Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

A French lavender-themed Jewish wedding at Mas de Garguier, Marseilles, France

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Lovely lavender, beautiful southern French rural countryside and a rustic-chic aesthetic define today’s delightful real wedding – Gladys and Jonathan are, amazingly, our first STG French-born Jewish couple to tie the knot in France, and boy, was it worth the wait! 

The day was full of beautifully personalized details – the portable chuppah with its adorable lanterns, the lawn games for guests, the country-chic floral arrangements, totally a treat for the eye. Gladys managed to secure her dream photographer, Rà©mi from Une Vie en Provence, to capture all of the pretty!

We adore the rustic aesthetic, but also all the heart and soul that Gladys and Jonathan poured into making their day just perfect and so ‘them’. We also think Gladys’s advice at the end of the post is absolute gold dust – so do keep reading until the end!

Over to Gladys for the big-day lowdown!  

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How we met

Gladys, the bride: Jonathan and I met at work in 20th September 2012. I worked in a PR agency and he was working for one of our clients. I met him during our annual open-doors event: I saw him and told to my colleagues that he was exactly my type of man!

Of course one of them couldn’t help to go and repeat to him what I said (like we were in high school!) He came and spoke to me, but nothing else happened.

A few weeks later, he added me on LinkedIn, then we realised we had several mutual friends on Facebook as we went to the same synagogue, and we started to talk more often.

It was a very busy period at work for both of us so we didn’t have time to see each other, and we also had the weeks of holiday season. After few weeks of speaking on the phone for an hour every evening, sharing dozens of texts messages each day, we started to date on January 5th 2013! We shared so much during the previous weeks that it was obvious. Our respective parents already knew about each other, we were just waiting to start our story.

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How to talk to your family about marrying a non-Jewish partner

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By Sara Gibbs (All images are from the author’s Jew-ish wedding)

I always assumed I would marry a Jewish man. Even though I wasn’t religious, I grew up with a strong sense of culture and belonging. My father was Israeli, my mother, a Habonim alum from north London. While other families celebrated Christmas, I looked forward to feasting on doughnuts, spinning dreidels and eight days of presents (this bears repeating – eight days of presents – what you got on that, Santa?). My September birthday was frequently, and notably, ruined by coinciding with Yom Kippur, and then magically repaired with the breaking of the fast (what better way to break a fast than with birthday cake?). I loved helping to build the sukkah, failing to blow the shofar, searching for the afikoman. I loved my friends at cheder, I loved the songs, and the rituals and the togetherness – the unique warmth of a Jewish family.

I was going to marry a Jewish man, because I wanted a Jewish home. I wanted to have Jewish babies and raise them in a house full of the music of my culture, the foods, the beautiful bickering – anything else was unthinkable.

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Love chooses you

The thing about love, though, is that you don’t choose it – it chooses you. At university, I met a Jewish man, a fellow vegetarian and bohemian type, who, on paper, was perfect (and who, to this day, remains one of my closest and most important friends). But for all his convenient Jewishness, true love didn’t choose us.

We parted ways and I moved to London, where, in my very first job, I met an initially very surly IT manager, who was raised at an international school in Saudi Arabia. He was grouchy and didn’t seem to like me at all. And, in return, I didn’t like him one bit (that’ll teach him). But over much political debate, and him coming to the rescue when I managed to kill my poor, overworked laptop, this incredibly kind, startlingly intelligent, warm-hearted man was revealed to me. All grouchiness subsided – I’d read him all wrong. I had accidentally discovered a diamond – one of the last good ones. A man who would cook and clean and support my dreams with unconditional love and unfathomable patience. He wasn’t Jewish – but it didn’t matter. I was in love.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Our favorite Jewish / Israeli / Yiddishe foods

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Hungry? No? Don’t worry, you will be in just a minute – we certainly are after collating the brilliant answers our STG Recommended Vendors sent in to the question “what’s your favorite Jewish / Israeli / Yiddishe food?”

It’s an impossible question, with far too many answers, and the mouth-watering selection below is certainly food for thought (see what we did there? Sorry!) 

One thing that is absolutely striking is that almost everybody mentioned the heart and significance that goes into Jewish cooking, the echoes of times gone by in each meal, and each family’s very slight variant on that recipe, the food of our culture keeping us together when we are a diaspora, the eclectic melting pot of flavours and backgrounds, of places we’ve visited and called home – and the love passed down in families, l’dor va’dor– from generation to generation. 

Jewish food is more than just food – it’s an expression of the unique, Jewish soul. It’s bickering around the table, it’s breaking wonderful news over a matzo ball soup, it’s second helpings of savta / grandma’s signature dessert, it’s that special flavour that only our family gets just right. Jewish food represents love and home – and this comes through in every word below.

