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Jazz up your new year with Totem, the ultimate live Jewish wedding entertainment

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Totem-Wedding-Music
Happy New Year everybody! Here’s a post to liven up your celebrations in 2015 and beyond, and it comes with lots of goodies (a free evening of live music, and a very special offer for all brides and grooms) so listen up!

Joyous dancing at Jewish weddings is a tradition as old as Jewish weddings themselves, and is certainly one of the things I love most about a W-Day. In fact, when Mr STG and I were planning our wedding, music was way up there with the most important elements of our day. We spent hours crafting the perfect playlist, and would have loved to have had live music at our party, but sadly it just wasn’t within our budget. Who wouldn’t be thrilled by a live music set rocking, jiving, or jazzing up your wedding party? And what if the live music was guaranteed to energise your guests all night long with a fusion of the visual and acoustic brilliance of a live band with the flexibility and modern feel of a DJ?

Well, I might have just uncovered the answer to all your musical prayers with one of the best Jewish wedding bands around — Totem. They’re experts at reading the crowd and building energy on the dance floor by mixing and blending a diverse set of genres to appeal to your taste and guest make-up, meaning everyone from the Best Man to Grandma has an absolutely amazing time!

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See and hear Totem live in central London on 22nd January

You can read all the testimonials in the world, but in my mind it’s still vital to ‘try before you buy’, and see a wedding band perform live to find out if they’re the right fit for you. Well those talented Totem-ites are putting on a cracking showcase on Thursday 22nd January from 8-10.30pm, in central London, at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone (as a matter of fact, just a stone’s throw away from Smashing The Glass HQ).

What a brilliant way to kick off the New Year! There’s no way that I’m missing out on this. Myself and Mr STG will be attending so do come over and say hi (I’ll be the one throwing out the crazy dance shapes). I’m so looking forward to meeting you!

To confirm your attendance to the free showcase, simply click on the image below and fill out the form, or email showcase@totem-tribe.co.uk, or call 020 8207 4794.

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Talia & Indra | Colourful fusion Jewish Hindu ‘HinJew’ wedding at The Wit, Chicago, IL, USA

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As a fan of bold colour, multi-cultural weddings are such a visual treat for me. So I’m totally thrilled to be blogging this afternoon’s fusion Jewish Hindu or ‘HinJew’ wedding that’s an all-out explosion of colour and fun. From the bride’s multi-coloured hair to her stunning dress, vivid jewellery and wonderful mix of flowers, to the groom’s hip style and snazzy bejewelled shoes!

This wedding really shows how to perfectly amalgamate cultures, rituals, merrymaking, and personality! Talia and Indra made sure that amongst all their combined traditions they didn’t forget to let their personalities shine through. One of my favourite (and oh-so-simple) party details is that they had a design-your-own-‘mac-and-cheese-bar’ , because Talia is obsessed with this dish!

I absolutely adore Talia’s colourful dress and accessories which suit her down to the ground and I think that it’s safe to say that Talia’s dad agrees too. The emotional photo of him when he sees her for the first time gave me a lump in my throat…

So settle down and enjoy Talia’s infectiously fun words, alongside some super stunning imagery from Roots of Life Photography.

Colourful fusion Hindu Jewish 'HinJew' wedding at theWit, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Colourful fusion Hindu Jewish 'HinJew' wedding at theWit, Chicago, Illinois, USA
a colourful city chic venue

Talia, the Bride: We chose theWit in Chicago, as we wanted a unique and colourful wedding venue with a city feel within easy walking distance to fun things to do before and after the wedding. And in terms of Chicago, there is definitely a significance there. We knew we were going to be a destination wedding for most people no matter where we had it, since we had guests traveling from South Carolina, North Carolina, Indiana, Texas, Canada, India, etc. So we chose to go with our favourite US city, which earned a special place in our hearts since we had our first date there. It made the whole event that much more meaningful to be able

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Rochelle & Rich | Classic White City Chic Jewish wedding at Devonshire Terrace, in the heart of the City of London, UK

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Being my home city, I make no secret of how much I love  a London Wedding. And Rochelle and Rich’s indoor/outdoor venue of Devonshire Terrace right in the heart of the City and in the shadow of the Gherkin, is just about as spectacular as a London venue gets!

Rochelle is a super beautiful bride, all glowing skin and curly, glossy  locks, and  her and  Rich’s Jewish wedding is simple, elegant, relaxed, and  perfectly executed in Rochelle’s easy-going, laid back manner  (read her advice at the end if you want a stress-free wedding planning experience!).

Sit back with a cup of tea, peruse through her wedding report and enjoy all  of the  wonderful images taken by the  rather talented  Claudine Hartzel  Photography, one of Smashing The Glass’s esteemed  Smashing Suppliers.

