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My advice to you as we close out 2020

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Image: John Nassari

If you could travel with your love and get married just the two of you in a magical setting right now, would you?

It could be tempting, but then tomorrow you might feel completely differently and want that big celebration for 200 loved ones, and a Hora so crowded your dress gets trampled on, and your face glistens with sweaty glee!

Such a tough time – and you must allow yourself to feel however you’re feeling.

And no one can tell you what that feeling should be.

You’re allowed to feel sad, lost, excited or anything else on the scale of Coronacoaster emotions.

Then take a deep breath and remember that the reality this pandemic is awakening some of us to, is that life DOES throw us curveballs.

How we manage them is a benchmark for how we manage life.

The current moment is a real test for us to find out how flexible we can be, and how we can manage, at a time when our lives are so deeply disrupted.

Managing the uncertainty

Times of uncertainty make us feel incredibly disempowered – and that’s not how anyone wants to feel.

Under normal circumstances, being a bride- or groom-to-be is often a very empowering experience – we get to make plans to create the day of our dreams, and while all that choice can be overwhelming, it’s also exhilarating.

Now, the situation has been flipped on its head. It feels like everything’s been taken out of our control as we’re forced to radically reimagine what our weddings might look like.

Adding insult to injury, a lot of us are also facing financial struggles we’d never have imagined.

A shift in perspective

To regain a sense of control and empowerment in your life – and your wedding plans – it will take a shift in perspective. And coming to terms with what we can and cannot control at this time is in itself an act of empowerment.

The silver lining in all of this? Life’s not going to stop throwing those curveballs, and dealing with them as a team is a skill you’ll need to have in your toolbox throughout your life together as a couple.

Learning to work together with your partner to get through a crisis sooner rather than later can only set your marriage up for success.

I hope you’re feeling ok. I have opened up my Brides Club for you to benefit from it for free for 30 days if you feel you need advice or someone to chat to. Just click here and you’ll be inside in moments.

Wishing you so much love and endless amounts of only good things.

Love Karen x

 

A Nouvelle Amsale Bride for an Autumnal Outdoor DIY Jewish Wedding on a Budget at Camp Holiday Trails in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

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Erin-and-Josh-Camp-Holiday-Trails-Charlottesville

We could not be any more overjoyed to be featuring the gorgeous DIY Jewish wedding of our beloved Brides Club member and blogging bride Erin as our very last wedding of 2020!

Erin, a medical education coordinator at the University of Virginia, and Josh, a musician and fourth-grade teacher at a forest school, had originally planned to wed at their synagogue, followed by a reception at a local restaurant. But like so many 2020 couples, they had to retool their day when COVID hit. They were intent on marrying on their original date, but knew they needed a mostly outdoor venue that allowed for social distancing.

Luckily, Erin and Josh live in beautiful Charlottesville, Virginia, and they were able to find a spot that perfectly fit the bill in Camp Holiday Trails, which during the summer functions as a camp for children with medical needs – so not only did they end up with incredible natural scenery  requiring very little in the way of added decor (abundant fall foliage AND the Blue Ridge mountains as a backdrop? Yes please!), they were able to support a good cause too.

Erin and Josh were on a tight budget – but luckily they also happen to be super craftsy, and they ended up creating so many incredible DIY touches that really made their day pop. The highlight has got to be the ketubah they created together, featuring a gorgeous composite photo of the couple sitting by a local pond looking up at the Milky Way (with photos by the groom) – perfectly in keeping with their loose theme of “a starry fall night in the mountains.” We also love the cool copper pipe chuppah these two built – which they plan to repurpose in the future as parts for their sukkah! Don’t miss it – and all the other handcrafted touches – in the incredible photos from Steve of Photography Champloo.

The couple also had some help from their wonderful friends and family – Erin’s sister, Kaley Agee, happens to be a professional photographer, and she pitched in with some getting-ready shots on the big day in addition to manning the videography (which Erin and Josh will be editing themselves). And when Erin determined a florist was out of budget, her amazing friend and fellow Brides Club member Karisa, sent over some unused Sola Wood Flowers left over from her own wedding, which Erin dyed and hand-painted herself.

There’s so much more to say about this fantastic wedding, but we’ll let Erin tell you the rest…

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How we Met

Erin, the bride: Josh and I met how any good millennials meet – on a dating app! Josh and I had the unusual courtship of two months of talking before we ever met in person (it was the Thanksgiving holiday, then I went down to Florida to see my family over the winter holidays, and then by the time I got back, Josh was on a Birthright trip to Israel!)

