Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Is it ok to use vendors with no Jewish wedding experience for a Jewish wedding?

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When the first quote came in for a photographer and it was three times more than what we had budgeted for, I started to panic. Had our dreams of a relaxed, fun Jewish wedding on a budget been just that…a dream? Was it possible to have what we wanted within the constraints of our budget? I started to doubt the whole process and realised that we were now going to have to go down another route in our quest to find the vendors that would be able to create the wedding we wanted.

Rather than using vendors I had heard of from other Jewish weddings I took a different approach to my search. Using a range of wedding blogs and ‘real wedding’ write ups I collated a list of vendors that people had used and loved. Vendors  who hadn’t worked on  a Jewish wedding but had had the style of wedding we were hoping to have.

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Choosing a photographer without Jewish wedding experience

Photographs to me tell a story and should capture emotion and people in the moment. For my wedding photographs it was so important that this was the case. I was recommended Razia Jukes by my Mother in Law-to-be who had been at a wedding she was photographing. She said that she was really relaxed and the photos she had been beautiful — this all sounded perfect to me! I soon discovered that Razia features on loads of the blogs I read and I was able to see a big range of her photographs — which were exactly what I was looking for. They told a story with such emotion and love I had pretty much made up my mind before even meeting her!

Razia has never photographed  a Jewish wedding and at first this did worry me. At a Jewish wedding there are those key moments you know you want included: The badeken, the breaking of the glass, up on chairs for the Hora; and for most people knowing that the photographer knows when these moments will happen is a reassurance people want on their wedding day.  But hey, I love a challenge and when we went to meet Razia I realised that it wouldn’t be a problem. We spent a lot of the meeting talking in detail about the ceremony sharing and how the day would run. Her enthusiasm about the different components and their meaning was really reassuring and also made me even more excited about our wedding!

For Razia it isn’t ‘just another Jewish wedding’ and that makes it more special for me. I can’t wait for her to be a part of our day and to see the pictures she takes for us!

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Choosing  a  wedding venue that has never  hosted a Jewish wedding

This kind of set the ball rolling for Gid and I in our vendor search. After that initial panic we soon realised that with a bit more research, and a willingness to take risks, we could find the vendors we wanted that fitted with our theme, that were in budget and were a high quality.

I feel like now is a good time to mention that our venue, Lillibrooke Manor, has  also never hosted  a Jewish wedding and again they seem genuinely thrilled to be arranging  what they see as a new venture for them into the world of Jewish weddings. Initially they had some ideas of how we could set up our ceremony to fit everyone into the space. The ideas were focused on getting in the most amount of people rather than creating the atmosphere we were looking for. When I sat down and went through the ceremony with them they came up with a completely unique idea that we hadn’t thought of before.

They had taken from my description the importance of everyone being involved in the ceremony and that it was about being able to see what was going on just as much as being able to hear what was going on. I am so excited to bring together our vison for the wedding in the most beautiful venue. I know it is going to be incredibly magical and the venue have been really flexible and open to all of our ideas in order to bring together our Jewish wedding with the quirky, rustic barn feel that we want to achieve.

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Honeymoon all year long with Mr & Mrs Smith

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One of the fabulous perks of being a wedding blogger is being invited to press days and WOW, what a fun time we had when we were invited to brunch with Mr & Mrs Smith at the super cool Bourne & Hollingsworth Buildings, a couple of weeks ago on a sunny August morning.

In an enchanting, sun drenched, flower filled, Islington hot spot, along with a handful of other bloggers and press, we were introduced to Mr & Mrs Smith’s fabulous new cosmic-themed honeymoon hub.

The introductions were made by none other than Mr & Mrs Smith’s founder and current CTO — Tamara Heber-Percy. Admittedly we were a little star struck (if you missed the post outlining my obsession with Mr & Mrs Smith, then please allow me to fill you in right here). And as for the location, there’s no real surprise that they chose a stand-out spot for brunch… because that’s what they do.

