Converse Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Smashing the Glass

A Monique Lhuillier bride for a city chic Jewish wedding at Bloomsbury Ballroom, London, UK

18/12/2015 by Karen

Not only is today’s bride, Dana, a big fan of Smashing The Glass (I always love to hear that!) she also found her super talented florist, Gloria Baker, through the blog, and my goodness, what a breathtaking chuppah Gloria created. It’s a chuppah to die for. Anyone that’s after a dreamy, romantic, floral look should get their pinterest boards at the ready, and if not, get all old school with a notepad and pen — seriously it’s THAT good.

Dana and Jacob married at central London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom and they definitely achieved their aim of creating the greatest party of their lives. A massive 80% of their guests flew in from abroad and everyone partied so hard you just knew they weren’t working the following day! From personalised masks of Dana and Jacob, to flip flop favours, photo booths, and glasses emblazoned with ‘Dana and Jacob’, every dance floor detail was thought of.

I haven’t even mentioned Dana’s epic gown yet.. She wore ‘Sarah’ by Monique Lhuillier but she went a step further and got one of the wonderful seamstresses at Browns Bride to create a detachable skirt so that she could completely change up her look for the ceremony and the party. Brilliant!

As with almost every Jewish wedding ceremony, theirs was steeped in tradition and ritual, and they managed to successfully combine both Ashkenazi and Sephardi wedding traditions to reflect both their heritages. They also made the decision not to see or talk to each other for an entire week before the wedding! This is one of my favourite religious Jewish wedding traditions, but one that I rarely see carried out (for the full week) these days.

All the images and film are by Shedrin & Rubi, who Dana and Jacob flew in all the way from Israel.

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A super cool and creative, colourful Jewish wedding at Middle Street Synagogue, and The Grand, Brighton, UK

01/12/2015 by Karen

Oh my goodness. Where on earth do I start with this wedding?! It’s such fun, and it’s just bursting at the seams with creative details that will make you squeal. Seriously — it’s that good!

There are gold pineapples, the most exquisitely branded stationery (all designed by the bride), an enchanting alternative to a guest book, bridesmaids in the most epic shade of coral, a personalised head-in-hole board (a must-have when your wedding is by the English seaside!) and beautifully designed welcome bag totes (again designed by bride) filled with Brighton Rock, fish & chips shaped crackers, and all sorts of other seaside-themed treats.

It’s clear from looking at all of the delicious details in this big day that Danielle poured her heart and soul into all of the planning. Everything was evidently created with the greatest care and love, and, not surprisingly, her wedding features some of my much-loved Smashing Suppliers doing an AMAZING job.

I’m talking about Jonny Mosesson (their incredible chazan under the chuppah —who also was the chazan at my wedding!) and Stephanie Allin, Danielle’s sensational wedding dress designer, who bizarrely enough, designed my wedding dress too! Danielle says, “I hope that anyone reading this who likes the sound of anything we did gets in touch with our vendors because they made our day so incredible — they were absolutely brilliant.”

This wedding is literally the perfect mix of Jewish tradition and super cool creativity and I think you’re going to love it. I certainly did!

Oh, and their ‘How We Met’ story is beyond… their mums set them up!!

All of the laughter was captured by one of my favourite photographers, Kristian Leven, making a very welcome debut on STG today.

Take it away Danielle!

how we met

Our mums set us up. Yes, it’s true!

They knew each other when they were kids growing up in Leeds and then happened to be seated together at a wedding two years ago. They figured out that they both had kids the same age. Who were single. My mum had had a few too many cocktails and so Gideon’s mum, someone who will never take no for an answer, ended up going home with my phone number! When I spoke to my mum about the wedding the next day, she never mentioned it because she never thought he would call. And he didn’t. But he texted! And the rest is history!

A Rue de Seine bride for a Jewish Wedding under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Simmer on the Bay, Dawes Point, Australia

20/10/2015 by Karen

Nikki and Jem are just the coolest couple and their big day from the world-famous Sydney Harbour Bridge embraces the most beautiful Jewish wedding traditions whilst maintaining a totally free-spirited, energetic and fun vibe. It’s been sensationally captured by Australian photographer Dan O’Day whose work I adore — I could have filled this feature with every image he sent me and you’ll probably be able to tell I struggled to stop myself from doing just that!

I love pretty much everything about Nikki and Jem’s Jewish wedding but one of my favourite details (that I’ve never seen done before) is the couple choosing to shelve the idea of traditional favours, and instead place custom ribbons with their monogram and date on them at everyone’s place setting. They then invited guests to create their own bouquets from the gorgeous wild flowers that were in front of them, tie them together with the ribbons and take them home. Such a beautiful and thoughtful idea.

