chuppah Archives - Smashing the Glass

Your Chuppah – Everything You Need To Know

17/04/2018 by Karen

This is a guest post by Lauren Dubell-Beadle, founder of The Chuppah Design Co who created the chuppah above
Image: Babb Photo from Clelia & George’s Jew-ish wedding

{If you are a member of Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club , you can watch Lauren’s video masterclass, ‘Everything You Need To Know About Your Chuppah’ here}

Before the dress, before the center pieces and before the personalized cocktails, your guests will see the symbolic chuppah that you will be married under. If you are like me, you will want that first impression to pack a punch and tell a story at the same time.

Why have a chuppah?

The chuppah goes back a long way and holds a lot of tradition within its simple four-posted structure. Its symbolism is vast, but ultimately the chuppah represents a couples first home that they will build together.

It is open on all four sides to represent the open hospitality the couple will give in their home to their family, friends and acquaintances… fitting more than a handful of your guests under the chuppah would be a challenge!

So the open sides help all your guests feel part of your ceremony. Today many non-Jewish couple choose to include a chuppah in their wedding for its symbolic nature and Jew-ish couples (like my husband and I) also want to have a chuppah, but may come across some challenges finding a rabbi who will willingly marry them or bless them under a chuppah.

US couples may not have the same issue, but if you are lucky enough to find Rabbi Paul Glantz free for your UK (or European) based date then make sure you snap him up! The chuppah was the first ‘Jewish thing’ we knew we wanted at our wedding and our insistence on having one led us to planning a wedding that was truly done ‘our way’. We wanted it to be the start of our meaningful and personal day.

Image: The Image is Found from Michelle & Joseph’s Jewish wedding

Where to get inspiration?

So where do you start with planning your chuppah? Most people make the decision if they want to DIY their chuppah or not before they actually decide what they want… and you can definitely do that… we did.

We knew we wanted to make it ourselves in keeping with the idea of the new couple building their home together and we really didn’t want anyone else’s help for this one part of our day. However, it is important to decide what sort of chuppah will fit in with the overall style of your wedding.

Do you want something simple and traditional (that could be relatively easy to DIY) or do you want a massive eye-catching art installation style that will be pinned and shared all over Instagram after the big day? The latter you may wish to get some help with!

There are three places I’d suggest looking for inspiration at this stage; Smashing the Glass (particularly this post), Pinterest and Instagram the hashtag #chuppah always works a treat!

Whilst you’re scrolling you can begin to think of the style you are heading towards and how you might be able to turn those inspirational images into a reality. Here you might decide if you are DIY-ing or looking for some support from a florist and a rental company or a design service (like me!) for the truly one-off personal chuppah.

Image: Dave Robbins from Jessie & Craig’s book-themed Jewish wedding

How to turn your vision into reality?

So, you are a newly engaged bride-to-be with a massive wedding Pinterest board and a whole load of new hashtags to follow on Instagram… so how do you turn all these ideas into something for your big day?

Do you go for it and DIY the whole thing or get someone in to do it for you? Both definitely have their merits. If you choose to DIY your chuppah then I’d suggest doing a bit of research before you plan it all out.Continue Reading

Chuppah ideas & styling for a modern Jewish wedding

05/08/2016 by Smashing The Glass

This is a guest post by Cora Norrey, Category Manager for Weddings at Not On The High Street
Above image taken from Lemor & Adam’s Jewish wedding by Maloman Studios

Styling your own chuppah can be a fantastic way to stamp your personality on your day, and is also a great way of figuring out what it is you want your day to look like. As the basic structure is set, how you dress it can really start opening up what you want your personal style to be.

rustic chic

Faux flowers and foliage can often evoke a shudder of fear among many, but the industry has come on leaps and bounds in recent years with faux flora often giving the real thing a run for its money. And in terms of value and peace of mind, artificial foliage and flowers will obviously last as long as you need and you can repurpose them in your home or garden later. Wrapping thick and luscious strands of foliage round the supporting poles can create a beautiful focal point and creating an asymmetrical look by concentrating the foliage on one side only, can really help modernise the look. You can then use the same flowers as styling throughout the day in bouquets, button holes and centre pieces really helping to create a strong coherent look.

Image: Lisa Rigby Photography

keepsake elements

The rustic look lends itself beautifully to the elegance of the chuppah. Using tree branches for poles, you can create a beautiful lasting keepsake by carving your initials and the date on one of the poles and displaying this as art in your home for years to come.