We were finally able to meet in January of 2018, and we both fell hard pretty quickly after our first date at a local coffee shop (where we both unknowingly ordered the same drink!)Continue ReadingContinue Reading

An Alexandra Grecco Bride for an Ultra-Emotional Jewish Wedding Celebrating Life at the Dorint Park Hotel in Bremen, Germany

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Louis-and-Eunice-Dorint-Park-Hotel-in-Bremen

Like lots of 2020 couples, Eunice, a Brazilian criminal lawyer, and Louis, a Dutch mathematician (who met in Hebrew class in Bremen, Germany!) had a very different wedding than the one they’d originally planned. However, in their case it wasn’t due to the pandemic: tragically, Louis’s father, Theo, was diagnosed with terminal cancer this year. Getting married without him there was, in the bride’s words, “not an option,” and so the couple shifted their plans from a June 2021 beach wedding in the Netherlands to a local affair close to home in Bremen in September 2020.

It wasn’t easy – not least since, due to COVID, only Eunice’s mother was able to make it to the wedding from Brazil – but Eunice and Louis managed to plan the most incredibly beautiful, joyous day with Theo present to bless them, deliver an ultra-moving speech, and even dance with them in his wheelchair. It was incredibly bittersweet – Theo passed away just three days after the chuppah – but the couple were so grateful to have him present, and for the way their photography and videography team, made up of Sabine Lange and her sister Beate of Photo Lauricella, managed to capture not only the love and happiness of the day but also the sorrow of the pair’s impending loss.

Every so often, we come across a wedding that really shows us what it’s all about – and this was most certainly one of them. In Eunice’s words:

I honestly can say it was the best day of my life. I can’t say it was the setting I dreamed, but it was the setting I needed to grow and to become a stronger woman and closer to G’d. For that I’m grateful.

Read on for more wisdom from this wonderful bride.

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How we met

Eunice the bride: We met while trying to improve our Hebrew. We ended up signing up for the same class at the university of Bremen, where we met, live and got married.

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A Martina Liana Bride for a Backyard Jewish Wedding in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

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Alyson and Josh, private residence, USA

Aly, a pre-K teacher, and Josh, a warehouse manager, were planning a big wedding at a winery – until COVID came into the picture. Opting to move forward with their plans to wed on their original date, these two cut their guest list down by 100 and shifted the proceedings to the bride’s parents’ backyard.

But if we hadn’t known all this backstory, we’d never have guessed Aly and Josh’s gorgeous wedding was anything other than plan A. Their intimate day was so full of love – not to mention beautiful details like a chuppah swathed in gauzy white fabric and dramatic fall florals and an exuberant, colorful ketubah inspired by Philadelphia’s famous Love sign by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Nava Shoham of 1-800-Ketubah. And, of course, personalized hand sanitizer favors for the guests.

Now over to the bride, who looked simply ravishing in Martina Liana…

Alyson and Josh, private residence, USAAlyson and Josh, private residence, USAAlyson and Josh, private residence, USAAlyson and Josh, private residence, USA
How we Met

Aly, the bride: Josh and I technically met on the app Snapchat! One of my good friends posted a photo of him stating he was single and I didn’t waste a minute to tell her to hook us up. The next morning I got a phone call from her telling me to be ready by 9:00 and that we were going on a double date. The second we met we knew that we wanted to continue to get to know each other. We went on another date, then another, then another until we started seeing each other every day and eventually he asked me to move in.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Bride: Sarah on a Chrismukkah Miracle

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Sarah will be marrying Rich on 20th June 2021 at Tikitano Beach, Marbella, Spain. Click here to read all Sarah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Sarah knew Rich was the one when he brought a gift of dog treats for her toy poodle Nuala along to their fourth date! (2) They are crafting an amazing destination wedding weekend in Marbella with beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended vendor optimum weddings as their planner. (3) Sarah is a member of  Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


Since my last blog post a lot has happened! Last month I was busy co-ordinating with my wonderful wedding planner (and now boss!) Dyana to get a third backup date in place for June 2022. I wasn’t sure where we would be Covid wise, but I knew that with the number of new weddings and postponed ones, I didn’t want to leave getting our desired date in place to chance. All of our providers have afforded us incredible generosity and flexibility and I am enormously grateful for that.

Needless to say, I hoped and still do hope that this date is just a cautious formality. November really was a month filled with ups and downs, the world had some great news (a breath of fresh air for 2020) with the election of President Elect Joe Biden and in less exciting news, the UK was plunged into lockdown round two.

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