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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: My Best Bridesmaids Dress Shopping Tips!

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence… on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!)  (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !


Bridesmaid dress shopping tips!

When bridesmaid shopping I instantly thought about the scene from ‘Bridesmaids‘ where they are comparing the prices of designer dresses — “But it’s a Fritz Bernaise!” And equally the scene that followed…”It’s happening!” Or being the bridesmaid who has 27 dresses that are completely outrageous was good enough inspiration for these handy tips!

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Image by Jeremy Standley from Lisa and Joey’s Jewish wedding
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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Designing Our Wedding Stationery

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence… on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!)  (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !


Choosing our wedding stationery

In September 2016 I had been to the bridal show with one of my bridesmaids, looking for invitation inspiration. I think it is a good way to speak to vendors and get sample packs, and also to look at what the brands are specialist in, there are so many different categories and styles available on offer, and I found it really good to see the stationery in real life. 

I had already used Papier for our engagement party invitations. Which were great quality and also allow you to do a mix of printed and online. They offer such a huge variety of styles, and you can personalise them to suit you. They are also really affordable! They suited the need for our engagement party but we decided against them for the wedding, as we wanted to go for something bespoke for our wedding stationery.

Knowing that I wanted the calligraphy feel, I actually designed our save the dates myself. I downloaded a lot of calligraphy and handwriting fonts on dafont.com. And created them in a Word document and got them printed with Vistaprint. I was lucky that I tested them out before ordering nearly 200 copies, as they originally came out blurred (!). Which then followed with me on a live chat with Vistaprint for over two hours to try and remedy this, luckily they refunded my original order, and actually sent my complete order out for free! It sometimes pays to complain!

Oh-Wonder-Calligraphy-4

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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Saying Yes To The Dress

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence… on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!)  (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !


We are so inundated with programmes about brides saying yes to the dress nowadays. Admittedly you can find myself, my mum and grandma watching this together. Since both my sister and I became engaged my grandma, who is 93, is totally and completely hooked on watching these programmes. With a huge health scare this year we could not be more fortunate that she is still here and was able to see my sister walk down the aisle. She is completely defying all doctors, and we are all hoping that she is still here to me and James get married next year.

As someone who is hugely decisive about clothes in general, I live and breathe for fashion. I know what will suit me, and really I have been looking at my wedding dress for about six months or more before I actually tried it on. I am not sure I am the most typical bride when I say that I only tried on four dresses.

I had left the one I had been staring and dreaming about until last, and I knew instantly it was the one.


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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Picking our Wedding Vendors

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK. Click here to read all Charlotte’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence…. on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!)  (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !


The venue is booked, now begins the search for vendors. Having been to many weddings over the past few years you get to know what you like and just isn’t your style or taste. Do your research and look at reviews, I found that vendors Instagram feeds are really useful and really show what they can do in abundance. ­

Make sure you go to each vendor with a clear idea of what you want and have your questions ready. This is your wedding and the one day in your life where you get to celebrate your marriage. Make sure you stick to what is right for you both. I’m very fortunate that James has the same vision as me for our big day, and that I have very open minded parents as well.

Tony Page Kosher Caterers
Image: Robert Shack from Georgia & Sam’s Jewish Wedding (Catering by Tony Page)
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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: The Advantages of a Two Year Engagement

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence…. on her parent’s 36th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!)  (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !


Planning a wedding with over two years to go, most people have questioned are we mad? Why not get married within the next year? I could not recommend more having a longer engagement, the date we have picked and the ease of not having to stress was important to us. We wanted to enjoy all of the planning. James is luckily relaxed and we have agreed on a lot of the same details and he is quite accepting of the ideas I have brought to the table.

Next was to speak to my parents about the initial plans. We had dreamt of getting married in Tuscany, it is where we got engaged and therefore is sentimental to us. We had sat down with my parents in June of 2016 ready to play a video of this incredible venue we had found, a castle in the Tuscan countryside overlooking Florence. We initially thought that having our idea accepted would be a sure thing, we had done our research and we were passionate about it. Unfortunately our pitch did not go to plan and we had it shut down. We were obviously thinking of the smaller picture, and not about how do we get our family there! Back to the drawing board…

Two-Year-Engagement
Image: John Lewis
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