To give you more of an idea what, and how they do it, Mr & Mrs Smith have rounded up into their stable, 1000 of arguably the most stylish hotels in the world, and as an extension of this, their honeymoon hub is essentially, a call-off-the-search, look-no-further, honeymoon finding and booking service. That’s whether you’re looking for a mini moon, midi moon, full moon or maxi moon. Indeed the terminology has moved on.

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Me and Sharon (STG team writer) at the fabulous Mr & Mrs Smith press breakfast at Bourne & Hollingsworth

We all just need a holiday

Gathered around an enormous farmhouse table laden with fruit salad, yoghurt, granola, smoked salmon bagels and toasted sourdough, Tamara — who, by the way is as smart, stylish, warm and inspirational as we’d heard – ran us through the results of their honeymoon inspired survey. Take a look at the graphic at the foot of the post for a roundup.

Aside from the hysterical number of people who’d been caught in a compromising position on honeymoon, there were some interesting findings in how people would choose to honeymoon again given the chance.

Given the choice between an all-expenses-paid trip to the Maldives or the moon, most people chose, perhaps unsurprisingly, sunbathing on the magical beaches in the Maldives. But let’s face it when it comes to a honeymoon, no matter how adventurous and intrepid we think we are, we all just need a holiday. Especially after organising your dream Jewish wedding and using your very last drop of energy and patience achieving just that.

And isn’t it interesting that only a third of couples opted for the combo-moon, pairing a city/culture stay with a beach break? Most opted solely for the beach retreat. The flying and flopping honeymoon isn’t dead after all.

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Of-the-moment honeymoon trends

So where is everyone going? Mr & Mrs Smith have identified five trending long-haul destinations. Given the choice to honeymoon again this year, half of the already married couples would head to Sri Lanka. There has been a burgeoning boutique hotel movement there for a while now and has become a firm holiday favourite for the big one. If that appeals you really must check out Mr & Mrs Smith’s Sri Lankan gems.

Japan is another favourite. It’s a bit different in terms of honeymoon destination, but it really has everything from skiing to crazy city culture. Considering it’s just got the Olympics, I can see this destination wedding going through the roof in the next four years.

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Where to go when…

That’s all well and good but what’s the best time to go to any of these places?

When’s the sweet spot between the rains and the searing heat, a time when hurricanes hardly ever happen? How many times have you goggled “best time to go to x”? You’re not alone.

Mr & Mrs Smith, always with an eye on service and those added extras, have created a simple but effective month-by-month breakdown of the globe’s best getaways.

January

Keemala Phuket, Thailand
Nestled in glorious greenery — a short drive from Patong beach , Keemala Phuket‘s holistic philosophy proposes healing spa rituals, healthful homegrown cuisine and an eco-friendly ethos. And did I mention that the swimming pools are on stilts?

January in Phuket = Very little rainfall and lower humidity.

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A Rustic Chic Jewish barn wedding at Heaton House Farm in the Cheshire countryside, UK

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Meredith & David  have got the balance of rustic AND glamorous just right. The combination of gorgeous wild flowers, pastel  tones and personal touches,  alongside the beautiful barn  setting of Heaton House Farm in the  Cheshire  countryside is utterly perfect.

Meredith is American, and David is British but they both live in NYC now, so this is actually a Jewish destination wedding in the UK! Their W Day  is  bursting at the seams with thoughtful details, elegance and fun, like the bride’s sky  high pink Prada heels, a beautiful lopsided wedding cake (read on to hear the story behind that!), a meaningful ceremony,  and girls on roller skates giving out shots at  the after party! F-U-N !

Something that really touched me was hearing about a keychain made by the bridesmaids for Meredith depicting her beloved brother and stepfather who had tragically passed away some years before the wedding. Meredith attached the keychain  to her bouquet for the wedding day itself, and to this day,  carries it on her keys for a  beautiful daily reminder of her  wedding and her brother and stepdad.

