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5 of Our Favorites: Sun-drenched Jewish Weddings in Spain

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Jewish wedding Park Hyatt Mallorca Spain_0009

Jade and Andy‘s Jewish Wedding in Spain | Photo by Signe Dzile Photography

Welcome back to “5 of Our Favorites,” where we highlight five stunning Jewish weddings, all curated around a unique theme. This week, we’re taking you to the sun-soaked landscapes and rich cultural heritage of Spain with 5 of our favorite Jewish destination weddings in Spain.

From the historic charm of Seville to the sunny splendor of Marbella, it’s no wonder so many Jewish couple choose Spain as the perfect setting for a destination wedding full of passion, tradition, and romance. 

We’re so excited to share these breathtaking Spanish weddings with you, and hopefully inspire your own destination celebration in this beautiful country!

Rebecca & Emmanuel, Villa Luisa, Seville, Spain

Rebecca and Emmanuel‘s Jewish Wedding in Spain | Photo by Juan Luis Morilla

Rebecca and Emmanuel’s Andalusian Fantasy Ashkenazi-Sephardi Jewish Wedding at Villa Luisa, Seville, Spain

We love it when a couple lets their Jewish wedding locale set the stage for an ultra-memorable celebration – which is exactly what Parisian duo Rebecca, a physiatrist, and Emmanuel, an epidemiologist, did when they chose to make it official in Seville, Spain!

Rebecca & Emmanuel, Villa Luisa, Seville, Spain

Rebecca and Emmanuel‘s Jewish Wedding in Spain | Photo by Juan Luis Morilla

The pair chose Andalusia not only for its fabulous East-meets-West architecture and delectable cuisine, but also for its rich Jewish history, in tribute to the bride’s Sephardic heritage.

Rebecca & Emmanuel, Villa Luisa, Seville, Spain

Rebecca and Emmanuel‘s Jewish Wedding in Spain | Photo by Juan Luis Morilla

And their amazing wedding planner, Charlotte Ricard-Quesada from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor La Fête – who Rebecca and Emmanuel found right here on Smashing The Glass – brought their dreams to life exquisitely – on a super tight timeline, no less! Charlotte’s fluency in Spanish and experience planning weddings in Seville made the process a breeze, and she connected the pair with many of their fabulous vendors – including their breathtaking venue Villa Luisa, which captures the splendor of old Andalusia in all its glory.

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Jade and Andy‘s Jewish Wedding in Spain | Photo by Signe Dzile Photography

Jade and Andy’s Cabana Chic Jewish Wedding with a Mirrored Chuppah at the Park Hyatt, Mallorca, Spain

HOW dreamy is Jade and Andy’s destination Jewish wedding in marvelous Mallorca?! Their venue, Park Hyatt Mallorca, is just BEYOND — it may be a hotel, but it feels like an ultra-glam villa. Of course, the stunning natural surroundings — mountains AND oceans — don’t hurt.

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Jade and Andy‘s Jewish Wedding in Spain | Photo by Signe Dzile Photography

We’re obsessed with the super cool mirrored silver chuppah — cleverly set up to reflect the gorgeous grove of olive trees in the sunken garden surrounding the ceremony space! We also love how Jade and Andy opted to seat their guests in a square formation on all sides of the chuppah, to enhance the intimate feel of the day — such a nice idea, especially if you’re having a smaller wedding like these two did.

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Jade and Andy‘s Jewish Wedding in Spain | Photo by Signe Dzile Photography

Weddings don’t come much more photogenic than this one, and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion absolutely made the most of the cinematic surroundings — the aerial shot that opens his epic trailer is unforgettable.

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5 of Our Favorites: DIY Jewish Weddings Full of Ideas and Inspo

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Emily and Brant, Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas, USA

Emily and Brant‘s DIY Jewish Wedding at Kimpton Fitzroy London | Photo by Caitlin McWeeney Photography

Welcome back to “5 of Our Favorites,” where we showcase five breathtaking Jewish weddings each week, all curated around a special theme. This week, we’re celebrating creativity and personal touches with 5 of our favorite DIY Jewish weddings.

DIY weddings offer couples the chance to bring their vision to life, with every detail thoughtfully crafted by their own hands or with the help of close family and friends. From homemade decor to hand-built chuppahs to personalized favors and even home-baked wedding cakes, these weddings reflect the unique personality and love of the couple, creating a truly intimate and meaningful experience. Whether it’s an elegant outdoor affair or a cozy indoor celebration, these DIY Jewish weddings are full of heart, charm, and inspiration.

