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Brides Club: Supporting You and Your Jewish (or Jew-ish) Wedding through the Coronavirus Crisis

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KAREN-CINNAMON
Ever since I launched, Smashing The Glass’s members-only Brides Club – a group for Jewish and Jew-ish brides looking to lower the stress and maximize the fun of planning a big day that’s totally, 100% you – I’ve firmly believed creating the group is one of the best things I’ve ever done.

Brides Club has grown into an incredible, strong community of Jewish and Jew-ish women all over the world, who celebrate each other’s triumphs and support each other through challenges – and never has the community come through more strongly than over the past few weeks. 

With so many of our members faced with incredibly tough choices – things they never would’ve imagined even a month ago – and many forced to postpone their long-planned weddings, the community has come together in the most beautiful way.

The positivity and love exuding from my screen every time I pop into the very active Brides Club Facebook group is just unbelievable. 

While Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club is an incredible community and resource in calmer times, in this crisis it’s truly become a one-stop shop for everything from pandemic wedding planning guidance to social distance socializing and beyond – read on to hear about just a few of the ways we’re supporting our members through COVID-19, and how you can try it for yourself free for 30 days. 


STG Brides Club members came to my home for a Challah Bake a few months ago.. so much fun and so many treasured connections were made!

Wedding Planning Solved, Weekly

For the duration of the coronavirus crisis, we’ve upped the frequency of our Wedding Planning Solved live monthly group chats to once per week. Every Sunday, I’m chatting with you live about any and all wedding planning questions/concerns/struggles you’ve got – related to the pandemic or otherwise. This is a wonderful opportunity to talk through anything – truly, no concern is too large or too small – with me 1:1, as well as to receive support and wisdom from your fellow #coronabrides.

So much positivity and action-taking have come about as a result of these calls and I urge you to join STG Brides Club for this feature alone!

Join our Brides Club for free here to benefit from 1:1 help with your wedding plans.


Some of our members have gotten so close they’ve attended each other’s weddings!

Social Distance Socializing 

Since we’ve had to put our local in-person group meetups on hold, instead we’re hosting a weekly virtual happy hour via Zoom. Brides Club members from all over the world are grabbing their quarantinis and logging on to chat with each other about anything and everything – from the craziness that is the world today to engagement stories to Passover plans. 

We’re even throwing virtual Zoom birthday parties for our members who are missing out on their usual out-of-house celebrations! 

Join our Brides Club for free here to join us at our bride-to-be and newlywed virtual Happy Hour!


If you sign up and join Quarantine Camp, this could be you! Our beloved member Jenna, who led this in-person challah making meetup in NYC last summer, is bringing her skills to you virtually in one of our (many) sessions.

Quarantine Camp

Our members are an exceptionally talented – and varied – bunch, so to keep us all entertained and learning during this time, we decided to tap into the Brides Club hivemind and recruit our members to teach us some new skills as we self-isolate. We’ve got upcoming live video sessions teaching us yoga, challah baking, positive psychology, singing, basic French, beginner weightlifting, and much, much more. 

I’m also joining in teaching a session on how to turn your passion into profit and make money online.

Join our Brides Club for free here to benefit from all the Quarantine Camp sessions!

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Real Jewish Brides: Orli On Finding A Moment Of Peace Amongst The Crazy

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Orli will be marrying Ben on 6th September 2020 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK. Click here to read all Orli’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Orli and Ben met on Jswipe. (2) Although their venue, the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, couldn’t be more quintessentially London, Orli and Ben are going for a countryside feel. (3) Orli is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

Coronavirus In Our Lives

It’s hard at the moment for the coronavirus not to be at the forefront of everyone’s mind. You get on the train and you grab a Metro and it’s on the first page in bold. You look at your phone first thing in the morning and BBC news pops up with the latest figures.

You check your Instagram and someone’s talking about it, Facebook it’s the same. We catch up with friends, we talk to colleagues and we find ourselves slowly broaching the subject, how are they feeling about it. I am guilty of refreshing BBC news every half an hour or so to find the latest information. Yet the more I look, the more I know, the more I feel in control of the situation but the more I know the more I realise it is.

Now this post is not about the coronavirus, it’s really about what we can do to take a step away from all of the news and to find a mindfulness moment, a moment away from the stress of the news and a moment to breathe.

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Real Jewish Bride: Sarah on Planning a Wedding During Coronavirus

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Sarah will be marrying Rich on 21th June 2020 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!

When you plan a wedding you always expect there to be bumps along the way, such as family dilemmas, issues with the band, the logistics of an abroad wedding, and so on. What you don’t plan for is a worldwide pandemic three months before you are meant to say “I do”!

