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QUIZ: What Type of Jewish Bride Are You?

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Jewish-Brides
Welcome to a very special post – our very first Jewish wedding quiz! 

Figuring out your unique bridal style can be tricky – some brides are lucky enough to know exactly what they want, while most of us… well, let’s face it – there’s a lot of selection and it can be overwhelming, to say the least. 

At Smashing The Glass, we firmly believe in letting your intuition do the talking – and, as they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words. So don’t think, just click on the pictures, following your instincts and take our very scientific (ahem) quiz and find out exactly which type of Jewish bride you are. You never know – the results may surprise you!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

An Equality-Driven Jewish Beach Wedding at The Fairmont Miramar, Santa Monica, California, USA

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Jewish WeddingThe Fairmont Miramar Santa Monica California USA_0042
Some real weddings are just so full of love, heart and emotion that it shines through in every image we see, and every word the couple writes. Ryan and Jessica’s Santa Monica beach celebration was certainly one of those days. 

Set in the shadow of an enormous fig tree, the tear-jerking day included a uniquely equality-driven badeken (we LOVE this idea, we suspect many couples will be borrowing it), and a ‘web of love’ during the ceremony. 

The pair tied the knot in their hometown of Santa Monica, paying homage to their beachy lifestyle and adding in a minty colour scheme, which carried through in all of the details, captured so beautifully by photographer Scott Clark Photo. 

While we’re talking details, we adore (amongst many other things) the rustic-look chuppah, succulent buttonholes and meaningful circle-of-life ketubah – the epitome of Jewish wedding chic. 

We’ll leave you with Jessica’s lovely write-up now, but pay special attention to the ‘web of love’ image a little later in the post – so very moving and just what getting married is all about.

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How we met

Jessica, the bride: Ryan and I met in Los Angeles while pursuing graduate degrees in Business Administration at the University of Southern California in 2011. We’ve been on a long journey together since: over the past six years we moved twice, first to New York and then back to LA. In 2016, Ryan joined the Jewish faith, we got engaged, and less than a year later, we were married.

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Real Jewish Brides: Putting the “Jewish” into our Jewish Wedding

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As I write this, it is the fifth night of my last Passover as a Friedman (which is pretty much how I’ve been thinking of every event this year), so what better topic to write about than intertwining Jewish traditions and symbolism with our more modern, American wedding? (Disclaimer: This blog is more general than usual. Now that we’re less than 3 months away from the wedding, I’ve become more interested in the element of surprise!) 

When it comes to having a meaningfully Jewish wedding, it all starts with the Rabbi! With Harley’s childhood Rabbi living in Canada and my family being a part of multiple synagogues growing up, we really didn’t have a “family Rabbi” we wanted to marry us.

Rabbi Kaplan
Rabbi Kaplan

Luckily, my friend Chelsea’s dad is a fabulous Rabbi who performs the most beautiful wedding ceremonies I’ve ever seen. Admittedly, I’ve only seen Rabbi Kaplan perform Chelsea’s wedding, but I’m sure it will come close! He is such a popular Rabbi in South Florida who is known for beautiful life events, so we were absolutely thrilled when we were about to book him over a year out.

We met in his home office and spent hours talking about our vision for the ceremony, Panthers hockey, and playing with his tallit-adorned puppy. Needless to say, Harley was sold after the hockey conversation!

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A Reform Jewish Wedding – a guide to an egalitarian ceremony under the chuppah

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Whilst sitting in shul with my mum one Friday night some years ago, I was fortunate to witness an Aufruf being led by Rabbi Miriam Berger. Miriam spoke so beautifully and passionately about the couple that even though I had never met them it brought a tear to my eye. I still remember turning to my mum to say, “When I get married I want Rabbi Miriam to marry me”.  I’m so happy that she is.

Having grown up in a Reform community, having a Reform wedding was always the natural choice for me. To me, Judaism is all about equality, particularly between men and women so that theme pretty much runs through everything. Here is my guide to weddings; the Reform way.

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Anna & Jon both smashing the glass at their Jewish wedding

The order of service

The order of service is pretty much the same as a traditional Jewish wedding. It follows the same order of the groom entering followed by the bride. We will be married under a beautiful chuppah and are joined there by both sets of parents, the rabbi and our chazan/singer.

The tisch

The tisch is traditionally a time where the rabbi reads through the ketubah outlining the groom’s responsibilities mixed in with some singing, dancing and of course drinking. Reform marriage is all about equality and about marriage being a partnership. Therefore a tisch is not part of a Reform wedding ceremony as the groom is not given a list of responsibilities. Rabbi Miriam has informed Gideon that if he wants some whisky with friends for some dutch courage of course he can! And so can I!

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Bride, Montana, sharing toasting her bridesmaids before her Jewish wedding to Justin 

The badeken

The Jewish wedding tradition of badeken is something I have always found quite powerful: the groom seeing his bride for the first time. Of course the tradition behind it is about the groom checking he has the right bride but I still like it!

