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A Destination Jewish Wedding Full of Personal Touches at Achuza, Beit Hanan, Israel

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Planning a Jewish wedding from thousands of miles away is no small feat. Luckily, London-based couple Jodie, who works as a decorative homeware buyer, and Matt, a football agent realized that straight off the bat when they started planning their big day in Israel, and they made sure their first planning decision was choosing a great planner to help smooth the way.

Even luckier for Jodie and Matt, they found one of the best of the best: Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Victoria Rosen Events. Vicki is a popular choice among STG couples opting to wed in Israel, and this couple’s rave review of her planning prowess makes it clear why: in addition to helping them source some truly outstanding vendors (not to mention their gorgeous venue),

Vicki seamlessly ran the whole day’s events so carefully and left us and our parents feeling totally calm, happy and taken care of. She couldn’t do enough to help us. Always available, nothing was too much. Vicki was incredibly supportive and always positive, friendly and super-efficient.

We’re also crazy about all the fun, memorable touches the couple added to their day. For starters, they had a flower stand (inspired by a something they saw right here on Smashing the Glass!) in the reception area, where guests could have bespoke floral hair accessories and button holes made on the spot! And if that weren’t enough, they also hired a glitter face painter to make sure their guests had a night that was literally sparkling. Oh, and pre-wedding, Jodie and Matt also blew their own smash glass and kiddush cup to use under the chuppah!

You can probably already guess that this was one fun wedding – and if you have any doubt, a quick scroll through Idan Hasson’s radiant, joyous photos should set you straight.

Now over to Jodie…

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Nature and Soul

Jodie, the bride: We got married at Achuza. Matt didn’t want to get married in a hotel hall and I vetoed beach venues because of what humidity does to my hair! : ) We were both looking for a soulful, outdoor venue surrounded by nature and somewhere that we could create a fun and intimate party atmosphere for all of our friends and family. We fell in love with Achuza as soon as we walked up the path towards the venue. It’s surrounded by flora and the chuppah is stunning and all natural.

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An Essense of Australia Bride for a Sunset Jewish Wedding at Cochav Hayam in Caesarea, Israel

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Okay, we just can’t even with that sunset chuppah. Truly the stuff Jewish wedding dreams are made of. But would you believe it if we told you that wasn’t even the most remarkable thing about the incredible wedding of STG Brides Club member  (and blogging bride) Lindsay, an insight manager at a media agency, to groom Dan, an account manager working in corporate events?

So first of all, we’re OBSESSED with Lindsay and Dan’s table plan: they got a polaroid of every guest, then wrote a personal note on the back. These were all laid out for guests to collect as they came in and find their table numbers. Genius!

We’re also super inspired that these two worked with non-profit Israel Blooms, an organization that will collect flowers leftover at the end of the wedding and repurpose them into small arrangements that they distribute in hospitals and old age homes. What a meaningful (and easy) way to spread the joy of your big day!

The couple’s photos from Idan Canfi and video from Ruslan Shane are simply sensational, and we love that Lindsay and Dan opted to have a separate couple’s photoshoot a couple of days after the wedding – this allowed them to get some dreamy portraits without them having to take time out of the wedding for photos. Such a smart idea!

Oh, and did we mention that Lindsay and Dan are working with the incredible Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Abby Taubman of Colletts Travel to plan their honeymoon to Australia and Thailand next year?

Now over to the bride, who looked lovely in her Essense of Australia dress…

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How we met

Lindsay, the bride: We met through my cousin’s wife. She was an old school friend of Dan’s and decided that we would be a great match – and she was right!

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An Adam Zohar Bride for a Laid-Back Israeli Jewish Wedding on the Beach at Al Hayam, Caesarea, Israel

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We’re so excited to be sharing the beautiful Israeli beach wedding of our beloved Smashing The Glass STG Brides Club member Genna to Yoni!

These two were faced with the touch task of planning an epic Jewish wedding thousands of miles from their home in NYC in under five months – and did they ever pull it off! To scroll through their gorgeous photos from Idan Hasson, you’d never guess it all came together on such a tight timeline.

And we’re so delighted to hear that Genna attributes her success in large part to the beautiful community that is Brides Club – which she was introduced to by her wonderful wedding planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Vanessa Ohayon, the other key ingredient in bringing this amazing day together seamlessly.

In her own words, on joining Smashing The Glass Brides Club

“I instantly felt a sense of calm that I had a supportive community of women I could bounce questions and ideas off of. I was able to make the quick decisions I needed to by reaching out of the many other brides who were married in Israel.”

Thanks Genna – hearing this makes us sooooo happy!!!

