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An Ultra-Personal Chanukah Jewish Wedding Micklefield Hall, Hertfordshire, UK

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Ella and Aaron, Micklefield Hall, Rickmansworth, United Kingdom

We love a Chanukah wedding, and Ella and Aaron’s is one of the best we’ve seen! Their vision for their winter Jewish wedding was “twinkly winter wonderland with lots of doughnuts, latkes and joy,” and they worked with the most talented team – including a number of beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors – to bring it to life.

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Uptown Events planned the day to perfection, recommending vendors – including the couple’s stunning venue, Micklefield Hall, after their original location fell through – and making sure everything ran smoothly on the day. They also guided Ella and Aaron to choose a DJ Live act when it came to entertainment – and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Twentysomethings ended up being “such a hit that they’ve since become the unofficial band for our whole group, with two other couples booking them since!”

Ella and Aaron made all the stationery themselves (with their small business It IS Personal) – including the most adorable dreidel-shaped reserved seating signs and matchbox place cards in honor of Chanukah. Also perfectly on theme? The duo’s wedding menu, which included latkes, a full salt beef bar, and savoury pulled beef doughnuts (in addition to the sweet kind). Don’t miss all the fabulous details in the exquisite photos by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Claudine Hartzel, who captured all the emotion and joy of the day so beautifully.

Another Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor, Carmel Designs, painted the couple’s wonderful custom ketubah, merging their vision for a design in keeping with their rustic wedding vibes, incorporating the Tree of Life and reflecting Ella and Aaron’s love of animals.

Read on for the full story in Ella’s own words…

 

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How We Met

Ella, the bride: We met the way so many modern couples do these days – on good old Hinge! We first met in June 2022, when Aaron was finishing his teacher training year, and Ella was working at her local synagogue. Aaron is now Pastoral and Wellbeing Manager at his old Jewish secondary school, and Ella works as Children and Family Educator at the synagogue we’ve joined together, while training to be a therapist. Our professions are an example of how well our values align – something we were both aware of when we met, and is one of the many reasons we instantly clicked and fell for each other so quickly! Not even a month into dating, we’d booked our first holiday to Israel together for Chanukah that year.

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A Jewish Wedding in Blue and Purple at Stock Brook Country Club, Essex, UK

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When Becca, who works in a Jewish secondary school, and, Ellis, a pharmacist, started planning their UK Jewish wedding, they knew they wanted it to be a combination of both of their personalities and tastes.

That started with their color scheme: Ellis’s favorite color is purple, while Becca’s is blue, and so that became the basis for their wedding look – with some dashes of white interspersed.

Flowers were a key part of tying it all together, and the couple – who describe themselves as “completely clueless” about flowers – turned to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Alexandra’s Florist, who brought their vision to life (including decorating their gorgeous floral chuppah!) and spent lots of time going over different flower types and colors until they were 100% happy. Don’t miss the lush florals in Megan Donati Photography’s wonderful images of the day!  

We loved hearing about Becca’s wedding dress shopping experience as a plus size bride – she began her search with trepidation, and while there were some bumps along the road we’re happy to report a very happy ending in the form of the traditional A-line gown of her dreams AND a fabulous boutique that made her feel totally at ease all through the process.

There’s so much more to this wonderful Jewish wedding, but we’ll turn you over to the couple for the rest…

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How we Met

Becca, the bride and Ellis, the groom: Hello! Becca and Ellis here, together known as Bellis! We had our Big Fat Jewish Wedding on the 30th of May 2022.

The story of us officially getting together is a 21st Century type of romance! We were both due to be going on Macnoar Israel tour in July 2011 and we already had a few mutual friends. Prior to going on tour, one of Becca’s friends broadcasted her pin over Blackberry messenger (lol trendsetters).  Ellis was already one of our mutual friends’ contacts, and he decided to add Becca.

We began talking over BBM as well as skyping regularly and decided to meet up before going away – we felt there may be something romantic there.  We officially met in person and had our first date on the 25th of June, 2011 (many moons ago) and have been together ever since – the rest is history! Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Madi Lane Bride for a Rustic and Relaxed Backyard Jewish Wedding in London, UK

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There’s something so special about a backyard Jewish wedding. That personal touch of making things official in your family home – there’s nothing like it. Even though today’s couple, Sara, a speech and language therapist, and Jason, a payments manager, didn’t initially plan to hold their wedding in the bride’s parent’s garden – their pre-pandemic plan A was Israel – in the end their day turned out to be everything they could’ve hoped for and then some.

Due to the pandemic, Sara and Jason kept the ceremony and dinner to just immediate family, and then invited a handful of close friends to join afterward for dancing and late-night snacks. Working with a fabulous team of vendors, the pair transformed the garden into the perfect rustic retreat, adorned with flowers and candles and all kinds of soft romantic touches.

Sara and Jason’s chuppah, rented from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Happy Chuppah People (who they found right here on STG!), was the perfect cornerstone for their rustically romantic aesthetic. They opted for “The Finchley,” built on natural branches that looked as if they were just growing out of the garden.

The couple report that one of the best decisions they made in their wedding planning was working with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Events with Grace as their on-the-day coordinator. Grace helped keep things organized during the last month of planning, and on the day she made sure everything ran smoothly and took the pressure off Sara and Jason and their families.

Scroll through Megan Donati Photography’s beautiful imagery and you’ll see what an absolute dream of a day this turned out to be. We’ll let Sara take it from here…

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How We Met

Sara, the bride: We first spoke on an Aish trip when were 17. We had actually met a year earlier but I had forgotten on the trip. Jason came up to me and started talking like we were old friends. I wasn’t sure at first but on the trip we became friendly. When we got home, we started a long-distance friendship. The rest is history; we dated for 4 years long distance until Jason made the move to Essex.Continue ReadingContinue Reading