brides club Archives - Smashing the Glass

Real Jewish Brides: Maggie on Her Conversion to Judaism

05/08/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Maggie will be marrying Danny on 6th June 2021 at Stone House of St. Charles in St. Charles, Missouri. Click here to read all Maggie’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Danny proposed to Maggie on his birthday! (2) Maggie is in the process of converting to Judaism (3) Maggie is a member of STG Brides Club!

COVID-19 and wedding planning

The past 8 weeks have not been very eventful. As far as the pandemic goes, living between two states proves interesting when one state is still on lockdown and the other is fully open. Thankfully, I now live in the fully open state, so this has allowed me to find a job after getting laid off due to COVID-19. As a hotel manager my industry was hardest hit by this pandemic and after being laid off in March, my fiancé and I had to really consider what was happening with our wedding planning without my income. Fortunately, it only took 4 months for me to get a job making what I was before, so the budget of our wedding can stay the same.

Planning our wedding, though, has been very upsetting and neither of us really are excited to do it anymore. We have the big stuff planned like venue, photographer, videographer, florist, and wedding invitations, but we are struggling to talk to other vendors because of the impersonal interactions we’re having due to limitations on person to person meetings. An example of this: we cannot decide on a caterer due to not being able to try their food.

We have also run into another problem: vendors that are traditionally booked closer to the wedding date are now sending us emails saying that they are booking up around our date because of so many people rescheduling their weddings. This is causing the planner in me so much added stress that I do not even want to look into this stuff yet, let alone start booking.Continue Reading

An Anne Barge and Pronovias Bride for a Geeky-Meets-Glam Jewish Wedding at Ashford Estate, Allentown New Jersey, USA

03/08/2020 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

We’re so excited to be featuring the utterly fabulous Jewish wedding of our beloved blogging bride and Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Juliette! The bride, a consultant specializing in real estate, wed her Hebrew school sweetheart Matt, who works in application security, put together the most wonderfully THEM celebration combining a lot of NYC (where the couple live) glitz with a little geek chic in the form of touches like signature drinks inspired by Dungeons and Dragons. Don’t miss the elegant photos by Fred Marcus Studios and emotion-packed video by Northeast Horizons.

We’re obsessed with Juliette’s bridal style – for the ceremony, she went old Hollywood glam in an Anne Barge stunner found at Kleinfeld Bridal, and then for the reception she changed into a short, danceable dress from Pronovias which she paired with Christian Louboutin sneakers. Two totally different, yet equally awesome, looks – and if you haven’t already, don’t miss the wonderful post Juliette wrote for Smashing The Glass about wedding dress shopping as a plus size bride.

And how gorgeous is the couple’s paper cut Danny Azoulay ketubah, purchased from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com (and with a 10% discount just for Brides Club members!).

Speaking of Brides Club, we’re so touched by Juliette’s kind words about the membership, which she calls: “one of the absolute BEST most amazing fabulous and needed part of my entire experience of being a bride.”

If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, you can join Brides Club too here!

We love you, Juliette… over to you!

How We Met

Juliette, the bride: Matt and I met 9 years ago at the age of 15 at Hebrew high. My mom made me go and told me I could meet my future husband, I didn’t believe her but went anyways. They say moms always know. Matt and I dated through high school and college (we never were at the same school) and when we graduated we moved to NYC to work at the same company.

An Essense of Australia for a Rustic Rave Interfaith Jewish Wedding at a Private Residence in Morgan Hill, CA, USA

31/07/2020 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

We’re so excited to be sharing the joyous, colorful interfaith Jewish wedding of our beloved Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Gina, an executive admin, and Mike, a college soccer coach! This wedding was SO full of personal touches, and we are totally and completely obsessed.

From the couple’s choice to wed at Gina’s aunt and uncle’s home, to making the bouquets and boutonnières from flowers grown in Gina’s mother’s garden, to the unique and fabulous theme of rustic rave, to the bride’s decision to pair her Essense of Australia gown with white sneakers with fiber optic lighting that changed colors, this wedding was SO Gina and Mike. The couple even booked some mega-talented friends of theirs as vendors on the day, including their photographer and videographer!

The bride, who isn’t Jewish, and the groom, whose family is Orthodox, made sure to craft a ceremony that reflected both of their backgrounds. They chose to have Mike’s best friend officiate, and incorporated lots of Jewish traditions – some with a unique twist. We love that Gina and Mike asked seven friends and family to each read one blessing in English, with Mike’s brothers repeating it in Hebrew. Such a special way to honor loved ones in your day!

We also love the simple floral chuppah, built by Gina’s dad! Oh, and those fab colorful flowers adorning it? They’re fake!

Of course we’re so touched to hear Gina’s kind words about Brides Club – especially that the group gave her the freedom to plan exactly the wedding she and Mike wanted.

Take it away, Gina!

How we Met

Gina, the bride: We met on Tinder in Nov 2014. On our first date, Mike picked me up at my parents’ house and met my parents!

Real Jewish Brides: Erin on planning during Covid-19

30/07/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Erin will be marrying Josh on 1st November 2020 at Congregation Beth Israel, in Charlottesville, VA, USA. Click here to read all Erin’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Erin and Josh are planning an outdoorsy fall wedding on a budget in Virginia’s Shenandoah mountains. (2) Erin recently completed her conversion to Judaism, and she and Josh are looking forward to filling their big day with Jewish traditions while keeping it enjoyable and understandable to friends and family from all backgrounds. (3) Erin is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

So, it’s been a while since I actually talked about my wedding. (Mostly thanks to COVID-19 and how it’s turned life upside down.)

In late February, my fiancé and I went to Boston (him for a work trip, me to visit one of my best friends/bridesmaids.)

My friend and I cheesing in the gift shop of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston.

While we were in Boston, I took the chance to go to several bridal stores. One of the ones that was definitely on my list was BHLDN. I had a wonderful appointment there (probably aided by the fact that I had religiously stalked their website for months), and I ended up saying “yes” to the dress. Continue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Orli on the Upside of Postponement

22/07/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Orli will be marrying Ben on 30th May 2021 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK. Click here to read all Orli’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Orli and Ben met on Jswipe. (2) Although their venue, the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, couldn’t be more quintessentially London, Orli and Ben are going for a countryside feel. (3) Orli is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

2020 the year of our wedding. At least that was what we had thought…

Looking back to the beginning of the year, I had imagined exactly how the year was going to pan out. I knew when I had to do each task with wedding planning and how every aspect of our wedding would look. Never could I have imagined that it would not be going ahead due to a pandemic.

Everyone kept saying to us was that it would be fine, it was totally unprecedented, there was nothing we could do but wait, and have we’d have nothing to worry about because September would be absolutely fine. So, that’s exactly what we did. We patiently waited and then we waited a little longer. The more we waited the more we realised the importance of what we wanted out of our wedding and how we wanted to be surrounded by the people closest to us and not having any restrictions on who we could hug.