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Home > Arizona Jewish Wedding

A Grace Loves Lace Bride for a Desert Jewish Wedding at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon, Arizona, USA

16/05/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

Jenna-Mat-The-Lodge-at-Ventana-Canyon-Arizona-USA

Today we’re featuring the wedding of a very special Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Jenna! You see, way back in the Before Times, Jenna hosted the very first NYC Brides Club meetup – a challah bake at her place in Brooklyn, which, as a mega-talented baker, she also led!

During the pandemic, she and now-husband Mat (who’ve got a super cute how-they-met story, by the way) relocated from NYC back to their shared hometown of Tucson, Arizona, where they also held their wedding – and while I know the New York Brides Club crew misses Jenna’s generosity and baking prowess, after taking a look at the gorgeous landscape featured in She.We Studio’s photos, can you really blame her?!

Even before Jenna and Mat’s move back to the Southwest, they always knew they wanted their wedding to reflect the beauty of the region where they met and grew up. Their main requirement in a venue was epic mountain views, their ketubah featured watercolor mountains reminiscent of Tucson’s, their invites featured prickly pear cacti – Jenna’s bridal bouquet even featured succulents! And she found the perfect lightweight gown for Arizona climate at Grace Loves Lace, too.

There’s so much more to say about this wonderful wedding, and we’ll let Jenna tell you all about it in her own words – but before we do, we’ve got to share her kind words about her time in Brides Club:

“I joined the Brides Club because Smashing the Glass really is the only resource out there for modern Jewish weddings. The Brides Club was a way to have that same community I was seeing from other wedding resources, but with the added bonus of people actually understanding questions related to a Jewish wedding.  What I didn’t know was that I would meet so many wonderful women and make so many amazing friendships, which was especially helpful when Covid hit and caused so many of us to change or cancel our plans.  I honestly couldn’t have weathered two postponements without being surrounded by my friends and having Karen there for mental and emotional support.”

Awww! Doesn’t get much better than that, does it? Take it away, Jenna!

Jenna-Mat-The-Lodge-at-Ventana-Canyon-Arizona-USA Jenna-Mat-The-Lodge-at-Ventana-Canyon-Arizona-USA Jenna-Mat-The-Lodge-at-Ventana-Canyon-Arizona-USA Jenna-Mat-The-Lodge-at-Ventana-Canyon-Arizona-USA
How we Met

Jenna, the bride: I am a data analyst, currently working in retail, & Mat is a customer success manager in tech.  We actually met back in 1994 (we weren’t even two years old yet) at a tumbling class at a local park’s rec center.  We reconnected throughout life, as we both grew up in Tucson, AZ and belonged to the same synagogue (I even stole Mat’s birthday for my Bat Mitzvah date), but we happened to both be at a mutual friend’s high school graduation party (who ended up being our wedding videographer) one summer.

It turned out that Mat was going to be in the same freshman business mentorship program at our local university I had been in the year prior (I was a grade ahead of Mat in school) and was planning to attend the orientation that following week (University of Arizona is a large school with multiple orientation dates).  A few days later, I got a Facebook message from Mat saying “I got your book.”  Somehow, Mat got the book we read in the business mentorship program that I had signed – out of 60 from my year and 60 in his incoming year and of all orientation dates, he got my book!  When school started, I invited Mat to our school’s Chabad welcome back barbeque for free kosher food, and the rest is history (although, it would take us until March of the following year to start dating).Continue ReadingContinue Reading

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A Classic Jewish Wedding with Plenty of Shtick at Hyatt Regency Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

23/08/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Tamara & Josh, Hyatt Regency Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

We’re so delighted to be featuring the gorgeous Jewish wedding of Smashing The Glass Bride’s Club member Tamara, a middle and high school history teacher, and Josh, who works in property management. 

We’re obsessed with their Scottsdale venue – nothing like an outdoor chuppah with those stunning southwestern mountains in the background – and the way the couple seamlessly tied in their classic wedding style and lilac and white color scheme. Don’t miss the wonderful pics from photographer John Solano!

Tamara is, in her own words, “obsessed with shtick,” and her crew delivered! Lots of the humor was based around the fact that Tamara and Josh attended rival schools University of Arizona and Arizona State University, respectively, and the bride’s Chabad rabbi from U of A went so far as to mention that if these two couple get together, world peace can happen! The pair also had a friend do schtick where he was eating “hand sanitizer” (jello)  and “mouthwash” (probably Gatorade)!

Tamara’s got a wild wedding gown story, too… but all’s well that ends well, and if you ask us she couldn’t have looked lovelier in the finished product!

Now over to the bride…

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A Pronovias Bride for a Desert Jewish Wedding at McCormick Ranch Golf Club, Arizona, USA

09/08/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Jessica and Daniel, McCormick Ranch Golf Club, Arizona, USA

We love it when a couple takes advantage of their wedding as a way to showcase their hometown pride. So naturally we’re obsessed with the Scottsdale, Arizona, wedding of Jessica, a 4th grade teacher, and Daniel, an actuary. Both born and raised in the Phoenix metro area, these two love the dramatic landscape of their home state and wanted to showcase it for their guests.

