Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Valeria & Orrie | Spring Theme Jewish Wedding at Lafayette Club, Lake Minnetonka, USA

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Spring theme wedding 15 Well I don’t know about you but I’m already getting a little weary of winter and looking forward to sunnier days and warmer weddings. Here’s a cute, gem of a wedding with a strong spring theme to get us in the mood.

As you’d expect from a spring theme wedding, the florals are gorgeous, but what’s more, the creative bride put feathers in her bouquet (LOVE!). We’ve also got birdcages, a big band orchestra, rain boots and paint brushes in the mix! Let’s hand over to our lovely bride,  Valeria for all the details.
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VENUE + LOCATION
Valeria, the Bride: We got married on a beautiful May day in Minnesota, at the Lafayette Club by Lake Minnetonka. Where to get married was the first decision we made. Our families are split between Israel and Minnesota, and we ourselves currently reside in Portland, Maine. We considered Israel, Maine, or a neutral destination wedding, but we chose Minnesota as our location because our immediate families live there, and this made some of the transportation aspect more convenient.

We did not have the time to fly to Minnesota  and physically look at venues, but we were familiar with the Lake Minnetonka area and knew that we can’t go wrong with a pick around this location. Our only “must have” requirements were that there will be room for both ceremony and reception at the same place, and that there will be a view of the lake. Many couples would think it is risky, but we actually chose our venue  based on online photos and reviews! When I saw a photo of the high  vaulted ceiling, the wooden floors and the long  chandeliers, I fell in love with this place and could really imagine our wedding happening there. I contacted the event manager at the location, Brenda, to make sure that there is someone who I can  work  with from a long distance, and she was wonderful in her responsiveness.

We sent our parents to check the venue out and when they told us it was like in the photos, our decision was final. When we actually  saw the Lafayette Club for the first time, thankfully it was exactly as we imagined it!
Spring theme wedding B

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Welcome White Dress Films to our Smashing Suppliers

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I am thrilled to welcome White Dress Films  to our  Smashing Suppliers, Smashing The Glass’s handpicked selection of the best brands and services the wedding industry has to offer.

Smashing The Glass hand selects and verifies each Smashing Supplier, and can personally vouch for the fact that every one of them has the ability to turn your wedding day into something truly special.

You can find White Dress Films in the Videography  category of  Smashing Suppliers.

WHITE DRESS FILMS
 http://www.whitedressfilms.co.uk/ We make wedding films; but not just any wedding films. Our films are creative, compelling and beautiful to watch.  Your wedding film will be more than just a video record of your wedding day. It will tell the story of the two of you.

For us your wedding is about capturing the moment as it happens, there’s no staging and no re-runs. You are individual and you are unique. You’re not just another booking in our diary. We like to take the time to get to know you.  We like to know whether your wedding is an intimate affair or a large celebration. We like to know about your choice of venue, the service, music and other details that you have organised for your big day. All the details that make it unique.
Most importantly, your wedding film will be individual, unique and tailor-made to suit you.

After all, it’s all about you…  Please visit our website to see some recent examples of our work.

The best Jewish weddings and Jewish wedding ideas

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jewish-wedding_4 Looking for some fantastic ideas for your Jewish wedding? Well, in the run-up to my wedding day in April 2013, I was, and I grew increasingly frustrated with the fact that there was nowhere online to find creative, inventive and original ideas for Jewish (or Jew-ish) weddings. So the Smashing The Glass Jewish wedding blog was born with the aim of being chock full of ideas and inspiration for planning unique and creative Jewish weddings.

I curate all the real Jewish weddings that are submitted to the site to bring you only the most creative, unusual and detail-orientated weddings — ones that I’m sure will inspire you, such as this super- chic Jewish wedding, or this one full of loads of DIY loveliness, or these two that meld and embrace both the bride and the groom’s cultures beautifully: a Jewish/Greek wedding and a Jewish/Celtic wedding. I’m in awe of the creativity and originality that are part of every beautiful real Jewish wedding on the site — and I cover everything from city chic Jewish weddings to destination Jewish weddings, country house Jewish weddings, DIY Jewish weddings, garden theme Jewish weddings and of course lots of Israeli weddings. Have a look though them all for lots of inspiration and ideas.

Aside from browsing through the real weddings, perhaps you’re looking for inspiration to create a meaningful and beautiful chuppah? Well the chuppah ideas page has tons and tons of ideas and is constantly updated with gorgeous chuppot. Chuppah There’s also lots more ideas, inspiration and tips in the Ideas for your Jewish Wedding section, everything from ketubot to food & drink ideas to really original guest books, table numbers, name cards, invitations and stationery, and really useful tips and tricks from real brides.

For music ideas, you might also like to check out the top 10 chuppah entrance songs and the best non-traditional versions of ‘Hava Nagila’ london-zoo-wedding-ketubah If you’re marrying out, or marrying in (or anywhere in between for that matter – I call it Jew-ish!) there are loads of real interfaith Jewish weddings to be inspired by, in addition to a wonderful article entitled ‘The diary of a Jewish bride who married out‘ and on top of that two really useful posts by the awesome Michele Schwartz on the subject of converting and interfaith marriage. Also if you are UK based you may want to contact Rabbi Paul Glantz, one of our awesome Smashing Suppliers, who has married many interfaith Jewish couples.