We’re totally in love with the laid-back, totally Israeli beach aesthetic the couple went for – Israeli groom Yoni wanted to make sure the big day kept that Israeli party vibe. There’s a fab chuppah, the most incredible seaside setting, the dreamiest florals… and we’re obsessed with Genna’s bridal style, too. She wore a stunning lace mermaid gown by Adam Zohar (an Israeli designer, natch), and we don’t think she could possibly have looked any more gorgeous.

Over to you, Genna!

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How we met

Genna, the bride: Yoni and I met at a party on December 12, 2012 (12/12/12!) when we were both living in Tel Aviv. We started off as friends, and then dated, at points we were “on and off,” but our relationship grew and morphed into a truly solid, loving friendship and partnership. I moved back to New York in 2016 and he arrived shortly after. He proposed in Central Park in February of this year, after a 6-year relationship full of lots adventure, hard times and plenty of good. 

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A Mira Zwillinger Bride for a Casually Elegant Destination Jewish Wedding at The Lawrence, Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel

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Planning a wedding from 7,000 miles away isn’t easy. But you’d never know it looking at this gorgeous Jewish wedding, which LA-based Rachel and Yonatan planned all the way on the other side of the world in Tel Aviv.

Their secret? Amazing wedding planners. Specifically, Naama and Yael of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Naama Raicher Event Workshop. These two not only set the couple up with some of the best vendors Tel Aviv’s got to offer, they enabled the pair to actualize their vision of a wedding that felt less like a formal event and more like a casually elegant dinner party.

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor LUZ, who managed both photo and video, did an awesome job capturing the vibe. Rachel and Yonatan say booking LUZ was one of the best wedding planning decisions they made, and we love Rachel’s description of LUZ’s stylish work as “something you would see across the room and think, ‘Wow, that’s a beautiful shot,’ and then as you approach closer ‘wait a minute, is that your wedding?’”

We’re obsessed with the pair’s Rothko-inspired ketubah by Stephanie Caplan of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Ketubah, and we love Rachel and Yonatan’s tip for making a destination wedding as painless as possible for your guests: over the months leading up to the big day, they sent a series of custom travel guides covering everything guests needed to know at that point in time, from favorite movies about Israel, to hotels and flight recommendations, to what to expect upon arrival at Israeli immigration, and go-to bars, restaurants and walks about town. Such a great idea!

There’s so much more to say about this stunner of a wedding – from the enchanting venue to the sunset ceremony held on the fly in a public park – but we’ll leave it to Rachel, who looked smashing in her Mira Zwillinger gown (followed by a fun, non-traditional floral party dress from Zimmerman) to tell you about all that…

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How we met

Rachel, the bride: I am in brand development and global marketing for the beauty industry and Yonatan is in finance and real estate. Although we had offices on the same hallway at the original WeWork location in Soho, it took us a few years to finally meet. We would often say “Hi, there” as we would pass each other but we both were so absorbed in our budding start-ups that there wasn’t much more than that.

Sometime later, I moved to a larger office on the other side of the floor and Yonatan finally felt compelled to knock on my door, introduce himself, and congratulate me on growing my team. Again a few months passed and nothing came of it. Then one day he popped up on my Tinder account. I swiped right and we’ve been together ever since. I came to find out later that I was also the first swipe to come up when he first opened his Bumble account. I guess we are just a match made in the social media stars 😉

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2019 Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Lindsay + Dan: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 4th gorgeous bride from our crop of 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Lindsay, who will be marrying Dan on 25th August 2019 at Kochav Hayam in Caesarea, Israel.

THREE FACTS: (1) Lindsay and Dan were set up by Lindsay’s cousin! (2) They are planning an English-style destination wedding with a few modern twists in Caesarea, Israel. (3) Even though they are both Jewish, Lindsay is more interested in the religious element of the day than Dan, so they are working to balance tradition with their personal style – our favorite!


How We Met To The Present Day

Dan and I were introduced by my cousin. We’d both tried swiping, but after a long list of terrible dates, neither of us had been particularly lucky.

I was on a big family weekend away, and was kindly told that I must find a boyfriend because I was the next in line to get married — no pressure! This meant that I spent the whole weekend being shown pictures and Facebook profiles of all my potential “future husbands.” Dan was the one who got the seal of approval from me (and of course the rest of my family).

At the same time, Dan was at a friend’s wedding, surrounded by couples and received a text from an old school friend he’d only just got back in touch with (my cousin). She had the “most amazing girl” (definitely an exact quote) for him. After he did some of his own Facebook stalking, he agreed to take me out.

We planned to go on a date later that week, and on the day he told me he had been offered two tickets to see James Bay that evening. I panicked. Who goes to a concert on their first date?! But my colleagues convinced me that even if he was terrible, at least I’d get to see James Bay. Fortunately, it was a success, and here we are two and half years later, planning a wedding!

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