Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

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.
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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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Sydney & William | Jewish Handmade DIY Barn Wedding, The Laurentians, Canada

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Handmade DIY wedding 71 Today I have for you a real-deal bona fide Smashing The Glass wedding. It’s a genuine do-it-yourself abundance of unique and creative perfection. Everything is handmade (with love!) by close friends and family.

Sydney and William chose to have their wedding at the bride’s  grandparent’s country house in  the Laurentians  (about a hour north of Montreal) and the wedding rings, invitations, bride’s dress, floristry, hair + make-up, ketubah, kippot, cake, and favours were all  handmade and created by close family.

There are many, many personal touches incorporated into their W-day (in particular into their Jewish ceremony) that really make it stand out.  Let’s take a lovely look…
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A COUNTRY HOUSE WITH FAMILY HISTORY
Sydney, The Bride: Our wedding was held at my grandparent’s country house in the Laurentians.  I haven’t been to many weddings but my favourite wedding was my aunt’s that had been held at the same house almost exactly 11 years earlier. I was open to doing the wedding in the city but after checking out venues there was nothing I loved, and I always had the country house in the back of my head.

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Freya & Tim | Outdoor Fun ‘n’ Games Jewish Wedding at Ketchum Rotary Park, Idaho, USA

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This is a great example of a wedding that shows what you can achieve if you put a bit of time and effort in to doing something, and that a wedding doesn’t have to cost an absolute fortune! With the sun shining and your best friends and family around you, it’s easy to remember that the best things in life are free…cheesy but true.

Freya and Tim are both farmers – Tim is a 6th generation farmer in rural southern Minnesota and Freya is an organic farmer by profession and runs her own small produce business. Agriculture, food, and the outdoors is the core of who they are and being a totally ‘smashing’ couple and  essentially being truly authentic to themselves, these elements came through beautifully and personally in their relaxed outdoor wedding.

DIY Jewish Wedding INTRO
A HOMEMADE, HANDMADE OUTDOOR WEDDING
Freya, The Bride: Our wedding was in Ketchum, Idaho and we held the ceremony and reception in Ketchum Rotary Park along the Bigwood river, the river upon which I grew up and love dearly.  Tim and I didn’t really go for a theme or colour scheme. Everything was very simple and natural and the whole event was homemade and handmade – DIY style – very relaxed, like an afternoon picnic. We had lots of games like bean bag toss, ladder golf, hula hoops, bubbles, etc and these were played by both adult (and little) kids!

We had directional signs, chalkboards and such, all made by my husband. There was not much need for more decoration than that as it was such a beautiful venue.
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MY OWN BRIDAL STYLE
I knew I wanted to be comfortable and feel like myself, not all made-up and princess-like. After trying on too many “cupcake” dresses, I found the “mini-cupcake” and loved it. I paired the dress with Canadian-made handcrafted Boulet western boots, that were a gift from my husband a few months before we got engaged. He knows I love my boots, and the collection keeps growing.

In terms of jewellery, I wore my mothers, sisters, late-grandmothers and my pearl bracelets. It meant a lot to me to have all those women with me under the chuppah….

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Michelle & Richard | Jewish/Celtic Winter Wedding at Babington House, Somerset, UK

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Babington House Wedding
I have no words for Michelle and Richard’s wedding. Truly. I will run out of adjectives trying to describe how magnificent everything is. The details are quite astonishing, the setting is magical, and I love the embracing of both the Scottish and Jewish cultures. The mix of traditions meld surprisingly beautifully (think the  Hora  followed by the  Ceilidh; haggis bites served alongside potato latkes.. you get the picture – and it works!).

Scroll down and you will see bagpipers playing in the snow, exquisite floral designs,  a stunning balletic  Mira Zwillinger  wedding dress, the most awesome and thoughtful wedding favours, and an incredible video by  Gorgeous Films  that may very well have you  shedding a tear or three with its sheer beauty and sensitivity.
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Now on top of that I admit that I whooped, hollered and clapped my hands with glee when I found out that with this wedding I’d be  showcasing  Especially Amy‘s sensational photography. She captures all the details of the day so emotively and she is a well-deserved Smashing Supplier.

So the lovely Michelle and Richard married back in January of this year (apparently the snowiest January on record) at one of my favourite places in the world, Babington House  (part of the Soho House group) in Somerset. They chose this breathtaking venue, not only for its beauty, but because they could also take over the whole place and share the experience with friends and family over a couple of days.

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A JEWISH / CELTIC THEME + A BEAUTIFUL VENUE

Michelle, The Bride: The theme of our wedding was to bring both of our cultures together, so essentially  to have a Jewish/Celtic mix. Rich is Jewish, and I am half Irish, half Scottish, so it was important that all cultures were represented. So for instance we had a Ceilidh followed by the  Hora; we had haggis and Irish soda bread, but equally we had Chanukah doughnuts; we had a rabbi, and we had our friend singing Ave Maria…  etc etc. In terms of a colour scheme, we based it loosely around Weathered Kennedy Tartan (which made my Dad very happy!)

Our chosen venue was  Babington House  because it’s so very beautiful and because we could take over the whole venue and have our friends and family stay with us overnight and continue the celebrations the following morning.

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