Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Home > You searched for ceremony > Page 255

Search Results for: ceremony

Chitter Chatter with Annabel Beeforth, founder of one of the world’s most influential wedding blogs, Love My Dress

by

Annabel-Beeforth
Chitter Chatter  is a  series I’ve been running all about  inspirational women in the wedding industry whom  I greatly admire. These women successfully combine  running their own business with married life and, in a lot of cases, raising a young family.  The ‘Chitter Chatter’  twist is is they have to answer my questions  in just 140 characters or less….

I started this series  as I approached maternity leave back in April of this year, and now that my beautiful little Zara is 14 weeks old, maternity leave is very much behind me. It’s time to close the series, and we are going out with an absolute bang by interviewing  the A-class Bloggess, Annabel Beeforth, founder of Love My Dress.

Annabel has been blogging about weddings since 2009 and took the leap of faith to become a full time professional blogger in May 2011. She’s had phenomenal success, reaping all kinds of awards for her  blog, writing  a published  book, and taking on a wonderful  team of writers and contributers to support her ever-growing blog business. She has, over the years, been searingly honest about her own personal  juggling act  of being a wife and mother to her two little girls  alongside running a young business, and I for one have definitely drawn strength and inspiration from her  self-employed journals.

Annabel  lives by the seaside in Whitby, North Yorkshire with her husband Philip, daughters Eska Eleanor (aged 9) and Leanora Rose (aged 4) and two rescue dogs, Izzie and Winifred.

Let’s hear what Annabel has to say about business and marriage, and everything in between.

What was  your first job?

Washing dishes on a Sunday in the pub opposite our house. Think I was about 12.

Tell me more about your career before launching  Love My Dress

I was a University Principal Administrator managing two teams.  I loved the job at first but found it difficult to adjust to after returning from maternity leave.

What made you start  Love My Dress?

I shared my ‘wedding report’ in a popular wedding forum after tying the knot – the response was phenomenal and it encouraged me to share my wedding to a wider audience. I chose to set up a blog to do so.

Style Me Vintage Book Launch- Ashton Jean Pierre
Annabel’s book launch for Style Me Vintage :: Images by  Ashton Jean Pierre

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Liora & David | Italian Jewish wedding at the Great Synagogue of Rome and Villa Miani, Rome, Italy

by

Italian-Jewish-Wedding
Liora and David met through their parents, when David’s family invited Liora and her family over for Friday night dinner. That sabbath meal led to romance and an even more romantic wedding in Italy.

The magical city of Rome provided the inspiration for Liora and David’s chic destination wedding and there are some really wonderful touches. Take the Italian vespa for their wedding transport, a smorgasbord of Italian desserts instead of wedding cake (hello, lashings of tiramisu), and the choir of the Great Synagogue of Rome providing the music for their ceremony. Oh my!

Mr STG and I traveled to Italy for our honeymoon and it really is one of the most gorgeous places on earth. The landscape, the buildings — what an amazing place to be married. Liora and David held their ceremony at the breathtaking Great Synagogue of Rome followed by a BIG party at Villa Miani with breathtaking 360 ° views over the Rome skyline(and can we all just take a moment to appreciate their entrance song — the super fun A Far l’Amore featured in Paolo Sorrentino’s movie, The Great Beauty, set in Rome).

The whole affair was beautifully planned by our much loved Smashing Supplier, Stefania Zen from the Italian Wedding Company. Liora says that Stefania was literally her right arm throughout the planning process, and knowing how wonderful the Italian Wedding Company are, I can very much vouch for that. Big thanks also to Vinicio Ferri and Alessandro Zingone for the wonderful photos.

Come on, let’s take a look…

Jewish Wedding Rome
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Chitter Chatter with Rose Murphy, Owner and Creative Director at Rose & Ruby Paper Co.

by

Rose-Murphy
Chitter Chatter  is a  series I’m running all about  inspirational women in the wedding industry whom  I greatly admire. These women successfully combine  running their own business with married life and, in a lot of cases, raising a young family.  The ‘Chitter Chatter’  twist is is they have to answer my questions  in just 140 characters or less….

