Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

My interview with Louise Beukes, wedding blogger and top UK wedding stylist

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Louise bloved - Image Anneli Marinovich Photography
[image:  Anneli Marinovich Photography]

Continuing with ‘The Wedding Smashers‘ series where I interview some of the best in the business, today I’m delighted to be talking to Louise Beukes, one of the UK’s top wedding stylists and bloggers.

I was introduced to Louise when I first started blogging weddings, and Kate from Perfect Details wrote a guest post for Smashing The Glass mentioning Louise and her inspirational blog, b.loved weddings.

I immediately started following Louise on Twitter and we connected over all the social media spheres. She’s one of a handful of wedding experts who keep me up to date on all the latest trends, news, and W-day design themes, and I’m forever inspired by her innovative projects and creative prowess.

So let’s meet the lovely Louise!
Kate Spade Inspired Shoot
[images:  Anneli Marinovich Photography]

So Louise, what’s the ‘Louise Beukes’ story? How did you start your company and what’s happened between then and now?

The b.loved story began in March 2011, a month after my own wedding. After working for 10 years as an interior designer I loved the pretty aspects of planning my wedding, and was still reading 100’s of wedding blogs daily! I was approached by a blogger to feature my wedding, two weeks later my own blog was up and running ready to share our wedding story and to inspire other brides. I quickly discovered my niche in providing contemporary inspiration in a world of vintage weddings! Since then, b.loved has grown massively, with the b.team – a panel of wedding experts – joining the line up to share their experience and talents with our readers, and adding a wedding design & styling business to the brand.

How do you unearth inspiration and a create a theme for a couple who have no idea what their creative vision for their day is?

The first part of my process is getting to know the couple. We’ll meet up over drinks for a chat and I’ll ask lots of questions about them and their relationship. Simple things like where you like, what brand of clothing you wear, and where you go on holiday reveal so much about your personality — and I use this information to determine what I call their wedding ‘ brand’.
Retro Popcorn Shoot
[image:  Fiona Kelly photography]

Can you tell us about the process of starting b.loved?

I didn’t think about it too much! For someone who usually makes very considered choices, it was a bit of a leap-before-you-look decision. After two weeks of late nights, the blog was up and running. I’ve never looked back!

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Crystall & Ryan | Jewish/Greek Wedding at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New York City, USA

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GREEK JEWISH WEDDING
A Greek and a Jewish wedding? Can it get much better than that?! Well in the case of this beauty, it does. Not only do we get the best of both cultures and traditions, it is literally oozing, hell, I’d even say *overflowing*, in style and creativity.

First off, Crystall and Ryan are one seriously hot couple. I’m talking hot with a capital ‘H’ guys, and I just know you’ll agree once you clap eyes on all the imagery below. Then there’s the fusion of the best Jewish and Greek traditions,  plus the theme of music running through all the festivities, and  on a fashion note, our lovely bride, Crystall wore not one but TWO fabulous dresses: a spectacular customised Oscar de la Renta for the ceremony, and a breathtaking Jenny Packham for the reception. I know — I must admit to being a teeny weeny bit green-eyed over this fact.

The backbone of Crystall and Ryan’s W-day is a certain symbolic willow tree in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden that was central in the early days of their relationship. The same tree went on to survive merciless Hurricane Sandy and the couple decided that this tree would form the framework of their chuppah.

I won’t delay you any further; let’s hear about this beautifully intertwined Jewish / Greek wedding day in the bride’s words. She infuses lots of lovely detail — you’ll feel as if you were right there at her wedding.
Jewish Greek Wedding at Brooklyn Botanical Garden New York 3

VENUE

Crystall, the Bride: The summer that Ryan and I met, we spent a perfect afternoon wandering the grounds of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.  It was the same day that Ryan moved from Manhattan to Brooklyn, closer to where I was.  We celebrated sitting under a large weeping willow tree, holding hands and completely in love. We had no way of knowing then that just 3 years later, we would be saying “I do” in that very spot in front of that same tree.

Very soon after getting engaged, we chose to marry in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a place that means so much to us.  We wanted our guests to experience the sweeping 52-acre garden in an intimate way and truly be a part of the journey that led us full circle right back to that weeping willow tree.
Jewish Greek Wedding at Brooklyn Botanical Garden New York Getting ready Jewish Greek Wedding at Brooklyn Botanical Garden New York Getting ready 2

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Juliana & Elie | Chic Jewish Winter Wedding at The Roosevelt Hotel, Manhattan, New York

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Roosevelt Hotel NYC wedding 4
Decadent, luxurious and hopelessly romantic, Juliana and Elie’s chic winter wedding held at the Roosevelt Hotel in Manhattan last February is utterly sumptuous.

