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All about Wedding Weekends {Live with Michelle Jacobs}

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There’s nothing like a wedding weekend! They are always being discussed inside our Brides Club community and with the rise of international destination weddings, we’re seeing a rise in wedding weekends too.

Once you’re asking guests to travel for the big day, it seems like a shame not to make the most of having all your nearest and dearest together in one (very scenic) place by planning a few days’ worth of events surrounding your nuptials. 

But there’s no reason you have to jet off to Italy or Palm Beach to get everyone together in one place for a fun-filled weekend – think pre-wedding dinner the night before, a wedding with no curfew, and then a post-wedding day brunch or BBQ.

Luxury wedding planner Michelle Jacobs of Elegante by Michelle J is finding more and more couples are coming to her for help planning this kind of wedding weekend, right here in my hometown of the UK, and I asked her if she’d share all her best tips with me and you!

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An Eliza Jane Howell Bride for an Ecofriendly Orthodox Feminist Jewish Wedding at The Brewery, London, UK

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We love it when a couple gives their values a starring role in their Jewish wedding. And Miriam, an environmental consultant in the water sector, and Lazarus, an intellectual property manager for a green hydrogen start up, did exactly that for their beautiful big day at beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Brewery.

Unsurprisingly, sustainability is a big deal to these two – and they followed through on that value by using e-vites instead of paper, a mix of fake flowers along with fresh to reduce waste, and gave out wildflower seed favours for guests to plant to help save the bees.

We also love how Miriam and Lazarus worked with their rabbi to incorporate some feminist touches into their Orthodox ceremony – like having Miriam say a line back to Lazarus after he gave her the ring, and having female guests reading the Sheva Brachot in English as well as the men saying them in Hebrew.

Even cooler is the way they went about making sure all of their guests, Jewish and non-Jewish, felt involved in the wedding: Miriam and Lazarus went a step further than an explanatory order of service on the day, instead opting to send theirs out to guests in advance – along with FAQs about Jewish weddings and videos and music clips to prepare everyone for the dancing!

We love how Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Michael Lee’s photography captured all the fun, energy, and bold colours of the day – and he came up with some awesome ideas for creative shots.

Now over to the bride, who looked simply stunning in her vintage-inspired Eliza Jane Howell dress (not to mention that epic flower crown!)…

Jewish wedding The Brewery London UK_0059
How we met

Miriam, the bride: We met on JSwipe – a truly 21st century couple!

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New York Bridal Market Spring 2020 Recap {and Top Bridal Trends for 2019/20}

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Reem Acra | Photo courtesy of Reem Acra

Hello from New York! Emily here, reporting back from New York Bridal Fashion week on all the hottest Spring/Summer 2020 collections.

Grace Loves Lace | Photo courtesy of Grace Loves Lace

Bridal Market happens twice a year in NYC, in April and October (you can check out my recap of last October’s highlights here).

Yaniv Persy | Photo courtesy of Yaniv Persy

The April show is known for being a little lower-key than October’s, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t tons of fantastic new looks on display.

Halfpenny London | Photo courtesy of Halfpenny London

Because there definitely were.

Phuong My | Photo courtesy of Phuong My

Spring 2020 is looking to be a season of extremes, with clean hyper-minimalist gowns vying with some of the most opulent dresses you could ask for, dainty feminist looks like puffed sleeves and bows neck and neck with androgynous pieces like pants (and even shorts!) and fitted jackets.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Sharon Cunningham Bride for a Jewish Interfaith Wedding with a Feather Chuppah at The Hyatt Churchill Hotel, London, UK

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We see a lot of chuppah designs here at STG. But today’s Jew-ish wedding’s got one that’s totally new to us: a feather chuppah!

Jay, a fitness instructor and head trainer at F45 Camden (and one of our wonderful real blogging brides), and Tom, who works in recruitment at Facebook, wanted something their guests hadn’t seen before, and we’re pretty sure they succeeded. The wild feathered top paired with the clean translucent columns make for such a striking look.

The chic style – not to mention the emotion and fun of the day – was captured perfectly by Paul Toeman Photographers and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion on video. Watching their fab trailer makes us feel like we were right there in the thick of it.

And this is one wedding we truly do wish we could have attended. Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor the Function Band knows how to throw a party – the couple reports that guests packed the dancefloor all night, and that even months after the big day people are still telling them how awesome their band was. Bradley of the Function Band also served as the day-of coordinator, and managed the day so that Jay and Rom could sit back and relax.

Now over to the bride…

Jewish wedding The Hyatt Churchill Hotel in London UK_0018 
How we met

Jay, the bride: We met on Tinder just over 5 years ago, I don’t think either one of us thought that with the swipe of a finger you could find your soulmate but for us it worked. We are an amazing team, support each other through anything!

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Real Jewish Brides: 82 days to go, and Rebekkah is plotzing

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Rebekkah will be marrying Jakob on 11th July 2019 at The Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada. Click here to read all Rebekkah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Rebekkah and Jakob were introduced by mutual friends while Jakob, who is from Germany, was in Rebekkah’s hometown of Calgary on a specialized work visa. (2) They are getting married at a beautiful mountain resort in a national park in Alberta, Canada! (3) Rebekkah is a “very satisfied member” (her words) of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


82 days and counting to my big day, I’m just plotzing!

Wedding planning up to this point… beseder, so my last blog post left me sorting out my wedding program. Thank goodness my future mother-in-law owns a graphics and printing company so she volunteered to translate our wedding program and print it for us. So now I am trying to decide if I should put a little time frame of the day on the program. Just so it will be like painfully obvious the time flow of the evening, so people aren’t wandering around confused.

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