Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

A Monique Lhuillier bride for an elegant black tie Jewish wedding at Rosewood London, London, UK

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Jewish-Wedding-Rosewood-London
Oh. My. word. This wedding is beautiful. It is classy. It is elegant. It is so super sleek. We’re talking the most stunning of neutral shades for bridesmaid dresses, the most glorious blush-coloured Monique Lhuillier gown, beautiful stationery and one of the most exquisite chuppahs I’ve ever seen, decked out in an abundance of gorgeous florals as well as mini pineapples… yes, really!

That chuppah (by the phenomenally talented Liz from Funky Flowers)  really does take my breath away, and beneath it, Lauren and George look so elegant and lost in the moment, despite all of the peering eyes…

Photographer Blake Ezra Photography has captured the mood perfectly with his romantic and dreamy shots. Blake is one of our much-loved Smashing Suppliers so can always be relied upon for beautiful images.

Lauren and George married on 21st June 2015 at Rosewood London. I’m proud to say that Rosewood London is another of our Smashing Suppliers — it’s a super cool central London venue that was perfect for Lauren and George’s atmospheric day.

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Helene & Benjamin | Destination Jewish wedding in the Old City of Jaffa at Beit Andromeda, Israel

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Jaffa-Wedding
In my book, making your wedding day into a holiday is an absolutely brilliant idea. Not only do you get to throw a wonderful party for all your loved ones, but you also get to do it in a place where the weather stands a better chance of behaving on the big day!

Parisians, Helene and Benjamin, did just that with their destination wedding in Israel and organised a whole heap of pre-wedding festivities for their guests as well as the big W-Day itself. So not only did they create an utterly sublime wedding day in Old Jaffa (with the help of much-loved Smashing Suppliers RS Eventime), they also put together a mountain of events for their guests so that they could get a flavour of the city of Tel Aviv. This was a really thoughtful gesture as many of their guests had never visited the city before.

There was a cocktail party, a beach party (I *so* want one of those Keep Calm and Play Matkot tote bags) and a third pre-wedding party at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Such wonderful ideas and all expertly planned by the lovely Sophie and Ravit from RS Eventime.

Helene’s Rosa Clara dress is amazing, and both the bride and groom look like celebrities. The light that Pierre Mikael Cohen has captured is sensational as are his beautiful cityscapes.

I must also single out Helen’s ‘rock princess’ Jimmy Choo‘s. Er… wow. And that she secretly took singing lessons in the months prior to the wedding so that she could surprise her groom with  a rendition of ‘their song’. Double wow. Every single element of this wedding ties in together so perfectly and I’m so thrilled to be bringing you this well deserved ray of sunshine this rainy Tuesday morning

Thank you to Helene and Benjamin for sharing their delicious destination with us. Let’s hand over to the gorgeous bride…

Jaffa Wedding
how we met

Helene, the Bride: Benjamin and I met in New York five years before we got married. Ben lived in New York and I was looking for a new flatmate… I was coming to NY for an internship and was looking for an apartment… that’s how we met! We were roommates to start with, but one month later we became a couple, and since then we’ve always lived together — in New York and back in Paris. The funny thing is that we’d attended the same high school in Paris but didn’t know each other back then…Continue ReadingContinue Reading

“My best Jewish wedding photo” by Liron Erel

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A new 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  Liron Erel.

Liron-Erel

‘Chuppah’ by  Liron Erel

My chosen  image might be a bit unorthodox as it’s from a Messianic-Jewish wedding I shot in May,in Nataf, a little village close to Jerusalem.

In the moment captured, the bride is circling the groom having just reached the chuppah, with a sensational view as a backdrop to the ceremony. There was a crazy heat wave during the day of  42ËšC  (107.6ËšF), but everyone was so energised — just look at their faces — that it didn’t bother anyone…

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Win a Monica Vinader Fiji Friendship Bracelet with your choice of engraving!

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Monica-Vinader-Fiji-Friendship-Bracelet
You may or may not know that I am completely  obsessed with  Monica Vinader‘s jewellery.  I am fortunate enough to own several pieces but the ones that have become like a second skin to me (i.e. I never take them off) are my  Fiji friendship bracelets. They’re  simple, delicate, easy to layer  and  compliment any look (dressy or casual!).

What I love most about these bracelets is that they can also be personalised in such a way that they  become really symbolic pieces. So for instance my latest purchase  is bright fuschia (my favourite colour!) and engraved with my first name initial along with that of my husband and two daughters (K J S and Z for Karen, Jeremy, Sacha and Zara).

Of course anything is possible  when it comes to the  engraving — a symbolic date, a message, a motto, a nickname, a  set of initials, or why not go for  ‘Mrs [your-new-surname]’?!

Not only can you personalise your bracelet  with an engraving, you can also choose from three metal finishes (sterling  silver, 18ct gold vermeil or  18ct rose gold vermeil) and 14 adjustable and colourful cords (each colour symbolises different traits – peace, wisdom, calm, hope, prosperity, success, vitality etc.).

