Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

A Pink ‘geeky-fairytale’ Jewish wedding at East-TLV, Tel Aviv, Israel

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I really REALLY love today’s wedding. I mean how can you not adore a wedding that includes Jazz mixed with Japanese pop and Disney tunes, a Star Wars wedding cake, Pokemon Pokà© Balls for ring boxes, and an astonishing bride with a hot pink petticoat and epic My Little Pony trainers (plus several more shoes changes!). This Jewish wedding has heart and personality at it’s core and I absolutely love it.

Today’s bride has monumental style and really knows her own mind… Anyone who is considering stepping away from the white/ivory/champagne norm — I hope this wedding gives you the confidence to do so!

There are so many fun creative touches. Take the bride’s oh so pretty floral crown and her glittery 50’s make up and the cat magnets designed by the bride, as well as rustically styled tables (proof that you don’t need to go overboard to make something look absolutely gorgeous) and the creative cartoon-style table numbers and… oh I could go on and on and on.

What a wonderful glorious mix! Come on and have a peek and enjoy the images by Noa Magger plus the film courtesy of Shahar Lev.

A ‘geeky-fairytale ball’ Jewish wedding at East-TLV, Tel Aviv, Israel
How we met

Ravid, the Bride: We actually met at…….. McDonalds! Some eight and a half years ago. Avishai was a cashier and I was a cook, and we also used to work opposite shifts. I was dating someone else at the time. Somehow we ended up on the same shift one day and clicked right away. He did all he could to have me break up with the other guy(!) and our boss, who saw the chemistry, kept suggesting we should go out.

When we actually let our boss know we were dating he exclaimed ‘well finally’ – I guess you can say we owe this to him (and he was also a guest at the wedding – we’ve even introduced him to our parents!).

We went to a movie the day I broke up with the other guy, and it was really a love at first sight. We survived my time at the army as well as his, and went through a lot together – and now we’re married… I’ll stop being a walking cliche now!

A ‘geeky-fairytale ball’ Jewish wedding at East-TLV, Tel Aviv, Israel
A cool urban warehouse venue in Tel Aviv

We got married at the East venue in Tel Aviv, an urban hangar which used to be a factory owned by the national electricity company. We knew two things before we picked the venue: we wanted it to be urban and fresh (not a garden of any kind), and we knew we wanted it to be in Tel Aviv. We found East, which was not only the coolest place for a wedding, but was also in walking distance to our apartment!

We felt like it was a match when we first set foot there. We also knew that we were aiming for a summer wedding. Summer in Israel is terribly hot, so it had to be somewhere with an option for air conditioning and dancing in a closed space. So the chuppah and reception were outside (we handed out fans for people to survive the heat), and the rest of the evening was indoors.

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LOVE IS LOVE: Marriages that cross boundaries

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Today’s post marks  a new series on the blog called LOVE IS LOVE where I will be documenting some very special  marriages  that cross boundaries that (to put it quite bluntly) certain ignoramus’s across the globe find unacceptable. Love is love, no matter if you’re of one faith or another, if you’re straight or if you’re LGBT.

It may be the annual Gay Pride festival  this weekend in my home city of London, but that’s just a happy coincidence. This series has been triggered  in response to an  email I received last weekend from a young woman in India who greatly benefitted from Yana and Archita’s same-sex,  mixed faith  wedding that I lovingly  blogged  last  year. I am reprinting her email, with her permission, below:

Hi Karen,

This is probably a pretty unorthodox request. You don’t know me but I’m reaching out because I am an Indian girl who recently came out to my parents as gay and they are having a lot of trouble dealing with it and imagining that I could have a happy life with a woman – especially in India (they currently live in Bangalore).

I believe that part of it is because our extended family, and all our friends are conservative (and fairly ignorant) community. I was hoping that if they could see, or speak to, happily married Indian lesbians, they might believe that happiness is possible even for me.

I noticed you wrote an article on Yana & Archita  and was wondering if you could forward this email to Archita and ask her if she would be willing to speak with me?

Thank you so, so much.

It goes without saying that I passed the reader’s  letter  to Archita and the two of them are now in contact.

I want  to use this space to bring more love to more people, and to show how every kind of love is perfectly valid. No-one should be able to tell you how to live, who to love, and who you should be  spending a lifetime  with.  Love is universal and unbiased.

The film below? Now that’s ‘LOVE IS LOVE. It’s a  video of a  police officer breaking  ranks with his colleagues to propose to his boyfriend yesterday at Pride in London.


The rest of his team look so pleased for him too! This film moves me so much, and it’s everything I value about living in this great country.

I would be so delighted to hear from you if you  would like to write a post (anonymously if desired) about your ‘LOVE IS LOVE’ marriage on Smashing The Glass. And if you know a couple that might like to share their story, do send them my way.

So let’s kick off the series by featuring some of my favourite images from  Yana and Archita’s Jewish-Hindu-Indian-Russian multicultural lesbian wedding. To see more images from their  big day, and to read their  story (in their own words), head over  here.

