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A Berta Bridal gown and the perfect Jimmy Choos | A glam chic wedding at Villa Padierna Palace Hotel, Marbella, Spain

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Ladies and gentlemen, if you’d please present your boarding passes — I mean invitations — and take a journey with us to Salena and Stefan’s super glam wedding at Villa Padierna Palace Hotel in Marbella, Spain

Captured with aplomb by much-loved and often-featured Smashing Supplier, photographer David Pullum and fabulous videographer AtMotion, Salena and Stefan’s big day was all about friends, family and, of course, the party of a lifetime, which lasted until 3am!

There are so many adorable details to look out for, but this one is particularly steal-worthy! The couple had the genius idea of sending their guests passport invitation packages. As it was an overseas wedding, this was a really fun way to represent that and present all of the necessary information in a cool, chic and creative way. Sticking with their stunning chosen colour palette of duck egg blue and gold, the invitations themselves were styled as boarding passes.

At Smashing the Glass, we love a bride who expresses herself, and wedding singer Salena looked every bit the belle of the ball in her show-stopping Berta Bridal dress, complete with jealousy-inducing Jimmy Choos and to-die-for jewellery. Looking catwalk ready with her perfectly executed hair and makeup, Salena was an absolute shining star.

‘What will be will be’ was this bride’s philosophy, opting to give her epic crowd of loving bridesmaids and her mother the freedom to choose their own styling – which she absolutely loved.

Perhaps the most touching detail of the day is that the bride’s own band, Muzika Showband, flew over to perform for Salena and Stefan’s big day, with dear friends singing them down the aisle.

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How we met

Salena, the bride: We met at my husband’s friend’s wedding where I was the wedding singer. He chatted me up by the cheese board… enough said!

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A Ritva Westenius bride for an Italian Garden-themed wedding at Home in London, UK

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Today’s bride, Katie, is just the cutest, and what amazing fashion choices — a W-day gown from  Ritva Westenius  (she chose it as she was after  something pure,  spiritual and simple to reflect the chuppah), dusty pink Manolo Blahnik‘s, and then fired up her look with  a sparkly belt, headpiece and earrings for the  evening party. So so chic!

The venue  is very  special too. It’s Katie’s childhood home and it set the scene for a truly  intimate and meaningful day. The symbolism of their Jewish wedding was so important to these two, and they honoured a  traditional Jewish wedding ritual that I’ve  seen only a few times on the pages of Smashing The Glass: they  spent the entire week before the wedding apart. They didn’t speak, they didn’t even text! In Katie’s words, this made the day so much more special, and it really did  remind them of what the day is all about. Katie’s brother, Ben, spoke under the chuppah, and I love what Katie says about their chuppah design too:

We felt the beauty of the chuppah should come from what is happening underneath rather than what it looks like. We wanted it to be pure and spiritual allowing our guests to focus on the ceremony rather than the chuppah structure itself.

Another detail that was evidently very important to these two was their  Italian garden  theme. They  both spend a lot of time in Tuscany and love that part of the world and they wanted to bring Italiana into every  corner of their wedding! They brought their ideas to life with the help of Ben Krieger from  Outrage Events, and an incredible Italian feast  by Food Story  including spaghetti meatballs, tiramisu, and of limoncello!  The  beautiful themed stationery, designed by one of our much-loved Smashing Suppliers,  Emily & Jo, was even printed in Italian,  and  home-made olive oil  favours alongside oodles of  fresh herbs and lemons  were placed  on every table. You could literally see, touch, taste and smell Italy!

The stunning photography is  by another  of our  hugely talented Smashing Suppliers,  David Pullum Photography.  And there’s also a  fabulous film by Atmotion  too.

So all that leaves me to say is… Cin Cin. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

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How we  met

Katie, the Bride: We met through a friend and started talking on Facebook in that classic way  ?

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“My best Jewish wedding photo” by David Pullum

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A new weekly Sunday series where  I ask some of the world’s best wedding photographers to pick out their favourite shot from their Jewish wedding portfolio. This week it’s the turn of David Pullum.

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‘Emotions’ by  David Pullum

This image sums up just about everything I am looking for in a picture. The image shows all sorts of emotions, from sadness, confusion and smiles. The little boy completes the image, he looks like he has no idea why the bride and groom are crying and is totally perplexed by this situation.