Nikki also bought her bride posse (note, Nikki doesn’t call them bridesmaids!) a pair of Converse each, and left them on their seats with “dancing shoes” tags.

Fashion stylist Nikki looks utterly gorgeous in her Rue de Seine gown — the New Zealand designers make the most perfect boho bridal romantic dresses combining rich beading, intricate detailing and sheer draping, and they just seem to design for the coolest, most stylish brides. If you’re looking for a more modest dress they cater for this brilliantly with many of their designs incorporating high necks and long sleeves.

Right, shall we dive into this super cool wedding then? Trust me, you’re going to love it…

how we met

Nikki, the Bride: We met in 2009 through a mutual friend who was trying to help Jem and his buddy get a jeans label off the ground. Our mutual friend suggested that I be their first model (because I was the only person small enough to fit in their teeny tiny samples!) I was interning at Cosmopolitan magazine at the time looking to get a career in fashion so it was a common interest for us both I guess. Jem now works in finance but I’m still in fashion. I was not born Jewish, and as our friendship grew, so did my love for Judaism. Once he found out I was looking into converting he also saw it as an opportunity for us to start dating, and the rest is history.
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Pop Art Jewish wedding full of creative surprises, at The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

06/10/2015 by Karen

“Just because the wedding industry encourages conformity, you don’t have to comply. Do it your way!”

Top advice from this morning’s bride, Melody, and yes she did! This is a wedding EXTRAVAGANZA. Seriously — I’ve never seen anything like it and the truth is, I don’t even know where to begin. Perhaps I should start by saying that I think this is one of my favourite weddings EVER to appear on Smashing The Glass and having blogged over 150 super cool real Jewish weddings I don’t say that lightly.

I love that the chuppah was created by the bride and features multi-coloured pom poms and green grass. I love that Melody walked down the aisle to a mash-up of Forever Young and Canon in D. I love that the bride and groom both wore custom Converse with ‘Let Love Win” embroidered down the side. I love that instead of the usual sit-down dinner, guests were treated to a ‘pop-up’ restaurant, where they had to make a reservation and come back for their table. I love that the bridesmaids wore flower ‘bib’ necklaces (yes Melody made that a thing!). And I love that the wedding theme was inspired by the artist Frida Kahlo and her vibrant colour palate. You see… anything can inspire your wedding theme, literally anything! Think outside of the box, and as far as your mind can take you.

There is also a a drag queen performing as Beyoncà© AND a flash mob of kids ‘interrupting’ the first dance. You have to see it to believe it (check it all out in the highlights video at the end by the super talented Rodinis Films).

Oh and gummy bears are loosely woven into this the big day too.

The whole shebang was documented by photography geniuses, Chrisman Studios. Every time I feature one of their weddings I know it’s going to be a memorable post, but this one is an absolute corker. It’s clear that Melody and Michael invested so much time and effort into making their wedding uniquely them and I can’t wait a moment longer to show it to you.

Come on then… let’s take a look. Over to Melody, today’s awesome bride.

how we met

Melody, the Bride: We met through Mellow Mushroom (a national pizza franchise in the USA). Michael is a multi-unit franchisee, and my father is one of the founders of the company. My dad introduced us, he thought we would make a good match. We fell in love over pizza!

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Sarah & Nick | Uber cool and intimate ‘Red’ Jewish wedding at Forman’s Smoked Salmon Fish Factory, Olympic Park, London, UK

04/11/2014 by Karen

One, two, three and breathe Karen…

That’s what I said to myself when Smashing The Glass reader, Sarah’s à¼ber cool London wedding to Nick dropped into my inbox, so impressed was I by their unusual venue (a smoked salmon factory in London’s Olympic Park !), their teenage sweetheart love story, and their choice of wedding transport through the streets of London. Oh yes, these two traveled from synagogue to reception in a red convertible Mustang!

And you’ve got to hand it to a bride that rocks a leather biker jacket and Ray-Bans over her Pronovias dress…

I also love the fact that Sarah and Nick invited just their very closest friends and family, and that they found their chazan (cantor), Jonny Mosesson, via the blog’s Smashing Suppliers recommended vendor list. Jonny is one of the most talented people I know and to think that this blog is able to connect brides with the industry’s very best makes me a very happy bunny indeed.

But back to Sarah and Nick — thank you for submitting your beautiful wedding and thank you to Reportage By for capturing it so wonderfully. Here’s the whole story in Sarah’s words.

HOW WE MET
Sarah, the Bride: Nick and I met at school aged 11. We were always friends but nothing ever happened whilst we were studying together. We stayed in touch when we left at 16 but he and his family were in Miami and I was in LA. We went on a ‘catch up’ date when we were both back in London when we were 19, and my mum even said, you will marry Nick. She has always had a sixth sense…