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Sarit & Ari | DIY ‘Handmade’ Jewish wedding at The Green Building, Brooklyn, New York

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Jewish wedding at The Green Building, Brooklyn, New York 1 Sarit and Ari managed to pull off their NYC wedding on a modest budget, and what an *awesome* job they did. Often I find that the more restrictive the funds, the more creative and resourceful a wedding turns out to be. This one is a very handmade affair filled with friends and family and a true sense of community.

I particularly love the handmade fabric corsages and boutonnieres, and the wedding programs printed onto brown kraft paper bags filled with coloured dots and paper hearts cut from books! (The couple had a book theme running through their day).

There are lots of stylish, crafty details to cherish – these two are a ridiculous talented and thrifty pair – and they definitely achieved their aim of creating the greatest party on the smallest budget.
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A WAREHOUSE VENUE WITH LOVELY WARM TOUCHES
Sarit, The Bride: Our wedding was at The Green Building in Brooklyn, New York. We’re both from New York and since most of our friends and family live in or near the city we wanted to keep it local and accessible by car or public transportation.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Madalyn & Aaron | Ultra-Creative and Chic Jewish Wedding at The Metropolitan Building, New York, USA

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This wedding is cooler than an igloo with air con.

In the achingly chic wedding venue of The Metropolitan Building in New York, Madalyn, Aaron and their guests got together to celebrate one of the most exquisitely fashionable and creative weddings I have ever laid my eyes upon.

There are beautifully designed invitations, programs and custom illustrations of the bridal party (which the bride and groom created themselves), mismatched floral table centres, the cutest polka dot kippot you’ve ever seen, and something I didn’t think was even possible: personalised Converse black and orange sneakers made for every one of the groomsmen!

On top of that, frankly any bride that incorporates a gorgeous peplum into her bridal gown scores serious style points in my book.

Let’s take a look…
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A CREATIVE ‘LOFT-STYLE’ VENUE
Madalyn, the Bride: I fell in love with the Metropolitan Building in Long Island City, New York, the minute I saw it on a wedding blog. The mismatched vibe and colourful alcoves and artsy rooms were exactly what we were looking for. Only when I got there did I realise I had been to a wedding there before!

Our colour palette was a mix of deep autumn colours like eggplants and plums. We wanted a warm and intimate atmosphere that beautifully accented the loft-like vibe of the building.

DESIGNING OUR OWN INVITATIONS
Aaron and I actually designed the invitation ourselves so it was completely unique to us. We letterpressed them onto real birch wood giving them a beautiful earthy vibe.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Rachel & David | Garden Party Jewish Wedding at Home in London

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Back garden weddings always look so cosy, warm and welcoming and today’s is no exception. There are so many things that I like about this wedding — the homely setting is perfect and I love all the budget-friendly DIY ideas from the quotes attached to the drinks straws, to the colourful photo booth / guest book idea,  to the pashminas on hand to warm up the guests – so  very thoughtful! Rachel and Davids’ families and friends look like a really lovely, happy group of people, and it’s an overall joy to view this wedding through the eyes of their truly fantastic photographer, Dominique Bader.

Rachel and David met when she was invited to his 30th birthday party by mutual friends. She didn’t know that there was a theme (1980s TV and films) and that he would be dressed up as Tom Cruise from Top Gun in a flight suit. The first thing he asked, after looking at her non-costume, was who she had come dressed as. Twenty minutes later she gave him a delayed response and did an impression of the car voice from Knight Rider. They didn’t stop talking from that moment onwards…
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VENUE AND THEME
Rachel, the Bride: The wedding was at my parents’ house where I grew up. It was funny how Friday evening dinner at my parents also became about going to see the venue! The house has a beautiful garden so we simply went with a garden party theme and picked a colour palette of soft greens, whites and pale pinks. I think it’s good to have a loose colour scheme to help create a cohesive look, but one shouldn’t be too worried about it — guests brings the colour and in our case, my 4 year old nephew Theo decided to wear a Fireman Sam costume in pillar box red!
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GARDEN PARTY THEMED INVITATION DESIGN
The invitation design process was the unique part! I was writing about design at the time and have always been fascinated by print. I also thought that the invitation sets the tone of the wedding and searched for a long time for existing garden party themed designs that felt right for us.

