
We’re so excited to be publishing our first-ever Jewish wedding in Wales today! Though Jess, a primary school teacher, and Louis, a tax advisor, now live in London, Jess hails from the small but mighty Welsh Jewish community, and it was important to her to get married back home in South Wales.
They chose The Vale Resort in Pontyclun as the venue for their summery wedding weekend in pink, filled with tons of gorgeous blooms in all shades of the tone, and we can’t get enough of it. Neither could Jess – she loved planning her big day so much that she’s since launched a small business, The Wedding Desk, where she support couples who are planning their own wedding so that they can feel prepared and ready to hand over to their suppliers / on-the-day coordinator on the day!
Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Claudine Hartzel captured the day so beautifully – in Jess’s words, “She was just like having a best friend and supporter with us every step of the way. From our engagement shoot, we instantly felt at ease and comfortable in front of the camera and knew we were in for an absolute treat after receiving our engagement shoot photos. On the wedding day itself, Claudine and her team were everywhere but never in the way – she made sure every second was captured and her photos really show the emotion and positive energy of our special day.”
We also love that, in addition to their general wedding registry with The Wedding Shop, Jess and Louis also set up a Judaica registry with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Contemporary Judaica – such a smart way to make sure you’ll be gifted Judaica you’ll be proud to display in your home!
Now over to Jess…

How We Met
Jess, the bride: Jess is from Cardiff and Louis is from Manchester but we both moved to London after university. We met during Covid on Hinge but after a couple of dates, we realised that both our families share very close family friends – turns out we were both at a lot of simchas together when we were younger and there’s lots of photos of us! We were also on an Israel trip together during uni but had no idea!
