brides club Archives - Smashing the Glass

Real Jewish Brides: Erin’s Corona Edition

31/03/2020 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!

Every day we’re getting new updates about the Coronavirus, and we’re learning how to adapt to each new change.

Being in the midst of wedding planning is a strange place to be. How do you plan for a wedding when you don’t know what life will be like in the next few weeks or months?

I’ve seen brides making tough decisions to postpone their weddings and try to pick new dates in the future. I’ve seen brides go through with their weddings, albeit much altered from what they planned on doing. Both of these decisions have shown me how strong and brave these people are, and at the end of the day, how love is what matters most.

Brides Club: Supporting You and Your Jewish (or Jew-ish) Wedding through the Coronavirus Crisis

26/03/2020 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

Ever since I launched, Smashing The Glass’s members-only Brides Club – a group for Jewish and Jew-ish brides looking to lower the stress and maximize the fun of planning a big day that’s totally, 100% you – I’ve firmly believed creating the group is one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Brides Club has grown into an incredible, strong community of Jewish and Jew-ish women all over the world, who celebrate each other’s triumphs and support each other through challenges – and never has the community come through more strongly than over the past few weeks.

With so many of our members faced with incredibly tough choices – things they never would’ve imagined even a month ago – and many forced to postpone their long-planned weddings, the community has come together in the most beautiful way.

The positivity and love exuding from my screen every time I pop into the very active Brides Club Facebook group is just unbelievable.

While Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club is an incredible community and resource in calmer times, in this crisis it’s truly become a one-stop shop for everything from pandemic wedding planning guidance to social distance socializing and beyond – read on to hear about just a few of the ways we’re supporting our members through COVID-19, and how you can try it for yourself free for 30 days.

STG Brides Club members came to my home for a Challah Bake a few months ago.. so much fun and so many treasured connections were made!

Wedding Planning Solved, Weekly

For the duration of the coronavirus crisis, we’ve upped the frequency of our Wedding Planning Solved live monthly group chats to once per week. Every Sunday, I’m chatting with you live about any and all wedding planning questions/concerns/struggles you’ve got – related to the pandemic or otherwise. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk through anything – truly, no concern is too large or too small – with me 1:1, as well as to receive support and wisdom from your fellow #coronabrides.

So much positivity and action-taking have come about as a result of these calls and I urge you to join STG Brides Club for this feature alone!

Join our Brides Club for free here to benefit from 1:1 help with your wedding plans.

Some of our members have gotten so close they’ve attended each other’s weddings!

Social Distance Socializing

Since we’ve had to put our local in-person group meetups on hold, instead we’re hosting a weekly virtual happy hour via Zoom. Brides Club members from all over the world are grabbing their quarantinis and logging on to chat with each other about anything and everything – from the craziness that is the world today to engagement stories to Passover plans.

We’re even throwing virtual Zoom birthday parties for our members who are missing out on their usual out-of-house celebrations!

Join our Brides Club for free here to join us at our bride-to-be and newlywed virtual Happy Hour!

If you sign up and join Quarantine Camp, this could be you! Our beloved member Jenna, who led this in-person challah making meetup in NYC last summer, is bringing her skills to you virtually in one of our (many) sessions.

Quarantine Camp

Our members are an exceptionally talented – and varied – bunch, so to keep us all entertained and learning during this time, we decided to tap into the Brides Club hivemind and recruit our members to teach us some new skills as we self-isolate. We’ve got upcoming live video sessions teaching us yoga, challah baking, positive psychology, singing, basic French, beginner weightlifting, and much, much more.

I’m also joining in teaching a session on how to turn your passion into profit and make money online.

Join our Brides Club for free here to benefit from all the Quarantine Camp sessions!

Real Jewish Brides: Orli On Finding A Moment Of Peace Amongst The Crazy

25/03/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Orli will be marrying Ben on 6th September 2020 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!

Coronavirus In Our Lives

It’s hard at the moment for the coronavirus not to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. You get on the train and you grab a Metro and it’s on the first page in bold. You look at your phone first thing in the morning and BBC news pops up with the latest figures.

You check your Instagram and someone’s talking about it, Facebook it’s the same. We catch up with friends, we talk to colleagues and we find ourselves slowly broaching the subject, how are they feeling about it. I am guilty of refreshing BBC news every half an hour or so to find the latest information. Yet the more I look, the more I know, the more I feel in control of the situation but the more I know the more I realise it is.

Now this post is not about the coronavirus, it’s really about what we can do to take a step away from all of the news and to find a mindfulness moment, a moment away from the stress of the news and a moment to breathe.

A Vera Wang Bride for an Elegant Spring Jewish Wedding at Pleasantdale Chateau West Orange, NJ, USA

23/03/2020 by Karen Cinnamon 1 Comment

Because we can all use a bit of springtime cheer right now, we’re excited to share the beautiful Jewish wedding of two high school sweethearts: Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Elizabeth, a lawyer, and Bernie, a doctor (#cantTARASaPART).

It’s always a pleasure blogging the weddings of our Brides Club members, and we’re so touched by the bride’s kind words about how the group helped her plan her big day. Elizabeth especially loved the personal vendor referrals Team STG provides to Brides Club members on a daily basis – we connected her with her fab planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Amy Katz Events, who did SUCH an incredible job bringing the couple’s vision for their day together and keeping everything running smoothly on the day, as well as the couple’s ketubah designer, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Melanie Dankowicz – the gorgeous floral papercut she created was the absolute perfect fit for the soft springtime vibes that characterized the day.

Speaking of springtime vibes, how about that chuppah?! We adore the profusion of roses and peonies in soft pinks, corals, and whites – and those hanging floral strands just add that little something extra. The mirrored frame keeps the whole structure looking contemporary, too – don’t miss it in the wonderful photos from Maya Myers and video from Motoko Fukayama of Love in Progress.

We’ll let Elizabeth, who was a total knockout in Vera Wang, take it from here…

A Chateau Wedding

Elizabeth, the bride: We got married at Pleasantdale Chateau in West Orange, NJ. We are both from NY so neither one of us had any particular ties to NJ, but we were struggling to find a venue that spoke to us. Then someone suggested Pleasantdale and we fell in love from the moment we walked in.

Real Jewish Bride: Sarah on Planning a Wedding During Coronavirus

18/03/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Sarah will be marrying Rich on 21th June 2020 at Tikitano Beach, Marbella, Spain. Click here to read all Sarah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Sarah knew Rich was the one when he brought a gift of dog treats for her toy poodle Nuala along to their fourth date! (2) They are crafting an amazing destination wedding weekend in Marbella with beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended vendor optimum weddings as their planner. (3) Sarah is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

When you plan a wedding you always expect there to be bumps along the way, such as family dilemmas, issues with the band, the logistics of an abroad wedding, and so on. What you don’t plan for is a worldwide pandemic three months before you are meant to say “I do”!

The Coronavirus has become a talking point like no other. It is the only thing that people want to talk about, and when it is mentioned in the same sentence as your wedding then it is never a good scenario!

I started off a little anxious about it but then I decided to be positive because it is out of my control and I can’t worry about something which I cannot control. However, that is all well and good until you have people calling you and asking you what your contingency plan is and if you are going to postpone the wedding!