I ended up appointing Australian graphic designer Tabitha Bray (who I discovered through a blog) to design a bespoke floral motif and illustrated map. Closer to home, graphic designer Rebecca Leggett created the most beautiful calligraphy for the main invitation and printed the invitation suite in Dorset. Paperless Post might have been an easier route, but we loved the end result.

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Sarah & Mike | DIY Inspired Jewish Wedding, Woodbridge, Connecticut, USA

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I am really excited to bring you this wonderful craft-filled wedding from over the pond in Conneticut, USA.  Our gorgeous couple live in Brooklyn but got married in Connecticut after meeting at university six years ago. Sarah the bride designed so many creative elements of her big day including her stunning wedding dress (with Modern Trousseau), a wonderful ‘papercut-style’ chuppah designed with her very talented mum, our very own Smashing Supplier Jeanette Kuvin Oren, not to mention the beautiful table decorations, and exquisite letterpress invitations. Feast your eyes on their gorgeous day and take in all their lovely DIY details!
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VENUE – CONVERTING A SIMPLE SPACE INTO A STUNNING RECEPTION
Sarah, the Bride: We booked my synagogue as the ceremony/reception venue. Being a traditional Jewish wedding, this was an appropriate locale. But don’t be fooled by a “lack of pizzazz” if your synagogue’s social hall isn’t as ideal as you’d like it to be. I had a vision, and was able to convert a large, relatively simple space into a stunning wedding reception. No one recognised the room once the decorations and lighting were set up. We also picked this location since we had a large guest list, and many venues would force us to cut our guest list in half (that wasn’t going to happen!).
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COLOUR SCHEME
The colour scheme came out through the process of seeing my likes and dislikes regarding dà©cor. I didn’t have a true vision until all the pieces began coming together. I knew I wanted neutral, timeless colours; so I stayed in the beige, tan, ivory genre. When I added gold to the mix, I thought we were set. It looked so beautiful and ethereal. Once I chose my bridal party dresses, the final colour came to be: “Dusty Shale,” a grayish seafoam/teal variety. It was a perfect medley of neutral, yet beautiful and timeless colours for a wedding.

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How to unearth inspiration and ideas for your wedding day

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Today’s post is written by the lovely Kate Shaw from Perfect Details. I’m a big fan of her site – she supplies the most beautiful wedding dà©cor accessories, hire wear and personalised details that together create some lovely finishing touches for your wedding day.

It’s really, really hot in everybody’s office this week, and any brides-to-be planning their wedding are finding their concentration slipping even more to table centre ideas, and where they can match a ribbon colour to their bridesmaid’s dresses…

But with so many places to research weddings, and too many people happy to give you their experience and opinion, where really is the best place to get new ideas for how you’d like the biggest day of your life to look?
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PINTEREST
Currently the best way to lose hours at a time in our office… Careful it’s addictive. Use the menu top left to browse the whole wedding category, or use the search box to go more specific. Whether you’re looking for ideas for your dress, or you want theme ideas there are endless stunning images to inspire you.

Check out Perfect Detail’s Pinterest boards
Check out Smashing The Glass’s Pinterest boards

Find images you like and repin them to one board, or different categories such as invitations, table settings, hanging decorations…
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WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER WEBSITES
A picture says a 1000 words? The better photographers have online blogs showing off all their best work, which is going to be capturing the magic and detail of other people’s weddings. You can find a photographer who has worked at your venue before so you can get ideas of how to specifically decorate that venue space.

Steven Brooks, a good friend to PerfectDetails.co.uk, is one of the best there is. His blog is full of gorgeous inspirational shots, giving you ideas not just on how to decorate your venue but also of the photos you’ll want to make sure you ask your photographer to get if you’re not lucky enough to have booked Steven himself!

Check out his blog
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