Left image: Taylor Lord Photography :: Right image: Gia Canali Photography

A Pronovias bride and a Dolce & Gabbana groom for an ‘enchanted garden’ Jewish wedding, at Luton Hoo, Hertfordshire, UK

02/10/2015 by Karen

I’m absolutely blown away by this morning’s wedding. Not only are the details divine, the Pronovias dress to-die-for and the planning, by Outrage Events, utterly fabulous, but Cassy’s write up of her and Mark’s day really comes from the heart — as did Cassy’s efforts for the entire wedding.

Frankly, any bride who gets married under a chuppah styled out of a giant birdcage adorned with brightly-coloured ribbons and a rainbow of flowers, is an absolute winner in my book. But Cassy takes the originality one step further with beautifully illustrated wedding stationery, matching bespoke smoking slippers for her and Mark (yes really!), a silent disco, and personalised hangover packs for every guest. I’m telling you, I love, love, love this wedding with a cherry on top!

There are all sorts of wonderful wedding vendors involved in this W-Day, including two of my much loved Smashing Suppliers, make-up artist Philippa Louise, and the immensely talented photographer and film-maker John Nassari who alerted me to this wedding in the first place. I’m such a huge fan of John Nassari’s. Not only are his images and film some of the best in the business, but he is a fantastic guy to boot – just a total pleasure to be around. Cassy certainly agrees – just read what she has to say about him! In fact I will hand you over to her right now for the full report.

Happy Friday lovelies… and for any of you that are venturing on down to Brides The Show tomorrow, I would absolutely LOVE to see you there!

how we met

Cassy, the Bride: Mark and I met when I was 13 years old and Mark was 17! He was a very close friend of my older brother and from the time we first met until we started going out, he was often in and around my life at my brother’s parties and birthday’s. My brother was naturally very protective and made it very clear to all his friends that I was completely, 100%, absolutely out of bounds! That being said, Mark was always ‘my favourite’ out of his friends and we got on amazingly well. When we started hanging out more regularly and on and one on one basis, just over 10 years later, that’s when the true foundation of our realtionship started. From there it went from strength to strength and we soon started going out (much to my brother’s absolute horror) However, once Mark explained his intentions were only honorable and I rationalised that actually this was a good thing, my brother realised it was a great thing one of his best friends would perhaps be his brother in law! Two years after we got together, Mark proposed and the rest, as they say, is history.

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Top 10 Chuppah Entrance Songs

17/11/2014 by Karen

Image by Elisabeth Millay taken from Tory & Brooks’ beachside Jewish wedding

The original Top 10 Chuppah Entrance Songs that was written in 2013 is one of Smashing The Glass‘s most popular posts, but having been published over a year ago, I asked Maya Bechor from Zebra Music who complied the original piece, to write a ‘part 2’ with 10 hot new songs including some recent releases from 2014.

What I love about Zebra Music is that they’re great at encouraging couples to step out of their comfort zone of ‘ordinary wedding music’. They know exactly how to get the crowd pumped and the party started! So here are the Top 10 cool, new , unexpected chuppah songs for 2015 weddings and beyond!

The Chuppah – Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained #5

17/10/2014 by Karen

All imagery by Blake Ezra Photography. This is part 5 of the 9-part Jewish Wedding Traditions Explained series.

The word ‘chuppah’ is used in two ways. Firstly, it’s the Hebrew name of the canopy under which Jewish couples get married. Secondly, it’s also colloquially used as another word for ‘ceremony’. So if someone asks you “When’s the chuppah?” don’t assume they’ve lost all grasp of how to put a sentence together, they’re not asking when the canopy is, but when the ceremony starts.

So what is a chuppah? Why do Jewish couples get married underneath one? What do they do when they get there?

The chuppah, like many elements of a Jewish wedding, is beautifully symbolic. It symbolises the home that the couple will build together in their married life, and is open on all sides like the biblical tent of Abraham and Sarah, signifying that everyone is welcome and that everyone will be treated hospitably.

For readers of this blog, who may be planning their own Jewish wedding, the chuppah is also one of the great opportunities to personalise your ceremony. It can range from a massively decadent, custom-designed piece of floral artistry, to four friends holding poles, upon which sits a custom made quilt or Jewish prayer shawl, called a Tallit.