This image recently won 1st place in an International Wedding Image competition with the judges remarks below

“This was a classic wedding scene. The little boy’s face anchors the image. Nice composition and a classic moment. The juxtaposition of all those crying people, joyful in the moment, with the face of a child who doesn’t know whether to smile or frown and, thus, chooses to simply watch and learn, makes for a poignant image.”

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Amanda & Brian | Romantic elegance Jewish wedding at the Rosewood London

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I hope you are ready for elegance and sophistication this Monday afternoon folks. Amanda  and Brian’s  gorgeous wedding has more than a touch of class about it and I’m delighted to be blogging  the first ever wedding to have taken place at the the coolest new hotel kid  on the block, the  Rosewood London  in High Holborn.

And as for the photography well….I don’t know how on earth Amanda  and Brian  ever chose what to put in their album, I was in raptures over the shots of the stationery and the rings before I even got to the delicious details and all important ceremony and party shots.

There’s a bride and groom that positively exude the whole happy-ever-after. There’s an  utterly mesmerising chuppah. There’s laughter and crazy dancing  and guests having the time of their lives. There are stunning portrait shots. It’s essentially a whole LOT of city chic glamour  people, all courtesy of the genius that is  David Pullum.

Oh and then there’s THE dress.
It’s breathtaking.

Just before I hand over to Amanda for her wedding report,  I must just add  that I was  thrilled  to hear that she  was inspired to make a bride’s speech after reading an article in the Times, in which I was quoted,  that talks about how the modern day bride is finally breaking her silence. I certainly feel that when you put your heart and soul into the planning, you do want to express yourself and say something… Amanda, being a rocking STG bride, has more to say on the  subject (and so much more!) in her heartfelt and  detailed write-up below.
Romantic elegance Jewish wedding at the Rosewood Hotel Covent Garden London_0037 Romantic elegance Jewish wedding at the Rosewood Hotel Covent Garden London

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How to get the most out of your wedding photography

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Your wedding album will  most likely become your most treasured souvenir from the most spectacular  day of your life. With that in mind I asked one of the UK’s finest  wedding photographers, David Pullum, to write a guest post on getting the most  out of your wedding photography. Over to you, David!…

IF YOU CAN… CHILLAX

The best  way to get great wedding photos  couldn’t be more  straightforward –  just relax and enjoy your day!  There really is very little else that I ask for from my Bride and Grooms  –  its that simple. Of course the lead up to a wedding, and the planning of it all, can be stressful, but the day itself is a time to try to forget all those stresses and strains and just enjoy the excitement  of two  families coming together as one.

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LOVE YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER

As a wedding photographer it’s really important that my clients like me. That sounds strange, I know, but I’m spending upwards of 8 hours in their company so it’s vitally important that they are fans of, not only  my work and photographic  style, but of me too!

Personally I choose to use very little direction when I’m shooting a wedding.  I’m happy to observe and listen and I don’t want to dictate and be the centre of attention.  There are times however when I have to take the lead as  family formals and couple shots are really important at any wedding, and this is when I have to take control, organise the shots and tell my couple how and where to stand.

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WORK OUT A DEFINITIVE LIST OF FAMILY FORMALS  IN ADVANCE

Family formals are one of the most important sets of images that I  take during the day so it’s vital  for me to liaise with the couple  before their  wedding to formulate a definitive list.

The formals are a record of who was there on the day, and the most important members of the family and close friends, I will never limit those and I have been known to take upwards of 50 formal shots at a wedding. If I limit them to say five,  that for me is just a barrier I am placing in front of the client which says “don’t book me”!

If I do have a long list it’s really important that I have as much co-operation as possible from Best Men, Ushers and members of the families. All of the aforementioned will have the same list as me and as I start to photograph, those assigned to helping me are always three    groups ahead of me, getting people ready and in position. I do this at every wedding and I struggle to remember a wedding where it’s taken me longer than 40 minutes to complete all of the family requests.

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ALLOW TIME FOR YOUR COUPLE SHOTS

I normally allocate  at least 30 minutes for couple shots – I’d love more but the reality is that at a lot of weddings I will be lucky to get even 30 minutes, so I work with whatever I am given. The shortest time I was given was 38 seconds, the longest 1.5 hours, so Ive learnt to get what I need within the timeframe I am given.

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