coronavirus Archives - Page 2 of 23 - Smashing the Glass

A Madi Lane Bride for a Rustic and Relaxed Backyard Jewish Wedding in London, UK

25/03/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

There’s something so special about a backyard Jewish wedding. That personal touch of making things official in your family home – there’s nothing like it. Even though today’s couple, Sara, a speech and language therapist, and Jason, a payments manager, didn’t initially plan to hold their wedding in the bride’s parent’s garden – their pre-pandemic plan A was Israel – in the end their day turned out to be everything they could’ve hoped for and then some.

Due to the pandemic, Sara and Jason kept the ceremony and dinner to just immediate family, and then invited a handful of close friends to join afterward for dancing and late-night snacks. Working with a fabulous team of vendors, the pair transformed the garden into the perfect rustic retreat, adorned with flowers and candles and all kinds of soft romantic touches.

Sara and Jason’s chuppah, rented from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Happy Chuppah People (who they found right here on STG!), was the perfect cornerstone for their rustically romantic aesthetic. They opted for “The Finchley,” built on natural branches that looked as if they were just growing out of the garden.

The couple report that one of the best decisions they made in their wedding planning was working with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Events with Grace as their on-the-day coordinator. Grace helped keep things organized during the last month of planning, and on the day she made sure everything ran smoothly and took the pressure off Sara and Jason and their families.

Scroll through Megan Donati Photography’s beautiful imagery and you’ll see what an absolute dream of a day this turned out to be. We’ll let Sara take it from here…

How We Met

Sara, the bride: We first spoke on an Aish trip when were 17. We had actually met a year earlier but I had forgotten on the trip. Jason came up to me and started talking like we were old friends. I wasn’t sure at first but on the trip we became friendly. When we got home, we started a long-distance friendship. The rest is history; we dated for 4 years long distance until Jason made the move to Essex.Continue Reading

A Berta Bride for a Timelessly Glam Jewish Wedding with a Cannabis Bar at Chicago Illuminating Company, Chicago, Illinois, USA

18/03/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

We are absolutely, positively in love with Alana and Benjamin’s jawdroppingly gorgeous Chicago Jewish wedding. Swathed in greenery and twinkly lights, the ambience these two created for their day was nothing short of magical (don’t miss the stunning photos by Avery House!) – and we love that they added in some unexpected personal touches, like a cannabis bar!

Perfectly matching their color scheme focused on neutrals, white, and gold was the couple’s fabulous ketubah from beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Ketubist. Featuring papercut gold peonies on a white background, the design is SO chic – and Alana and Benjamin loved working with founder Talia.

This wedding was full of so many more wonderful touches, but we’ll leave the rest to Alana, who looked nothing short of ravishing in her exquisite gown from Israeli designer Berta…

How we Met

Alana, the bride: Formally, we met on the Jewish dating app J-Swipe. However, Benjamin’s friend from Jewish summer camp happened to have been my college roommate and eventually became our Rabbi. He played a significant role in our courtship after we met. We are both psychotherapists.Continue Reading

A Casablanca Bride for a Pandemic Jewish Wedding at Indian Trail Club, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA

14/03/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

Like so many couples over the past few years, Rachel and Ben’s plans for their Jewish wedding were upended by the pandemic. Rachel, who works in the Senate, and Ben, who runs a tech startup, ended up with a celebration – or rather, two celebrations – that looked a lot different than what they’d initially planned.

But both their March 2021 family-only micro ceremony and their October 2021 reception for a larger crowd were SO full of love and joy, we can’t imagine anything better. We’re in love with the photos by Berit Bizjak (March) and Phillip Van Nostrand (October). And how amazing is it that all eight grandparents were present to witness Rachel and Ben’s marriage?!

And of course we’re totally obsessed with the pair’s beautiful hand papercut ketubah by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Noa Attias! Rachel and Ben are thrilled to have such a gorgeous and meaningful piece of art to commemorate their bond, and they loved working with Noa, who was super flexible with their constantly changing wedding date! The duo have become such fans of Noa that they’ve purchased more of her fabulous art since their big day.

