Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Gifts That Won’t Cost Your Guests a Penny: Social Gifting with Prezola

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I’m so excited to share a new wedding list innovation from our friends at Prezola, the UK’s leading wedding registry, and the only gift list service in the UK we hand on heart recommend. I think we’d all agree that the best gifts don’t always cost money, and Prezola’s found a fantastic way to facilitate gifting the precious resource of time.

That’s why I think you’re going to love social gifting, which allows you to register for meaningful experiential gifts that don’t need to cost guests a penny. Now, in addition to traditional gifts from hundreds of retailers, a honeymoon fund, cash contributions, and charity donations, Prezola’s enabling your guests to promise to do something, not just buy something, to commemorate your special day.

WHAT ARE SOCIAL PROMISES?

Prezola’s Social Promises can be anything close to your heart — you can choose from a selection of pre-created promises, or create your own.

Whether it’s volunteering at a charity that’s meaningful to you, helping you move house, or looking after your pet while you’re on honeymoon, you can create and add Social Promises to your gift list just like any other gift, completely free of charge.

Social Promises put the focus of gift-giving squarely on sharing time and experiences with loved ones. It’s also a great way to reduce the pressure for guests to spend a lot on attending your wedding — such a win-win.

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A Monique Lhuillier Bride for a Daytime Jewish Wedding at Ronit Farm, Kfar Shmariyahu, Israel

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We can spot a Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Luz Weddings Photography Jewish wedding a mile away. Their trademark combination of architectual urban shots with emotion and romance is unmistakable — and we can’t get enough of it.

Neither could Mayan, a lawyer, and Dan, a construction engineer, who can’t stop raving about their photographers — in addition to being mega talented at capturing artsy shots, the couple report they were a dream to work with on the day and couldn’t have made even the photo-hating groom more comfortable.

There was certainly plenty to capture, what with the stunning Ronit Farm setting and an unbelievable floral chuppah. And we love how the couple opted to get married at the unconventional-for-Israel hour of noon, allowing them to make the most of that amazing Israeli sunshine.

They also opted for a Friday date, which meant they could throw in some fun pre-Shabbat touches, like their Shabbat flower bouquet favors that each guest picked up from a “flower shop” they had set up!

Over to Mayan, who lived out all her princess dreams in Monique Lhuillier…

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How we met

Mayan, the bride: We met in the army, where we both served in intelligence. When I got to the office on the first day he came to sit next to me and started talking to me.

Soon we kissed but because Dan is from Eilat and I am from Jerusalem (a 4 hour drive) he wasn’t sure he wanted to be my boyfriend! So I made him jealous a little bit and soon we fell in love.

We’ve been together for 7.5 years already and I can’t remember my life without him anymore. He is my best friend and we have so much in common, like our love of travelling around the world.

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A Reformation Bride for a DIY Jewish Wedding at Littlefield, Brooklyn, New York, USA

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DIY and NYC aren’t the first two things we think of as going together when it comes to Jewish weddings. But super cool (not to mention resourceful) couple Grace and Barry proved us wrong with their charmingly eclectic indoor garden party celebration in Brooklyn, beautifully captured by the amazing Mandee Johnson Photography — their outdoor photoshoot in the streets of Brooklyn is serious #weddinggoals.

With some help from their families — Grace and her mom DIY’d the floral arrangements, while Barry’s mother fashioned a beautiful, simple chuppah canopy from an old lace curtain — and fun touches like string lights and a BBQ buffet, these two prove that it’s totally possible to craft a memorable wedding on a budget, even in the most expensive of cities.

And how cool does Grace look in her dress from Reformation (which happens to be a fantastic option for brides on a budget who don’t want to compromise on style)?  We’ll leave the gorgeous bride and groom to fill you in on the rest…

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Jewish Wedding Littlefield, Brooklyn USA_0012

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How we met

Grace and Barry, the bride and the groom: Barry is on stage, performing. Grace is in the audience, audience-ing. After the show, she cracked a joke about his shoes, he laughed, that was that.

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Real Jewish Brides: Tragedy and Triumphs on Rebekkah’s Wedding Planning Journey

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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!


Coping With Wedding Planning Stress

Five months till my fiancee and I smash our glass! Crazy how these major life events are a whirlwind of thinking and planning and anxiety and stress only to be over in 12 hours. That’s what I keep telling myself anyway, “It’s just one day, Bekkah you got this”, “You’re A type enough to pull this off properly!”


Image by Lilly Photography from Jane and Adam’s wedding

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A Francesca Miranda Bride for a Romantic Jewish Wedding with a Touch of Edge at Ronit Farm, Kfar Shmariyahu, Israel

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Wow. This Jewish wedding. It really doesn’t get much better.

Some couples want a delicate, romantic wedding. Others want their big day to be a massive party. May, the marketing manager of a co-working space for doctors, and Yaniv, who’s in real estate investment, managed to make their beautiful Jewish wedding both of those things — with some help from much-loved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Naama Raicher.

Naama, her colleague Yael Kfir Frumkes, and the rest of the team brought the duo’s dream wedding to life, providing their trademark finesse to every stage of the process from the very beginning to the day of – so much so that May reports that choosing Naama Raicher was “the best decision we made” during planning.

Naama and Yael helped the couple formulate their plan of action: first, an intimate late afternoon ceremony, set outdoors at the idyllic Ronit Farm, full of soft colors and romantic touches — like a totally stunning floral chuppah adorned with delicate white flowers.

Then, for the reception, things got a little edgier: May and Yaniv brought a hit of club style to their outdoor dinner and dance party, with moody colors galore — they even brought in professional dancers (who went through four costume changes throughout the night!) to perform on stages set on the sides of the dance floor to set the mood.

May’s Francesca Miranda gown easily made the transition from ceremony chic to party mode: made from 200 meters (!) of tulle and covered with thousands of hand-embroidered butterflies, this dress is most definitely soft and whimsical… but it was also the perfect lightweight bridal attire in which to dance all night.  

We’ll turn you over to May in a second, but before we do we want to alert you to the fact that she and Yaniv provided one of the best favors we’ve yet encountered: loaves of fresh challah! Um, yes please!

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How we met

May, the bride: I was jogging on the beach one day and Yaniv noticed me running. He then found a mutual friend of ours and asked her to make the connection, and the rest is history.

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