Enjoy this sweet treat of a wedding — it’s romantic and whimsical but also sleek and stylish. And looks effortlessly so at that.  All of the  fabulousness was captured by STG regulars,  Reportage Gallery, with the most gorgeous film by Minty Slippers at the end.

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How we met

Meredith, the Bride: Dave  is British (he’s from Manchester) and I’m American (born and raised in New York) and we  met though a mutual friend. My brother’s friend introduced me to his wife, who is from Manchester. We became friendly and she set me up with dave.  This is really meaningful to us, as Dave never got  to  meet my brother Gregg, who passed away in 2008. In a way, it feels like Gregg brought Dave into my life. Dave reminds me a lot of my brother and having this connection to my brother is very special.

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STG has been nominated in two categories in the 2016 Wedding Blog Awards!

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I have some really exciting news to share with you — Smashing The Glass  has been  shortlisted in not one, but  TWO  categories in the  2016 Wedding Blog Awards!

It’s an absolute honour to be named alongside so many of my favourite blogging peers (including some of the biggest blogs in the world!) in two fabulous categories — Best Multi-Cultural Weddings Blog and Best LGBT Wedding Blog. (In case you’re interested you can see all my amazing multi-cultural weddings here  and my  incredible  same-sex Jewish weddings here).

My categories includes some  of the biggest wedding blogs in the world so if you would like to signal support for Smashing The Glass, you can follow this link to vote.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all your wonderful  support so far (Oh G-d,  please stop me… I’m starting to sound like Gwyneth!)  but it genuinely means so much to me that you  share in the joint inspiration of Smashing The Glass.

Voting closes on 30 September and the Awards ceremony is being held in London in October. I’ll be sure to update you with all the news and gossip and hopefully a little something for the mantlepiece!

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click here to vote

 

Real Jewish Brides: How I selected all my wedding vendors in under 10 weeks

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We got engaged in January, and within 10 weeks, I had booked  all  our wedding vendors. I know, I know. That seems super fast, and a lot of brides are curious to know how I made such quick decisions in such a little amount of time, so I’m here to share my secrets…..

To preface, Alex and I are tying the knot across the country (in the USA) from where we currently live (think 3,700+ km). Rather than having the luxury of meeting potential vendors in person over coffee, at their respective studios, as many brides do, it meant that I was left with word-of-mouth referrals, online reviews, and phone conversations as the sole resources to make my final decision.

To be perfectly honest, the only vendor I really cared about meeting in person was the photographer, and of course seeing the venue IRL (in real life). The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is pin pointing where you want the wedding to be. The venue! And it’s true with what they say — Once you have that locked down, the rest sort of falls in line.

Securing a venue gives you a date and a place. You literally cannot do anything without those two. Picking our venue was slightly overwhelming, but once we stepped foot on Tubac Golf Resort and Spa, we knew we hit the jackpot. As I said before, we loved everything about it, and it incorporated everything both Alex and I envisioned for our wedding. We signed our contract within a week of our return flight to Washington, DC. Boom! We had our venue.

OK, so moving onto the other vendors: photographer, cake baker, musicians, florist, and a wedding planner! Now that’s when the ten weeks of non-stop planning really began.

Luckily Tubac had a list of their preferred vendors, folks that are (1) reasonably priced, (2) familiar with the space, staff, and (3) previous brides had been happy with — all aspects are important to a bride-to-be. I used Tubacs preferred vendor list as a springboard in my hunt.  I decided to focus on one vendor category at a time, and went in the order of which vendors I booked.

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Wedding Planner

Before I began with anything else, I figured that I wanted to secure a wedding planner. Someone to assist not only the day-of, but also guide me through the planning stages.

I had two phone interviews with two women who had been in the business for a long, long time which is great. I wanted someone with years of experience under their belt. They were both wonderful, but one wasn’t available on our wedding date to assist with day-of coordination, and the other was highly recommended by Tubac. It was a no brainer. We hired Jeri, our wedding planner and moved on.

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