Now over to the bride…

How we Met

Rachel, the bride: We met as undergraduate students in NYC when Rachel was set up with Ben to accompany him to a dance in the spring of 2013, and we started dating that fall. The rest is history!Continue Reading

A Ran Zuriel Bride for an International Indoor/Outdoor Jewish Wedding at Gioia Mia, Kibbutz Nahshonim, Israel

04/03/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

There’s nothing like an international Jewish wedding – so naturally we’re obsessed with today’s! Bride Michelle, who works in HR, hails from Argentina, and Darren, who works at a private security and intelligence firm, is from the UK. They met after both had moved to Israel, and now live in Tel Aviv.

And in planning their day, they strove to mix all three cultures in everything they did, from the speeches (each was delivered in English, Spanish, and Hebrew!) to the food to the music. When it came to the latter, the duo found the perfect partner in Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor DJ Naor, who read the crowd perfectly and kept the dance floor full with his mix of Israeli tracks, traditional Jewish music, British classics, Latino, Funk and House, and bangers!

We’ve also got to mention what an absolutely stunning venue Michelle and Darren picked. They loved Gioia Mia, in central Israel, for its space, energy, and indoor/outdoor mix – not to mention the gorgeous outdoor chuppah area. Don’t miss the fabulous pics from photographer Boris of Flea Studio.

There’s so much more to say – like how the couple’s wedding date fell not even a week after Israel opened up to international travelers in November 2021 – but we’ll leave all that to the couple…

How we Met

We met on a dating app called OkCupid – Darren looked for a woman in the Kfar Saba area who speaks Hebrew, Spanish, and English and Michelle appeared like mannah from heaven!Continue Reading

A Joyce Young Bride for a Jewish Wedding Worth the Wait at Dartmouth House, London, UK

28/02/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

We’re so excited to be featuring the Jewish wedding of our beautiful Brides Club member Jos today! As with so many couples over the past few years, Jos, who works for a tech company in product marketing, and Daniel, a lawyer, had lots of setbacks on the way to marital bliss – including THREE postponements and a change of venue – but the final outcome was more than worth the wait, as we’re sure you’ll agree if you scroll through the incredible photos by Rachel takes Pictures.

We so loved having Jos in Brides Club, where she made real-life friends she’s still connected with post-wedding and found some of her fabulous vendors, including their videographer Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Adrian Stone and planner Katy Cresner.

Speaking of Adrian Stone – The Dream Catchers – we can’t say it any better than Jos did herself: “When we received our Storybook film and highlights edit it was better than anything I could ever wish for. Adrian captured the spirit of the day and so many moments that would have been forgotten if we didn’t work with him.”

We’re also in awe of the couple’s florals by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Blue Sky Flowers. Jos and Daniel chatted with founder Liz about their preferences and then left her to run the show… and they were absolutely blown away by the results, as are we! The duo also loved that Liz donates flowers leftover at the end of the night to Floral Angels, so that other people can enjoy them!

There were so many more wonderful personal touches to this day, but we’ll leave it to Jos, who looked stunning in Joyce Young, to tell you about all that…

How we Met

Jos, the bride: We met on a cold January evening at the Freemasons Arms pub in Hampstead, but originally we both swiped right on Tinder. Well he swiped for me, my friend swiped for him, but that’s another story.

We got engaged on the Greek island of Naxos, which is now our absolute favourite place on this planet. It was simple and quintessentially us, and we set about planning our wedding almost as soon as we got back.

We were originally meant to get married in June 2020 with 250 people at Hackney town Hall. We were one of many couples who had to cancel because of covid and we were a little optimistic with trying two more times in November 2020 and March 2021, both dates fell during national lockdowns and we pushed it to April 2022 and got on with our lives.

We bought a house and a dog like good covid millennials. I have to say, that I put wedding planning completely on the back burner. I found it really hard to get excited and I was super anxious about moving forward with a wedding date before 2022 because I was terrified that people would get sick. Being honest, I’m not sure if I saw how much limbo we were living in, it was an important event that we were very keen to have, but we were also totally paralysed by the events in the world.

In August 2021 my mum went on holiday with her cousin and called me from the beach declaring she thought it would be a great idea of we just got married in October. She wanted to be as early into Autumn as possible, in the hope that there were no covid restrictions. Initially she had suggested getting married in their garden, but that proved to be unworkable, so in 6 weeks we planned a cut down, but just as fabulous wedding, it was a whirlwind but one we couldn’t be more grateful we did when we did it.Continue Reading