Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Liberty Print and Lavender for an Outdoor Destination Jewish Wedding at Bregancon Castle in Bormes les Mimosas, Provence, France

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Today’s wedding is just so utterly chic. Having lived in France, I can confirm that most people there are this stylish and this good looking. (I know – it’s ridiculous). And then there’s the Provence sunlight. Seriously, THAT SUNLIGHT! I dare you not to start drooling over Ivan Franchet’s swoonworthy photos of the day.

Anne and Anthony, a Parisian couple who both work in finance in London, wisely decided to adopt an effortlessly chic, laid-back Provencal vibe for their wedding style. Between the local flowers (why yes, that DOES include plenty of lavender), lovely vintage furniture, and, our favorite, Liberty print galore.

Oh, and that wood chuppah with the sweetest florals? Anne built the structure the morning of the wedding, along with her father and brother. GAH!

And of course we can’t leave out that timeless French style — we’re sure you won’t be shocked to learn that Anne’s effortlessly elegant, summery dress was custom designed by the very Parisian Celestina Agostino. Now over to the beautiful bride…

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How We Met

Anne, the bride: I met Anthony through one of my colleagues, who was his flatmate at the time.

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Real Jewish Brides: Rebecca’s On Her Eight Week Countdown!

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Rebecca will be marrying David on 7th October 2018 at a secret location in Israel! Click here to read all Rebecca’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Rebecca and David met on JSwipe (so old school we know 😉 ) (2) They are having a destination wedding in Israel at a secret location! (3) They are getting married on Rebecca’s grandparents wedding anniversary (who have been married for 64 years). We LOVE that!


We are now in our LESS THAN 8 WEEK’S COUNTDOWN! I can’t quite believe I am saying that…. Where has the time gone?!

A few weekends ago it was my hen weekend which was AMAZING. Everyone really enjoyed, and they are all so excited for the wedding now. If the hen is anything to go by, it’s going to be a great party! My Mum and Grandma also came down from Leeds for the Sunday afternoon tea which was lovely to share with them too.


Image by Claudine Hartzel by from Ashley and Adam‘s wedding 

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A Suspended Floral Chuppah for a Festive, Glitzy Jewish Wedding at Dock 5 in Washington, D.C., USA

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Jewish wedding Dock 5 Washington DC USA_0017You know there’s little we love more than a distinctive chuppah design at a Jewish wedding.

At first glance, today’s version may look like a fairly standard-issue floral design… but look again. Specifically, look at the poles – or, more precisely the lack thereof.

That’s right, Jillian, a reporter at the financial news site MarketWatch, and Steven, a dental student, went for a suspended chuppah for their big day, with asymmetrical greenery and white flowers descending from each of the four corners but stopping a good few feet from the floor. How cool does it look in Sam Hurd’s glam photos?!

The non-traditional (yet still permissible according to Jewish law — the couple checked with their rabbi) chuppah is just one of the wonderful ways Jillian and Steven merged Jewish traditions with their own 21st-century sensibilities.

For example, the pair liked the tradition of a pre-wedding tisch (a ceremony for the groom and male guests) and kabbalat panim (for the bride and female guests), but weren’t crazy about the gender segregation thing. Their solution? During the cocktail hour, they held both ceremonies, but made each gender-neutral so that all of the guests could experience both — and get in some valuable time with the bride and the groom. We LOVE that.

There’s so much more to say about this fun, festive wedding, but we’ll let Jillian — who looked so glam in her custom gold lace gown designed by family friend Sharon Wilkes — take it from here…

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How we met

Jillian, the bride: We first met through mutual friends – a close friend of Steven’s from growing up was one of my roommates in college – but then began dating while working together at HuffPost in New York, shortly after graduating from college. And of course our relationship continued through job changes and Steven’s career left turn into dentistry!

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A Milla Nova Bride for a Multicultural Outdoor Jewish Wedding at Hatzer Netzer in Netser Sereni, Israel

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One of the things we love most here at Smashing the Glass is seeing the ways couples combine their cultures and traditions into their big days. It’s not always easy, whether you’re planning a Jewish wedding or a Jew-ish one, but we see couple after couple pulling it off in their own imitable style.

And today’s pair is no exception. Bronwyn, an occupational therapist and Tal, who is in sales, had two very different sets of traditions to combine: the bride is Ashkenazi and South African, while the groom is Sephardi and Israeli, with roots in India.

It was important to the bride and groom that both the ceremony and the party reflect their respective backgrounds, and we love the clever ways they made sure to give each other’s traditions equal billing on the big day.

During the ceremony, Bronwyn and Tal mixed and matched their favorite elements, holding a Sephardi chuppah with some key Ashkenazi elements: Bronwyn circled Tal seven times, and the duo took some time for themselves in a yichud room after the ceremony. At the reception, the DJ mixed South African beats with Indian tunes — plus some Israeli pop for good measure!

The other thing we adore about this wedding is Bronwyn’s dress: her long-sleeved lace gown by Milla Nova proves you don’t have to show a lot of skin to look dreamy as you walk down the aisle. We can’t get enough of this soft, romantic bridal style, and we love the way Smashing the Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman captured it — and everything else about this gorgeous day, from the emotion under the chuppah to the wild dancing at the reception (and he’s an amazing guy to boot!)

Bronwyn will fill you in on the rest…

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How we met

Bronwyn, the bride: We met via Jswipe. Love at first swipe!

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A Martina Liana Bride for a Countryside Jewish Wedding at Mt Duneed Estate, Waurn Ponds, outside Melbourne, Australia

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Oh we are positively swoooooning over today’s gorgeous Jewish wedding. Everything from bride Adi’s oh-so-elegant Martina Liana gown to Smashing the Glass Recommended Vendor Jeremy Blode’s artful photographs of the day positively exudes that laid-back Aussie chic we just can’t get enough of….

Adi, a solicitor, and Rod, a physical therapist, placed a premium on creating a beautiful record of their day, and did it ever pay off! Just look at those portraits of the duo walking off into the sunset. *Swoon.* The Jewish dancing shots are pretty unmissable, too. Adi says Jeremy Blode “has a gift for capturing the rawest and most beautiful moments,” and we could not possibly agree more.

To round out the documentation, Adi and Rodney brought in Videoboutique as videographer and Magnet-Me to provide ultra-creative wedding favors in the form of instant photo magnets! Adi loved the idea of a photo booth but wanted to keep her guests on the dancefloor having fun, and what a perfect solution she found. Instead of guests having to queue for a photo booth, a photographer walked around during canapà©s and dancing to snap guests’ photos, which were then printed out instantaneously to be taken home at the end of the night. LOVE!

Now over to Adi…

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How we met

Adi, the bride: Funnily enough, Rod and I first met at a dingy Melbourne nightclub called Boutique. I may need prescription glasses to see almost everything in my day-to-day life; however, I managed to spot Rod (free from glasses) in the loud and dark nightclub. I pulled him out from the crowd and asked for his name and whether he was single. The rest is history.

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