Atlanta wedding Archives - Smashing the Glass

We love it when a couple plans a Jewish wedding that’s totally, completely them – and that’s exactly what Natasha, a risk analyst at a real estate investment company, and Ryan, a development associate for Hillels of Georgia, did.

For starters, we’re obsessed with the custom ketubah the pair commissioned from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent to feature the famous University of Georgia Arch – since these two met at college there and are both diehard Bulldog fans!

We also love the fact that the bride crafted most of the décor herself! But most special of all is the fact that Natasha was given the surprise gift of a special necklace of her late mother’s. Natasha had thought her mother was buried in the necklace, but turns out her uncle had been holding onto it with the intention of gifting it to her on her special day – how beautiful is that?! We love all the emotion of the day that comes through in the beautiful photos by Katie Tiller and video from Snguyen Media.

Now over to Natasha, who looked beautiful in Justin Alexander…

How We Met

Natasha, the bride: We met our freshman year of university at The University of Georgia.

“Just because the wedding industry encourages conformity, you don’t have to comply. Do it your way!”

Top advice from this morning’s bride, Melody, and yes she did! This is a wedding EXTRAVAGANZA. Seriously — I’ve never seen anything like it and the truth is, I don’t even know where to begin. Perhaps I should start by saying that I think this is one of my favourite weddings EVER to appear on Smashing The Glass and having blogged over 150 super cool real Jewish weddings I don’t say that lightly.

I love that the chuppah was created by the bride and features multi-coloured pom poms and green grass. I love that Melody walked down the aisle to a mash-up of Forever Young and Canon in D. I love that the bride and groom both wore custom Converse with ‘Let Love Win” embroidered down the side. I love that instead of the usual sit-down dinner, guests were treated to a ‘pop-up’ restaurant, where they had to make a reservation and come back for their table. I love that the bridesmaids wore flower ‘bib’ necklaces (yes Melody made that a thing!). And I love that the wedding theme was inspired by the artist Frida Kahlo and her vibrant colour palate. You see… anything can inspire your wedding theme, literally anything! Think outside of the box, and as far as your mind can take you.

There is also a a drag queen performing as Beyoncà© AND a flash mob of kids ‘interrupting’ the first dance. You have to see it to believe it (check it all out in the highlights video at the end by the super talented Rodinis Films).

Oh and gummy bears are loosely woven into this the big day too.

The whole shebang was documented by photography geniuses, Chrisman Studios. Every time I feature one of their weddings I know it’s going to be a memorable post, but this one is an absolute corker. It’s clear that Melody and Michael invested so much time and effort into making their wedding uniquely them and I can’t wait a moment longer to show it to you.

Come on then… let’s take a look. Over to Melody, today’s awesome bride.

how we met

Melody, the Bride: We met through Mellow Mushroom (a national pizza franchise in the USA). Michael is a multi-unit franchisee, and my father is one of the founders of the company. My dad introduced us, he thought we would make a good match. We fell in love over pizza!