Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

An Elegant Jew-ish Winter Wedding at Bendooley Estate, New South Wales, Australia

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Jewish Wedding Bendooley Estate New South Wales Australia_0092
At Smashing The Glass, we love nothing more than taking you around the world, to celebrate the very best of Jewish and Jew-ish weddings, and today’s winter-elegance-themed beauty comes to you all the way from apparently not-so-sunny Australia.

Stacey and Michael met at another wedding, and the rest is history – the power of love, guys! They planned their entire Jew-ish winter wedding themselves, with countless DIY projects, and the constant involvement and presence of friends and family. 

As a result, everything about the day perfectly represented the couple, from the eclectic bottles they had collected, to their personalized origami fortune tellers; from bridesmaids in Stacey’s favorite shade of blue to the couple running through an AFL banner to start the hora.

If it looks like beautiful bride Stacey’s dress was made just for her, it’s because it was. Her glamorous Erin Clare gown came with personal attention from the designer herself, and a bespoke matching veil – and I think we can all agree that Stacey looked an absolute vision in both. 

All of the heartfelt moments and details were captured by photographer, Milton Gan, and Stacey’s writeup below gives a fabulous insight into the divine day in all its glory. Over to Stacey!

Jewish Wedding Bendooley Estate New South Wales Australia Jewish Wedding Bendooley Estate New South Wales Australia 

Jewish Wedding Bendooley Estate New South Wales Australia

Jewish Wedding Bendooley Estate New South Wales Australia

How we met

Stacey, the bride: We met at a wedding in Melbourne. An old school friend of mine was marrying Michael’s cousin. Michael’s sister had planned to set him up with another old school friend at the wedding, but when she introduced them the match was not meant to be, and Michael and I ended up chatting for the most of the night.

At the very end of the wedding, I saw Michael striding over to me out of the corner of my eye, and I was overcome with butterflies. He asked for my number and a date once we were both back in Sydney and the rest, as they say, is history.

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What To Ask Your Officiant and Wedding Planner to Ensure They Facilitate the Jewish (or Jew-ish) Wedding You Want

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Jewish-Wedding
This is a guest post by Danya Shults whose wedding we featured on Smashing The Glass last year

When to say ‘I Do’ to your wedding team

Your partnerships with your wedding officiant and planner aren’t as serious as the one you’ve got with your husband or wife, but they are facilitating one of the most significant days of your life!

Your wedding team’s job is to bring your dreamy vision of a meaningful, personal wedding to life. That’s why it’s so important that you’re all on the same page as you plan your big day together.

If you want kosher wine under the chuppah and shrimp hors d’oeuvres at the reception, they should respect that. If you want to include a Yoruba poem in your ceremony to complement the traditional seven Jewish wedding blessings, they should be able to make that work.


Picking the perfect wedding providers

What you really want to know is that your officiant and planner share your values and that you feel heard and understood by them, especially when it comes to incorporating religious and cultural traditions into your wedding in a way that feels authentic to you.

First things first – before you begin the search for your wedding pros, you and your partner should have your own chat about what you do and don’t want for your Jewish (or Jew-ish) wedding. Otherwise, it’ll be tricky to figure out whether or not any particular wedding service provider is right for you.

Once you’re clear on your own expectations and preferences, you can start interviewing wedding officiants and planners. Remember: the key is to pick providers who really get you, whom you love working with, and who will bring your wedding vision to life.

You can use the questions below to make sure you and your wedding team mesh!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

An Afternoon Tea Jewish Wedding With a Bespoke Beaded Gown at The Pillar, London, UK

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Jewish Wedding Pillar Hotel London UK_0017
It’s always very plain to see when a couple is creative by nature, and never fails to make for an aesthetically gorgeous wedding. 

Makeup artist, Amy, and presenter, Adam’s wedding was, in addition to making a lifelong commitment to one another, about two things: making friends and family feel loved and looked after, and making everything around them beautiful.

Both objectives were achieved and then some! This was particularly evident in the advice to couples at the end of this post – words of wisdom that showed a deep consideration for others.

The ceremony was totally tailored to Adam and Amy, with music being the most important and prominent element – we got the chills reading about it!

Armed with the perfect color palette of pastel-pretty flowers, two-tone fabrics and metallic gold accents, the couple created a clean, chic wedding wonderland, complete with an absolute stunner of a five-tier cake.