A Fiji friendship bracelet was the first piece of jewellery my husband (then boyfriend!) bought me  and today I want to give you  the chance to win one with the personalisation of your choice.

Fiji Friendship Bracelet
Fiji Friendship Bracelet
Clockwise from top left: The packaging is divine! / So many gorgeous colours to choose from / Source / Fans of Monica Vinader friendship bracelets include (L to R) Fearne Cotton, Rita Ora, and Sienna Miller

Fiji Friendship Bracelet

how to enter

Entering couldn’t be easier… just follow these simple steps and you could  win a  Monica Vinader Fiji Friendship Bracelet  with your choice of engraving, colour cord, and metal.

  1. Sign up to the brand new Smashing The Glass newsletter! I promise only to email you once every few months (with all sorts of nice stuff) and I’ll of course never ever pass your email address on to 3rd parties. Signing up for the newsletter also enables me to capture your email address so that I can contact you if you’re the prize winner.
  2. Please ‘like’ or share this Facebook post.
  3. Finally, for bonus points (but only if you’re so inclined!) please follow me  on any of these social media: Facebook,  Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest  and  Bloglovin.

The competition will close at 23:59  on Thursday 22nd October 2015 and the winner will be selected at random and contacted by email. Monica Vinader ship worldwide (including UK, USA, Israel, Australia, Canada, France, Spain, Italy etc.) so the competition is open to readers all over the world (aside from one or two exceptions  — you can check if your country is listed here).

Good luck lovelies,  and if you do win, I would LOVE to see a photo of you rocking your chosen Fiji friendship bracelet!

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED

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A Vera Wang bride for a Jewish Ghanaian wedding at South London Liberal Synagogue and Nonsuch Mansion, Surrey, UK

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Nonsuch-Mansion-wedding
So we celebrated Rosh Hashana (the Jewish new year) at the beginning of this week. If you observed it, where did you spend it? I was with my husband’s family who live in Dulwich, South London where my husband was born and raised. The Jewish community of South London is really rather small and sadly very much dwindling these days with the majority of Jewish Londoners now residing north of the river. It’s therefore quite a treat to be blogging today’s wedding that took place at the South London Liberal Synagogue in Streatham (where Mr STG’s grandmother used to live!) followed by a glorious reception at Nonsuch Mansion.

There’s so much to love about this wedding. Prepare for bright pops of colour and a plethora of elegant details as well as homely touches like Brick Lane bagels (Ben’s dad was a Jewish East End guide and his walks would always take visitors to the famous Beigel Bake on Brick Lane). Prepare too for a wonderful melding of Jewish and Ghanaian traditions that just works so well!

And like all Smashing The Glass brides Bernice is one super cool dame. Not only does she have an incredible smile that lights up every photo, she also comes across as a really special person. I noticed in her wedding film at the end that she’s feeding a bottle to a baby whilst working that glorious Vera Wang wedding dress (something I’ve never seen a bride do unless the baby is her own!). She also told me the following in her wedding report:

I wanted the attention of the photos to be on our guests rather than us. You have very few opportunities to have all the special people in your life in one place at one time and I wanted to ensure it was documented.”

Special, right? All the wonderful photography is by David Long, and the film at the end is by Wedding Film Studio.

Come.. let’s take a look.

Jewish Ghanaian wedding
how we met

Ben’s version: To quote Rihanna, Bernice and I found love in a hopeless place – The Staffordshire County Showground to be precise. On Thursday 16th October 2008 at 6.30am she arrived at my office in Shepherds Bush to help me at an auction for the weekend. I immediately put her to work asking her to do 200 copies of the sale notices and staple them together. She was not impressed. Neither was she impressed with my music choice or my banter on the three hour journey to Stafford – in fact her response was to fall asleep. On the Saturday evening I finally persuaded her to take off her geek chic glasses so I could see her beautiful face – and at that point I knew I needed to peruse her. After much pestering we went for dinner and things developed from there.

Bernice’s version:Ben and I met at work. It wasn’t until I had to work with him at an auction we finally met. It was an early morning on a Thursday, I made my way to Park Royal to help Ben with his sale. I arrived at 6am and as soon as I got through the door he asked me to photocopy 200 copies of a document. I was not impressed at all! I decided I did not like being around him and proceed to ignore him on the journey to Stafford. He tried his hardest to talk to me about music but I just kept ignoring him and fell asleep.  The next day he continually persisted to try and have a conversation with me. There were times at dinner I caught him staring at me and I was not too sure what was happening. On the final night after the sale, he decided to struck up another conversation with me and asked me to take off my glasses and then proceeded to say I had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. This eventually led to us having a date when we were back in London and then next thing I know we had been dating for seven years and finally decided to tie the knot.

Jewish Ghanaian wedding
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