members – it’s so touching to see the connections made each and every day through our private Brides Club Facebook group.

But online communication only gets you so far, and we want to bring this wonderful community to the next level. So we’ve started live, in-person meetups, currently in London and NYC (with LA coming up in July!). Karen hosted a wonderful drinks meetup for the London brides in May, but what I’m here to talk about is our NYC meetup earlier this month.


Now, this was not just any old meetup. It was a challah bake! That’s right, Brides Club member Jenna, generously offered to host the meetup – and share her challah expertise with us. She’s been baking ever since she was a kid, when she learned from her grandfather, and she’s now a total pro.


Jenna talked us through some challah basics  – did you know that the word “challah” technically refers not to the familiar braided loaf, but to the small portion of dough that, according to Jewish law, should be separated and burned?


Jenna also guided us through braiding six-strand challah (and made it look super simple!), and assembled a fantastic toppings/fillings bar – we’re talking zaatar, everything bagel mix, cinnamon sugar, even chocolate chips and candied ginger!

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A Shay Peretz Bride for a Paris-Meets-Tel Aviv Jewish Wedding at Ray, Tel Aviv, Israel

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What is it about Tel Aviv weddings? There’s just something unfailingly chic about them, each and every time. And that goes double for the stylish Jewish wedding of Shoshanny, a lawyer, and Gal, a specialist in back and spinal problems.

They picked their super cool venue, Ray, partially because it reminded them of the very chicest spots in Paris – and we can totally see it. We’re also kind of obsessed with those blush pink seats. And the extravagantly sized fan-shaped greenery used in the table arrangements – such a distinctive choice! Don’t miss the photos from Haim Afriat and video by Nir Tenenbaum.

Then there’s Shoshanny’s bridal style. It’s hard to believe she purchased her elegant gown just five weeks before her big day – and found it by chance strolling the streets of Tel Aviv – but that’s how it happened. We love the silhouette, the off-the-shoulder style, the big bow – basically everything about this stunner from Shay Peretz (who also made Shoshany a totally gorgeous veil).

We’ll let the bride take it from here…

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How we met

Shoshanny, the bride: I had lots of bad dates before I met Gal, while Gal was looking for his next hookup… we met on Tinder, and both without any expectations. Gal told me he will never get married, while I was looking for love, not necessarily marriage.

Date after date, one thing led to the other, till one day Gal asked me out of the blue to move in together (after 5 months), I was half asleep and in the morning I wasn’t even sure it happened… maybe I imagined it or dreamed about it… so after two weeks Gal told me that he is still waiting for an answer. I asked – to what question. He said – moving in together. And I replied – oh, so it really did happen. Believe it or not, a month later we decided to get married. We got married about a year afterwards.

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