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A Golden City-Themed Jewish Wedding at The Julia Morgan Ballroom at the Merchants Exchange Building, San Francisco, USA

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Anyone who’s had the good fortune to have visited San Francisco will know that it’s one mighty city, and certainly worthy of having a whole wedding theme dedicated to it. 

That’s exactly what brilliant couple Rachael, a pediatrician, and David, a scientist, did – their beautiful Jewish wedding was a total love letter to the Golden City, which is their hometown, and the beautiful backdrop to their romance.

We are all hearts for eyes over the amazing floristry, particularly the gorgeous and colorful bridal bouquet, and matching centerpieces and chuppah arrangements – simply stunning. 

Family participation was integral to the celebration, with the wedding party comprised of family members, and special family heirloom jewelry worn by the bride. In fact, family played such a crucial role that all the guests were gifted one of the bride’s mom’s famous cookies, which sound absolutely delicious. We’ll wait for ours in the post! 

We hope you’re as head over heels for the beautiful images by Nightingale Photography as we are, and that you enjoy Rachael’s wonderful, sparkling write up of her and David’s wedding day, particularly her anecdote about kiddush wine, which had us chuckling at our keyboards. 

Take it away, Rachael!

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A venue with character

Rachael, the bride: We chose to get married at the Julia Morgan Ballroom because we wanted to get married in downtown San Francisco, but we were looking for something with more character than a basic hotel ballroom.

We quickly fell in love with the beautiful design and architecture of the Julia Morgan Ballroom, and they had the date we wanted to get married available, so we snatched it up. It also didn’t hurt that the entire ceremony and reception was inside, so we didn’t have to worry about rain ruining the big day.

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An Equality-Driven Jewish Beach Wedding at The Fairmont Miramar, Santa Monica, California, USA

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Some real weddings are just so full of love, heart and emotion that it shines through in every image we see, and every word the couple writes. Ryan and Jessica’s Santa Monica beach celebration was certainly one of those days. 

Set in the shadow of an enormous fig tree, the tear-jerking day included a uniquely equality-driven badeken (we LOVE this idea, we suspect many couples will be borrowing it), and a ‘web of love’ during the ceremony. 

The pair tied the knot in their hometown of Santa Monica, paying homage to their beachy lifestyle and adding in a minty colour scheme, which carried through in all of the details, captured so beautifully by photographer Scott Clark Photo. 

While we’re talking details, we adore (amongst many other things) the rustic-look chuppah, succulent buttonholes and meaningful circle-of-life ketubah – the epitome of Jewish wedding chic. 

We’ll leave you with Jessica’s lovely write-up now, but pay special attention to the ‘web of love’ image a little later in the post – so very moving and just what getting married is all about.

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How we met

Jessica, the bride: Ryan and I met in Los Angeles while pursuing graduate degrees in Business Administration at the University of Southern California in 2011. We’ve been on a long journey together since: over the past six years we moved twice, first to New York and then back to LA. In 2016, Ryan joined the Jewish faith, we got engaged, and less than a year later, we were married.

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A Texas-meets-Jewish knees up wedding with pie on Pi Day at Hyatt Regency La Jolla, San Diego, California, USA

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Yeeehaw! Get ready for a cool cultural collision you just don’t see every day.

Taylor and David were best friends for several years before a fateful kiss after a West Wing marathon prompted them to realise what had been right in front of them all along.

Their Texas-meets-Jewish wedding, captured by husband-and-wife photography team, Shane and Lauren Photography, was planned specifically to fall on March 14th, a.k.a. Pi Day.

Pi, a number that goes on indefinitely, was the perfect choice to echo Jewish wedding traditions, such as the breaking of the glass under the Chuppah with the sentiment “may your marriage last as long as it would take to repair this glass” (forever). We reckon the idea is a must-steal for math-loving Jewish couples everywhere!

In keeping with the Pi theme, the couple served… you guessed it — pie! Mini pies in mason jars were served for dessert and the couple cut an apple pie instead of a wedding cake. In fact, good luck reading this entire post without getting hungry — if you manage it, you’ve done better than the Smashing the Glass team.