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A Valentine’s Day Jewish Wedding in the snow, at The Liberty Grand, Toronto, Canada

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I first saw today’s wedding on photographer Assaf Friedman’s Instagram feed. I was totally smitten by Danielle and Aaron’s couple portraits in the snow, and I just knew I had to feature their entire Valentine’s Day affair on Smashing The Glass.

Danielle and Aaron are a super stylish couple with really great taste — I’m particularly loving their accessories! I’d like Danielle’s leather jacket AND her heart-shaped sunnies please. And Aaron looks dapper with his slick tux, patterned socks, and polka dot pocket square (and he wore the coolest pair of personalised Nike Hi-Tops that Danielle surprised him with too).

Aaron and Danielle chose to engrave each other’s wedding bands with a surprise inscription  and decided that neither of them would see this message until after the ceremony when they were finally man and wife. And would you believe it, they had both engraved each other’s rings with the same beautiful message! These two are meant to be together…

Read on for lots more treats, surprises, advice, tips and a really wonderful account of a truly stylish, luxe Jewish wedding.

A Valentine’s Day Jewish Wedding in the snowA Valentine’s Day Jewish Wedding in the snow
How we met

Danielle, the Bride: Aaron and I met online. We had our first date at a small craft beer bar in Toronto. On our third or fourth date, Aaron asked me if I was dating other people. At that point, we decided to be exclusive. Things moved fairly quickly and I think that after a few weeks of dating we knew that one day we would get married.

A Valentine’s Day Jewish Wedding in the snow

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A dress designed by the bride, for a Jewish wedding with movie tunes and musicals, at Agadata, Israel

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There is so much wonderful individuality in this gorgeous Jewish wedding that I really don’t know where to start. Dena’s wedding report is wonderful, and my goodness is she a bride that knows her own mind.. and style!

She designed and made her own dress and says it was  exactly what she had imagined it would look like since she dreamt about it as a teenager… And how gorgeous is that  Belgian lace  veil? It’s a family heirloom bought in 1926 by Dena’s  great grandmother,  and has been worn by her  great grandmother,  grandmother,  mother, aunt and even  sister before her at their weddings. How  very special is that?

Dena  is a make-up artist and CB is an actor, and they are both very involved in community theatre in Jerusalem. To reflect their shared love of theatre, they enlisted  two musician friends to play songs from the Broadway  musicals, including of course the ones they had  both acted in.

Then, during the ceremony they integrated many songs from the movies, my favourite examples being the groom walking down to the Gladiator theme, and both of them walking  into the theme from  Ghostbusters  for their wedding entrance!

And a first on  Smashing The Glass, Dena and CB  hired a live-streamer instead of a regular videographer, so that all their  family and friends (mostly abroad) who were not able to attend the wedding, would still able to take part in the celebration. I wonder if we will start to witness more and more livestreaming now that families are so often spread far and wide all over  the globe?

Here is their story from the perspective of their wonderful photographer and all-round Mr Fabulous, Herschel Gutman.  Herschel is one of my much-loved Smashing Suppliers and is available to shoot weddings in both the  UK and Israel. I highly,  highly recommend him!

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How we  met

Dena, the Bride: I am a make-up artist for theatrical productions and CB is an actor, and we met during his first production in Jerusalem, HMS Pinafore, a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, in 2012.

I was making up another man and he told CB that there was a cute make-up girl that he should get his make-up done by. So he came into the make-up room and sat in my chair and that is how we met. At first we just started talking and then we started hanging out more and eventually decided to date each other. We broke up after a few months when CB decided to study acting in the US, and only got back together less than a year ago, after not being in touch at all for the three years he was gone!

It was just meant to be! Our proposal  story is the sweetest thing, I think, and I loved it so much and it was perfect for us! It happened right after a show that we watched together. The producer of that show called CB up onto the stage and at first I had no idea what was going on. Then he started talking about me and about us and he then called up the cast of the recent RENT production (We started dating again during the recent production of Jerusalem’s RENT. I designed costumes for them and knew the cast well) to help him ask a question. The cast proceeded to perform Seasons Of Love, with CB singing the solo, and right afterward he got off the stage, down on one knee and proposed. By that time of course I knew what was about to happen, and he invited my best friends, my parents, and his family to be there for the proposal! It was absolutely perfect and magical!

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Best Father-of-the-Bride Speech at a Jewish Wedding Ever!

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Happy Father’s Day to all our wonderful dad’s (and  some of our partners too!). To celebrate this special day I wanted to share a snippet from a Father Of The Bride speech that is genuinely one of my favourite ever Jewish wedding moments.

It’s from the wedding of Vanessa and Lin  and it’s  a  truly feel-good brilliantly executed wedding surprise, full of ‘Life’ (hope I haven’t given the game away!).

Watch it below  — I promise you you will be smiling from ear to ear!

And on the subject of great surprises by fathers at weddings, here’s one of the best Father Daughter First Dance surprises I’ve EVER  seen…  Regular ‘dad dancing’ movers need not apply!

And finally, may I just big up my wonderful dad, Allan (below right) who performed an amazing rendition of Swell Party / Well, Did You Evah with his cousin, at my wedding. It  really got the party swinging — it was definitely one of the highlights of the day. Love you dad!

Swell-Party

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