Classic White City Chic Jewish wedding at Devonshire Terrace, in the heart of the City of London, UK

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How to make your friends and family feel extra special at your wedding

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creative wedding ideas

Smashing The Glass is all about super creative Jewish (and Jew-ish) weddings packed with individuality and personal details so you’ve definitely come to the  right place for inspiration!

I’ve come up with lots of creative ideas for you with everything from innovative ways  to include  friends, family and little ones in your ceremony to making them feel ultra special at your reception

Ceremony ideas

A lovely way to get your closest friends and family involved is to have them contribute to your chuppah design. Ask guests  to contribute different squares (tell them what size is required or  supply a blank piece of square material sized correctly) and patchwork them together to make one big chuppah canopy.

Cheryl and Ernest’s  beautiful personalised chuppah quilt (below) is an example that’s made out of the clothes of the bride’s mother who sadly passed away, and other momentous pieces including her grandmother’s wedding dress and a shirt her mum had kept of her grandfather’s after he had died, but the same quilt style could be used by asking friends and family to each  contribute  a square, and sewing them altogether.

quilted-chuppah
Image: Daniel C. Photography from Cheryl & Ernest’s Jewish wedding

Or do what my husband and I did  where we  asked some of our guests to contribute to our chuppah design by asking them to compose a short message (in English or Hebrew) that we then incorporated into our chuppah canopy design.

This was also a lovely way of including guests from abroad that weren’t able to attend in person. We also chose four significant people to hold each of the four chuppah poles including Sharon, our Irish Catholic mutual friend that set us up (chuppah holders don’t have to be Jewish). Perhaps your fiancà©e’s best friend could do that? Everyone we asked felt very honoured!

personal chuppah
Image: Earthy Photography  from my own  Jewish wedding

Another ‘ceremony’ idea is to replace the traditional  Sheva Brachot (seven blessings) with prayers  by  all your friends personalised for you, then have each friend came up and read their own prayer. Chelm and Jake did that in their Jewish wedding — have a read of their wedding post for  many more ideas of how to involve friends and family. And even if you don’t want to personalise the seven blessings, you can still ask  seven different friends or cousins to read each blessing for you at the chuppah.  People comfortable reading Hebrew can  read the blessing in Hebrew, while non-Jewish friends can always  read an English translation.

Wedding reception  ideas

A lovely  way to make your guests feel super special is to incorporate another detail that I did for my wedding. My husband and I  knew we wouldn’t have a lot of time to talk to everyone on the day, so we spent some time before the wedding writing personal notes to everyone at the wedding which we then had printed underneath their names on their menus / name cards. It took a bit of time but we really wanted each and every guest to realise how much we wanted them there and what they meant to us.

personal wedding messages
Images: Earthy Photography  from my own  Jewish wedding

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Julie & Zak | Gold and blush Parisian magnificence for a Jew-ish destination wedding at Maison des X, Paris, France

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Julie and Zak’s destination wedding comes to you from one of the most romantic cities in the world, the magnificent Paris, France. This is timeless glamour at its very finest. Soft feminine gold and blush decor, scenic Parisian backdrops, and did somebody say Wang?

Yes folks. Julie wore the fluffiest, dreamiest Vera Wang dress I’ve ever clapped eyes on.

Truly Wangtastic. But wait, there’s more … there is the deep love of friends and family who celebrated with Julie and Zak for close to a week in Paris, with trips on the Seine and to the Moulin Rouge. And watch out for Julie’s peacock blue suede Louboutins. I’m just a little bit in love with those.

Oh la la.

Today I’m also delighted to be debuting one of my favourite photographers, the supremely talented Polly Alexandre, who lovingly captured all of the shimmer, the sophistication and the sexy.

Take it away Julie.

Gold and blush Parisian magnificence for a Jew-ish destination wedding at Maison des X, Paris, France
a destination wedding in central Paris at Maison des X

Julie, the Bride: Once we decided that we wanted to plan a destination wedding in Paris, we worked with Nancy from Fete in France to find a space that captured what the beauty and magic of Paris meant to us.

We booked Maison des X unseen with the understanding that it was originally a private home in the middle of the city that retained a great deal of its Parisian charm and needed only some flowers and candlelight to transform into the venue we had imagined. We loved Nancy’s description of the space as many spaces in one — formal indoor, gardens outdoors, and a club-like atmosphere in the wine caves for dancing until dawn with our closest friends and family — and ultimately decided on the venue for the complete package that it was. I told Nancy I wanted the venue to look golden and glowing, and she ran with the color scheme and theme from there. We ended up with the most beautiful candles, glowing mercury glass accents, and exquisite pale pink and white floral arrangements that didn’t look too precious. It was perfect.

Gold and blush Parisian magnificence for a Jew-ish destination wedding at Maison des X, Paris, France

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