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5 of Our Favorites: Breathtaking Chuppahs We Adore

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Gilda and Shahin‘s Jewish Wedding | Photo by Jessica Claire

Welcome back to “5 of Our Favorites,” where we bring you five stunning Jewish weddings, all curated around a special theme. This week, we’re focusing on one of the most meaningful and beautiful elements of a Jewish wedding: the chuppah.

The chuppah is not just a beautiful structure under which to make things official, but a representation of the couple’s new home and the love they share. From lush floral designs to minimalist elegance to DIY exuberance, these chuppahs are a true reflection of each couple’s style and the spirit of their celebration.

We can’t wait to inspire you with these incredible designs!

colourful-chuppah

Gena and Tony‘s Jewish Wedding | Photo by Lara Hotz 

Gena and Tony’s Extraordinarily Imaginative ‘Color Explosion’ Jewish Wedding at the Sydney Polo Club, NSW, Australia

Get your sunglasses ready, because Gena and Tony’s wedding is a massive rainbow-hued color fest, featuring the most epic DIY chuppah made from tissue paper decorations and a calico roof!

Gena and Tony‘s Jewish Wedding | Photo by Lara Hotz 

There are so many fab details to love, from Gena’s pom pom crown t0 her crochet dress to her supersize bouquet filled with flowers of every possible hue, glitter, ribbons, and pom poms. Then we’ve got bridesmaids dressed in orange carrying big foil heart shaped balloons with tissue paper tassels instead of bouquets. There’s a super cute dog taking centre stage during the ceremony. And 1200 odd colored ribbons used to decorate the barn and chairs. 

Gena and Tony‘s Jewish Wedding | Photo by Lara Hotz 

In Gena’s words,

They say the chuppah represents the home you will build together so it was only fitting that ours would be a colourful space. I just wanted to have something quirky but still traditional and the result was like a sculptural installation and a work of art. We used an assortment of tissue paper honeycomb shapes (including ice creams) as well as tissue paper garlands and a calico roof.

Marina and Gary‘s Jewish Wedding | Photo by Lilian Haidar

Marina and Gary’s Ultra Glam Jewish Wedding with a Mirrored Peony Chuppah at the Metropolitan Club, New York City, USA

Um, WOW. Excuse us as we pick our jaws up off the floor. We are just floored by the magnificent mirrored (!) peony (!!) chuppah in Marina and Gary’s Jewish wedding.

It is just BEYOND, and those hanging peonies suspended from the canopy? Serious, serious #chuppahgoals. Marina says standing under it felt like being in a midsummer night’s dream garden!

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Marina and Gary‘s Jewish Wedding | Photo by Lilian Haidar

Actually, just about everything about this wedding is hardcore #goals. And it’s no wonder, with superstar wedding planner Amy Katz running the show.

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Marina and Gary‘s Jewish Wedding | Photo by Lilian Haidar

This duo had absolutely the quintessential NYC wedding, just bursting with old-school elegance (but with some very cool, very contemporary touches thrown in to keep things from getting stodgy — you won’t want to miss their tequila-infused Mar-Garita cake pops!).

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Chuppah ideas & styling for a modern Jewish wedding

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chuppah-ideas-Jewish-wedding
This is a guest post by Cora Norrey, Category Manager for Weddings at  Not On The High Street
Above image taken from Lemor & Adam’s Jewish wedding by Maloman Studios

Styling your own chuppah can be a fantastic way to stamp your personality on your day, and is also a great way of figuring out what it is you want your day to look like. As the basic structure is set, how you dress it can really start opening up what you want your personal style to be.

rustic chic

Faux flowers and foliage can often evoke a shudder of fear among many, but the industry has come on leaps and bounds in recent years with faux flora often giving the real thing a run for its money. And in terms of value and peace of mind, artificial foliage and flowers will obviously last as long as you need and you can repurpose them in your home or garden later. Wrapping thick and luscious strands of foliage round the supporting poles can create a beautiful focal point and creating an asymmetrical look by concentrating the foliage on one side only, can really help modernise the look. You can then use the same flowers as styling throughout the day in bouquets, button holes and centre pieces really helping to create a strong coherent look.

floral chuppah
Image:  Lisa Rigby Photography

keepsake elements

The rustic look lends itself beautifully to the elegance of the chuppah. Using tree branches for poles, you can create a beautiful lasting keepsake by carving your initials and the date on one of the poles and displaying this as art in your home for years to come.

birch chuppah
Left image: Taylor Lord Photography :: Right image: Gia Canali Photography

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A Monique Lhuillier bride for a city chic Jewish wedding at Bloomsbury Ballroom, London, UK

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Not only is today’s bride, Dana, a big fan of Smashing The Glass (I always love to hear that!) she also found her super talented florist, Gloria Baker, through the blog, and my goodness, what a breathtaking chuppah Gloria created. It’s a chuppah to die for. Anyone that’s after a dreamy, romantic, floral look should get their pinterest boards at the ready, and if not, get all old school with a notepad and pen — seriously it’s THAT good.

Dana and Jacob married at central London’s Bloomsbury Ballroom and they definitely achieved their aim of creating the greatest party of their lives. A massive 80% of their guests flew in from abroad and everyone partied so hard you just knew they weren’t working the following day! From personalised masks of Dana and Jacob, to flip flop favours, photo booths, and glasses emblazoned with ‘Dana and Jacob’, every dance floor detail was thought of.

I haven’t even mentioned Dana’s epic gown yet.. She wore ‘Sarah’ by Monique Lhuillier but she went a step further and got one of the wonderful seamstresses at Browns Bride to create a detachable skirt so that she could completely change up her look for the ceremony and the party. Brilliant!

As with almost every Jewish wedding ceremony, theirs was steeped in tradition and ritual, and they managed to successfully combine both Ashkenazi and Sephardi wedding traditions to reflect both their heritages. They also made the decision not to see or talk to each other for an entire week before the wedding! This is one of my favourite religious Jewish wedding traditions, but one that I rarely see carried out (for the full week) these days.

All the images and film are by Shedrin & Rubi, who Dana and Jacob flew in all the way from Israel.

Bloomsbury Ballroom wedding
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Jamie & John | Garden loft Jewish wedding with an amazing suspended floral chuppah at Open Secret Studios, Illinois, Chicago, USA

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Jewish-wedding Chicago
Jamie and John’s big day is swoon-inducingly pretty. I love every single creative element — from the incredible suspended flower-covered chuppah, to the “best woman” dog wearing a custom satin harness made by the groom’s mum, to the illustrated invitations, programs, menus and place cards, all painstakingly hand-sketched and painted by the bride herself!

It’s just all so exquisite with so much creative input from both the bride and groom.

And the flowers just take my breath away. I expect muchos pinning action to be happening this morning – I for one will be pinning my heart out!

In a slight deviation from the norm, the narration of this W-Day comes directly from Becca Heuer, Jamie and John’s super talented wedding photographer who as it happens is getting married herself in a couple of months! Becca, take it away…

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