The Coronavirus has become a talking point like no other. It is the only thing that people want to talk about, and when it is mentioned in the same sentence as your wedding then it is never a good scenario!

I started off a little anxious about it but then I decided to be positive because it is out of my control and I can’t worry about something which I cannot control. However, that is all well and good until you have people calling you and asking you what your contingency plan is and if you are going to postpone the wedding!

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Coronavirus (COVID-19): What to Do If Your Wedding’s Coming Up Soon 

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Where there’s a will there’s a way: this awesome couple got around Israel’s current 10-person limit on gatherings by getting married in a supermarket, one of the few spots where more people are permitted to gather! Big props to this duo, whose wedding is featured in all the images in this post, and their photographer, Meir Lavi.

If you’re getting married in the next few weeks, or even months, you’re no doubt consumed with coronavirus wedding concerns.

I know some of you are facing some really tough decisions right now about whether to postpone your weddings, or else potentially face drastically reduced guest lists.

If postponing seems like a good option for you (and only you and your family can decide that – it’s a very personal decision), contact your venue and vendors to see if there is a backup date that works, and find out when you need to make a final decision. Get this in writing and make a note of the date by when you need to make a final decision. 

To Postpone or Not to Postpone?

What are some reasons postponing might be especially worth considering?

As of the writing of this post, the latest US guidelines call for avoiding groups of more than 10 people through at least the end of March, with CDC guidelines calling for Americans to cancel or postpone events for more than 50 people through early May. So unless you’re down for a hyper-intimate ceremony (which is an option not to be discounted – see below for more on this), if you’re planning to get married in the US this spring your decision will likely have been made for you. 

Same if you’ve been planning a wedding in Italy, where non-essential travel and gatherings of over 100 people are banned at least until April 3 (and likely longer).

If your wedding is set for somewhere with less stringent guidelines at present, you’ll want to consider whether you’ve got lots of guests traveling from abroad, who may very possibly be unable or unwilling to make the trip under the circumstances. You’ll also want to consider elderly, immunocompromised, and otherwise at-risk guests – if you have many on your list, or if their numbers include any VIPs you can’t see yourself getting married without, postponing may be your best bet.

Now and Later

There remains the option to have a small ceremony now – civil and/or religious – and hold the big celebration until things are calmer. This can literally be the two of you, an officiant, and two witnesses, or it can be an intimate gathering of just a handful of your very closest family and friends.

Some of our STG Brides Club members have done exactly this, opting to have a civil wedding followed by a small lunch or dinner now, and a Jewish ceremony at a later date when more guests will be able to celebrate with them. This way, they can still celebrate (and, you know, actually be married!) on their original wedding date. If you go this route, you can even livestream the ceremony to those who can’t attend in person if you like! 

Now is the time to think out of the box, and to stay focused on what really matters – like the awesome Israeli couple pictured in the photos throughout this post did.

To get around Israel’s current restrictions on gatherings of more than 10 people, they opted to hold their Jewish wedding in a supermarket, one of the few spots where larger crowds are allowed to congregate! Is this the wedding these two thought they’d be having three months ago? Almost certainly not. But is it just as special and beautiful as the most luxe of weddings we see in non-pandemic times? Absolutely.

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Coronavirus and Your Wedding Plans – How Smashing The Glass Can Help

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If you’re getting married in the next few weeks, or even months, you’re no doubt currently consumed with coronavirus wedding concerns.

I’ve just recorded a Facebook Live (above) with some top tips of what you can do right now if you’re thinking about postponing your wedding, or potentially facing a drastically reduced guest list.

We’re having so many #CoronaConversations inside Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club about the impact of Coronavirus on our wedding plans, and I have individually answered a lot of those questions inside the Smashing The Glass Brides Club members-only Facebook group.

Tomorrow, Sunday March 15,  I am also hosting a live Zoom call for Brides Club members to solve all their wedding planning issues, however big or small / struggles / questions / concerns / and with Coronavirus threatening to impact so many of our wedding plans, this is a great way for me to talk to you 1:1 about anything you’re worried about concerning the impact.

Let’s get it solved for you, and let’s get an action plan in place.

I have opened up free 30 day places inside Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club once more, so that you can all benefit from the Corona chat and handling your plans at this stressful time, so do click below for free for 30 days, and let’s alleviate some of the stress.
 

>> JOIN SMASHING THE GLASS’ BRIDES CLUB FOR FREE

 

I will also be bringing in a Psychotherapist  for a mini segment on Coronavirus and anxiety during this Sunday’s call, as we know it’s affecting our anxiety levels, as well as our wedding plans.

The bottom line is, Coronavirus or no, you’re going to have an AMAZING wedding – even if it may look a little different than it did prior to the pandemic – and I’m here to help ensure that happens.

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