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Sara & John | Incredible ‘Granny Chic’ vintage Jewish wedding, Kidbrooke Park, Sussex

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Jewish Vintage Wedding Sara is one incredibly beautiful and  creative bride. And I’m talking creative with a capital ‘C’ folks. Yep all the amazing decor and imaginative touches you see in the pictures below were all hand  made by Sara. It’s one big explosion of colour and thrills with lots of vintage prettiness everywhere!

As the bride herself says,  “With our wedding it was more “what did you leave alone?” than what did you create! It was the biggest project of my life but I was so happy with the way it all came together!”

Sara and John met at work in Sara’s first ever contract job as a copywriter. She left the job pretty soon afterwards but kept a special souvenir!

Over to Sara for the story of her gorgeous W-day.
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VENUE
Sara, the Bride: Our wedding was at Kidbrooke Park in Sussex. We chose this venue because it’s actually my old school. At first I’d ruled it out because I thought it would be strange to get married just outside the room in which I sat all of my exams, but the first venue we booked fell through when they insisted we use their preferred caterers who priced us right out of our own wedding and wouldn’t do a simple meal for us citing colours and presentation (or something silly).

After that I revisited the idea of getting married at my old school and suddenly felt like it would be really great to say “I do” somewhere so close to my heart. There is a beautiful, crumbling outdoor theatre which is covered with flowers in the spring and summer, and I suddenly had a vision of making my entrance through the doors of the theatre. It was such a nice daydream that I booked immediately!

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Freya & Tim | Outdoor Fun ‘n’ Games Jewish Wedding at Ketchum Rotary Park, Idaho, USA

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This is a great example of a wedding that shows what you can achieve if you put a bit of time and effort in to doing something, and that a wedding doesn’t have to cost an absolute fortune! With the sun shining and your best friends and family around you, it’s easy to remember that the best things in life are free…cheesy but true.

Freya and Tim are both farmers – Tim is a 6th generation farmer in rural southern Minnesota and Freya is an organic farmer by profession and runs her own small produce business. Agriculture, food, and the outdoors is the core of who they are and being a totally ‘smashing’ couple and  essentially being truly authentic to themselves, these elements came through beautifully and personally in their relaxed outdoor wedding.

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A HOMEMADE, HANDMADE OUTDOOR WEDDING
Freya, The Bride: Our wedding was in Ketchum, Idaho and we held the ceremony and reception in Ketchum Rotary Park along the Bigwood river, the river upon which I grew up and love dearly.  Tim and I didn’t really go for a theme or colour scheme. Everything was very simple and natural and the whole event was homemade and handmade – DIY style – very relaxed, like an afternoon picnic. We had lots of games like bean bag toss, ladder golf, hula hoops, bubbles, etc and these were played by both adult (and little) kids!

We had directional signs, chalkboards and such, all made by my husband. There was not much need for more decoration than that as it was such a beautiful venue.
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MY OWN BRIDAL STYLE
I knew I wanted to be comfortable and feel like myself, not all made-up and princess-like. After trying on too many “cupcake” dresses, I found the “mini-cupcake” and loved it. I paired the dress with Canadian-made handcrafted Boulet western boots, that were a gift from my husband a few months before we got engaged. He knows I love my boots, and the collection keeps growing.

In terms of jewellery, I wore my mothers, sisters, late-grandmothers and my pearl bracelets. It meant a lot to me to have all those women with me under the chuppah….

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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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