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Inspired Jewish Weddings

“My best Jewish wedding photo” by John Nassari

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A weekly Sunday 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  John Nassari.

John-Nassari-Jewish-Wedding

‘Energy’ by  John Nassari

It was so hard to choose my favourite Jewish wedding photo. My favourite picture always changes, depending on my mood, and also time. But I have chosen this one because it was from a very recent Jewish wedding and the party and Israeli dancing were  just magical.  I love the energy in this picture and perspective, I took it with a fish eye lens which exaggerated the wide angle distortion which I think really works in these sorts of contexts.

One of my favourites parts of this picture is that the perfect moment that the groom has been caught right in middle of the bright light. He has hit the ceiling and you can see his leg and hand on the ceiling! I love it that I am part of the photo, too. I was standing on the stage and there was a stage light behind me. My exaggerated, enormous shadow on the left makes me part of the scene. I love it that I hand held this without even looking through the viewfinder!”

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Carmel & Aviv | ‘love carnival in a green house’ DIY Jewish wedding at the groom’s rose farm, Northern Israel

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DIY-wedding
Carmel and Aviv knew that they wanted to make their wedding as personal to the two of them as they  possibly could, so  what could  be better then doing everything (and I mean everything!) themselves? Oh yes —  once these two had decided on a DIY W-day, it was full steam ahead, and then some. Get ready to admire what is probably one of the most DIY’d weddings I  have ever featured on Smashing The Glass. It truly gives new  meaning to the phrase,  ‘labour of love’.

For 6 months, this gorgeous pair made the drive every weekend from Tel Aviv, to the groom’s  family farm in Northern Israel to renovate an old greenhouse from the bone. They straightened the ground, laid  a concrete dance floor, and planted literally thousands of flowers and trees. (To give you an idea, they planted about 400 sunflowers in one field alone!).

And it didn’t stop there. Once the space was ready,  Carmel and Aviv made  everything themselves from  the decorations to the flags to the  signage, not to mention hand-crafting their  invitations, table numbers and place names. There was also  a flower booth on the day, with live flower weaving to decorate the guests. Genius.

The most personal thing they incorporated  though, was a wonderful heirloom — their chuppah canopy.  It has been used  in the groom’s family for two generations for every wedding in the family, and Aviv’s grandmother weaves the names of every  new couple into it. How magical is that?

A immense amount of time and effort has clearly gone into this incredible  wedding, so enjoy all the wonderful  details and get ready for some serious pinterest-induced mania! Both the bride and  the groom have written the report today, and why wouldn’t they when there was so much joint involvement with the wedding planning ? One of my favourite quotes from the groom  is:

Our wedding was full of happiness and love. We guess that when people see  how much love you’re putting into it, they return it with extra.”

I love that.

Their day is exquisitely photographed  by the super  talented  Shai Franco  and don’t miss the highlights film at the end by the equally accomplished  Shahar Lev.

DIY wedding
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A Carolina Herrera bride and an Alexander McQueen groom for a Jewish Irish wedding at the Senate House Library, London, UK

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Jewish-Irish-Wedding
From the moment I started reading Francesca’s wedding report, it took all of five seconds for me to warm to this beautiful, sassy, witty woman. This really is one of the loveliest, and most entertaining, wedding reports I’ve read to date, so if you can spare five minutes to sit and read Francesca’s words as well as look at the stunning photography by Christian and Erica Ward I promise you, you’ll be inspired.

I can’t resist giving you a little snippet… Here’s how Francesca broke the news to her Jewish mother that she was dating Andrew, a non-Jewish guy:

When I told my mother that I was dating someone non-Jewish (the first time it had happened) and that it was serious, I softened her up first: “he’s not Jewish… but he is a tall, handsome trilingual rocket scientist!”. She agreed that my cost/benefit analysis was sound.”

Yes, what you’re about to see and read is truly special. This is how to do a super cool, super chic, interfaith wedding that blends traditions to perfection and oozes personality by the bucketload.

There are so many things I love about this wedding that I’d be here until midnight listing them all, but I will say that the table numbers and signs are old law reports that Francesca hand-painted (she’s a barrister), the confetti cones are made out of the Financial Times (Andrew works in finance), there’s an ‘Alhambra disco’ (Francesca will explain that later), an Irish harpist, and a traditional hora, personalised iced biscuits for each guest, and the most incredible invitations that perfectly symbolise the fusion of Francesca and Andrew through the art of paper-cut!

On the fashion front, there are the most exquisite pair of Harriet Wilde shoes, a Carolina Herrera dress (with a story and half to it), and a groom in an Alexander McQueen blue velvet tux… Need I say anymore? Over to the gorgeous Francesca.

Jewish Irish Wedding
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“My best Jewish wedding photo” by Tom Bartov

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A weekly Sunday 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 Tom Bartov.

Tom-Bartov

‘Elements’ by Tom Bartov

As a documentary photographer the most important thing for me is catching the moment as it happens. This shot was taken during Yulia and Boaz’s wedding and I was able to catch them just as they were making their way to the venue as we finished shooting. I really like the combination of nature, modern architecture and the connection between the couple… it’s like magic when you combine a few elements together and they all fit together perfectly.”

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Naama & Ezri | Urban Jewish wedding in a bar, at Jem’s Beer Factory, Tel Aviv, Israel

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Beer-Factory-Wedding
When this first picture (above) of Naama and Ezri  landed in my inbox, I knew that this would be a brilliant  wedding to blog on Smashing The Glass.

First off, I have a soft spot for any kind of unusual Jewish wedding venue, and their choice is certainly  different: a beer factory (yes beer factory!) with the most gorgeous decor and an intimate, homely feel.

Second of all, will you just look at those two?! One of the best things about this job is how uplifting it is to look at images of people in love, and I think it’s fair to say that Naama and Ezri are truly, madly, deeply in love. Their deep affection  for each other literally radiates from every one of the fashion magazine-worthy images by  Simsisters.

Naama and Ezri  two are  free-spirited souls who incorporated all sorts of personal touches into their big  day, and it must be said that this is also  the first W-Day  I’ve ever blogged that includes a ‘spoken word’ session!

Let me  hand you over to Naama, to tell you all about her and Ezri’s story…  Have a great weekend everyone!

Beer Factory wedding
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