Beautiful bride Amy went bespoke with her beaded, two-tone gown, and played an instrumental role in the design, along with Elizabeth Todd, literally bringing her dream dress to life. 

Photographer, Paul Toeman, captured the details and emotion of the day with the glorious spread of pictures below, and Amy wrote the incredibly eloquent account of all the action. Take it away, Amy!

 

Jewish Wedding Pillar Hotel London UK_0025

Jewish Wedding Pillar Hotel London UK_0016

Jewish Wedding Pillar Hotel London UK_0016

A venue with history

Amy, the bride: We booked The Pillar Hotel, a kosher venue in Hendon, north-west London for 30th June 2016. We needed a venue that was close to my parents’ home in North London, as my father has final stages Parkinson’s disease.

We could have booked any top London hotel, but we couldn’t see the point in making an experience about love without the people we love being there, so a small hotel in Hendon it was!

Ironically, this particular venue used to be a convent, and so it was no ordinary hotel. The room we chose to have our ceremony in, was in fact the room where the nuns used to pray, and so the walls of exposed brickwork, arches and ornate windows were all steeped in history, spirituality, prayer and love.
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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: The Advantages of a Two Year Engagement

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence…. on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!)  (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !


Planning a wedding with over two years to go, most people have questioned are we mad? Why not get married within the next year? I could not recommend more having a longer engagement, the date we have picked and the ease of not having to stress was important to us. We wanted to enjoy all of the planning. James is luckily relaxed and we have agreed on a lot of the same details and he is quite accepting of the ideas I have brought to the table.

Next was to speak to my parents about the initial plans. We had dreamt of getting married in Tuscany, it is where we got engaged and therefore is sentimental to us. We had sat down with my parents in June of 2016 ready to play a video of this incredible venue we had found, a castle in the Tuscan countryside overlooking Florence. We initially thought that having our idea accepted would be a sure thing, we had done our research and we were passionate about it. Unfortunately our pitch did not go to plan and we had it shut down. We were obviously thinking of the smaller picture, and not about how do we get our family there! Back to the drawing board…

Two-Year-Engagement
Image: John Lewis
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A Marchesa Bride for a Stunning Jew-ish Destination Wedding with a Fabulously Floral Chuppah at Villa Aurelia, Rome, Italy

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Destination Jewish Wedding Villa Aurelia Rome Italy

Some real weddings just have it all. Diane’s and Teddie’s big day was, without a doubt, one of those weddings. A beautiful blend of cultures? Check. A breathtaking, historical destination venue? Check. A chuppah so awe-inspiringly gorgeous that we mayyyy have spent half of our morning just gazing lovingly at it? Check, check, check.

Today’s supermodel of the Jew-ish wedding world (of course it had to be Italian) was planned by none other than our fabulous Recommended Vendor, Wed in Italy. 

The couple, who first met in London, had such diverse backgrounds, with Diane being American and with Chinese heritage, and Teddie from Finland, decided to have their dreamy multicultural destination day on neutral territory.

With a 17th Century grand, historical venue the heart of Rome, with its impeccable, manicured gardens and ornate sculptures, the couple would have been forgiven for letting the venue do the talking when it came to dà©cor, but they went one better.

An abundance of fluffy floral arrangements in hues of pink adorned the venue, culminating in a chuppah sprawling with soft, blush pink roses, and one of the most simply stunning backdrops for a big day that you could possibly imagine.

Yet, despite all of the high-end dà©cor, bride Diane still managed to steal the show in her sweeping Marchesa Bridal Couture gown – what a beauty!

The romantic and cinematic video below was created by videographer, Paolo Manzi, and all of the divine details were captured by photographer, Lucy Tanner. We just know you’ll love this big day as much as we did. 

Destination Jewish Wedding Villa Aurelia Rome ItalyDestination Jewish Wedding Villa Aurelia Rome Italy 

Destination Jewish Wedding Villa Aurelia Rome Italy

Destination Jewish Wedding Villa Aurelia Rome Italy
How They Met

Raffaella Alflatt from Wed In Italy, the wedding planner: Diane and Teddie first met in London, United Kingdom. Both of them were far from home. Diane had come over to work from America, and also has Chinese origins, with both her parents being from Hong Kong.Continue ReadingContinue Reading