We can’t wait to share these beautiful, handcrafted celebrations with you and offer some ideas for incorporating your own personal touches into your big day!

Leah and Alex‘s DIY Jewish Wedding | Photo by Alex Gordias

Leah and Alex’s Literary Jewish Wedding with DIY Touches at the Bride’s Parents’ Family Home in Falmouth, Massachusetts

We love it when a couple makes their Jewish wedding 100% truly THEM. And that’s exactly what Leah and Alex did in their literary-themed backyard wedding, which celebrated the pair’s love of reading, family, and of course their beloved cats!

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Leah and Alex‘s DIY Jewish Wedding | Photo by Alex Gordias

Their wonderful wedding planner, Luba Gankin from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Primavera Dreams, helped them pull all these strands together to make one ultra-memorable day. We can’t get enough of all the fun details like centerpieces made of old books and escort card bookmarks made of recycled book pages – plus the super colorful chuppah canopy, made from a piece of traditional Egyptian wedding tent cloth the bride brought back with her after spending three years living in Egypt!

Leah and Alex‘s DIY Jewish Wedding | Photo by Alex Gordias

Oh, and did we mention that the bride – who looked lovely in her wedding dress from BHLDN – baked the wedding cake (for 150 guests) herself?!

Emily and Brant, Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas, USA

Emily and Brant‘s DIY Jewish Wedding | Photo by Caitlin McWeeney Photography

Emily and Brant’s Jewish Wedding Full of Wildflowers, Tacos, and DIY at The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas

We always love featuring the gorgeous Jewish wedding of one of our Brides Club members – and that goes doubly for bride Emily, who was a beloved member of our Smashing Life community for Jewish women for years prior to her engagement to groom Brant. During her engagement, Emily was the absolute DIY queen of Brides Club, and we loved following along with all her fabulous projects. 

Emily and Brant, Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas, USA

Emily and Brant‘s DIY Jewish Wedding | Photo by Caitlin McWeeney Photography

In Brides Club, Emily couldn’t get enough of the supportive community, inspiration, and helpful resources. In her words,  

The encouragement and support was also invaluable as my mom passed 9yrs ago, and I just didn’t know who to ask about some of the important things. Coping with decisions I would normally ask my mom is also where Karen and her monthly sessions made me feel less alone – I could again, brag or problem solve or just talk weddings. Karen and the other Brides Club members stepped in, in a way, where I was missing my mom. 

Honoring her mom was a big part of Emily’s wedding planning vision – and the couple’s stunning venue, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas, was chosen in part because Emily had fond memories of visiting with her mom during her student days at The University of Texas at Austin.

Emily and Brant, Wildflower Center, Austin, Texas, USA

Emily and Brant‘s DIY Jewish Wedding | Photo by Caitlin McWeeney Photography

We’ve also got to tell you Emily’s hilarious ketubah story. She won her gorgeous tree ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent via a Smashing The Glass giveaway – before she was even engaged!

We adore everything about this very special wedding, from Emily’s DIY prowess to the chuppah built by the groom to the taco menu.

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Your Chuppah – Everything You Need To Know

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Everything you need to know about your chuppah
This is a guest post by Lauren Dubell-Beadle, founder of The Chuppah Design Co who created the chuppah above
Image: Babb Photo from Clelia & George’s Jew-ish wedding

{If you are a member of Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club , you can watch Lauren’s video masterclass, ‘Everything You Need To Know About Your Chuppah’ here}

Before the dress, before the center pieces and before the personalized cocktails, your guests will see the symbolic chuppah that you will be married under. If you are like me, you will want that first impression to pack a punch and tell a story at the same time.

Why have a chuppah?

The chuppah goes back a long way and holds a lot of tradition within its simple four-posted structure. Its symbolism is vast, but ultimately the chuppah represents a couples first home that they will build together.

It is open on all four sides to represent the open hospitality the couple will give in their home to their family, friends and acquaintances… fitting more than a handful of your guests under the chuppah would be a challenge!

So the open sides help all your guests feel part of your ceremony. Today many non-Jewish couple choose to include a chuppah in their wedding for its symbolic nature and Jew-ish couples (like my husband and I) also want to have a chuppah, but may come across some challenges finding a rabbi who will willingly marry them or bless them under a chuppah.