Despite having a very traditional Jewish Orthodox Wedding, they still wanted to play around on the margins, and incorporate as many of their own details into their W-day as they could.

One of the creative elements I  love most is their invitations which Juliana designed herself. She incorporated the most delicious intertwined Hebrew calligraphy and combined it with an english font inspired by Elie’s favourite brand of scotch! Their invitation suite also included a map highlighting milestones in their relationship and had lots of lovely production finishes like a letterpress finish and a wax seal on each envelope.
Roosevelt Hotel NYC wedding exterior

I also love their idea of ‘donation’ favours where in place of traditional favours they made a contribution to a charity close to their hearts, and placed small notes at each plate with a picture of themselves, explaining the donation.

Juliana and Elie were  set up on a blind date by Juliana’s roommate, Rena, who had gone to high school with Elie. Rena thought that Elie might be a good person for Juliana to meet, and she was  evidently right! Let’s hear all about the couple’s special day from the lovely bride herself…
Roosevelt Hotel NYC wedding atmosphere
A GLAMOROUS VENUE
Juliana the Bride: Our wedding was at the The Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. Since our wedding was in February, we wanted the location to still be accessible in the event of inclement weather. We loved the Roosevelt as soon as we walked through it; it was the first of the many venues we’d looked at that we could actually envision ourselves getting married in. They had many distinct rooms available, and a fantastic balcony / hallway between the tish room and where the badeken was. Elie being danced down that hallway was one of my favourite moments of the wedding. As one of my friends remarked on her video of the badeken: “That was epic”.

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Awesome wedding videography guaranteed

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I am a great believer that wedding videography should be beautiful and subtle (as well as breathtaking of course!). It should echo the mood and feeling of the day but not dictate it in any way. Denis from Denee Motion does exactly that. Based in Central London, but shooting weddings worldwide, he is making some serious waves throughout the international wedding market and likes nothing better than filming gorgeous weddings and being part of a couple’s very special day.

I’ve fallen in love with not only Denis’s beautifully wholesome approach to videography, but his passion for his work, his family and his clients. From speaking to him today, I’m totally convinced he’d be a great videographer to work with.


Says Denis, “We have to ensure clients are 100% happy with the film, so we always discuss their vision and preferences with them. Some clients send over wedding videos that they love and that’s very helpful in understanding whether we are on the same page for the vision of their wedding day.”

As far as working on destination weddings goes, Denis says. “Working with destination couples is always exciting, and our planning starts well in advance, including location scouting and area researching. Outside of the UK, our wedding work has taken us to New York, Los Angeles, various regions of France, Italy, Dubai, Croatia, Indonesia, The Caribbean, Montenegro, Cyprus and beyond. I love traveling the world and discovering new cultures and traditions.”

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Sara & John | Incredible ‘Granny Chic’ vintage Jewish wedding, Kidbrooke Park, Sussex

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Jewish Vintage Wedding Sara is one incredibly beautiful and  creative bride. And I’m talking creative with a capital ‘C’ folks. Yep all the amazing decor and imaginative touches you see in the pictures below were all hand  made by Sara. It’s one big explosion of colour and thrills with lots of vintage prettiness everywhere!

As the bride herself says,  “With our wedding it was more “what did you leave alone?” than what did you create! It was the biggest project of my life but I was so happy with the way it all came together!”

Sara and John met at work in Sara’s first ever contract job as a copywriter. She left the job pretty soon afterwards but kept a special souvenir!

Over to Sara for the story of her gorgeous W-day.
Jewish Vintage Wedding 3
Jewish Vintage Wedding intro2 Sara John Vintage Wedding Jewish Vintage Wedding intro3
VENUE
Sara, the Bride: Our wedding was at Kidbrooke Park in Sussex. We chose this venue because it’s actually my old school. At first I’d ruled it out because I thought it would be strange to get married just outside the room in which I sat all of my exams, but the first venue we booked fell through when they insisted we use their preferred caterers who priced us right out of our own wedding and wouldn’t do a simple meal for us citing colours and presentation (or something silly).

After that I revisited the idea of getting married at my old school and suddenly felt like it would be really great to say “I do” somewhere so close to my heart. There is a beautiful, crumbling outdoor theatre which is covered with flowers in the spring and summer, and I suddenly had a vision of making my entrance through the doors of the theatre. It was such a nice daydream that I booked immediately!

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