Talking of Smashing Suppliers, let me tell you a little more about them. They are my handpicked selection of the best brands and services the wedding industry has to offer. I select and verify each Smashing Supplier, and can personally vouch for the fact that every one of them has the ability to turn your Jewish wedding day into something truly special. jewish-wedding_5
Finally, I wrote this piece in December 2013 on the The Top 5 Dos and Don’ts for the perfect Jewish wedding for Pulse Magazine, and if you want even more Jewish wedspiration, follow Smashing The Glass on Instagram,  Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

And don’t forget, when you do get married, I’d love you to send me your wedding submission afterwards! It’s my awesome readers who ultimately make Smashing The Glass so inspiring and I would absolutely love to hear from you.

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Natalie & Oren | Spectacular Jewish wedding at The Great Synagogue + Villa Cora, Florence, Italy

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florence-wedding
I kid you not. The moment I laid my eyes on this magnificent wedding captured by David Bastianoni, I was speechless. As in, my mouth was unable to form words and my brain was unable to make sentences. And as a wedding blogger, that can be kind of a problem. But stare for even one minute at the array of images in this post, by the amazing David Bastianoni, and you’ll be doing the  exact same thing.

So let’s hand over to our gorgeous bride, Natalie, to provide you with all the delicious detail of the day.
Florence Villa Cora Wedding 95 Florence Villa Cora Wedding 37
VENUE
Natalie, the Bride: We had our ceremony at The Great Synagogue of Florence.  I lived in Florence for 9 months in 2002 and I always remembered the synagogue being remarkable. Upon re-visiting the synagogue I knew I wanted to get married there. We even decided to keep the ceremony at the synagogue despite it being an open house day where the synagogue was open to visitors throughout the day. Needless to say we had a lot of bystanders and ”extra” guests at our ceremony but we didn’t mind.
Florence Great Synagogue Wedding
The reception was held at Villa Cora.  The hotel was redone a few years ago and the main salon is breathtaking. As soon as I saw the main salon at Villa Cora my mind was made up. As you can see in the photos, the room speaks for itself. We ended up having more people than we expected and we used an adjoining room which was equally as gorgeous but with a totally different style (Moroccan).
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AN ELEGANT WEDDING DRESS
I chose a dress by Marisa,  New York. I knew I wanted something lace and I wasn’t looking for white. The material underneath the lace was a champagne color. When I saw my dress I knew it was the one as it had the perfect bustle (which we added to a bit) and an elegant lace overlay.

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Gaby & Mike | Urban Chic Jewish Wedding at ARIA Warehouse, Minneapolis, USA

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Cool Wedding Venue This may well be one of the coolest and most stylishly decorated venues that I have ever laid my wedding blogger eyes upon! Yes, Gaby and Mike found a venue that reflected the look and feel that they were after – a warehouse venue with original brick walls, cavernous ceilings, crystal chandeliers, whimsical art work (including loads of original Andy Warhol’s), decadent furniture and dramatic lighting. This wedding is full of  fun and creativity, but one of the stand-out ideas for me was the ‘Vodka Social’. Since the groom is Russian,  different flavoured vodkas flowed throughout this wedding and we are talking some really *awesome* flavours such as ginger, spiced pear, raspberry, caramel, tiramisu and horseradish! More on that later on. First of all let me hand you over to our lovely bride on how and why she chose the venue. Minneapolis Jewish Wedding 33 VENUE Gaby, The Bride: Mike and I had several important non-negotiable items as we started our wedding planning, and one of them was the venue. The venue sets the tone and influences the look-and-feel of the wedding, and is the backdrop for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception. It’s where we’ll take a majority of our photos, and where our friends and family will celebrate the most special and important symbol of our love and commitment to one another. We knew we wanted something unique, spacious, modern and truly unforgettable for our wedding. We wanted it to be a reflection of us and our taste, and most importantly, we wanted to infuse our vision in the space…rather than the vision of the space taking over the wedding. We’ve been to so many weddings in hotel ballrooms, where the look is always the same: cream colored walls, gold neo-baroque sconces and floral or damask-patterned carpets. While there’s nothing wrong with that, we wanted something unlike anything we’ve seen before. We wanted something modern and sexy, but also understated and simple. We also knew we had our work cut out for us as many venues in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul areas have exclusive relationships with vendors, making it very difficult to work with the vendors we had already picked out and meet our Kosher food requirement. Minneapolis Jewish Wedding 26 Minneapolis Jewish Wedding 30 We looked at no less than two dozen venues and called at least another dozen more…and each time, we came back to ARIA at the Jeune Lune. It was a favourite of ours from the start. In fact, I had my heart set on the Jeune Lune even before we were engaged! While celebrating the 2011-2012 New Year, Mike and I and a few friends went to a New Year’s party hosted at the Jeune Lune. It was the venue’s inaugural debut from being a theatre to becoming a premier venue hall in the Theatre District of downtown Minneapolis. I remember walking in to the Jeune Lune and being completely mesmerized by the space! I leaned in to Mike and whispered in his ear: “This would be the perfect spot for a wedding.”

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