Chris Weys Archives - Smashing the Glass

An Enchanted Woodland-Themed Destination Jewish wedding at Baya’ar, Israel

09/01/2017 by Karen

destination-wedding-israel
What do the words “fairytale wedding” evoke for you? For some, they conjure images of opulent castles, extravagant gowns and dreams come true. Colette and Rob’s fairytale took a wonderful twist away from the clichà©, through enchanted forests in a truly magical woodland-inspired celebration (check out the themed chuppah — it’s just sublime).

The backdrop for the big day was Baya’ar, a breathtaking Israeli nature reserve. We’re thrilled to say that STG had the immense honour of playing a big role in the venue selection, as the happy couple had come across it before right here on the blog.

Aside from the absolutely stunning aesthetic (including a breathtaking wedding dress by a hot new Israeli designer, and the cutest flower girls), captured by photographer Ronen Boidek, the wedding was also full of heart. Colette had been through a tumultuous time, surviving cancer before meeting the love of her life, and so seeing her walk down the aisle was an incredibly emotional moment for her whole family.

We’ll hand over to Colette to tell us more — it goes without saying that everyone at Smashing the Glass wishes the happy couple a long and wonderful married life together.

How we met

Colette, the bride: Rob went to university with my brother, we then had a drunken night in a very tacky bar in London!

Adi & Amir | Rosh Hashana themed wedding at Sadot, near Netanya, Israel

04/10/2016 by Karen

Shana Tova to all of you! I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a happy, prosperous year ahead full of joy, love and only good times.

With Rosh Hashana fast approaching I wanted to repost this totally exquisite wedding. It has so many beautiful details and the theme of Rosh Hashana is wonderfully integrated into the menu featuring the holiday symbols of pomegranates, figs and apples. The vibrant colour palette of red, orange and green, the jar of honey favours, and the divine-sounding pomegranate mojito reception cocktails all add up to a very well thought-through theme.

There were lots of personal touches and a combination of Adi and Amir’s old and new memories, meticulously organised by their wedding planner, Osnat Eldar. She asked Adi’s close family to collect photos from their own wedding days in order to create an ‘all-generations’ photo wall. I love that idea! So simple and such a lovely way of really making the wedding a family occasion and also remembering those that are no longer with us.

Thank you to Adi and Amir for sharing their very special Israeli day with us, and to Osnat Eldar, their talented wedding planner who alerted me to their wedding. Photography today is by Lihee Avidan.

VENUE + THEME

Adi, the Bride: we decided to get married in Sadot Beit Yehoshua, as we loved its rural feel, and it’s location. It has a calm and relaxing atmosphere which reflects us as a couple, and it’s in the centre of Israel right between Tel Aviv and Haifa.

As the wedding fell just before Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, we combined the holiday spirit with colours from the late-summer / autumn season. Paul Assenheim, our wonderful caterer prepared a menu based on Rosh Hashana featuring fig and pomegranate salads, fillet mignon in apple chutney, and as a final surprise, caramelised apples on sticks! We also had the most delicious pomegranate mojitos as our welcome cocktail, and used lots of real apples, grapes and pomegranates to decorate the whole venue.

Continue Reading

Bertha & David | Elegant-casual ‘garden market’ destination wedding on the beach at Bayit Al Hayam, Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel

27/05/2016 by Karen

I first received an email from today’s bride in April of last year when she wrote to me asking for recommendations for a wedding planner, a great wedding website, and other ideas for her dream wedding in Israel.

Doing what I do, I had some lovely ideas for her, one of which was the suggestion of working with the brilliant BE Group TLV to plan and produce her destination wedding (Bertha and David hail from Mexico!).

Roll on just over a year later, and I can safely say that Bertha was thrilled to bits with her experience of working with Lisa and the team at BE Group TLV (as you’ll read below) and I could not be happier to be blogging her frankly fabulous wedding to David.

The couple were after a laid back but pretty feel to their big day and chose to get married at Bayit Al Hayam, a gorgeous venue right on the beach in Jaffa-Tel Aviv. They placed an emphasis on ’boutique booze’ (I’m talking a premium tequila and margarita bar, with one of Israel’s best mixologists brought in for the night!) and colourful garden market details with fruit and vegetable decor which just works SO well.

Now even though this is an elegant, sophisticated do, I love that the bride and groom chose to sit with their friends on a long cream sofa and chose to forgo assigned seating for their guests. They went for a combination of different sized tables and cream sofas and I think it’s so important to remember that you can be playful with your seating arrangements. You don’t have to stick to ‘tried and tested’ formulae!

There were also lots of lovely details to reflect Bertha and David’s Mexican heritage like churros instead of wedding cake, kippot made in Mexico, and tequila bottle favours organised by the bride’s brother and father.

A couple of other elements that I LOVE are a children’s choir and shofar accompanying the couple to the chuppah, and on a very different note (excuse the pun!) the screening of photos at the reception of the guests on tours of Jerusalem and the North of Israel. Bertha and David had organised these tours of Israel for their guests as part of their wedding week, and it must have been so lovely for the guests to see images of their Israel experiences on the big screen at the reception.

Bertha looks exquisite in a gown designed by a friend of hers from Mexico. She was inspired by several of the big designer names but wasn’t able to find a look she loved, so she had the dress of her dreams custom-made. And let’s not leave out the dashing groom! I am seriously coveting his black patent leather Converse which he teamed with a Kenneth Cole tuxedo. Super super cool!

Before I show you all the pretty, let me leave you with this wonderful quote from Bertha & David’s wedding website (for which they used the amazing Riley & Grey, also recommended by yours truly 🙂 ) alluding to the fact that the two of them met back in 1983… in kindergarten no less!

Life is funny. You can spend years searching for something only to realise it`s been there right in front of you all along”

Enjoy this one peeps. The big day was captured perfectly by Eran Beeri…

How we met

Bertha, the Bride: David and I first met in kindergarten in 1983! Our families have known each other for about 30 years and our brothers were childhood friends. We re-connected many years later in our late 20’s and became best friends. We began dating years later and dated for two years before getting married.