Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Home > Ballroom at Ellis Preserve wedding venue

A Blush and Rose Gold Color Scheme for a Romantic Jew-ish Wedding at The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, Philadelphia, USA

by

Jewish Wedding The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, Philadelphia, USA

Today’s real wedding is a very special one – and not just because it’s an absolute beauty (which it TOTALLY is) but because dear Gillian is one of our much-loved real blogging brides of 2017! It’s such an honor and a privilege to finally be able to share her and Pete’s Jew-ish wedding day. 

We love a Jew-ish wedding where both cultures and backgrounds are represented, and Gillian and Pete’s mixed-faith ceremony saw their priest and rabbi working together to create something that truly represented them – too beautiful! 

Beautiful bride Gillian looked a million bucks in her Tara Keely gown, which she paired with meaningful and custom-made accessories, with a little help from her dad, who is a tailor, and also made Pete’s midnight suit.

A color scheme of blush shades and rose gold is, of course, the ideal excuse to rock that mismatched bridesmaids look, and the overall effect was absolutely stunning. 

The couple had so many unique and borrow-able ideas, such as cute-as-a-button custom acrylic signs and the most adorable postcard guest book idea. Guests wrote their good wishes for the couple on postcards, which are still being posted on to them by family to this day. What an excellent way to make your big day last!

The story of the day was captured by the brilliant Blaise Szallasi, whose spread of images you can see below, and the totally stunning cinematic videography is by Wise Films.

We’ll leave you in Gillian’s capable hands for her brilliant writeup. We’ve loved having Gillian’s upbeat voice on the blog, so please give her a standing ovation. Take it away, Gillian!

Jewish Wedding The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, Philadelphia, USA Jewish Wedding The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, Philadelphia, USA Jewish Wedding The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, Philadelphia, USA Jewish Wedding The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, Philadelphia, USA Jewish Wedding The Ballroom at Ellis Preserve, Philadelphia, USA
How we met

Gillian, the bride: We met in graduate school getting our masters in OT.
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides – Gillian: My Wedding Registry Experience

by

Gillian will be marrying Pete on 8th September 2017 in a Jew-ish wedding at the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

THREE FACTS: (1) Gillian is Jewish and Pete is Catholic (2) A Rabbi and a Priest will officiate at their wedding (3) Gillian is a Health & Wellness Coach and Pete is a Travel Occupational Therapist.

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES_Gillian_new
To Do List: Wedding Registry

During the wedding planning process there are one million things on your to-do list (literally). This is especially true if you are a DIY bride or someone who wants to throw a big party. One item on the list I thought would be so much fun to tackle was registering for our wedding. How fun would it be to pick out items that we would have, hopefully for a long time and possibly even the rest of our lives?

Well, I was mistaken. Somehow something that I love so much (SHOPPING!) became stressful and something of a chore. I couldn’t figure it out, and it threw Pete for a loop when we went into Crate and Barrel and I pretty much had a mini meltdown. Picture brisk walking through the store, minimal eye contact, saying “I don’t care, you pick something you like, I don’t care about any of this, let’s leave.” Like woah, I was becoming a weird version of Bridezilla right before his eyes.

Luckily Pete handled it calmly, but it wasn’t the experience I had heard all about. I always pictured using the cool scanner gun and picking out items that we both loved. And, honestly, I thought it was going to be super easy.

Prezola
Image from Prezola (a gift list registry that we absolutely ADORE here at Smashing The Glass!)

Reflecting on it all, it seems so silly that anyone would get overwhelmed by picking out gifts for other people to buy them (seriously??) But that was a huge part of it. I didn’t mind that people were buying me presents, but I wanted them to get the best deal. I didn’t want them to buy overpriced items I knew I could find cheaper or on sale at our favorite stores like Marshalls and HomeGoods (I checked, you can’t register there.)

The other part I struggled with was “picking the right items” with endless options. So we needed cookware, but what set was best? Silverware; which ones will we actually like eating with? What dishes will go with a kitchen we don’t even have yet for years to come? It all seemed like so much to think about and so many opportunities to make the wrong decision. (Crazy talk I know, but this is what was going through my head, and I’m sure I’m not the only one to think about these things.)

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Gillian + Pete… how they met to the present day

by

Today on the blog we’re introducing our 2nd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Gillian who will be marrying Pete on 8th September 2017 at the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

THREE FACTS: (1) Gillian is Jewish and Pete is Catholic (2) A Rabbi and a Priest will officiate at their wedding (3) Gillian is a Health & Wellness Coach and Pete is a Travel Occupational Therapist.

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES
How We Met

Pete and I met almost 9 years ago while attending graduate school in Philadelphia. We became fast friends and dated for two and a half years throughout grad school. We loved experiencing our early twenties in the city of brotherly love. We had the best time trying out new BYOBs around the city, hanging at tailgates with friends, dancing at local bars (I enjoyed this more than Pete lol), and having each other as built-in study partners made school nights much more fun.

However, as grad school came to an end we decided it wasn’t the right time for us  to be a couple and amicably went our separate ways. I know what you’re thinking, “This doesn’t sound like a good start to a love story?!” But stick with us, I promise we pull through!

After some years…

We didn’t live near one another (about an hour and a half apart in NJ) so it’s not unusual that we went three years without seeing each other, and our only form of communication was the occasional text and happy birthday message. We each dated other people as we grew in our careers. We grew as individuals and matured into late twenty-somethings. Luckily we grew in the same direction, although miles apart.

We had been chatting a bit in the spring of 2014, and this is when I discovered Pete was invited to a wedding of a mutual friend from grad school, and he didn’t have a date to bring. I thought the obvious answer to this problem was to bring me, right?!

So, I invited myself to a weekend wedding 6 hours away (keep in mind, we hadn’t seen each other for almost 3 years). After some joking back and forth Pete agreed we would have a great time together, as I already knew the groom and neither of us would know anyone else at the wedding.

During that six-hour car ride we caught up on EVERYTHING: Life, family, relationships, work, and our own past together. Anyone who has been on a road trip knows this could have gone horribly wrong or perfectly right. Lucky for us, that weekend was the first of many road trips to come. We had the best time at the wedding and realized we owed it to ourselves to give our relationship another shot. That was in August of 2014, and we’ve been together ever since (I told you we pulled through!)

Now we are traveling the country while Pete works as a travel occupational therapist, and I work as a health and wellness coach from wherever our home is at the time. We have been living in different places and love experiencing new cities, moving every three to four months (so far we have lived in Las Vegas, San Diego, LA, Palm Desert, Monterey, and Portland, OR).

We love adventure and we have the best time exploring new places together. We enjoy going on hikes, eating at great restaurants, and spending time with our family and friends as much as we can while we are home visiting.

It has been the best experience to be on our own in each new location. It has made us stronger as a couple and showed us just how well we complement each other’s weaknesses and benefit from the other’s strengths.

Continue ReadingContinue Reading