California Jewish Wedding Archives - Smashing the Glass

A Stella York Bride for a Dog-Friendly Jewish Wedding at Five Crowns, Corona Del Mar, California, USA

26/07/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Rachel, a program manager, and Aaron, a software engineer, had a very special guest of honor at their Jewish wedding: their dog, Ryder!

Not only did this much-loved Mini Goldendoodle serve as the couple’s ring bearer, he sat in Aaron’s lap during speeches and joined the pair for their first dance. Rachel and Aaron even added special touches celebrating their best canine pal, like cocktail napkins featuring his likeness, dog-shaped cookies, and their signature cocktail, the Ryder Old Fashioned! We love how Rachel and Aaron figured out what was important to them early on in their wedding planning and made it happen.

Another thing we love? The duo’s sweet forget-me-not ketubah print with gold foiling detail by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush. It’s such a lovely piece of artwork, and the perfect fit for the SoCal-meets-England vibe these two had going on.

We’re also obsessed with the way Rachel and Aaron used the venue’s pergola as a base for their dreamy floral chuppah – which was transformed into the most swoonworthy sweetheart table for the reception!

Now over to Rachel, who looked radiant in Stella York…

How We Met

Rachel, the bride: Aaron and I met while studying at Chapman University in 2014. I transferred in as a sophomore and met him when he was tabling for Hillel during the student club fair. I was instantly drawn to Aaron and when we started talking, we realized we both grew up in LA and had many mutual friends. We began officially dating in October 2014 and have been inseparable ever since.Continue Reading

Two Gorgeous Brides for a Same-Sex Backyard DIY Jewish Micro Wedding in Cambria, California, USA

26/02/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

We are absolutely obsessed with the joyous, intimate, family-focused micro Jewish wedding of Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Sidnie, a diagnostic medical sonographer, and Monique, a cafe manager. Due to COVID, these two shifted their plans from a 115-guest wedding at a winery to a micro affair in Mo’s parents’ backyard.

While this obviously wasn’t their first choice, we love how the pair embraced the opportunities their minimony opened up for them – from being able to include all their friends and family from all over the world via livestream to special touches like a rehearsal dinner flower arrangement party, where everyone teamed up to assemble bouquets, corsages, and boutonnières for everyone at the wedding!

We love how Sidnie and Mo involved their family in everything from building their chuppah to cooking the reception meal to setting up and taking down all the décor – even their photographer, Adrian Throckmorton, is a cousin, and of course we’re SO incredibly touched by Sidnie’s beautiful words about her experience as a member of our Brides Club:

As a newly converted Jewish woman, it was incredibly powerful to feel such a sense of community with Jewish brides all over the world. From advice on a wedding dilemma to celebrating WPWs, these women made me feel like I had hundreds of the most dedicated bridesmaids supporting me! There were times I didn’t want to pester the people in my life with what was happening with the wedding and in those moments, Brides Club was there for me.

And we’re all over the couple’s stellar bridal fashion sense – Sidnie’s Essense of Australia gown, featuring elegant off the shoulder straps, buttons all the way down the back, and pockets, and Mo’s custom suit she created with LGBTQ+ and size inclusive company Sharpe Suiting, where, with the help of her consultant, she was able to tie in everything from the wedding colors and flowers to embroider “Ani Ledodi V’Dodi Le” inside her jacket!

How we met

Sidnie: We met working at a movie theater in Los Angeles 7 years ago!Continue Reading

A Pronovias Bride for a Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Santa Barbara, California, USA

11/12/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

It’s a familiar story: Hailey, an attorney at a technology company, and Jeffrey, a management consultant, had planned a Labor Day weekend Jewish wedding at a historic Santa Barbara club, with a weekend’s worth of plans for their 150 guests flying in from all over the world.

That was pre-COVID. Once the pandemic hit, the couple made the decision to go forward with a 12-guest micro wedding on their original date, which the bride’s aunt and uncle generously hosted in their backyard. We’re obsessed with Hailey and Jeffrey’s cool copper chuppah adorned with greenery and white and pink blossoms – not to mention their beautifulblue and white paper cut ketubah was purchased from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com. Don’t miss Wedding Nature Photography’s gorgeous pics!

We also love the favors the pair put together for their guests, each containing a mask hand-sewn by the mother of the bride, a kippah, and a personalized embroidered handkerchief, plus a “Jeffrey and Hailey” granola blend.

And how sweet is it that the mother of the groom secretly reached out to the original guest list and asked them to submit a video with stories and well wishes?! She kept it all under wraps until the night before the wedding, when she surprised Hailey and Jeffrey with an incredibly touching video. Awwwww!

There’s so much more to say about this beautiful day, but we’ll leave the rest to Hailey, who looked stunning in her Pronovias dress (which she’d bough for the big bash, but happened to work perfectly for this intimate celebration)…

How we met

Hailey, the bride: We were matched on a dating app called Coffee Meets Bagel. After we met in person, we realized that we had one mutual friend in common: a Jewish matchmaker!

A Magical Rustic Jewish Micro Wedding in the Forest at San Moritz Lodge, Crestline, California, USA

04/12/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

We are beyond thrilled to be featuring the incredibly gorgeous wedding of our beloved Brides Club member Ashley to Jeff! These two nature loving attorneys dreamed of making it official in the middle of a forest – and they found the perfect spot in San Moritz Lodge, two hours east of their home in Los Angeles.

