Search Results for: ceremony

Ros & Alex | Contemporary cool Jewish wedding with 50’s and 60’s touches, at The ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), London, UK

21/10/2014 by Karen

Ros and Alex mixed contemporary and vintage styling to perfection, and I adore the sleek modern venue they chose: The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). It’s an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square, and is one of the capital’s most beautiful contemporary spaces. I am beyond excited to be blogging what I believe is the only Jewish wedding ever to have taken place there, and a totally jaw-dropping one at that.

Ros’s wedding report is one of the loveliest I’ve ever read so if you can get 5 minutes with a cuppa to sit and read Ros’s words as well as ogle over the stunning photography from Especially Amy I promise you will fall in love with this wedding story. Ros also gives some excellent money-saving tips at the end in her ‘advice to other brides’, as well as some super useful planning advice.

There’s lots to love but I am particularly taken with Ros’s beauty and style and the London theme details such as the London Underground map table plan, and miniature black cabs and double-decker buses on the tables.

Here is their story…

HOW WE MET
Ros, the Bride: We met at Bristol University in September 2002, as Fresher’s living in the same student halls. Our first date was breakfast at a greasy spoon cafe down the road! Alex popped the question in February 2011 at the boutique Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City before whisking me off for dinner and cocktails. We have always loved New York, so it was perfect. That night, the lights on the Empire State shone for us in the snow. After a lot of planning and juggling of dates, we married 18 months later.

The Chuppah – Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained #5

17/10/2014 by Karen

All imagery by Blake Ezra Photography. This is part 5 of the 9-part Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained series.

The word ‘chuppah’ is used in two ways. Firstly, it’s the Hebrew name of the canopy under which Jewish couples get married. Secondly, it’s also colloquially used as another word for ‘ceremony’. So if someone asks you “When’s the chuppah?” don’t assume they’ve lost all grasp of how to put a sentence together, they’re not asking when the canopy is, but when the ceremony starts.

So what is a chuppah? Why do Jewish couples get married underneath one? What do they do when they get there?

The chuppah, like many elements of a Jewish wedding, is beautifully symbolic. It symbolises the home that the couple will build together in their married life, and is open on all sides like the biblical tent of Abraham and Sarah, signifying that everyone is welcome and that everyone will be treated hospitably.

For readers of this blog, who may be planning their own Jewish wedding, the chuppah is also one of the great opportunities to personalise your ceremony. It can range from a massively decadent, custom-designed piece of floral artistry, to four friends holding poles, upon which sits a custom made quilt or Jewish prayer shawl, called a Tallit.

Zina & Igor | Intimate orchard-themed Jewish wedding at Casablanca hotel, Saint Petersburg, Russia

15/10/2014 by Karen

Russian-Jewish-Wedding
Good afternoon lovely readers. The wedding I have for you today is absolutely gorgeous and it’s a Smashing The Glass first! Yes, Zina and Igor wanted to be the first super cool Jewish wedding from Russia on the blog… and they’ve achieved that accolade! Not only are the details divine, the citrus colour scheme to-die-for, and the flowers fabulous but Zina’s write up of her and Igor’s day really comes from the heart; as did Zina’s efforts for the entire wedding.

Zina and Igor managed to pull off their wedding with a modest budget. And what an AWESOME job they did too. Sometimes stripped back, unfussy weddings are the best.

All of the decor was made by Zina’s best friend and so many friends and family were involved with this wedding – it’s really heart-warming.

I particularly love the gingerbread men and women favours. Such a unique idea and all made by Zina’s mum, Zina, and another great friend.

Intimate orchard-themed Jewish wedding at Casablanca hotel, Saint Petersburg, Russia
AN OUTDOOR CEREMONY AND VENUE
Zina, the Bride and Igor, the groom: Our wedding took place at the Casablanca Hotel, a small country hotel, with only about 50 guests made up of our closest friends and relatives. We knew we wanted to have our ceremony outdoors, as the date of our wedding was in the middle of summer and it was one of just a few possible days to have good weather in our rainy city.

We wanted to have the whole day outside the city, ideally in a country hotel where most of our guests could stay overnight. We were very lucky as we chose the first hotel we visited. It was perfect: it had a small, cosy garden with a swimming pool and enough space for a reception, chuppah, dancing and just general ‘hanging out’!

12 online wedding resources every Bride-To-Be should know about

10/10/2014 by Karen

12-online-wedding-resources
Last Sunday, myself and Charley from London Bride were interviewed ‘On The Sofa’ at Brides The Show about how to find everything you need online when it comes to planning your wedding.

We loved every minute of our talk and were delighted to be speaking to a packed floor with brides scribbling our tips away in their notebooks, so I thought I’d recap the main points we made so that everyone can benefit from the content.

1. WEDDING BLOGS

We’re lucky enough to be living in a wedding planning world that is packed full of hundreds and thousands of inspiring wedding blogs. Each one caters to a niche with everything from geeky weddings to tattooed brides to of course Jewish weddings and everything in between. Unlike wedding magazines, blogs are free to read so the bloggers who run them don’t need to worry about appealing to the masses or shifting however many copies. It’s the bloggers’ unbiased, unedited opinions and being digital, blogs are also very fast-moving, immediate and very regularly updated.

2. USING BLOGS TO SOURCE SUPPLIERS

The heart and soul of many wedding blogs, including Smashing The Glass, are the real weddings. Each wedding is hand-picked by the blogger with the intention of inspiring you with the fabulously creative ideas of the bride and groom. The wonderful thing is that all the suppliers that contributed to that wedding are listed at the bottom of the feature, with links to their websites, so it’s a great way to directly find suppliers that catch your eye.

And if you’re after a specific type of supplier, many blogs have their recommended vendors section which is a great place to start your search if you resonate with a particular blog.

3. DIY TUTORIALS

Many wedding blogs post step-by-step DIY tutorials that are great for the craft-loving or money-saving bride. Particular favourites for DIY’s are Love My Dress and Bespoke Bride, and don’t forget YouTube for video tutorials too… did you know that Martha Stewart has her own wedding DIY YouTube channel?

Charley and I speaking ‘On The Sofa’ about how to plan your wedding online, at Brides The Show

The Badeken – Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained #4

10/10/2014 by Karen

All imagery by Blake Ezra Photography. This is part 4 of the 9-part Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained series.

The Badeken is one of my very favourite traditions of a Jewish wedding, both emotionally and photographically.

This is the ceremony where the groom veils the bride, the term comes from the Yiddush word ‘to cover’. It’s often the most emotional moment of a Jewish wedding, where the bride and groom see each other for the first time a few minutes before the main ceremony begins under the chuppah. Often a couple will have time apart before their wedding, the more religious the couple, the longer the amount of time apart, so this moment where their eyes meet for the first time on their wedding day is so special, and such an honour for us to photograph. Even without the religious significance of the badeken, many couples of all different faiths nowadays choose to do a ‘first look’ on their wedding day; it’s a special thing to do.

Usually only very close family and friends are involved in this process, as the wedding guests are seated for the chuppah and excitedly await the procession down the aisle. However, sometimes the couple choose to open the badeken to all their guests, allowing everyone to share in this electric moment where the groom is brought into the room to see his beautiful bride, often accompanied by his groomsmen and friends singing and clapping, as the atmosphere reaches fever pitch.