Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

A gold New Year’s Eve-themed Jewish wedding at Hyatt Regency New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

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HAPPY NEW YEAR! OK, maybe that’s a little premature, but we love the idea of sneaking in an extra New Year’s Eve,for one night only, and that’s exactly what Amanda and Harry did with their gold, NYE-themed big day.

Amanda and Harry first met as children, and they share so much in their upbringing and communities. But it wasn’t until adulthood that they were reunited, and this time, it was love! In fact, they celebrated their shared history by having their ceremony at the synagogue they both grew up in.

The larger-than-life couple poured their personalities into their big day, with everything from giant ‘Amanda & Harry heads’ to a table dedicated to past family weddings. 

Everything was kept in the circle of family and friends, including Harry’s mother singing Amanda down the aisle and the hair and makeup. 

The day was captured by dynamic photography duo, Nick and Kelly Photography, and the epic wedding video, just below, is the work of Delia Studios.

Over to the happy couple, now, to tell you all about their big day details! Take it away, Amanda and Harry. 

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How we met

Amanda, the bride and Harry, the groom: We knew each other as children. We went to Solomon Schechter Day School of Rarity Valley from age five Along the way, we were also members of the same synagogue, Congregation B’nai Tikvah.

During those years at SSDSRV and B’nai Tikvah, our paths didn’t really cross, but they did in the summer of 2009 at The Knight Club in New Brunswick, NJ. Harry was out celebrating his last law school final, and Amanda was out with a girlfriend.

Amanda recognised Harry from across the bar, and since he was staring back, she thought he recognised her, too. She approached him only to find out the staring was simply because he thought she was pretty (but don’t worry, she embarrassed herself by knowing his entire name, while he had barely any clue who she was!) It all worked out, though! 

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Favorite wedding books… and other stories

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Above image: Ilaria Petrucci Photography via B.Loved Hive

It goes without saying that blogs and magazines are great sources of wedding inspiration – but sometimes, there’s nothing quite like a good, sturdy book in which to bury yourself for a few sweet hours, or read in little digestible chunks before bed. 

We often hear how stressful planning a wedding can be, and that can certainly be true, but it’s also a joy. It’s the one time in your life that you get to be a bride or groom, caught up in all the excitement of planning one incredible day to celebrate your future together. 

So, by that logic, we believe everyone who is planning a wedding should have at least one beautiful, informative and helpful coffee table book, or a wonderful story or collection of poetry, that takes pride of place during the whole process. 

We, of course, have a few of our own well-thumbed wedding books:

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Rock My Wedding: Your Day Your Way by our dear friend and absolutely inspirational fellow wedding blogger, Charlotte O’Shea. 

We also adore A Practical Wedding by Meg Keene and Style Me Pretty’s gorgeous offering by Abby Larson.

But what else might you find inspiring? We asked our Recommended Vendors which books they would recommend to serve this very noble purpose – and here’s what they said:

Mandee from Mandee Johnson Photography said: “I would recommend Jamie Lee’s Weddiculous. It’s a fun and honest survival guide to wedding planning that acknowledges the bumps, breakdowns and insanity along the way to saying “I do”, while making you laugh.”

Isabel from Wickham House said: “For our couples, I would recommend either the Debrett’s Wedding Handbook – it’s classic, definitive and reliable — or the Wedding Bible by Sarah Haywood.

My favourite book, however, is The Wedding Planner & Organizer by Mindy Weiss. I am a sucker for hand-written notes and ideas, so this is the perfect combination of useful tips and space to plan and create your perfect wedding.”

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A Rosh Hashanah-themed Jewish wedding with a Suzanne Neville bride at Braxted Park, Essex, UK

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Anyone else have goosebumps? Scroll down. How about now? The sensation you’re experiencing is a result of extreme wedding prettiness combined with the unparalleled artistic prowess of much-loved STG Recommended Vendor and photographer extraordinaire, Blake Ezra. 

In fact, Tash & Jason’s magical secret garden-inspired wedding was a total STG Recommended Vendor-fest, with an appearance from fabulous makeup artist Philippa Louise. The couple also won their photo booth with Mega Booth in a Smashing the Glass competition. 

Now that we’re done blowing our own horn, let’s talk about the wedding horn (shofar) which was also blown (yes, smooth segue, we know). The wedding was Rosh Hashanah themed, with beautiful fresh fruits incorporated into the wildflower floral arrangements, honey pot and honey cake recipe favours and the blowing of the shofar during the ceremony. 

