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Real Jewish Brides: Alexandra on Ceremony Plans

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Alexandra will be marrying Ian in May 2022 at La Corte Dei Messapi in Ostuni, Puglia, Italy. Click here to read all Alexandra’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: THREE FACTS: (1) Alexandra and Ian are planning an intimate black-tie destination wedding for 60 of their nearest and dearest in Puglia, Italy. (2) Alexandra is Jewish, and Ian is in the process of converting to Judaism. (3) Alexandra is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

Planning a wedding is never easy even in the best of times let alone during a pandemic! As you might know we had to reschedule our May, 10th, 2020 wedding. We are now planning for May 2022. This shift has made us rethink when we would get civilly married. Originally our plan was to do it ourselves shortly before we went to Italy for the wedding. Now that our wedding has been moved we want to do a small civil ceremony with our families. We are now left with some questions about what we want the ceremony to look like and when we should have the event. 

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Real Jewish Brides: For Lindsay It’s All About The Ceremony

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Lindsay, a member of Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club, will be marrying Dan on 25th August 2019 at Kochav Hayam in Caesarea, Israel. Click here to read all Lindsay’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Lindsay and Dan were set up by Lindsay’s cousin! (2) They are planning an English-style destination wedding with a few modern twists in Caesarea, Israel. (3) Even though they are both Jewish, Lindsay is more interested in the religious element of the day than Dan, so they are working to balance tradition with their personal style – our favorite!


Ceremony is the most important thing to me

Whilst the most important aspect of the wedding for Dan is music, for me it’s the ceremony. It’s safe to say I’m slightly more in touch with my religious side than Dan is (he’s only just agreed to go prawn-less post-wedding), so when it came to choosing a rabbi it was so important we found someone with a connection to us – if anything just to keep Dan awake during the ceremony!


Image by Andreas Markakis from Nitsan and Oren‘s wedding

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A Bride in a Green Reformation Dress for a Laid-Back Jewish Wedding on the Beach with a Modern Egalitarian Ceremony in Caesarea, Israel

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Cool Wedding Alert! Hannah, an urban planner who hails from Melbourne, Australia, and Eitan, a contractor and Tel Aviv native, told their wedding planner and designer, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Bebke, that they wanted their Jewish wedding to feel like the best day at the beach you’ve ever had.

And Bebke really, really delivered. Their day, in a stunning beach venue just north of Caesaria, is truly the ultimate chilled-out seaside bash.

Ever felt like the standard formal event doesn’t quite mesh with your sensibilities? Hannah and Eitan did, and they opted to skip out on the sit-down meal and instead make their day a constant stream of food, drinks, and dancing. We love how they opted to have all different kinds of food stations, from deli to wood-fired pizza to fish shawarma! Way to keep all your guests happy.

Another thing we adore about this wedding is the ultra-personal alternative Jewish ceremony Hannah and Eitan crafted, combining tradition with their egalitarian values. They wrote their own ketubah, had their siblings read not only the traditional seven blessings but also blessings they wrote themselves for the couple, and exchanged rings with each other.

Hannah looked radiant in her green Reformation dress, proving that you don’t have to wear white to capture that bridal elegance.

Photographer Alexey Kudrik came recommended by planner Bebke, and we’re in love with his elegant documentary style. These photos look like they’ve been snatched from a super cool editorial, but at the same time Alexey could not have captured the emotion of the day more exquisitely–just take a look at the photos of Hannah and Eitan under the chuppah. We’ll leave it to Hannah to fill you in on the rest.

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How we met

Hannah, the bride: We met through a mutual friend when I was in Tel Aviv visiting for another friend’s wedding in 2015 – we ended up in the same group of people hanging out on the beach one weekend – and what started as a holiday fling ended in marriage, and now a baby on the way!