After a traditional badeken the bride’s veil is put back over her face and remains like this until the end of the ceremony. In keeping with Reform’s emphasis on equality, Rabbi Miriam spoke to us about the importance of a woman being uncovered for the wedding ceremony as she is just as equal and should be as present in the room as everyone else. This of course means the traditional badeken doesn’t quite work. I really love this idea and based on this we are doing something a little bit different for our bedeken…(not giving away any secrets though!)

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An alternative-style badeken at Missy & Yoni’s Jewish wedding

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10 Luxury Honeymoon Destinations that go above & beyond

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Wouldn’t it be great if a super-stylish crack team of travel experts scoured the globe and tracked down the best boutique hotels for you to choose from for your honeymoon? The best that is, according to the really important stuff, for this most romantic holiday of your life. How about the hotel with the most extravagant view from the pool or the most indulgent spa, the sexiest bedroom, the most intimate bar or those places that simply go above and beyond anyone’s expectations?

Well that’s what’s happening right now in the gorgeous, totally dreamy world of Mr & Mrs Smith. Believe me, they are your secret honeymoon weapon.

For those who haven’t yet heard me extol the many virtues of this extraordinary boutique hotel finding and booking site, let me fill you in here.

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Six Senses Yao Noi, Thailand

Mr & Mrs Smith Awards 2016

Ok, so they’re not technically looking for honeymoon destinations in this current global search but, Mr & Mrs Smith are running their annual awards to identify and reward the boutique hotels in their outrageously impressive portfolio – that create THE most special stays. They are singling out those utterly unique, personality-packed places that raise the bar in terms of design, food, service and all- round wow factor.

So that’s great news for us as we get to take a peek at those choice contenders – the best boutique hotels in the world in the most desirable destinations. This has to be the hottest shortlist in travel right now!

Nihiwatu, Indonesia
Nihiwatu, Indonesia

And the award goes to…

The awards are being judged on 12 different categories. Namely: Pool with a View, World’s Sexiest Bedroom, Best Dressed Hotel, Best Date-Night Bar, Best Gourmet Getaway, Most Spoiling Spa, Local Hotel Hero, Best Family Hotel, Above and Beyond, Coolest Creative Hub, Hottest Hotel Soundtrack, Best Smith Hotel 2016.

And reassuringly the top ten hotels in each category have been selected by none other that the King and Queen of Mr & Mrs Smith themselves — company founders James and Tamara Lohan, along with the amazing founding editor Juliet Kinsman. They know, live and breathe their stuff. So any hotel worthy enough to make their short list is good enough for me.

As you can see by the colourful categories of awards — this is a cool company that understands the changing boutique-hotel scene around the world.

There is a new order in what people are looking for and it’s moved on considerably from “how far to the beach?” and “is breakfast included?’. Mr & Mrs Smith recognise those unique aspects for the hotel experience that have particular resonance to today’s traveller. Be that acting as a hub for the neighbourhood creative scene; having the perfect date night bar; being a destination foodie spot or of course setting the stage for an out of this world, memory-making honeymoon.

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Aman Tokyo

Do Judge me

The chosen hotels will be put to a panel of three specialist judges in each category.

And the judging panel? It’s basically across the board cool — a network of travel experts from the fashion, music, food industries, including chef and author Tom Aitken, writer and broadcaster Lauren Laverne, singer Jessie Ware, legendary restaurateur Jeremy King, cocktail maestro Tony Conigliaro … take a look here at the impressive line up.

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Keemala, Thailand

Above and Beyond

For Smashing The Glass, I really wanted to feature a list of the best of the best — essentially the Above and Beyond category. These are Smith stays that are made even more special by seamless service and generosity of spirit — where going the extra mile is the starting point. Is there nothing this hotel won’t do?

They boast dedicated, flexible and helpful staff who totally rock at enhancing your stay, or maybe the hotel goes above and beyond in terms of products or services — full-size bathroom products, free laundry, transfers by speedboat?

Sometimes, it’s one individual who makes the biggest impact. The sommelier who helps you discover a new favourite wine; the concierge with an unbeatable book of contacts; the chef who keeps the kitchen open a little longer because your flight was delayed.

The Above and Beyond category is by far my favourite, and that’s what you really want for a honeymoon. Natural hosts who instinctively know how to spoil you, anticipate your every need and upgrade your trip beyond measure. Oh yes and it so happens that all the hotels are in sublime and wildly different locations.

A trad twenties hunting lodge on the banks of Waikato, New Zealand to the thoroughly modern English countryside manor with just a sprinkling of rock star style to a remote ecolodge on the rainforest clad coast of Nicaragua. Where would you even start to choose between them?

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Fasano, Rio, Brazil

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