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Real Jewish Brides – Leah: 8 Months Until Our Destination Wedding… Update

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Leah will be marrying Zak in a Jewish wedding on 1st June 2018 at Masia Notari in Spain. Click here to read all Leah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Leah knew she wanted to convert to Judaism long before she met Zak. She feels that having a Jewish wedding is another milestone in her Jewish identity and is an opportunity for some of her family to experience new traditions. (2) Leah & Zak met on JDate (3) Leah and Zak are planning a beautiful black tie destination wedding in Barcelona, Spain

When Zak and I got engaged, we hadn’t really put a lot of thought into the details of our wedding beforehand. Immediately we were flooded with questions asking when and where we would be wed, especially since our family and friends are spread out throughout the country. One of our favourite things to do together is travel, so it didn’t take us long to decide that we wanted a destination wedding, but we didn’t realize how many small hurdles we’d have to overcome by planning a wedding from afar.

Finding an Officiant

Finding someone to officiate our wedding was harder than we originally thought. It’s important to both of us that we have a more traditional Jewish ceremony but finding a rabbi in a predominately catholic country proved difficult. Luckily for us, our wedding planner, Becky from Barcelona Brides, was able to help us locate a wonderful rabbi that we began working with to help us craft a custom ceremony that is meaningful to us. Thank goodness for modern technology as we are able to have Skype sessions with our rabbi leading up to our wedding. This was one of our top priorities after choosing a venue and I urge others to begin this process early if their options are limited.

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A Super Luxe Floral Jewish Wedding in the Bride’s Parents’ Garden at Toorak, Melbourne, Australia

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jewish wedding Toorak Melbourne Victoria
Before we get into the details of Samantha and Troy’s sensational super luxe Jewish wedding, there’s also something to be learned from the way that the happy couple met: always keep your eyes open – you could meet your soulmate anywhere. In this case, walking to your car!

Today’s wedding is a total feast for the eyes as bride Samantha owns a fashion business, and brought her own sense of style to the aesthetic of the day. 

Samantha and Troy opted for a traditional white wedding at Samantha’s parents’ private residence in Melbourne, Australia. Adorned with an abundance of outstanding floral arrangements (THAT CHUPPAH!!) and styled to perfection, with not a detail missed, the day was so deliciously decadent, it really was the dictionary definition of a dream wedding – an absolute triumph for wedding planner, Styled by Coco.

The day, of course, ended with a bang – a lot of bangs, actually, in an out-of-this-world fireworks display.

The impact of the dà©cor, and parts of the firework display, can be lived vicariously through the stunning and cinematic video by Untitled Images, which also brings to life the heartfelt and loving speeches delivered by the couple’s devoted friends and family.

Bride Samantha looked straight from the pages of a glossy magazine in her breathtaking J’Aton Couture dress, flawless makeup and chic up ‘do. 

Photographer Yervant Photography captured every moment with expert ease, and Samantha has provided us with the wonderful writeup below. Enjoy – and please DO Pin everything you love (that’s a lot of Pinning!) 

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jewish wedding Toorak Melbourne Victoria

jewish wedding Toorak Melbourne Victoria

jewish wedding Toorak Melbourne Victoria
How we met

Samantha, the bride: We bumped into each other on a Friday night in September 2013, Keilor Road, Niddrie. Literally – bumped into each other. I was walking to my car, and Troy was out getting a bite to eat, when I bumped into his chest and then remarked how tall he was. After a brief conversation, we decided to grab a bite to eat together, nachos. We ate, chatted and exchanged phone numbers and that was it that night. 

We met up a couple of days later, struck up a conversation and decided to catch up again soon. A friendship was about to turn into a relationship.

A few weeks later, I went a holiday that had already been planned, and I was thinking about Troy the whole time I was away. Troy was missing me too. On my return, the friendship did become a relationship as we proclaimed our love for each other. Six months later we were living together… and here we are today!
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A Nature-Themed Outdoor Jewish Wedding at Mpekweni Beach Resort, Eastern Cape, South Africa

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Get your Pinning fingers ready, because today’s South African Jewish real wedding is an absolute beauty, and we guarantee you’ll want to steal pretty much all of it.

Inga and Jonathan chose a simple, clean outdoor theme, with a colour scheme of green, white and gold accents. With the emphasis on greenery, rather than big florals, the couple created a stunning, into-the-wild aesthetic which still managed to be totally chic and fresh.

Beautiful bride Inga looked like a Grecian goddess in her boho-style gown and flower crown, and I think we can all agree that she steals every photograph!

Speaking of which, we absolutely adore the whimsical and romantic-look images taken by fabulous photographer, Astrid Bradley Photography. Not only is every detail shot perfectly framed, but the emotion comes through so beautifully that you’ll feel like you were there.

There are some smashing ideas in here, including a wishes jar on each table for guests to write in. As there were 18 tables, the couple plans to open one jar a year for the next 18 anniversaries. Now that is self control! 

We’re also totally up for a big day dance off! So much fun!

We’ll leave you with Inga now for the full writeup of her and Jonathan’s spectacular wedding day, but before we do, with Yom Kippur almost upon us, we just want to wish the Day of Atonement to be a meaningful day for you, no matter how or if you are observing it. Shabbat Shalom!

