Mel will be marrying Mitch on Sunday 18 March 2018, in a Jewish wedding at Warren Weir at Luton Hoo, UK.
THREE FACTS: (1) Mel and Mitch met online on JDate (2) Their Jewish wedding will be classy and traditional with plenty of modern touches (3) Mel is a member of Smashing The Glass’s private Jewish & Jew-ish Brides Facebook Group. Not yet a member? Come join us here!
FAMOUS SIMILARITIES
What do I have in common with Albert Einstein, Ben Stiller, and Lisa Kudrow (aka, Phoebe from Friends)? Other than being Jewish, we are all left-handed.
As well as allegedly being more likely to have a higher IQ, they say left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. How true this I don’t know. But it does (kind of) set the scene for this blog.
Image by Stacey Able from Melinda and Tobin’s wedding
GROWING UP
Growing up I loved to draw and doodle. Whether that was writing my name in as many different styles as I could think of or creating a cartoon family. I loved using my imagination and creating things. I would sit for hours with my vast Polly Pocket collection and create the most wonderful fantasy world.
I would embrace any opportunity to be creative. I think I get it from my dad. He is great at drawing and designing things. I remember growing up rather than watching TV I would ask my dad to draw me a picture which I could then colour in. We would choose a theme and decide together what he would draw. My imagination was the only limitation. The paper was a blank canvas so I could let my imagination run wild.
One of my earliest memories was with my late grandpa. I must have been 3 or 4. I was sitting on his lap and asked him to draw me a cat. He would draw one part of the cat and ask me “is it a cat yet?” I remember responding saying “No. You still need to draw…” and I would name part of the cat he needed to draw. This went on until we finally had a cat which I could colour in.
Image by Marianne Chua from Michal and Sam’s Jewish wedding
INTO ADULTHOOD
My love of being creative has continued into adulthood. Mitch and I bought our first home together in 2016. The plan was to buy a place that we could move straight into and maybe do a bit of painting or change the flooring. However, we inadvertently ended up with the complete opposite. Think of your grandparents’ house. They’ve lived in the same house for 40+ years. Apart from the odd light fitting and new laminate flooring, the house has been untouched. Think pink bathroom suite, 1970s kitchen and thick wallpaper everywhere. This is what we had a bought.
So for eight long, tiring, stressful weeks we pulled the house apart and put it back together again.
It was one of the most difficult things I’ve done but equally the most enjoyable. Just like a piece of paper, our house was a blank canvas so we could do literally whatever we wanted.
At first it was a really daunting challenge. I had so many ideas and didn’t really know where to start. Pinterest was my best friend. It was amazing to be able to bring my ideas and vision to life and inject some creativity and personality into our new home.
Image by Une Vie En Provence from Gladys and Jonathan’s Jewish wedding
A BLANK CANVAS
Just like renovating our home, our wedding is a blank canvas. We can create our own vision in our own way. There’s no limit to what we can do.
What I have loved so far about planning the wedding is the ability to be creative. Bringing an idea to life and creating our perfect day. Having suppliers that understand this vision is so important.
Now, I’m not going to create any false hope for the wedding — I’m not planning to have trapeze artists and unicorns — I’m more talking about having beautiful flowers to match the colour scheme, an amazing band singing the songs we love, a hand-designed personalised ketubah, invitations designed by me and lots of other personal touches which I will keep a surprise!
No wedding is ever the same. And that’s because every couple has their own vision and has the opportunity to be creative in their own way.
Image by Adam and Hannah from Becky and Adam’s Jewish wedding
BESPOKE INVITATIONS
We recently sent out our invitations. This has been one of the most enjoyable things for me. Having looked around online and meeting a couple of suppliers, I decided it would be much more enjoyable and personal to design the invitations myself. I designed our save the dates which wasn’t too tricky, so thought I may as well go the whole hog and design the invitations too.
When designing the invitations it was so difficult to know where to start. I had the colour scheme and knew the style of wedding we wanted so that helped get me going. Once I got going there was no stopping me! I designed the invitations, RSVP and thank you cards. I have even designed our own logo using Canva which will feature throughout the wedding.
We used a company called Creative Invitations to finalise designs and print the invitations. They were a dream to work with and were so patient with all my ideas and design changes.
We didn’t want traditional A5 invitations; we wanted something a little different, something people would remember. So we went with a tri-fold invitation with a belly band with our logo on. We also got our logo printed onto round stickers and stuck them on the back of the envelope. A little like a wax seal but without the mess! So many people messaged us to say how much they loved our invitations.
I am now in the process of designing our table plan, table numbers and place names. It’s so nice knowing that all of our stationery has been designed by myself, adding that personal touch. We will use Creative Invitations and Printed.com to print the on the day stationery.
Image by Claudine Hartzel (STG Vendor) from Natalie and Paul’s Jewish wedding (stationery by STG Vendor Dimitria Jordan)
BESPOKE RINGS
I was lucky enough to meet my great grandparents (my mum’s grandparents). Family is such a big part of my life, so losing someone is heart-breaking. I always think about family I have lost, but particularly now with the wedding and knowing they won’t be there. When my great grandmother (I called her Bubbe — Yiddish for Grandma) passed away my mum inherited her engagement ring, which she then passed to me. I had always known I would want to wear her ring when I got engaged.
When Mitch and I got engaged, one of the first things we did was meet with someone in Hatton Garden who could reset my Bubbe’s ring and create a new design that was a little more modern. It was a 1.1ct diamond ring mounted on a very high crown with 3 smaller diamonds either side. I was adamant I didn’t want to add anything else to the ring and use the original diamonds and platinum. That made it feel like it was still my Bubbe’s ring; it would just look a little different. I love my engagement ring; not only does it look stunning but it has such huge sentimental value.
When it came to wedding rings, Mitch and I both wanted something a little special. Not your standard off-the-shelf design. So we decided to back to the same jeweller to create bespoke rings. I wanted my wedding ring to compliment my engagement ring and sit perfectly next to it. Mitch didn’t want a plain platinum band so we designed something a little different and got our special phrase and the date of our wedding engraved on the inside.
Designing rings was another opportunity for me to get creative. I love what the jeweller has produced and it is 100% unique which I love.
Despite me loving my wedding ring, and being so excited to wear it, I can’t actually marry with it as it has diamonds in so is not ‘kosher’ for a wedding. My mum wears my grandma’s engagement ring everyday but has kept her wedding ring in a box since she passed away so gave it to me so that I can marry with it. I plan to wear it on my right hand after the wedding, which adds another special touch knowing that even though my grandma won’t be there in person, I will have a little part of her under the chuppah with me.
Image by French Grey Photography from Krissy and Josh’s Jewish wedding
SPECIAL TOUCHES
It’s all the little personal touches that make each wedding different. It’s a given that pretty much every wedding will have on the day stationery, food and flowers (or some sort of dà©cor) but I have never been to a wedding where the stationery or food or flowers were the same. Every wedding is unique and individual to each couple which I love. We will be injecting lots of little touches throughout the wedding, making it that bit more personal and special to us.
Image by Jordanna Marston from Ruth and Dan’s Jewish wedding
Click here to read all Mel’s planning posts to date.
Mel & Mitch’s Wedding Vendors booked so far:
Videographer — Denee Motion
Band – XS Showband
Photographer — Chiko Photography
Flowers — Alexandra’s Florist
Table decorations – Wedding Venue Decorators
Venue — Warren Weir
Bride’s dress – Brides of Berkhamsted
Bridesmaids – David’s Bridal
Mother of the Bride – Mary’s of Enfield
Stationery – Canva, Creative Invitations and Printed.com