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Yvonne & Craig’s rustic chic, beautifully personal Jewish wedding at Micklefield Hall, Hertfordshire ,UK

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Some weddings are a feast for the eyes — some are a treat for the heart. And some weddings are beautifully both! Yvonne and Craig’s contemporary rustic chic wedding at Micklefield Hall  in Hertfordshire, UK, shot by our inimitably talented Smashing Supplier  Laura Babb, was a beautiful blend of eye-catching dà©cor and eye-dabbing personal detail.

Bride Yvonne, who recently converted to Judaism, works in design and boy can you tell. The wedding was dotted with perfectly pulled together design details; a colour scheme in soft blush pinks and whites, rustic ladders, chalkboards featuring gorgeous typography, a naked Victoria sponge — and then there was that stationery.

Yvonne took on the brave and loving task of designing and creating her whole stationery suite: from her box-set themed table signage to the 150 lovingly handcrafted (and hand gilded) invitations received by her guests.

Oh, and adorable favour idea alert: Yvonne and Craig treated each guest to a hand-decorated personalised mini bottle of pink champagne and stripy straw so they could be enjoyed during the festivities. How cute is that?

Yvonne and Craig’s big-hearted wedding also involved some astoundingly touching personal details, including a framed photograph of Yvonne’s late mother, which took pride of place during the ceremony. Yvonne and her father made the chuppah together from materials from both sides of the family, and don’t even get me started on the lovely personalised gift that Yvonne sent to Craig on the morning of the wedding…

I hope you love staring at this divine, detail-laden dream as much as I did — and make sure you check out the quirky and cool Marryoke video at the end? What’s that, you ask? I won’t ruin it for you. Enjoy!

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How We Met

Yvonne, the bride: Craig and I met in a pub in Islington after Craig walked over to me and announced that he ‘had to  introduce  himself’! Craig played it very cool after that and waited another three  weeks until he  asked me out on our first date. We  have been together for six  years now and have made some incredible memories together.  I decided to convert to Judaism a couple of years ago and although it was extremely hard work, it really was the most incredible experience and really  brought me and Craig even closer together. Craig was a great support  and  spent hours helping me to revise and learn all the Jewish customs he was familiar with.

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The Pros and Cons of a Destination Wedding

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Having a destination wedding, just like any other choice in life — has it’s long list of pros and cons. When Alex and I first began the conversation of  where  we’d like to tie the knot, we we’re slightly overwhelmed with the possibilities. The world was ours. Would we travel abroad? Stay within the country? East or West Coast? In the end, only three options really made sense for us: Florida – where my parents live, Arizona – where Alex’s parents live, and Washington, DC – where we’ve built our home together.  

Two weeks after we got engaged, we flew out to Tucson, Arizona to visit his parents, as they threw us a lovely engagement party. At that point in the planning (only two weeks in), Alex and I barely had a grasp of what we wanted from the big day. Since we were already in Arizona, we figured we might as well take advantage of that, and explore some venues. The week prior to our trip, I contacted 5 different venues for fall / winter 2016 availability and pricing. Collecting a little binder of information prior to landing in Arizona. And good thing I did, since the moment we landed, wedding talk seemed to be the only conversational topic.

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Image: Julian Wainwright, taken from Melissa & Ishay’s Jew-ish destination wedding in Thailand

The morning of the engagement party, Alex’s dad drove us around the city to various appointments, narrowed down to 4 at that point. Once we stepped foot on Tubac Golf Resort, we knew we had found something really special. We loved the atmosphere, the ranch-style hotel rooms, the layout of the property, the ballrooms, the heated-covered patios, the gorgeous well kept lawns where we’d potentially hold our ceremony — everything.

For various reasons, Florida and DC were ruled out. So Arizona made the next most sense. And after our tour of Tubac, we felt it was the right place for us. We didn’t give it much more thought than that. I signed the contract that very week we returned home to DC. And then, the rest of the planning, booking, and arranging began!

Planning the wedding from 2,500+ miles away hasn’t been the easiest, I will be the first to say that, and in fact it’s caused a reasonable amount of stress. I wanted to share my pros and cons list with any future brides still deciding, or to any brides that have already settled on a destination wedding for them to relate to.

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Image:  Susan Stripling, taken from Natasha & Jez’s Jewish destination wedding in Cap Ferrat, South of France

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Romantic, Designer Weddings in Spain – planned to perfection by Reviva Weddings

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If you’re considering casting the biggest day of your life in a romantic sun-drenched destination and are fancy a trend setting, stylish and contemporary vibe – bespoke but definitely twinkly – then you simply must be introduced to Reviva Weddings. I’ve been following them for a while now and am totally impressed with this Marbella- based team of wedding planners, known for creating cutting edge weddings across Spain.

Jewish Weddings in Spain

Reviva Weddings has built up an extraordinary network of suppliers and has become one of the most established and popular wedding planners in Spain. And importantly for STG readers, they have created many beautiful Jewish weddings.