To honour San Diego’s growing craft beer scene, they also had an epic beer bar and gave out koozies (fabric sleeves designed to keep a drink warm, for any non-Texan natives out there) as favours.

Over to Taylor to take us through all the details of her and David’s big day…

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From best friends to husband and wife 

Taylor, the bride: David and I met in law school. We were both student representatives for Kaplan Bar Review and got to know each other better by working there. I graduated school and then came back two years later to work in San Diego for Kaplan Bar Review in a full-time position. He was in his last year of school and was still a student representative and we reconnected.

We were best friends for over a year and a half with no romantic involvement. I dated other guys (that he knew), he dated other girls (that I knew) but no spark was there. 

Then, eventually, something changed.  A few days after Valentine’s Day in 2013, we were both single (him very newly so having just broken up with a long-distance girlfriend) and hanging out at his house watching The West Wing and we kissed. 

We became even more inseparable after that day, got a dog named Bartlett (named after the president on The West Wing), and got married a little over two years later.

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A Nicole Miller Bride for a retreat-style rustic Jewish wedding at The Holly Farm in Carmel, California, USA

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As soon as I opened Erica and Olivier’s Jewish wedding submission with their gorgeous branded elements I thought this is going to be EPIC and full of fabulous details and styling and I most certainly was not disappointed.

I love the rustic elements and ‘Happily Ever Adler’ slogan. The little match boxes in particular are super cute! And then there’s the array of personal touches, the gorgeous colour palette of mustard and grey, the festoon lighting, a Manhattan Bar, and THAT chuppah (wait till you see it.. so different).

I also love that they chose four of their closest single male friends to stand by each of the four chuppah poles. Erica explains that she believes it’s considered good luck to find a life partner, for the single men to be at the chuppah with the bride and groom.. I’m eagerly awaiting to blog those four weddings, Erica!

Thank you to Marissa Joy Photography for the perfectly captured images, and to her Erica for her wonder ful wedding report below.

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How we met

Erica, the bride: Olivier and I both attended the University of Pennsylvania 2 years apart but didn’t meet one another until we moved to San Francisco (independently) in 2010 and were casually introduced by a mutual college friend in 2011! Serendipity.
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A Vera Wang bride for a romantic luxe destination Jewish wedding at the Four Seasons in Westlake Village, California

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Prepare for a fashion frenzy as the names that make today’s Jewish wedding so gorgeous are Vera Wang, Valentino, Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin … And of course our super stylish bride and groom Natalie & Alexander who married at the Four Seasons in Westlake Village, California.

Natalie looks breathtakingly beautiful in her Vera Wang gown and veil — it’s just pure romance. Speaking of which, can you believe that these two first met under the Eiffel Tower in the City of Romance, Paris?! Their whole ‘How We Met’ story is like something out of a fairytale – you simply must read Natalie’s account of it below.

I am a certified super fan of Greg Finck who shot and submitted this wedding to me. Everything he snaps just turns into wedding gold, and you’ll see precisely what I mean when you take a peek at the pretty below.

It’s a wedding of global proportions with guests traveling in from all over the world but it was absolutely worth it: the emotion, the style, the 13 (wow!) beautiful bridesmaids, the mesmerising stationery, the music, the chuppah, the florals… it’s all just filled to the brim with style and grace, and not only are Greg’s images and the bride’s wedding report waiting for you, we also have the wedding film at the foot of the post by Wind Productions too. It’s a very happy Tuesday folks!

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How we met

Natalie, the bride: Alex and I met in Paris under the Eiffel Tower (for real). We were traveling in Europe separately and had some friends in common and  the two groups met in Paris for a few days. The moment I looked at him I knew my life was forever going to change. We started dating right away. We were attending different universities in different cities, then after graudation we moved to different cities (Connecticut for him, and LA for me) and then another move to different cities (New York for him, San Francisco for me). We were long distance for 6 years. I finally moved to New York City and he proposed shortly after that to my surprise.

After he proposed he surprised me with a fully planned trip to Paris to take our engagment pics at the Eiffel Tower with Greg Finck who also photographed our wedding.Continue ReadingContinue Reading