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A Martina Liana Bride for a Beachy Jewish Wedding in Delray Beach, Florida, USA

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Jewish wedding Delray Beach , Florida USA_0023
It’s always a pleasure to write up the wedding of one of our Real Jewish Brides, and today’s is no exception! We love that Dawn and Harley made their Jewish wedding all about family and friends. With a “basketball team-sized” wedding party, friendors aplenty, a delicious kosher pareve cake from Smashing The Glass Recommend Vendor Ana Paz Cakes to include kosher-keeping guests, and plenty of family participation in the ceremony, the couple’s day was truly centered around the people they love.

Dawn, a career counselor, and Harley, an online entrepreneur, chose to hold their elegant beach-themed wedding at the Delray Beach Marriott in Delray Beach, Florida, out of deference to their many out-of-town guests.

Their day was captured beautifully by Jack Bates Photography, which is owned by a friend of the couple. Their videographers were also friends–Shelley, the female half of the husband and wife duo behind Gibson Production, even did double duty as a bridesmaid!

And did we mention that Dawn chose her gorgeous Martina Liana gown a whopping 14 months before the wedding?! She made an appointment on a whim after learning about an end-of-season sale, and, despite having barely begun her search, knew she’d found the one.

We’re sad to say goodbye to Dawn here on STG, but we’re sure you’ll enjoy reading about the day in her own words!

Jewish wedding Delray Beach , Florida USA_0049

Jewish wedding Delray Beach , Florida USA_0023

Jewish wedding Delray Beach , Florida USA_0023
How we met

Dawn, the bride: in the summer of 2013, Harley and I both joined JDate. He was moving to South Florida by himself from Montreal and looking to make a connection, and I may have been a bit bored in graduate school looking for some Jewish romance! Although neither of us actually lived in Palm Beach County at the time (he still had a few more weeks in Montreal, and although I am originally from Palm Beach I had one more year of graduate school in North Florida), we both indicated that we were from the area and showed up in each other’s searches. We began messaging, Facebook-ing, texting, and Skype-ing (to ensure that neither one was a 60-year-old cat lady) every day until we finally met on June 24th, 2013… just hours after he had officially moved to the United States!

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Real Jewish Brides: Dawn’s final post… all about her Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party!

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Today on the blog it’s the final post from Dawn who will be marrying Harley THIS Sunday 9 July 2017, in a Jewish wedding at the Delray Beach Marriott in South Florida, USA!

THREE FACTS: (1) Dawn & Harley met on JDate (2) Dawn is having 11 bridesmaids. (3) This is Dawn’s last post *sniff*. She has been blogging her wedding plans on Smashing The Glass for the last 12 months and we are SO excited for her wedding this Sunday (that final paragraph from Dawn in her post below means so much to us… we love you Dawn!)

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We’re almost there…

This. Is. It. Only 19 days to go! My Wedding Wire app just reminded me. Our lives have been completely consumed with vendor meetings, dance lessons, Etsy orders, dress fittings, and the most meaningful task of all… filling out what I call “The Why We Love Each Other” packet for our Rabbi. I truly wouldn’t have it any other way and am not sure what I will do with all the extra hours in my day when the best day of our lives has come and gone. So why don’t I just ignore the fact that our beautiful engagement is coming to an end by sharing with you some of the fun pre-wedding festivities that I DIDN’T have to plan… my Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party!

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Real Jewish Brides: Putting the “Jewish” into our Jewish Wedding

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As I write this, it is the fifth night of my last Passover as a Friedman (which is pretty much how I’ve been thinking of every event this year), so what better topic to write about than intertwining Jewish traditions and symbolism with our more modern, American wedding? (Disclaimer: This blog is more general than usual. Now that we’re less than 3 months away from the wedding, I’ve become more interested in the element of surprise!) 

When it comes to having a meaningfully Jewish wedding, it all starts with the Rabbi! With Harley’s childhood Rabbi living in Canada and my family being a part of multiple synagogues growing up, we really didn’t have a “family Rabbi” we wanted to marry us.

Rabbi Kaplan
Rabbi Kaplan

Luckily, my friend Chelsea’s dad is a fabulous Rabbi who performs the most beautiful wedding ceremonies I’ve ever seen. Admittedly, I’ve only seen Rabbi Kaplan perform Chelsea’s wedding, but I’m sure it will come close! He is such a popular Rabbi in South Florida who is known for beautiful life events, so we were absolutely thrilled when we were about to book him over a year out.

We met in his home office and spent hours talking about our vision for the ceremony, Panthers hockey, and playing with his tallit-adorned puppy. Needless to say, Harley was sold after the hockey conversation!