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Tania from Dany’s Traiteur Kosher Catering:

“As a Kosher caterer in the South of France, I have an incredible amount of contenders of typical Jewish food to be my favorite: falafel, shawarma, fantastic cous cous, amazing tajine or any” Bkaila” for my Tunisian clients.

But what I love more than anything is when we organise catering for weddings and the bride’s grandmother asks me timidly if she could bring a few oriental pastries that she will make by herself because her granddaughter loves them so much, and because over years and years, from generation to generation in Morocco or anywhere else, they always have these pastries for the dessert in weddings.

And despite all the wonderful desserts our chef pastry makes, all the guests are fighting to have one of these cigars filled with almonds made by Aunt Rachel…”

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Get all your burning wedding questions answered in May’s STG Facebook Live Show

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Hands up who’s booked a wedding videographer? And who’s still undecided? Whatever your position you’re going to LOVE tomorrow’s Facebook Live over on the Smashing The Glass Facebook page as I’m going to be joined by my great friend and STG Vendor — Adrian Stone from The Dreamcatchers!

Adrian has shot over 800 weddings (that’s over 10,000 hours of wedding footage) and has graced the pages of STG over and over again with his amazing films (including my EPIC 24 hours at The Savoy earlier this year!). He has literally seen anything and everything so feel free to ask him (or me!) any wedding questions you may have,

The show will air live from my home to the Smashing The Glass Facebook page tomorrow, Wednesday 31st May at 8pm GMT (that’s 3pm EST, 12pm PST, and 9pm in Europe).

Adrian and I want to answer ALL your burning wedding questions, big or small. In relation to videography you may be wondering:

  • Is it worth hiring a professional videographer for your big day and how do you go about finding the best one for you?
  • What’s the difference between a documentary and a cinematic style?
  • Is it important to choose a videographer that has shot a wedding at your chosen venue before?
  • Why do videographers range so much in price? 

Adrian and I are ready to help! Just pop over to the STG Facebook page and submit your question(s) as a comment on this thread and we’ll answer as many of them as we can on the show. If you prefer to submit a question by email in advance you can do that too — just shoot me a message to karen@smashingtheglass.com.

In addition, as I do with all the monthly shows, I’ll be giving you the lowdown on what’s been going on behind the scenes at Smashing The Glass this month and let you in on the latest news and gossip from the world of Jewish weddings!

This is the fifth episode of our exciting monthly Facebook Live show especially for the STG worldwide community. The show airs on the last Wednesday of each month on the Smashing The Glass Facebook page at 8pm GMT to coincide with #WeddingWednesday.

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Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Mel + Mitch… how they met to the present day

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 3rd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Mel who will be marrying Mitch on 18th March 2018 at Warren Weir at Luton Hoo, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Mel and Mitch met online on JDate (2) Their Jewish wedding will be classy and traditional with plenty of modern touches  (3) Mel is a member of Smashing The Glass’s private Jewish & Jew-ish Brides Facebook Group. Not yet a member? Come join us here!

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How We Met

Mitch and I met on JDate (yes, we are one of those couples!) in 2013. I had not long come out of a long-term relationship so I joined with the main intention of just knowing that there were people out there and that I wouldn’t be single forever! I didn’t for one minute think that I would end meeting the man I was going to marry — funny how things come along when you least expect it. After a month or so I was actually going to delete my account — until I received what can only be described as an essay from ‘mitch2302’. I thought, if this person has taken the time to look through my profile and made the effort to write a long message, the least I could do is respond.

Going on a first date — particularly never having met the person before — is quite unnerving. I suggested a nice gastro pub for a drink near where I lived. I always think that a drink on a first date is the best option as you’re less committed to spending long there if you weren’t feeling it, compared to if you go for dinner (call me crazy!).

Three hours later, we were still talking but it was time to go, with so much still to say. Our second date was four days later. This time we went for lunch. Eight hours later we were still in the same spot, chatting away like we had known each other for years. I left still wanting to know more about him #GoodSign.

People in common…

Being Jewish, it doesn’t take long to come across mutual friends. We did the usual “do you know such-and-such?” Little did we know just how ‘close’ we were — it turned out his parents are best friends with my aunt and uncle and have known each other since they were 16! *Cue MIL-to-be insane excitement*

We chose to keep my last name a secret at first (that would have given the game away) so that Mitch’s mum didn’t get too ahead of herself and call my aunt and cry with excitement that she will be related to her best friend of 40 years — bearing in mind I met his parents after the fourth date so marriage was definitely not on the cards yet. Sadly, my identity was revealed – I was practically quizzed when I first met Mitch’s parents. His mum then decided to have a Facebook stalk (as you do when you meet someone for the first time) and found me. Luckily, she honoured our wishes not to tell my entire family we were dating until we were ready.

After a few more dates, we became ‘official’. And then gave Mitch’s mum ‘permission’ to call my aunt — she was probably more excited about this than knowing Mitch had a girlfriend.

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