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“My best Jewish wedding photo” by Erika Szostak

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A weekly series where  I ask some of the world’s best wedding photographers to pick out their favourite shot from their Jewish wedding portfolio. This week it’s the turn of  Erika Szostak of PhotoMadly.

Erika-Szostak

‘A chuppah in the  dark’ by Erika Szostak

Sheli and Zack were married at a breathtakingly beautiful resort near Palm Springs, California. The resort was ringed by craggy mountains, which made for a stunning backdrop — during the day. The wedding ceremony was scheduled for sunset but as things often happen on wedding day, things ran late, and the ceremony didn’t start until about 20 minutes after schedule.

Well, not having worked at this particular resort before I didn’t know that the transition from light to dark at the base of the mountains is like going from white to black in the blink of an eye. Inexplicably, neither the venue nor the wedding planner seemed to know this either, and no one had thought to provide a single light source for the ceremony. So, the sun set and suddenly we all found ourselves in total blackness.

As you may or may not know, a camera’s autofocus does not function in the pitch dark. It needs contrast in order to work, thus you need at least one point of light in your frame. I switched to manual focus, but that didn’t help either because it was so dark I couldn’t see anything through my viewfinder. Total panic mode!

Luckily, my partner and second shooter, had had the forethought to hang a remote flash from a tree branch over the chuppah before the ceremony, thinking the chuppah would act as a nice diffuser and we’d get a bit of fill flash. We never imagined it would be the only light source! It worked though, and while disco-strobelight-flashing-chuppah is not the effect we were going for (and Sheli and Zack said they didn’t even notice this), it meant that disaster was averted and not only were we able to get the shots under incredibly difficult conditions, they were especially dream-like and dramatic to boot.“

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A Monsoon bride for a super fun destination Jewish Wedding on the Greek island of Paros, Greece

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Greek-Island-Jewish-wedding
If the image above doesn’t  draw you right in to this Greek / Jewish  (or Grewish!) wedding, I don’t know what will! I’m obsessed with the energy and aesthetic of it… and the talents of the man behind the lens, Ronen Boidek, whose work  I’m honoured to have  featured before on Smashing The Glass.

Courtesy of Ronen’s photography, and a very entertaining  wedding report by Tamar the bride, not to mention  an incredible film by  Nikos Vamvakidis  at the end of the post,  we’re being whisked  off to the  gorgeous Greek  island of Paros today. Blue skies, smiles for miles, sandy beaches, a bride and groom jointly smashing the glass, broken  plates, smashed pomegranates, Jewish wedding traditions, Greek wedding treaditions, the sparkliest of azure seas, Greek music, Jewish tunes, a first dance tango to  Por Una Cabeza  (one of my favourite pieces of music)…. wow! As the bride puts it, this wedding is literally  a mesh of joyous inclusion.

And  not only did bride  Tamar  rock a gorgeous Grecian-style dress from High Street label  Monsoon  but she switched into ANOTHER  gorgeous frock before the bash was  over  too! And Vasilis  played his part of the snazzy  groom splendidly  in his linen suit and trilby…  totally  dashing!

There are many humorous  moments (as could only be found at a big fat Greek Jewish wedding) brilliantly told by Tamar, including a very funny  proposal story, the groom’s getting ready story (I have genuinely NEVER heard anything like it!) and tales  aplenty about Tamar’s mother’s insane dancing…

Just a word of caution —  you may well be booking a little trip to Greece  by the time you’ve finished this post…. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Jewish Wedding on the Greek island of Paros, Greece
how we met and the groom’s  (five!) proposals

Tamar, the Bride:  Vasilis and I met in a boho tea room on Brick Lane in London in November what feels like 100 years ago. Five years after that he proposed five times! He had intended to propose on the anniversary of our first meeting. We had planned to go to Budapest that November and he wanted to get on one knee in the middle of the bridge between Buda and Pest. But he couldn’t wait. So the first time he proposed I was in my pyjamas the night before we flew and was so shocked and a bit sad: I wanted to have at least been wearing a bra!

