Israel Archives - Smashing the Glass

A Tal Kedem Bride for a Jewish Wedding at Science World Rooftop Garden, Vancouver, Canada

07/01/2022 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

Like so many couples over the past two years, Becca and Danny ended up with a wedding that looked a lot different than the one they’d originally planned – though no less fabulous!

The pair, who live in Israel, had hoped to wed in their adopted home, but once it became apparent that the country’s borders wouldn’t open in time for beloved family and friends to attend from abroad, Becca and Danny made the tough decision to move the wedding to Vancouver, Canada, where the bride grew up, and re-plan everything from scratch. And the wedding, at Science World Rooftop Gardenswith a stunning view of Vancouver’s celebrated ocean, mountains, and greenery – was nothing short of fabulous. We’re obsessed with the photos from Lumina Weddings.

Becca and Danny still wanted to celebrate with their friends back home in Israel, though, so instead of fully cancelling their plans for their Tel Aviv wedding, they opted to keep the date and shift to a smaller, less formal party at their original venue. From the beginning, they’d been working with beloved Israeli wedding planner and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Craspedia Events, who was there for the couple through the entire rollercoaster of selecting the initial vendors, cancelling them, and then pivoting to replan what started as a formal wedding into a chill rooftop party.

Read on for the full story in Becca’s own words…

How we Met

Becca, the bride: After meeting Danny’s good friend at the UN in Geneva and receiving an invitation, I attended my first “Jerusalem Cooking Club” event on May 1, 2019. I knocked on the door where the cooking club was taking place and Danny was the one to open it. Upon opening the door, I asked whether or not I was in the right place, to which Danny responded “No.” To be funny. Ha. Ha. (This was literally my nervous reaction).

Following cooking club, Danny sneakily found me on Facebook via the Club’s group and started to message me about whether or not I enjoyed the event. Obviously I did, and the two of us got to talking and eventually exchanged numbers and set up a “date.”

Our first date took place in Shuk Machene Yehuda Market where we got smoothies and then bought all the necessary ingredients for ceviche. We then went to my apartment, which was above the Shuk, and made ceviche and talked for hours. The rest is history!Continue Reading

A Dorit Izbizki Bride for an Elegant Jewish Wedding at Psagot Winery, Israel

13/12/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

There’s nothing like an Israeli wedding… and the nuptials of Eliana, a student, and Naftali, who just finished his army service and is currently in yeshiva, just tick all our boxes!

These two got married at the stunning Psagot Winery in the Shomron. In addition to the gorgeous natural scenery, the couple – who got engaged during COVID – loved the fact that Psagot was flexible and worked wonderfully for both smaller and larger weddings.

Like so many couples getting married in Israel, Eliana and Naftali knew from the get-go that they wanted to work with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman as their photographer – so much so that they chose their wedding date around his availability! As always, Herschel and his team were fantastic to work with – and naturally, the couple is over the moon about their beautiful photos (just scroll through this post and we’re pretty sure you’ll see why).

And how special is it that the couple got married under Naftali’s family chuppah?! What a wonderful tradition to have a family chuppah that can be brought out for all the weddings!

Now over to the bride, who looked so elegant in her dress by Dorit Izbizki…

How we Met

Eliana, the bride: We both grew up in Beit Shemesh but only knew of each other. We officially met at a mutual friend’s wedding when Naftali sat with Eliana’s brother. We first spoke there and the rest was history….Continue Reading

A Rustic Israeli Jewish Wedding at Ein Yael, Jerusalem, Israel

25/10/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

There’s nothing like a good outdoor Jewish wedding. And we’re especially in love with the one Dana, a graduate student in linguistics at Hebrew University, and Chaim, a lawyer, pulled off – no matter that their initial decision to opt for an open air affair was driven by COVID restrictions.

Luckily, Israel is chock full of stunning outdoor venues – and we’re obsessed with Dana and Chaim’s choice of Ein Yael, a breathtaking archaeological park right next to a forest and packed with Jerusalem stone, history and lots of nature. The rustic, outdoorsy vibe was perfect for their day – aside from a few carefully placed flowers, the pair opted to let the natural beauty speak for itself rather than laying on the décor.

And, as always, we’re totally and completely in love with the couple’s exquisite photos from the amazing Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman. Herschel is such a popular photographer among STG couples getting married in Israel – and between his incredible talent and calming presence on the day, it’s easy to see why! Don’t miss the couple’s post-wedding Old City photoshoot, either – Herschel got some positively magical shots of the newlyweds wandering around Yemin Moshe at 2 AM!