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A relaxed, refined atmosphere

Inga, the bride: We got married at Mpekweni Beach Resort. We chose this beautiful venue for a number of reasons. Firstly, it holds significance to us as we spent some of our first holidays, beach walks and sunsets as a couple here. We also got engaged in a similar spot not too far down the coastline. We were attracted to the relaxed and refined atmosphere Mpekweni effortlessly provides (which is significantly due to the incredible management of Colin and Nicollette Whitehead).

We are both family orientated, and this venue allowed us to keep the feeling of a close family gathering without having to forgo anyone on the guest list. Moreover, our wedding was a weekend affair, as we wanted to take full advantage of having all our loved ones close by and there are few competitors to Mpekweni.

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What to Expect When Marrying In

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Converting to Judaism
Jackie & Jon’s Chinese-Jewish Wedding by York Place Studios

Until recently, a Jewish person marrying a non Jew would have been seen as marrying ‘out’. But it’s 2017, and, fortunately, new attitudes to mixed marriages have begun to pervade past messages. Now, rather than the Jewish partner marrying ‘out’, the non-Jewish partner often feels like they have married ‘in’.

If this applies to you, and you’re not sure what to expect from joining your new Jewish family, we’ve written a handy guide on how to handle the transition to honorary Jew.

Expect to be treated with varying degrees of curiosity

Reactions will be widely varied and are likely to rely on a number of factors, such as generational differences, levels of observance and so on. While it is possible that you may encounter resistance from some relatives, it’s also likely that you will simply be treated with curiosity, and indifference if you’re not the first non-Jewish partner in the family, maybe even a few ill-judged circumcision jokes (start practicing your best nervous laugh).

The most important thing is to speak to your partner about what to expect from different family members, and to approach the most supportive and liberal family members first, so that they can support you in meeting the others.

Converting to Judaism
Yvonne & Craig’s Jew-ish Wedding by Babb Photo 

Some cultural differences

 You may spend your first few Friday night dinners or Jewish holidays trying to wrap your head around why everyone is arguing all the time, particularly if they’re speaking Hebrew!

We’re a very direct, very animated bunch — sometimes what sounds like the row to end all rows is barely so much as a squabble, just a lively disagreement that will be forgotten in all of thirty seconds, if that, so try not to stress unless plates are broken and people are crying.

Kidding — that probably won’t happen… probably.

Another cultural difference is that your business will become everyone else’s business — and people will be very direct in giving you unsolicited life advice. Smile politely, say “thanks, I’ll look into that” and then continue as you were.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Suzanne Neville Bride for a Stunning Midsummer Night’s Dream Jewish Wedding at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK

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St Pancras Renaissance Jewish Wedding
Hands up who wants to see the ULTIMATE London Jewish wedding? Set at an iconic London venue, with some of the city’s finest Jewish wedding vendors, and styled like an absolute dream, Lauren and Mark’s magnificent big day deserves to have praise HEAPED upon it.

Before we get to the gorgeous aesthetic of the wedding, we must acknowledge just how much this brave couple went through before the big day. Losing Mark’s mother shortly after their engagement was a terrible blow, and Lauren and Mark honored her memory in beautiful and moving ways.

Bride Lauren broke her foot, and so her dream of showing off glitzy heels in her stunning Suzanne Neville dipped-hem gown was replaced with a new dream of walking down the aisle in glitzy Converse, with groom Mark surprising her with his own matching pair.

The big day came together like a dream – a Midsummer Night’s Dream, to be exact, with an abundance of flowers, expertly arranged by Tony Marklew, culminating in the ultimate floral arch chuppah. Your eyes will pop out of your head when you see it. This was matched only by the stunning production by Outrage Events.

Of course, a Jewish London wedding was buzzing with incredible Smashing the Glass Recommended Vendors, including much-raved-about kosher catering by Food Story, sensational cinematography by the inimitable Imaginarium Cinematography, who will, incidentally, be joining me for a Facebook live chat tonight at 8pm GMT with… (drum roll) one of my all-time favorite photographers, Blake Ezra Photography, another much-loved insanely talented STG Vendor. Blake is widely known for being one of the UK’s top photographers, and the pictures below really do speak for themselves.

We’ll leave you in Lauren’s capable hands for the full report of the day – we’re sure you’ll be swooning (and Pinning) the whole way through!

St Pancras Renaissance Jewish Wedding

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Midsummer Night Dream Wedding

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How we met

Lauren, the bride: Mark and I actually met in 1991! We attended the same school when I was six and Mark was almost eight. Although he doesn’t remember me, I do remember him. It wasn’t until we were at his dad’s house when his mum had died, and got out all the memorabilia to look at, that we found an old Westwood 1991 school play programme and we were both in it! It brought the happiest of smiles to all of our faces during a very hard time. We have since watched the footage and we were standing yards apart on stage.

We finally came together almost three years ago when I was in Brasserie Zedel with my brother and his future wife. Mark and my brother go back a very long way. As fate would have it, my brother and Mark’s brother have also been best friends from the age of about 12, and even shared a ‘romantic’ trip to Marrakech together a few years ago.

Mark added me on Facebook the next morning, and the rest, as they say, is history. I knew from our first date that he was going to be the one. It was clear from the start that we shared a very special bond, and that even though our paths had tried to cross over 26 years ago that the timing was now right and that we were always destined to meet.
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