Then came the pandemic. Ashley and Jeff knew they wanted to get married on their original date, whatever it took, and while the wedding they had looked very different from the one they’d planned initially – they had to cut their indoor reception and catering, in addition to a vastly reduced guest list – it was totally and completely exquisite nonetheless. Karissa Breann Photography’s dreamy images absolutely blow us away.

We’re so touched to hear that that this wedding’s success was in part due to the incredible support and inspiration Ashley received as a member of Smashing the Glass’s Brides Club, which she joined just a month before her big day hoping for help dealing with the stress of planning a wedding during the pandemic. And, in her words,

Once I experienced the overwhelming support of the community and took advantage of the resources, I wondered why I had not joined sooner. Using the plethora of helpful guides and checklists and seeing how other brides were navigating this time made such a difference for me. The brides in Brides Club found so many creative ways to make their weddings safe, unique, and absolutely gorgeous during the pandemic.

One fab idea Ashley picked up from the group was writing each guest a personalized thank you card for making the effort to attend the wedding in the middle of a pandemic – as suggested by none other than Karen Cinnamon gave during one of Brides Club’s monthly Wedding Planning Solved Zoom chats.

Ashley and Jeff worked with wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent to create the custom ketubah of their dreams, incorporating an image of a couple painted by Chagall, an artist who holds special meaning for the pair. We’re totally in love with how Adriana of Ink with Intent put it all together!

We also love how these two adapted the pre-ceremony tradition of kabbalat panim (“welcoming of the faces”), where the bride sits, surrounded by her mother and soon-to-be mother-in-law, as guests line up to approach her for an individual chat and a wedding day blessing, for the COVID era. Traditionally, only female guests participate, but Ashley and Jeff opened their kabbalat panim up to everyone – and since every household came up to speak with Ashley individually, it was the perfect pandemic-safe way to socialize.

There’s so much more we could say about this wonderful wedding, but we’ll leave it to Ashley to fill you in on the rest…

How we met

Ashley, the bride: We met on JSwipe the very same night my stepdad suggested I expand my geographical search radius for matches. My mom and stepdad were interested in learning how JSwipe worked, so I walked them through the process as we all looked at the screen together.

I previously had my search radius at 15 miles, but my stepdad suggested I increase it to 50 miles. (When he and my mom were dating, the two lived 100 miles apart, and he drove to see her every weekend!) Right after I changed my filter from 15 miles to 50 miles, a picture of a curly-haired cutie feeding a chipmunk popped up. He lived 22 miles away. We seemed to have similar interests, so I swiped yes on him. Continue Reading

A Willowby by Watters Bride for a Reimagined Jewish Micro Wedding at a Private Airbnb in Malibu, California, USA

26/10/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

We could not be any more excited to share the absolutely incredible micro wedding of our beloved STG Brides Club member Nina to Lee! I know we’re all tired of hearing the word “pivot” at this point – but thes two truly pulled off one of the very best pandemic pivots we’ve seen.

Initially, Nina and Lee had planned to have two big celebrations this summer: one in Israel, where Lee’s family lives, and the other at Nina’s family’s home on the beach in Connecticut. When it became clear that neither of these festivities would be able to go forward as planned, rather than scaling things back or postponing, the couple opted to totally change course and do something totally different.

And in just three weeks, these two managed to plan the most gorgeous micro wedding with 14 guests (friends only – since Lee’s family was unable to travel from Israel, the pair opted to have all relatives participate via Zoom) in the hills of beautiful Malibu – a place neither of them had so much as visited before! – to be followed up by a two-week RV honeymoon driving up the California coast and then east to their engagement spot of Steamboat, Colorado! With all the traveling involved in their original wedding lineup, Nina and Lee hadn’t been planning on a honeymoon at all, and they count being able to go on one as their biggest replanning win.

We’re also obsessed with the couple’s beautiful chuppah canopy, which the bride’s mother knit by hand into an intricate pattern with hearts hidden in the details, so that with the sun shining overhead during the ceremony it cast heart-shaped shadows all around Nina and Lee! What an incredibly special touch – don’t miss it in the exquisite photos by photographer Jess of We are Matt and Jess. And how gorgeous is Nina and Lee’s colorful ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com?! They wanted something out of the box, and we think they found just the thing to match the vibes of their laid-back boho day.

There’s so much more we could say about this awesome wedding, but we’ll let Nina, who looked effortlessly chic in Willowby by Watters (turns out the dress she’d picked for her wedding in Israel worked perfectly for Malibu!), fill you in on the rest…

Oh… and just before we hand over to Nina – make sure you join our Wedding Planning Bingo Challenge which starts today! A must for every Jewish and Jew-ish bride, you can sign up here.

How we Met

Nina, the bride: Lee and I met the way many couples meet these days…on a dating app! When we matched, Lee was living in Colorado and I was living in Boston. Lee was in Boston for a week for work, and while we didn’t have time to meet before he went back to Colorado, it just happened that I was headed to Colorado for a work trip the very next week!

The only time Lee and I had to meet face to face was while I was at a bar with company…Lee brought a friend and swung by the bar where I was hanging out. We chatted for a bit, went on a walk around the block just the two of us. The next week Lee flew back to Boston and took me to a matinee performance of The Blue Man Group and then out for Israeli food! From that point on, Lee and I were all in.

We did a few weekend trips going back and forth between Boston and Colorado, skiing, going to concerts, and eating delicious meals (all of our favorite things). A few months later, Lee made the decision to relocate to Boston and after 5 months of dating we moved in together! One year later we were engaged and just about a year later we were married! When you know, you know.

How We Met

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