Today I have the absolute pleasure of chitter chattering  to the beautiful Rose Murphy, owner and creative director at Rose & Ruby Paper Co,  the  award winning luxury British design studio. Rose creates  exquisite  stationery  for weddings and beyond, and she  also specialises in working with fellow creative entrepreneurs on branding their businesses and making everything beautiful. I first met Rose, and discovered her beautiful work, at Paperfest,  a London festival that celebrates creative, independent entrepreneurs.

Rose lives in Devon with her husband Brendan and dog Willa, and they’ve  just moved into a beautiful Victorian house which they’re  currently renovating to create their dream home.

What was  your first job?

Head of Design for a start up fashion company when I was 17. I was completely thrown right in at the deep end and the learning curve was invaluable.

Tell me more about your career before launching  Rose and Ruby

I worked as a fashion designer for various different companies, and then I set up my own company freelancing.

What made you start Rose and Ruby?

It was time for a change from fashion and I realised after designing wedding stationery as a little side project that working with brides was a lot lovelier than the relentless and stringent deadlines and often quite “challenging” characters in the fashion industry!

Rose & Ruby
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Yael & Or | An astronomical party for an Israeli wedding at Tel Yah, Tel Yitzhak, Israel

by

Israeli-wedding
Sometimes you just know when two people are made for each other and this is most definitely the case with Yael and Or.  Together since high school, this fabulous couple decided to celebrate the start of their married life –   the first step in building their own Jewish home –  not far from the small town in Israel where they both grew up and where their families still live. Theirs is a totally sweet, and totally stylish tale.

You can’t get much better than a wedding by night in Israel.  It’s hot, fun, life-affirming and just good for the soul and oh my how beautifully this is captured by Chrisman  Studios.

Yael and Or had been crazy about these photographers for a long time and made damn sure that they had them snap up some of the most impactful wedding photographs I’ve ever seen.

I mean really, some of these images are just ridiculously beautiful — and characterful.   The shots of the swimming pool in particular look like they belong in a Taschen coffee table book.   They’re almost theatrical in their vivacity and vibrancy — which perfectly sums up an Israeli wedding. And that final shot… the  bride sure knows how to party like a rock star. Amen to that!

My other stand out love of Yael and Or’s wedding is their unique ceremony.   After cocktail hour, all 300 guests stood, yes stood, in front of  the chuppah — which just so happened to be on stage —   singing along to the Jewish prayers and songs, creating a completely engaged and loved-up atmosphere.  Perfect.

And before I hand over to the bride, it would be churlish of me not to mention  that apart from Or, there is in fact another  “the one” in Yael’s life — and that is her wedding dress.   Theirs was also a match made in heaven and one that was also approved by the whole family… even the groom!

Israeli wedding
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

“My best Jewish wedding photo” by Paul Rogers

by

A new weekly Sunday 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 Paul Rogers.

Jewish-Wedding-Photography
‘Overjoyed’  by Paul Rogers

This is Hannah just an hour or so after marrying Simon in Harpenden last year. It was one of the best weddings I’ve ever photographed.

It could have been the perfect setting (a marquee tent in Hannah’s parents gorgeous gardens), or the fabulous music. Or maybe the incredibly thoughtful details or the delicious wedding breakfast. Nope, that’s not why this was such a great wedding to be part of. It’s always down to the people. And Hannah and Simon are two of the warmest, loving and most generous people I’ve had the pleasure to meet. They were having the time of their lives (as they should!) and Hannah didn’t stop grinning all day.

You could almost touch the energy in the marquee as the newly-weds arrived after the ceremony, and this moment during the Hora has captured some of that energy and love. It’s always a tricky thing to photograph – too far back and you lose the sense of being right in the middle of the dancing. Too close and there’s the danger of getting whacked in the face by an enthusiastic guest! But with Robert Capa’s famous words ringing in my ears “If your photographs aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough”, I’m right in there, where the action is.

I love this picture because it does what I think photography is all about. It’s captured a slice of time, when Hannah is overjoyed at her wedding day. Zoom right in, and you may notice that it’s not perfectly pin sharp. She’s moving, I’m dancing (really!) and the light in the marquee isn’t that great, so a little movement is understandable. But that’s irrelevant when the moment captured is so wonderful.

Continue ReadingContinue Reading