Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Art Deco Jewish wedding in an airport museum and hangar, at the 1940 Air Terminal Museum, Houston, Texas, USA

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 Airport-Museum-Wedding
It goes without saying that your choice of venue is one of the most important pieces of your wedding puzzle. I personally love unusual wedding venues so when Elisheva Golani‘s submission dropped into my inbox, and I saw a wedding that took place in an Airplane Museum and hanger, I literally squealed with joy!

And it gets better — one of Talia’s bridesmaids was Balushka of the incredible Balushka Paper Floral Artistry who created an abundance of paper flowers to adorn the chuppah as well as decor for the entire space. Her work is totally and utterly gorgeous, and the paper floristry fills the space brilliantly.

There’s also a blush-coloured wedding gown, a surprise bottle dance choreographed by the groom and his friends, a sparkly confetti canon, and a bride and groom entrance from a vintage airplane to the sound of Rocky’s Theme Tune!

Talia and Barry are one super cool, super creative couple and I cannot wait to show your their W Day. Fasten your seat belts folks!

paper decor flowersAirport Museum Weddingpaper flower decorFiddler on the Roof bottle dance
How we met

Talia, the Bride: Ours is an interesting story – we were first set up 10 years prior to our engagement, by my dad and his tennis partner in 2005. We went on our first date and Barry took me to an Ethiopian restaurant, opened doors, brought me flowers… the whole 9. He was a total gentleman, but alas I was just beginning to explore life as an adult and so was he – needless to say we were both very different people back then. After one date, he called, but I wasn’t interested. Of course, years later, he stuck in my mind as being the kind of guy I needed to date,  we reached out to each other on a few occasions- but we were never able to meet up. Finally, we were able to meet for coffee and we were together ever since… He proposed 10 years to the day of our first date- we even went to that same Ethiopian Restaurant! (good thing about engineers is that they keep EVERYTHING).

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“My best Jewish wedding photo” by Rhapsody Road

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A weekly series where  I ask some of the world’s best wedding photographers to pick out their favourite shot from their Jewish wedding portfolio. This week it’s the turn of Em from  Rhapsody Road Photography.

Rhapsody-Road

‘Elation by Rhapsody Road Photography

Look at all these faces, all these joyful expressions! Aren’t they wonderful? Look at the bride, Jemma. She’s emotional, she’s both tired and wide awake, she’s so bloomin’ happy! Don’t you just want to jump up and dance, to wave your arms around and feel the same? That’s what I think every time I look at this image. I remember each and every person in that room, each friend and family member there to share this huge day, to offer their support to the commitment of love and friendship that Jemma & John have just made. What an amazing moment. Thank you Jemma & John for sharing it with me.“

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An Ossie Clark Bride for a Super Cool Afternoon Tea Interfaith Jew-ish wedding at Home House, London, UK

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Home-House-London-wedding
I am whole-heartedly in love with this super sassy, achingly chic wedding set in the magnificent  Home House, one of my favourite places  in London (and the place  I chose to get ready for  my wedding  and spend the  first night  of married life!).

Think sophisticated fashion and an abundance of green and white  blooms mixed in  with some brilliant creative details, a vintage Rolls Royce, so much love and warmth, and a wonderfully intimate Jew-ish wedding ceremony, complete with a beautiful chuppah and of course the  smashing of the glass!

I first heard from the bride two years ago when she emailed me  looking for ideas for her interfaith  ceremony, and I was so flattered to hear how the blog had helped her in the planning of her Jewish-Catholic  wedding.

I just wanted to say thank you for Smashing The Glass  —  I’ve found it massively helpful! I am Catholic and my fiancà©  is Jewish, so we really want to combine the best of both religions, and as the planning has fallen to me I’ve found it a really helpful resource to refer to.”

These kind of emails are the sort of thing that I thrive on so thank you so much Jess!

And  isn’t she  just the  most stunning Bride? She has that natural, thrown together look we all long for, but somehow never achieve (or maybe that’s just me).  She wears the most astonishing vintage Ossie Clark dress paired with Bionda Castana courts. Simply divine.

And the groom rocks the fashion stakes too with a very sharp suit, and you won’t want to miss the brilliant message sewn on the inside of his  collar which is revealed right at the bottom of the post. It’s a MUST SEE — it  will definitely make you chuckle!

I want to also  single out the couple’s exquisite stationery designed by the super lovely and talented  Ruth Kaye Design  and calligraphed by the ludicrously talented  Paul Antonio Scribe. I know these suppliers  very well and it’s so good to see  their work  at the epicentre of this wedding.

Of course it’s not just the decor and creative details that make a wedding awesome, it’s how much of a good time everyone is having and this lot  are having A REALLY GOOD time, all captured  by the wonderfully talented Rebecca Goddard whose work I’m  thrilled to be featuring on the blog today. Enjoy this one folks…

Home House London Wedding

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“My best Jewish wedding photo” by Rob Clayton

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A weekly series where  I ask some of the world’s best wedding photographers to pick out their favourite shot from their Jewish wedding portfolio. This week it’s the turn of  Rob Clayton.

Rob-Clayton

‘The Scene’ by Rob Clayton

Deborah and Eden embrace the quirkier side of life. So when I received an email post-wedding, asking if we could go out again for a ‘trash-the-dress’ style shoot (without actually trashing her exquisite dress), my imagination went into over-drive. I made grand plans, even purchased some props at my own expense, and waited for the perfect evening.

When that evening came, we drove for almost an hour to the location (which shall remain a secret for now I’m afraid!), only to be turned away at the door by security. We had known this was a possibility, and had chanced it anyway, but were disappointed nonetheless. However, the evening still had about 10-minutes of sunlight left, so we decided to at least take advantage of that, rather than have completely wasted the journey. I was lucky to find this scene (I had to move my car, and found this on my way back from the car park), and was immediately taken by its beauty. Five minutes later, we were done. As for the secret location, I have not given up hope of a shoot there with Deborah and Eden (it’d really be worth it!)”

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10 Stylish Judaica Pieces For Your Home

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Cool-Judaica
This is a guest post by Andrea Cohen

In 1984, the same year Miami Vice premiered on American TV and Frankie Goes to Hollywood was getting us all to ‘RELAX’, I was a 13 year old Bat Mitzvah. I spent almost every other weekend that year attending another friends’s Bat Mitzvah, and sneaking out of her service to peruse the temple’s Judaica collection. I was a budding artist and designer on a search for objects that were new, clever, modern and inspiring. Would there be anything in those vitrines that I’d like to see on my holiday or Shabbat table?

Uh, no, not really…

Suffice to say I was an unimpressed tween, disappointed by the short range of Judaic styles on display. As far as I could tell back then, modern Judaica fell into three general categories:

1. Chagall inspired colourful designs
2. Brightly colored geometries reminiscent of Agam’s work
3. Cold and severe steel or silver minimalist works

Where were the warm, modern, tasteful menorahs, seder plates, and kiddush cups for design-savvy Jewish girls like me?

32 years later I’m still asking the same question.

Stylish Modern Judaica. Does it really exist?

There are many talented Judaic artists working today, but there is still limited contemporary Judaica available that reflects the tastes of young, modern, urban, assimilated Jews. However, there are a handful of Judaic pieces that would bring me joy to have in my home–works that reflect my personal style and aren’t a throwback to the 1980s (or 1880s). Any of them would also make an excellent wedding gift. So here are my top 10 picks for my favourite modern Judaica, with links to where you can find them.

 

1. Futura Seder Plate by Jonathan Adler $150

Modern-Seder-Plate

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