US couples may not have the same issue, but if you are lucky enough to find Rabbi Paul Glantz free for your UK (or European) based date then make sure you snap him up! The chuppah was the first ‘Jewish thing’ we knew we wanted at our wedding and our insistence on having one led us to planning a wedding that was truly done ‘our way’. We wanted it to be the start of our meaningful and personal day.

Chuppah ideas
Image: The Image is Found from Michelle & Joseph’s Jewish wedding

Where to get inspiration?

So where do you start with planning your chuppah? Most people make the decision if they want to DIY their chuppah or not before they actually decide what they want… and you can definitely do that… we did.

We knew we wanted to make it ourselves in keeping with the idea of the new couple building their home together and we really didn’t want anyone else’s help for this one part of our day. However, it is important to decide what sort of chuppah will fit in with the overall style of your wedding.

Do you want something simple and traditional (that could be relatively easy to DIY) or do you want a massive eye-catching art installation style that will be pinned and shared all over Instagram after the big day? The latter you may wish to get some help with!

There are three places I’d suggest looking for inspiration at this stage; Smashing the Glass (particularly this post), Pinterest and Instagram the hashtag #chuppah always works a treat!

Whilst you’re scrolling you can begin to think of the style you are heading towards and how you might be able to turn those inspirational images into a reality. Here you might decide if you are DIY-ing or looking for some support from a florist and a rental company or a design service (like me!) for the truly one-off personal chuppah.

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Image: Dave Robbins from Jessie & Craig’s book-themed Jewish wedding

How to turn your vision into reality?

So, you are a newly engaged bride-to-be with a massive wedding Pinterest board and a whole load of new hashtags to follow on Instagram… so how do you turn all these ideas into something for your big day?

Do you go for it and DIY the whole thing or get someone in to do it for you? Both definitely have their merits. If you choose to DIY your chuppah then I’d suggest doing a bit of research before you plan it all out.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

5 Things to Make with your Smashed Wedding Glass from your Jewish Wedding {DIY Tutorial}

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This is a guest post by Lauren Beadle :: Image: Our very own smash glass pouch

A wedding day is a crazy day. The patter of advice in the lead up to the big day is always the same… take the time to absorb everything as it will go so fast, don’t forget to have some alone time together, don’t panic about things you can’t change, no-one will know… You have spent so much time working up to this day, it’s exhausting and thrilling and the adrenalin runs through you and adds to your amazing day.

The next day you are running late to catch a Eurostar for your mini-moon, and are clearly about to miss your train and then you literally fall out of the Uber because you’re so tired (sorry was that just me?!). What I’m trying to say is that as soon as the day ends, the tiredness kicks in and you just want to look at the pictures and catch up on sleep. All that stuff you said would be easy to do after the wedding gets put to the side and forgotten. Here I am 7 months post wedding; we haven’t chosen the pictures yet for our album, my wedding dress is still sitting in my childhood bedroom having not yet been to the dry cleaners and I have yet to do something with the glass my husband smashed at the end of our ceremony.

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Image: Stak Studios
 

The symbolism of smashing the glass

Smashing the glass is such a symbolic part of the wedding ceremony. There are many reasons behind this iconic moment (can be seen here). For me at my wedding it symbolised the breaking of many potential barriers that my husband and I could face in our lives and when he broke the glass we were able to consider the difficult times that may come in our future. It also was a moment when that one damaged item can be turned into something new and exciting. The shattered glass is often thought of as a reminder of negative times in the past and potential rocky situations in the future, but by taking that shattered glass and turning it into something new and beautiful, you are creating a new symbol; one that says the bad times can lead to new and exciting situations. This is why my smashed glass is still sitting quietly on my shelf waiting for me to do something with it… I couldn’t decide what to with it!

It is becoming more and more popular to buy a special glass and send it off to someone after your wedding to have it transformed into something like a mezuzah or a picture frame. I did look into this before our wedding, but to be honest, I couldn’t find anything I liked enough. Especially when I saw the prices!

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Image: Dima Vazinovich

So we decided to utilise my crafty streak and bring along one of the thin and unused glasses we had at home and post-wedding I would make something that we would love to display somewhere in our home. Obviously we forgot the glass and remembered on the way to our venue… cue a panic call to our mothers, who both brought a variety of different glasses to choose from. In the end I think my brother picked a pint glass (apparently it was the thinnest!)

So one day, many months after the wedding I sat down and thought about all the different things I could do with this glass. I came up with a list of about 10 different ideas; some were clearly easier than others. But I love trying new crafty techniques, so thought I would give each of them a go and share the first five with all you wonderful STG readers!