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Real Jewish Brides: Creating The Perfect Jewish Wedding Gift Registry

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DAWN-INTRO-IMAGE
How many times have you asked somebody “What do you want for your birthday?” or “What do you want for Hanukkah?” only to hear the usual “I don’t know. You don’t have to get my anything!”

Being on both the giving and receiving end of this conversation numerous times, I love wedding registries! They make wedding gift shopping so easy for a guest and eliminate that dreaded question, “What do you want for your wedding?” for the bride. and groom It can be extremely awkward to ask for specific items, especially if they are on the more expensive side, but the wedding registry allows your guests to see exactly what it is that you and your partner want or need as you begin to build your new lives together while being able to stay on their own personal budget.

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You’ve Got to Start Somewhere!

As with most wedding planning aspects, building your registry can be both fun and a bit stressful. You may find that you and your fiancà©(e) value different things, and who knew that you’re actually supposed to register for a certain number of gifts at different price points based on the number of guests you’re having?!

We decided it would be best to register at two stores with a nation-wide presence because it would give our guests options and would make things simpler for those who are coming from out-of-town. We also knew not to limit this process to one day because it can easily become overwhelming.

Many stores that offer a wedding registry service, including the two we used (Macy’s and Bed, Bath, and Beyond) do a great job or providing Wedding Registry Guides/Checklists and a personal shopping assistant to help you through the process.

They definitely alleviate some of the stress that comes with an afternoon full of decision-making by offering information about best sellers and items that typically are left on the registry, as well as those items that you may think are necessary but usually end up getting returned after the wedding. They also do fun events and promotions to get couples excited about registering, such as Macy’s “Sip and Scan” event where Harley and I won two nights at the Palm Beach Gardens Marriott. We’re saving it until after the wedding, so we still have a staycation to look forward to!

Cool-Menorah
(From L to R) Menorah by Jonathan Adler  | Menorah by Studio Armadillo

Registering for Jewish Holidays and for your Lifestyle

One of the benefits of having a 16 month engagement is that we’ve gotten to experience a whole year of life and annual celebrations in that time. There are so many things that I did not consider when we initially set up our registry that came up in that time. For example, I only added an Apple & Honey Dish to the registry after Rosh Hashanah, and I never would have thought about adding an electric knife until our Thanksgiving host and hostess went on the hunt for one that day! (Side note: Many people have complete knife sets on their wedding registries, but according to folklore, it’s bad luck to give knives as a wedding gift because it signifies a broken relationship. Expect a penny from me if this is your gift of choice!)

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Real Jewish Brides: Always a Bridesmaid, Finally a Bride!

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DAWN-INTRO-IMAGE
It’s finally 2017, which means Harley and I have been engaged for 9 months, most of our wedding has been planned for the past 4 months, and festivities like my bridal shower and bachelorette party are within reach. Soon we’ll be asking “Where did the time go?” as our wedding day quickly approaches, but for now I’m excited that wedding tasks are beginning to pick up again!

We’re attending the tasting at our venue this weekend and deciding on bridal party attire was a hot topic over winter vacation, so I figured what’s more appropriate to write about on the day my first bridesmaid buys her dress than the lovely ladies who will be standing by my side as I marry me best friend?!

I’m not going to lie. Choosing bridesmaids was not the easiest part of wedding planning. I’ve got a family full of girls, have maintained amazing friendships since middle school, and was in a sorority in college which has brought me lifelong friends, so it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone I know that I will be having 11 bridesmaids!

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Bridesmaids from a past Florida Jewish Wedding lovingly blogged on Smashing The Glass

Harley always picks on me for the Buzzfeed Quizzes I enjoy taking, so of course all of my wedding decision-making started with these fun quizzes. I initially took  one to help me narrow down my bridal party, which included a point system with equations such as (“You’ve been BFFs forever: +1 for every five years you’ve been close” and “She was a bridezilla at her own wedding: -3 points”), but then I realized that our wedding it not the Hunger Games and to me, more truly is merrier.

“Family: A Link to our Past and a Bridge to our Future”  

As mentioned, my family is full of girls. I’m just lucky enough to actually like them all! Family members in my wedding party will be my sister and Matron of Honor Jill, my stepsisters Aimee and Ashley, and my cousin Carly.

I am the third sister in our family to get married within a year and a half of each other, so we’ve all been pretty busy planning each other’s bridal showers and bachelorette parties. This also means our formal wear wardrobes have quickly expanded and we’re all about to go on our third bachelorette cruise together in May.

Carly is my younger cousin who has always been my mini-me, until she decided to grow one summer and became one of the tallest people in our family. Asking her to be a bridesmaid was definitely one of my favorite wedding planning moments so far because of how excited we both were. Thank goodness for iPhones…tears and shrieks of excitement filled the room during our Facetime session, and I got it all on camera!

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