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Real Blogging Brides: Clare – putting the ‘Jew’ into our very ‘ish’ ceremony

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Image: Lin & Jirsa from Alina and Raphael’s wedding on Smashing The Glass
 

Clare will be marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Clare is not Jewish but discovered Smashing The Glass via her Jewish sister-in-law and during her wedding planning journey it has (in her own words!) became her favorite and most useful wedding blog (2) She finds STG refreshing in a sea of wedding blogs as she loves reading stories of couples for whom the ceremony itself is as pivotal as all the other details. (3) Due to falling in love with so many amazing Jewish weddings through the blog, and then booking a wedding consultancy session with STG founder, Karen, it confirmed to her that there were a number of Jewish elements she was going to bring into her wedding that symbolise a lot of things that are very important to her and her fiancà© in their future marriage – she will be having a ‘Jewish-inspired’ wedding!


Beautiful rituals

Now with only three months to go until our big day the planning has reached a crucial stage of multiple to do lists and a constant state of panic – have we forgotten something/someone/got enough time left to create the day of our dreams?!

All of the big things are now booked and it’s only the finer details to be arranged. One very important factor to be confirmed though is our ceremony plan.

Back in 2016 when Chris and I were first engaged I began to search high and low for the right person to perform our ceremony. We wanted a very personal ceremony, incorporating different traditions that were meaningful to us.

Chris and I both have some similarities in our religious views and backgrounds but neither of us are ‘practicing’ anything as such. I have always been fascinated by others beliefs and have been known to be extremely quizzical of other people’s backgrounds. Weddings in particular are a wonderful opportunity to gain insight into some beautiful cultural traditions.

Whether it’s been Catholic weddings, Jewish, Hindu, or a combination, I have often observed certain rituals that I think are really beautiful and thought to myself – I’d really like to do that one day. Regardless of how or where you were brought up or of your ideas on religion, many of the rituals from different religions can contain meaning and symbolism for any couple.

Image by M2 Photography from Yana and Archita’s multicultural wedding
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Facebook Live Catch Up: Jewish Wedding Ceremony Q&A – with Rabbi Paul Glantz

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On Monday evening I went live on our Facebook page with the legend that is Rabbi Paul Glantz – a truly modern inclusive Rabbi, and much-loved STG Vendor who has graced the real Jewish wedding pages of Smashing The Glass many times.

It featured possibly my favorite Facebook Live moment ever (at 4 mins 25 secs) with Rabbi Paul on the phone to his brother on the Live  – go check it out!

We covered so much during the 4o minutes from ways to personalize your ketubah, badeken, chuppah, and sheva brachot, to the best kind of glass to smash to Jewish wedding dress codes – full breakdown below!  If you missed it, you can still catch up by watching the replay above.

4:25 – Rabbi Paul Glantz on the phone to his mother asking her to tune in (classic Live moment!)
8:10 – Do you need to have a registry office wedding as well as a Jewish wedding?
10:06 – Breakdown of the Jewish wedding ceremony
11:20 – How to personalize your ketubah
13:45 – Ways of personalising the Badeken
16:55 – Ways of personalising the Sheva Brachot (Seven Blessings)
18:00 – Egalitarian Jewish wedding ceremony ideas
19:53 – What is the meaning of the circling in the Jewish wedding ceremony
21:25 – Can anyone get married under a chuppah? 
23:20 – What’s the wedding dress code for a Masorti wedding?
24:41 – Music for the Jewish wedding ceremony
28:07 – Are there any parts of an Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremony that cannot be photographed?
28:44 – How many, and what kind of, people can sign the ketubah?
29:58 – As an interfaith Jewish couple can we get married under a chuppah?
32:21 – Can you get married on a Friday?
33:47 – Can you have engraving on your wedding ring?
29:43 – What is the best kind of glass for smashing the glass?
35:10 – Does the wedding band need to be made of silver?
36:08 – How do you know what time to start a Saturday night wedding?
36:59 – How can you make a wedding in a venue with non-kosher catering, with a United Rabbi 

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Image: Rabbi Paul Glantz officiating Laura & Gio’s wedding – coming to STG very soon
photographed by much-loved STG Vendor Paul Rogers Photography

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