Before I head into the list of ideas I’ll add a little safety note if you choose to try any of these ideas — you are working with sharp smashed glass so be careful and wear gloves (this may seem obvious… but you should have seen my husband dive into the box of smashed glass without his gloves before I stopped him!) If you have access to a multi-tool such as a Dremel, then there are many attachments that work wonders at smoothing the edges. I prepared the glass in a large batch so when I was working with the glass I didn’t have to worry about cutting myself.

DIY What to do with your crushed glass_jewish weddingjpg

DIY 1: Resin Jewellery and Key rings

This is a really good idea if you have lots of tiny fragments left and works even better if you had a colourful glass. It looks really effective and is something you can carry around with you everywhere you go; a perfect reminder of a special moment.

It looks like it would be really difficult to do, but once you’ve got the hang of it it’s surprisingly easy. For this I used this Resin Keepsake Casting Kit that comes with all you need and some extra sparkly bits to add to your work if you wanted to use it too.

After a practice I decided I wanted to use a silicone mould and I found this so much easier to use. The key to success is to read the manufacturing instructions, practice first with something you don’t necessarily want to keep and take it slowly.

The instructions in my kit were very clear for how to mix the resin and pour it, but less clear on how to add elements in. But after watching a youtube video and having a practice I worked out the best way to get the best result. One layer, leave for 20 minutes, add the glass, add another layer slowly and leave to cure for 12-24 hours(dependant on how warm your room is!)

The final step was to add a keyring or a pre-assembled necklace. I always have some of these knocking about.

What to do with your crushed glass

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Hand make your own Chuppah {DIY Tutorial}

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Build-a-chuppah
You all went crazy over on Instagram for real bride Lauren’s handmade chuppah in last week’s real Jew-ish wedding, so today she has kindly taken to the pages of Smashing The Glass with an easy-to-follow DIY tutorial on how to make one yourself. Please give Lauren Beadle, the craft blogger, a warm welcome!

I like to hand make things. So as you can imagine, my Jew-ish wedding was awash with loads of hand made touches.

I always make big plans to create all manner of complicated items for an event, but inevitably I will pare it back and choose a more simple design or technique. I definitely did this with a couple of ideas I had for the wedding. About a month before the wedding I realised I didn’t quite have enough time to make 140 candles and opted for a more crowd-pleasing miniature bottle of a favourite alcoholic drink, with a hand-lettered tag.

One element that I did actually plan well was our chuppah… I wanted it to it be personal, effective and simple to construct.

Handmade chuppah
There are many ideas and opinions about the origins and meaning of ‘The Chuppah’ (some of which can be found here) but for me a chuppah is a physical representation of a bride and groom’s first home together, one that is supported and surrounded by family and friends from two different families and I feel that it should be something that is built together by the bride and groom as a symbol of that first home.

The chuppah that we created for our wedding was designed to represent this and to be constructed easily the night before the wedding or even on the day. If we can do it, then anyone can! We were incredibly lucky to be able to get into our wedding venue and set up the night before.

DIY chuppah tutorial
I had originally planned the chuppah structure to be set up on the day by the groom and/ or the groomsmen alone, so it needed to be relatively simple (I am a teeny weeny bit of a control freak when it comes to making things). In fact many of the construction ideas came from my husband, going slightly against the grain for me. We really wanted this to be something we built together and use our different skill set to do it.

To make the chuppah you don’t really need any major technical skills. You do need some proficiency with an iron… hopefully you have that skill under your belt!

Build your own chuppah
It would be useful if you were able to use a sewing machine, but if you don’t mind a more rustic look, then you could easily get away with some raw edges on your canopy. In fact any part of this ‘how-to’ can be adapted to suit your own skills or style.

What you’ll need

For The Canopy:

  • A selection of images for the underside of your canopy
  • Inkjet printer
  • 2 meters of a close weave lightweight fabric in a colour of your choice (cotton or a lining fabric) – I got all my fabric from Dunelm
  • 2 meters of linen in a contrasting colour (or matching if you prefer) only required if you want to sew a backing to the canopy
  • Iron-on heat transfer paper for light fabrics — I used about 35 A4 sheets, but this would be dependant on the size and number of images you want to use — I used these from Crafty Computer Paper
  • Iron and ironing board
  • Pins and threads in matching or contrasting colours depending on preference
  • Fabric and Paper Scissors/ Pinking shears (if required)

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