Gorgeous bride, Tash, is an art director and, as such, was delighted to be let loose on a wedding theme – and boy, does it show. Tash’s expert eye and attention to detail created a cohesive, overwhelmingly beautiful (and delightfully purple) theme that looks outstanding in photographs. And that wildflower-adorned Chuppah – a masterpiece! Bravo, Tash! If you fall in love with the images below and simply can’t get enough, check out her Instagram! 

We also adore Tash’s customised Suzanne Neville gown, with little embellishments to bring in her own personality and tastes. 

Tash and Jason’s Badeken and ceremony were full of heart and meaning, especially as the couple hadn’t seen or spoken to each other in a whole week! What willpower! We also adore the couple’s joint words of wisdom at the end of this post – so much fantastic advice. 

We’ll let Tash take over now to tell you all about how her and Jason’s big day came together. Tash – the stage is yours! 

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How we met

Tash, the bride: Despite having huge amounts of friends in common, and probably attending the same parties during our university days, we didnt meet until after uni, at a mutual friend’s birthday party, where else but Camden?

We were in a Blues Bar and got chatting. The instant Jason heard that I love to bake, and did gluten-free cupcakes (he was GF at the time) the match was made, and we set our first date after partying the night away! Our relationship hasn’t really changed. I still bake for him, and our worlds pretty much centre around food, family and friends.

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Facebook Live Catch Up: Best Songs for your Wedding with DJ Knight

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On Wednesday evening DJ Knight and I had SO much fun when went live for the April episode of our monthly STG show live from my apartment in London!

This month is was a ‘Wedding Songs’ special and we were bowled over by DJ Knight’s (otherwise known as Kwamà©’s) fantastic recommendations for First Dance Songs, Smashing The Glass songs, Last Dance songs, and everything in between! There were so many good tunes mentioned (and played — DJ Knight brought along his decks!) that we’ve created a playlist below of every song brought up.

There’s a Spotify playlist for you to listen to and import directly, as well as YouTube links of every song. That’s how much we love you – and it’s all below!

The show was absolutely brilliant and if you missed it, you can still catch up by watching the replay above. Kwamà© was just fantastic and it’s an absolute must-watch if you’re still thinking of ideas for your wedding songs!

We had SUCH a great reaction to this that we are going to follow up in June’s STG Live show with a ‘Best Hebrew Songs for Jewish Weddings’ special with chazan Jonny Mosesson – keep your eyes peeled for that one!

Our monthly STG shows air  live on the last Wednesday of every month on the Smashing The Glass Facebook page at 8pm GMT (that’s 3pm EST, 12pm PST, and 9pm in Europe) to coincide with #WeddingWednesday.

Make sure you like the Smashing The Glass Facebook page to be notified of all future shows.

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A floral-fabulous, Jerusalem-themed Jewish wedding at Ein Hemed in the Judea Mountains, Israel

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Some couples feel such a strong, heartfelt connection to Israel, that it comes across in every moment of their wedding day. Dorit and Eli certainly fall into that category. 

Having met in Jerusalem, the pair decided to theme their wedding around the city, while embracing the breathtaking natural surroundings of their mountainous Israeli venue. 

Stunning bride, Dorit, ran with her creative impulses, creating a floral Eden, with a gorgeous petal-strewn aisle, a Chuppah lined with beautiful blooms and table centrepieces that her guests are still talking about to this day. 

She even took her love of flowers to the next level and had a flower station – an outstanding idea that has come up in Israeli weddings before (we’re calling it – trend alert) that we think would be almost criminal not to steal. 

Jerusalem’s big, collective, beating heart was proudly on display all over the joyful celebration, with sublime Jerusalem-inspired artwork running through the whole stationery suite, and in Dorit’s Jerusalem skyline headpiece (um, where can we get one, please?). Much-loved Smashing Supplier Herschel Gutman captured all of the dà©cor, as well as the emotion of the day with absolute gusto – the pictures really do speak for themselves.

So sit back and feast your eyes on all of this wedding pretty – we’ll let Dorit talk you through every detail of her and Eli’s dream wedding day.

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How we met

Dorit, the bride: I’m a BA degree student studying political science and communications. Eli and I are both Russian speakers, and we met in Israel during a summer camp for Russian-speaking students three years ago.  Last summer, we flew to Belarus for the same camp, this time as counsellors. 

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