Even though the couple had to cut down their guest list to just close family and their wedding party for their March 2021 wedding in light of the pandemic, they were still able to make it official at their original venue, McCormick Ranch Golf Club, with an outdoor chuppah overlooking the sunset over Camelback Mountain in the distance. Doesn’t get much more quintessentially Arizona than that – don’t miss the gorgeous photos by Ryan Nicole Photography.  

We’re also obsessed with the couple’s wonderful ketubah was designed and created by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Noa Attias. Jessica loved it so much that after seeing the finished product, she ordered a challah board by Noa Attias as her wedding gift to Daniel!

Now over to the bride, who looked ever so elegant in Pronovias…

Jessica and Daniel, McCormick Ranch Golf Club, Arizona, USA Jessica and Daniel, McCormick Ranch Golf Club, Arizona, USA
How we Met

Jessica, the bride: We were both advisors for BBYO and met at my first meeting as an advisor.

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A BHLDN Bride for a Classic Jewish Wedding Featuring Tons of DIY Details at Gainey Ranch Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

14/12/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

Audrey-Idan-Gainey-Ranch-Golf-Club-Arizona

We always love seeing all the cool DIYs couples incorporate into their Jewish weddings – but Audrey, a project manager at a media company, and Idan, an investment banker, really took it to another level!

Crafty bride Audrey DIY’d just about all the couple’s wedding details, from crafting escort cards (and a gorgeous escort card wall) to writing out the bar menus (on marble!) to monograming the bridesmaids’ pajamas customizing a white leather jacket with her wedding date – and that’s just for starters!

So it comes as no surprise that this is one couple with seriously good taste – as evidenced in their choice of a seriously stunning paper cut peacock ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Noa Attias. Even the couple’s Upper West Side framer back home in NYC – who we can only assume has seen plenty of ketubot in his time – said it’s the most beautiful he’d ever seen! And of course we’re totally unsurprised to hear that Audrey and Idan found Noa a complete pleasure to work with. Don’t miss this gorgeous work of art in Rachael Koscica Photography’s images and The Good Vibe Media’s trailer.

There are so many more cool details to share, but we’ll leave it to Audrey – who looked radiant in her Jenny Yoo dress from BHLDN – to tell you about all that…

Audrey-Idan-Gainey-Ranch-Golf-Club-Arizona Audrey-Idan-Gainey-Ranch-Golf-Club-Arizona Audrey-Idan-Gainey-Ranch-Golf-Club-Arizona Audrey-Idan-Gainey-Ranch-Golf-Club-Arizona
How We Met

Audrey, the bride: We met at the Scottsdale, Arizona Moishe House back in 2016! Shortly after meeting, I moved to Chicago for work and Idan moved to Michigan for graduate school, and we did long distance for a few years until we moved to New York together in 2019.

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A Tony Ward Bride for a Desert Glam Jewish Wedding at the Westin La Paloma, Tucson, Arizona, USA

08/05/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

Simone-Isaac-Tucson-Arizona
Today’s gorgeous Jewish wedding has made us realize we don’t see nearly enough desert celebrations. But we’re hoping to see a lot more after today, because who could see the stunning nuptials of Simone, the co-founder of an educational services company that brings wellbeing programs to college students, and Isaac, who works in real estate development, and not want to get married amidst the mountains and saguaros?!

Although mountain lovers Simone and Isaac live in Tucson, home to plentiful dramatic scenery, it wasn’t so easy for them to find a chuppah spot that met their specs: it needed breathtaking mountain views that could be enjoyed by both guests AND the couple themselves while standing under the chuppah. We’re glad they didn’t give up, though, because they totally hit the jackpot when they found The Westin La Paloma.

And how amazing is their chuppah, which, in keeping with the theme of celebrating Tucson’s natural beauty, incorporates not only flowers but also cactus pads?!

We’re obsessed with their gorgeous artistic ketubah from STG Recommended Vendor ketubah.com too. Truly a work of art!

OK – time to ogle over the stunning pics from Ben & Kelly Photography and video by Black Sheep Filmworks. And let’s hand over to the bride, who looked radiant in Tony Ward…

Simone-Isaac-Tucson-Arizona Simone-Isaac-Tucson-Arizona Simone-Isaac-Tucson-Arizona Simone-Isaac-Tucson-Arizona
Mountain Views

Simone, the bride: We got married at The Westin La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona. I had two main criteria when it came to selecting a venue. The first, and most important, was to have mountain views from the ceremony site and the second was to select a hotel venue since a lot of our guests would be coming from out of town.

I visited every hotel venue in Tucson and while all were beautiful, none had the dramatic mountain views that I had wanted from the ceremony site and if they did, only the guests would be able to see them, not me or my husband from under the chuppah. I actually started to scope out venues in Scottsdale because this was one area I was not willing to compromise.

As a Jersey girl, my favorite thing about living in Tucson are the mountains and I am just as enamored with their beauty today as I was when I first moved here 6 years ago. My husband, who is a native Tucsonan, shares my love of the mountains and I couldn’t imagine them not being a part of our big day.

Anyways, La Paloma was the last stop on our Tucson hotel tour and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. As we were going around the property everything else checked the boxes in terms of what we were looking for and I was eager to see the ceremony site, which was the last stop on our tour.

The minute we pulled up I knew with 100% certainty that we had found our venue. The ceremony site was beyond perfect. It was quiet, secluded, and had unbelievable views of the mountains for both us and our guests. 

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