Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Win your wedding photography (worth £2450!) by the internationally acclaimed wedding photographer, Kate Nielen

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If you’re a sophisticated, creative couple who are  currently on the hunt for your perfect wedding photographer, let me  introduce you to the internationally acclaimed luxury fine art wedding photographer, Kate Nielen.

Based in London, but shooting weddings all over  the UK and beyond,  Kate  travels the world to photograph beautiful weddings with her distinctive dreamy, cinematic style.  Her gentle, fine art editorial approach creates timeless, luminous images that show her couples and their special day at their most romantic, natural and beautiful.

Kate works for the most discerning clients who appreciate photography and want the best wedding photography experience available, so  you can only imagine how thrilled I was when she asked if I’d host a competition  for her, and I was even more excited when she told me she wanted to very generously give away a completely FREE  wedding package together with an engagement shoot in London, to one lucky couple anywhere in the world. Wow – just WOW! If you’re getting married before July  2017 and you haven’t organised  your photographer yet, then today is most definitely your lucky day!

Even if you’re not fortunate  enough to win, Kate would like to offer every couple that enters 15% off their wedding photography if you then decide to go on and hire her  (but you  must book with her before 31st January 2016.)

Thank you so much Kate! Be sure to check out more of her work at  Kate Nielen Fine Art Photography.

Kate Nielen PhotographyKate Nielen Photography
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Julie & Abe | Outdoor Jewish wedding, with a vintage botanical theme, at Vineyards at Chappel Lodge, Austin, Texas, USA

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I’m not sure if you know that when I graduated from university back in 1999, I embarked on a career as a graphic designer, having studied graphic arts & design at university. I’ve always had an enthusiasm for great design, and those were the days before digital so it was ALL about interesting paper stocks and beautiful print techniques. I’ve never lost that passion for creativity  (if anything it’s been amplified since starting my design company in 2002 which I ran until Smashing The Glass became my full-time business) and that’s why I so appreciate today’s wedding with its exquisite creative streak and attention to detail.

The craft and care for everything at this wedding is so apparent and I’ve been lapping it all up! I’m blown away by the stationery for starters – it’s magnificent. Luigi Maldonado, the art director at the creative studio in Austin where Julie works, designed the entire suite as a gift to Julie and Abe and it’s beyond beautiful.

And their wedding is a totally outdoor affair! They had their chuppah under an elegant oak tree, and their reception within a unique open-air ‘dinner tent’. It was essentially a tent structure without the tent itself and was decorated with festoon lighting so that guests could dine and party under the moonlight. Er… WOW.

Julie and Abe managed to mix tradition and creativity together effortlessly. Taking inspiration from vintage botanical sketches and illustrations of cacti and succulents, their colour palette ended up taking on a lot of white and greens, and cacti became a foundational element across floral designs, and decor.

Before I hand over to Julie let me just say that I know you’re going to go pin crazy with all the wonderful images by The Nichols. Enjoy!

Outdoor Jewish Wedding
how we met

Julie, the Bride: Abe and I knew each other growing up, and at one time in our teen-aged years, we lived about two blocks away from one another. I left for college in LA, he went to Israel and then to New York and back. Years later, after I had returned to Austin, we ran into each other while he was in town visiting. After that, we started seeing one another on his trips home and kept in touch long-distance. He eventually moved back to Austin full time and we got married a few years later.

Outdoor Jewish Wedding
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“My best Jewish wedding photo” by STAK Photography

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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 Steven Young from STAK Photography.

Stak-Studios

‘Tribeca Rooftop’ by STAK  photography

This photo is from Emily and Jon’s wedding at Tribeca Rooftop. They spent a large part of their relationship doing long distance, so I wanted a photograph that symbolised how the wedding day was here and brought them together again.  So in this photo, I was able to see the couple and get a reflection of their venue, Tribeca Rooftop, all into the same shot.  I love the way Jon is holding her, and how Emily is reaching back grabbing his hands. The connection is real, and you can feel it in the photo.”

