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A French lavender-themed Jewish wedding at Mas de Garguier, Marseilles, France

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Lovely lavender, beautiful southern French rural countryside and a rustic-chic aesthetic define today’s delightful real wedding – Gladys and Jonathan are, amazingly, our first STG French-born Jewish couple to tie the knot in France, and boy, was it worth the wait! 

The day was full of beautifully personalized details – the portable chuppah with its adorable lanterns, the lawn games for guests, the country-chic floral arrangements, totally a treat for the eye. Gladys managed to secure her dream photographer, Rà©mi from Une Vie en Provence, to capture all of the pretty!

We adore the rustic aesthetic, but also all the heart and soul that Gladys and Jonathan poured into making their day just perfect and so ‘them’. We also think Gladys’s advice at the end of the post is absolute gold dust – so do keep reading until the end!

Over to Gladys for the big-day lowdown!  

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How we met

Gladys, the bride: Jonathan and I met at work in 20th September 2012. I worked in a PR agency and he was working for one of our clients. I met him during our annual open-doors event: I saw him and told to my colleagues that he was exactly my type of man!

Of course one of them couldn’t help to go and repeat to him what I said (like we were in high school!) He came and spoke to me, but nothing else happened.

A few weeks later, he added me on LinkedIn, then we realised we had several mutual friends on Facebook as we went to the same synagogue, and we started to talk more often.

It was a very busy period at work for both of us so we didn’t have time to see each other, and we also had the weeks of holiday season. After few weeks of speaking on the phone for an hour every evening, sharing dozens of texts messages each day, we started to date on January 5th 2013! We shared so much during the previous weeks that it was obvious. Our respective parents already knew about each other, we were just waiting to start our story.

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Bringing the countryside to the city – a rustic Jewish wedding with a Phillipa Lepley bride at St Pancras Hotel, London, UK

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If it’s impractical to have a countryside wedding, there’s one clear solution: bring the countryside to the city – and that’s exactly what rustic-loving couple, Miranda and Gabriel, decided to do. 

Their beautiful wedding incorporated elements of farmhouse chic, including doodled dress codes (what a fantastic idea) a multitude of painstakingly collected jam jars, and loose, tumbling floral arrangements – oh, and a Chuppah (designed by the amazing Blue Sky Flowers)  to stop you in your tracks. Have you ever seen such a thing of beauty? We are in LOVE! 

All of this was lovingly captured by our beloved Recommended Vendor, Ria Mishaal, whose work has graced the pages of STG many times before. 

In fact, it was one of her past real weddings, Claudia & Ed, who inspired much of the cast of Miranda and Gabriel’s big day. Miranda actually attended that wedding as a guest, and when she later saw the feature on STG, she knew that she couldn’t go wrong by contacting a few of their vendors!

Miranda and Gabriel ended up using Claudia and Ed’s photographer, planner AND florist, and were delighted with their choices.

There’s so much more to talk about, including the bride’s beautiful Philippa Lepley gown, the couple’s egalitarian ceremony and speeches and the simplification of bridesmaid politics, so we’ll hand over to Miranda to tell you all about it! 

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How we met

Miranda, the bride: I’m a teacher and Gabriel is a doctor. We met through a fix up – his brother and my sister were friends from university, and my sister passed on my number to Gabriel at a dinner party.

Then, after an awkward phone call, and some unsuccessful attempts at Facebook stalking on my part, we went on a completely blind date (all I had to go on was my sister’s description – “he is extremely tall with large hair”) to the extremely romantic (!) Cottons Rum Shack in Chalk Farm. We met at eight and stayed out until 2am, talking and laughing – it just went from there!

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A Sassi Holford bride for a Jewish destination wedding at The National Hotel, South Beach, Miami, USA

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Whether or not you believe in fate, I think we can all agree that Rubie & Ben make a good case for its existence. In fact, fate wouldn’t leave these two alone. It threw them together in chance meeting after chance meeting, insisting that these two lovebirds were meant to be.

Their beach-themed, Miami destination wedding was an absolute dream. Who could ask for more than to get married, barefoot, sand between toes, in idyllic surroundings? And it was very much a family affair, with everyone offering their help. From wedding-planning siblings and parents, to hair-styling sisters, Rubie and Ben’s loved ones certainly did not let them down. 