The second time was only two minutes later with bra on and shock not over. The ring was a bit big so we planned to resize it after our anniversary holiday. The third time was that weekend on a bridge between Buda and Pest and the fourth time was a few minutes later on an even better bridge that he liked even more. Then, when we returned to London we had to get the ring resized and after picking it up he presented it to me again on the balcony of the Royal Opera House. He says that he loves proposing to me and that every time I say yes his heart leaps, so although the count is at five proposals, they may not be the last!

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Smashing the Bride’s Glass Ceiling

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Brides-giving-speeches
This is a guest post by  Lucy Jenkins (pictured above),
a newlywed television publicist living in London,  whose wedding I  featured on the blog last month.

Over the last few years there has been a huge renaissance in the rise of feminism, with women pushing for the right to equal pay, equal rights and against every day sexism. In the wedding industry, an industry which revolves predominantly around women, it seems bizarre that there are so many antiquated rules that determine how we create our wedding days.

Over the past year I was asked on a nearly daily basis how ‘my’ wedding plans were going, and very rarely did anyone assume that my husband was involved in the intricacies of the planning process. There were constant references to ‘Lucy’s wedding’ and a general assumption that the big day was higher up on my agenda than his. It is an extraordinary set of circumstances and outdated behaviour that a wedding day seems to belong to the bride, and yet her voice is the only one that we do not hear.

After many years working in publishing and now in television I spend my days talking non-stop, and you’d think that when I leave the office that my ability to talk and talk and talk would diminish, but it never seems to. When Matt and I first met, on a flashing dance floor of a club, he offered to buy me a drink and we spent the next three hours sitting in the corner talking about anything and everything under the sun.

Our first few dates lasted until 2 or 3am, moving from restaurants to bars, watching last orders being called around us while we were lost to the world deep in conversation. We are both chatterboxes, we love regaling our friends with stories, working any problems out by talking them through, having heated debates and are most definitely not known for our shyness. And yet when it came to planning our big day he seemed a little taken aback that I wanted to stand up on stage and say a few words.

Brides-Speech
Image:  Jez Dickson

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Aly & Zach | Mountain-top Jewish wedding at The Lodge at Sunspot, Winter Park, Colorado, USA

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MOUNTAIN-TOP-JEWISH-WEDDING
I’m ready to favourite this post, and I haven’t even written it yet! You see, as a self-confessed ski nut, any wedding that includes a bride and groom atop a chair lift, a mountaintop vista, cable cars as wedding transport, an oxygen bar (yes really!) and a beaming bride and groom is a winner in my book. And thanks to the talents of Daniel Lopez Perez Photography, this Colorado beauty is all that plus SO much more.

Aly and Zach decided to have their ceremony 10,700 feet up a mountain. You see, you really can have a Jewish wedding anywhere! Aly’s skied down Winter Park Mountain every year of her life since she was five and the region means so much to her. What better reason to choose it as her wedding venue?

Frankly this W Day looks like it was a blast with so many cute details (like blue sunglasses as wedding favours) not to mention the sweetest dress and the most besotted groom I’ve seen in a while. I think you’ll love it all!

Take it away Aly…

Colorado mountain Jewish wedding
how we met

Aly, the Bride: Zach and I met at a small dive bar that our mutual friends were playing a live show at. I saw him at the end of the bar and told my friend I thought he was cute and asked her what I should say to him. My friends’s answer: “hello.” So I did. The rest of night included giant jenga, funk music, three bars, dancing, a few drinks, and a lot of laughing…. We moved in together three months later, and never looked back.

Colorado mountain Jewish weddingColorado mountain Jewish wedding
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“My best Jewish wedding photo” by Ben Kelmer

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A weekly series where  I ask some of the world’s best wedding photographers to pick out their favourite shot from their Jewish wedding portfolio. This week it’s the turn of  Ben Kelmer.

Ben Kelmer

‘Excitement’ by Ben Kelmer

I  always try to capture the real moments in weddings. I love this photo because it shows the real excitement that Tal and Gal felt  after their wedding ceremony, en route to their reception. Gal, in a moment of happiness, grabbed Tal and lifted her in the air. The excitement is palpable…”

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