Having organised epic Jewish weddings for up to 400 guests, and with an understanding of the requirements for Jewish and mixed faith marriages, you’ll be in very capable hands with British-born Reviva founder, Laura Charles and her team. From beautifully dressed chuppahs to venues who can offer kosher catering, they’re on it.

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You had me at “Interior Designer”

Apart from the planning and coordination services you’d hope for, Reviva is holding a major trump card — Laura Charles, the  owner, is an interior designer. This is the first time I’ve come across an interior designer turned wedding planner and it’s like music to my ears. After all, this is one day when you need someone to really take charge of the mise en scà¨ne, to craft the stage and create the atmosphere and oh my, she is darn good at it.

Laura, who has lived in Spain for years, started Reviva in 2007 originally as a wedding stylist. There was a real demand for super stylish weddings in Spain but it didn’t seem like anyone was renting out any decor or equipment at all. You couldn’t even hire a chair sash, let alone sequin table runners and a neon bar.

So she started Reviva,  doing both wedding styling (including equipment/props hire) and the full wedding planning service. Because of her background and passion for the visual, Laura has formed an extremely accomplished, design-focused company. And to help – she has a fabulous team of trained wedding planners behind her who are brilliant, bilingual, and supremely creative. All ready to organise and style your day.

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A BHLDN bride for a brunch-style Jewish wedding at Park Tavern in Piedmont Park, Atlanta, USA

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It’s a Big Day in America today (erm… understatement!) and I couldn’t possibly let the day pass without posting a gorgeous real American Jewish wedding, if nothing else, to divert us from all the madness!

Menucha & Austin are just the cutest and I’ve got an extra special treat in store for you today in terms of the bride’s FABULOUS frockage from BHLDN, one of my favourite bridal fashion brands — super sassy and achingly cool.

Austin isn’t Jewish, but is going to convert to Judaism and in the meantime, Menucha wanted to find a way to show that he was included and invited into the Jewish tradition.

So he had a tisch before the ceremony, and when they danced Austin in to see his bride for the badeken, he carried out the act of placing her veil over her face, but then she carried out her own really special addition to the short ceremony — she placed a white kippah on his head, to symbolise his future conversion to Judaism. It’s personal details like this that make for a truly smashing wedding…

The wedding ceremony itself was jam-packed with intimacy, personality and so much joy. Menucha’s father was the officiant, and the bride’s and groom’s siblings held the chuppah poles. Menucha’s mother also made the ketubah. Truly a family affair.

The images today come from Alyssa Kapnik Samuel — thank you for submitting this gorgeousness, Alyssa!

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How We Met

Menucha, the bride: Austin and I met in college. He was roommates with my best friend from high school. And it was a long journey from there!

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Real Jewish Brides: Dawn’s Engagement Session

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Question: How do you get a Canadian man in his 20’s excited about taking engagement photos?
Answer: Rent out a hockey rink, of course!!

Aside from solidifying our venue, my favorite wedding planning activity, by far, has been our engagement photo shoot. It was a day full of pampering, romancing, laughing, and even ice skating! Harley has never been a huge fan of the traditional engagement photo idea, so I had to get a little creative in order for him to be as excited about the ordeal as I was…that’s where hockey comes in!

Harley and I are in our fourth year as season ticket holders for the Florida Panthers. We froze our butts off at the outdoor Winter Classic in Boston this past January, we traveled to California on a whim to see his favorite team when they finally made it to the Stanley Cup Finals in May, and my fiancà©’s  closet looks like a cartoon’s wardrobe who wears multiple versions of the same outfit everyday…and yes, that outfit is a hockey jersey.

We’ve also been noticing the trend of infusing the couples’ personalities and hobbies into the big day (i.e. Harry Potter and Disney-themed weddings). While I wasn’t ready to give up my idea of a traditional, elegant wedding for a ceremony officiated by our team’s mascot or reception table names influenced by our favorite hockey players, I thought it would be a great idea to let this collective hobby of ours play out in our engagement photos.

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Engagement Photo Shoot Planning

I’ve always loved seeing my friends’ engagement photos, but I can honestly say I didn’t realize how much work went into them! First came the most important part…choosing a date. I never put much thought into this before, thinking “you just pick a day and take some pictures,” but it’s not quite that easy. I had to make sure all the key players were available on the same day. For us, those key players were Lulu’s Hair and Make-up Studio, Jack Bates Photography, and the Palm Beach Skate Zone. We chose to take the pictures on Labor Day because it was a Monday I was off from work, and, as you can imagine, wedding vendors like a hair and make-up artist and a photographer tend to be booked on the weekends.

Once the date was set and everyone was on board for a Labor Day engagement photo shoot, the wardrobe decisions began! Because Harley and I planned to take pictures on ice at the Palm Beach Skate Zone, at the beach across from our wedding venue, and even some at our wedding venue, we knew we would need more than one outfit. We decided to divide and conquer with me being in charge of the hockey outfits and Harley being in charge of the wardrobe for the beach and venue. KIDDING!

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