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A super cool bride wearing bridal separates for a minimalist wedding at Caliph in the Old City of Jaffa, Israel

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Today’s Australian bride, Emma,  is breathtakingly  beautiful  and thoroughly  rocks her two piece ready-to-wear wedding outift  and bridal accessories to match. I mean you just can’t help but gawp at her stunning good looks, super chic wedding separates and gold heeled Prada sandals.

The whole day is  simplicity done perfectly. If you don’t want anything fussy  on your day you can’t go wrong with following their raw, minimal style. It’s all so simple, elegant, pretty, and relaxed, and perfectly executed in every way.

Emma is from Australia and Yoni comes  from Israel, and the couple chose to get married at  Caliph in the Ancient city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv  in Israel.  The stunning but uncomplicated  venue provided a jaw-dropping  coastal back drop for their neutral  colour scheme and minimal  decor.

If you’re a contemporary bride who wants to push the envelope on your wedding day, take a cue from Emma’s chic bridal style and consider ready-to-wear trends like bridal separates. The best part? Unlike a traditional  wedding dress, you can wear bridal separates again and again!

The  gorgeous set of images, as crisp and cool as the big day itself, are by Ben Kelmer.

Without further ado, I give you the à¼ber cool Emma and Yoni.

Jaffa Israel wedding
how we met

Emma, the Bride:  Yoni used to own a cafe that was my local coffee shop. He asked me out numerous times and eventually I said yes! After our first date, we basically saw each other every single day right up until this day…Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Where wedding bloggers work: A virtual sneak peek into the workspaces of 10 wedding bloggers around the world (including mine!)

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Blogging can be a lonely sport and however cosy working from home sounds, it’s not always my personal  idyll. I find it essential  to  be inspired by London and all who live in her,  and I love the balance of working from home with  working in coffee shops (my two local favourites for ambience, coffee, nosh  and friendliness are House Kitchen  and  Ginger & White). I also love  working from my husband’s central London office too. Hey  with a  surname like Cinnamon, you can see that variety really is my (work)spice of life!

I’ve always wondered  where my fellow  bloggers work to see where  all the wedding blogging magic happens,  so I asked some of my wedding blogging buddies to give me (and that means you too of course) a sneak peak into their workspaces.

In case you’re wondering, that’s my home workspace  in the picture at the  top of the page. You can read more about it (and see more images from my home) right  here.

I’d like to add  that this piece isn’t about pinterest-worthy workspaces, it’s about the realities of blogging  and being aware  that blogging magic happens  in many different cosy, neat, noisy, messy, playful, minimalistic, and colourful  environments.

Kat Williams’ (Rock N Roll Bride) workspace in  Reading, UK

Blogger Workspace
Blogger Worksapce
Kat Williams |  www.rocknrollbride.com  | describes her workspace:

I work in the spare bedroom of our two up/ two down house in Reading. I actually love working at home and although the business is growing, we don’t have any plans to move to fancy offices or anything like that! I love that I can literally roll out of bed and start working, I hate the idea of “wasting” the day commuting! We could do with more storage now we do all the online and subscription orders of the magazine from home (argh!) but in terms of where I do my day to day work, I’m pretty happy.

When you live WITH A BOY you obviously have to consider their feelings when it comes to decorating the space you co-habit (boo!) so although I have managed to wangle pink wallpaper in our kitchen and a few fun decor items downstairs, my office is where I’ve really gone to down on the COLOUR and fun. It’s a bit like a kid’s idea of what good decor is haha! It’s definitely not sophisticated but it makes me happy – after all I am staring at it for 8-10 hours a day. My favourite items are my rainbow candles, my Himalayan salt lamp and my vision board which sits right above my computer screen. I also have lots of plants on my desk and windowsill and some of my favourite knick-knacks that I’ve picked up on my travels.

The only thing I really don’t like about my workspace is my desk. Its too big and too dark. I’d really like to get a white one that would brighten the whole space up a bit I think. I just need to convince Gareth on that one. “Why would you buy a new desk when this one is perfectly functional?” is always his response. Oh boys!”.

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