Now over to the couple…

How we met

Dana, the bride: Her version: A mutual friend

His version: I had just gotten back from a 6+ month trip to South America and wasn’t yet looking for a serious relationship. Finding a new job and getting settled again were priorities for me. But then again, man plans and God laughs…

A friend messaged me with a “random question”, which translates to “are you seeing anyone?” when you’re a single religious guy in Jerusalem between the ages of 23 and still alive.

I told my friend that I wasn’t really looking at the moment, but was happy to hear about her friend and maybe grab drinks. She told me about Dana and I was obviously immediately interested. After a few more messages my friend came back with “I know you’re taking it slow, but don’t drag this out… like she knows you have her number”. Great.

So I called her.

“Ken?! MAH?!” (yeah?! WHAT?!)

“Uh, hi…it’s Chaim. Ariella gave me your number….?”

“Oh, uh, hi!”

Apparently I was tenth in line after nine straight spam calls. Not exactly the smooth start I was looking for, but we then spoke for a good few minutes, had some laughs and I asked her out to drinks. That was almost three years ago, and it was the best intro call I’ve ever made.Continue Reading

A Michal Taylor Bride for a Colorful Jewish Wedding at Bezzela Hahar, Machasiya, Jerusalem, Israel

16/08/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Even though Israeli couple Elinoa and Yonah held their Jewish wedding during the pandemic, they were lucky enough not to have to make major changes to their plans. Sure, they changed venues two weeks(!) before the big day – but, happily, they made that change in order to be able to invite MORE guests (including Yona’s entire army unit), not because they had to cut their list down.

As always, we’re totally and completely blown away by the couple’s incredible wedding photos by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman. Like so many couples, Elinoa and Yonah knew they wanted him as their photographer before they were even engaged. In Elinoa’s words, “Herschel has this magical way of just capturing moments – being truly in them with you but also making you feel like it’s only the two of you. There was not a moment throughout the wedding where I noticed a camera on me or in my face and I think that’s a testament to the true skill Herschel has.”

There’s so much more to say about this gorgeous wedding – just for starters, we love that Elinoa designed all the wedding stationery herself! – but we’ll let the bride, who looked exquisitely elegant in Michal Taylor, fill you in on the rest…

How we met

Elinoa, the bride: We’ve both always sort of been in the background of each other’s lives. Our parents were all part of Bnei Akiva in England, which if you’re familiar with anyone who grew up in England and went to BA – everyone knows everyone. My father-in-law was a madrich to both my parents, Yonah’s uncle was my dad’s madrich & my mother in law was a good friend of my uncle through-out high school. The four of them made Aliyah around the same time & lived in the “merkaz klita” in Ra’anana. Our families both settled down in Ramat Beit Shemesh and we grew up always sort of aware of each other but were never necessarily friendly (although we have got a few pictures of us together from when we were little). Eventually my family moved to America and then to Ra’anana meaning the next time we crossed paths was when they would come to stay with us for Shabbat.

Yonah’s second cousins live in Raanana and they are good friends of ours so every time they had a simcha, Yonah’s family would stay with us. In August 2016 they came to stay with us and Yonah and I sort of caught each other’s attention. A few days later I noticed he had FB messaged me wishing me good luck in my year of sherut leumi in Jerusalem. Turns out he was just being nice and not flirting but I took it as flirting and told him to let me know next time he was in Jerusalem and we would hang out. 9 months later he texted me asking if I was free, May 26^th 2017 we went on our first date and we’ve been together ever since. Our relationship has spanned 2 year of sherut leumi, Yonah’s army service (and subsequently many, many drives to his base), almost an entire degree, traveling, and much, much more.Continue Reading

A Mordehai Avraham Bride for a Last-Minute Jewish Wedding at Ohel Moed, Tel Aviv, Israel

28/06/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

In the COVID era, lots of weddings come together at the last minute. But Israeli couple Tal, a textile designer at Terminal X, and Eldar, a marketing manager at Ikea, didn’t set their date until just a week before their Jewish wedding! It was a must for the couple to plan their celebration around Tal’s sister’s visit from abroad – so when she finally made it to Israel, they made it happen, FAST.

Not that you’d be able to tell – the venue, Ohel Moed TLV Synagogue, was so spectacular it didn’t need much added in the way of décor, and the photos by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jossef Si Photography are pure magic, full of emotion and love.

This being a pandemic wedding, Tal and Eldar were only allowed 40 in-person guests. But they worked with videographer Itay Bar Weddings to broadcast the proceedings live on YouTube for their friends and family around the world, so they could experience it all in real time.

We’ll let Tal, who looked perfectly boho chic in Mordehai Avraham, fill you in on the rest…