Sit back, and soak in the sun, sea and sand, as well as the stunning details, such as the beachy driftwood Chuppah overlooking the sea and the stunning seaside-inspired buttercream cake, all captured with dedication by photographer, Paul Toeman.

Breathtaking bride, Rubie, looked a vision in her timeless gown by STG Recommended Vendor, Sassi Holford. And speaking of the STG family, the couple flew in two more of our amazing Recommended Vendors. Wedding band, Totem, and the tear-jerking wedding trailer you absolutely must watch (below) is by Denee Motion. 

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How we met

Rubie, the bride: We met aged 17 at the final of a school business competition, nine years ago. We came from two very different worlds, and kept bumping into each other: first at the school competition where we didn’t even get each other’s names, then at an open day lecture at Leeds University, again not exchanging names and then, finally, I ran into ben in a crowd of 250,000 people at Reading music festival later that summer. After the third fateful meeting, we decided we should exchange names and have our first date: a cup of tomato soup from the Salvation Army tent… and the rest is history! 

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Nature-themed Jewish wedding at Riverdale Community Hall, Edmonton, Canada

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It seems strange to talk about a personalized wedding, given that committing the rest of your life to another human being is about as personal as it gets, so, fundamentally, all weddings are personalized. But some couples take it to a whole other level, injecting the essence of who they are as individuals, and a team, into every moment and every detail of their big day.

Leila and James did exactly this. The family-oriented pair celebrated their heritage, personalities and interests in each choice that they made. This strong unit, and the love that would surround them as they journeyed on into married life, was evident in every word and every beautiful image by FO Photography.

There is no better interior (exterior) decorator than Mother Nature, and the nature-themed wedding brought the best of the outside indoors, with forest-inspired centerpieces (created with a little help from a bonafide zoologist friend).

In addition to a personal zoologist, James and Leila’s creative cast of friends helped provide custom cocktails, created by a culinary artist pal, jars of vanilla extract as favours, with the vanilla beans brought back from a trip to Madagascar by a friend, and an international Chuppah, celebrating the couple’s respective heritages, sourced by the bride’s mother.

Added touches included HUE lighting to create an atmosphere (used with enthusiasm by the couple at home) and personalized vows, with the subject matter and key themes in common, but the final content as a surprise for one another.. 

We’ll hand over to beautiful bride, Leila, for her report on the big event. Take it away, Leila! 

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A nature-themed wedding

First and foremost, our wedding decorator was amazing. She is a good friend of ours, and worked with our limited budget to make our wedding incredibly beautiful.

She is the artist behind ID Bohemia and she did an amazing job. She helped us navigate all sorts of unknown channels, and we are so grateful for her friendship and her artistic eye for design. We had a nature theme, and our colours were green, gold and fuscia.

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8 Ways to Entertain Your Wedding Guests With Personalized Touches

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Your wedding, on account of being an exciting celebration of love, will definitely be entertaining, no matter what you do. But sometimes, a few little extra touches can really elevate the atmosphere, and help to create unforgettable moments and even take-home treats for you and your guests. 

If you’re stuck for special, above-and-beyond wedding ideas, look no further. Here are some of our favourite ways to absolutely spoil your loved ones. 


Image by Herschel Gutman, from Dorit and Eli’s Israeli wedding

1. Flower station

One trend that seems to be particularly prevalent in Israeli weddings (see Dorit and Eli’s florally fabulous big day) is the somewhat whimsical and magical idea of a flower station. Your florist could set up a stall with buckets of fresh flowers, where your guests can adorn themselves with custom-crafted flower crowns and bracelets. 

Not only is this a great way to keep your guests entertained, but also perfect for photographs, as everyone will be decked out with floral accessories. 


2. Photo booth

Whether you go all out on a professional booth, or decide to DIY it (here is one of our favourite Etsy customizable photo booth backdrops), you can’t go wrong with a photo booth. Guests absolutely love grabbing a silly prop and taking some fun, lighthearted snaps.

The best bit? They’re so beautifully shareable online after the big day – and show a whole other side to the atmosphere to the official pics, as everyone has their guard down.

Oh, and if you have a printable booth, or a polaroid camera, you can create a guest book for your nearest and dearest to stick in their best booth snaps and write you a message underneath. 

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