Jenna Mat Archives - Smashing the Glass

Real Jewish Brides: Jenna on Moving back to Tucson, Arizona!

07/01/2021 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Jenna will be marrying Mat on 13th June 2021 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to read all Jenna’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Jenna + Mat have known each other all their lives – they met when they were both one-year-old at a baby class! (2) Their relationship began at the University of Arizona in March 2012 (3) Mat proposed at Jenna’s parents house in December 2018

The news is official! My fiancé, Mat, and I will be moving back home to Tucson, AZ! Like so many during these days, we are now both fully remote. This means we can move out of our tiny one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn and to somewhere cheaper where we can rent much, much more space. Our lease is up at the end of February, so we’ll be packing up a Pod (love this style of moving, as you pack it up, they drive it, and can even store it until you have a final delivery location), packing up the cat who will detest being stuck in her carrier that long, and heading out west.

Goodbye snow, cold, subways, small apartment – hello warm Tucson, those beautiful sunsets, stunning mountains, space (especially outdoor space), and Sonoran Mexican food (my personal favorite style of Mexican food)!

Real Jewish Brides: Jenna on Keeping Busy

05/11/2020 by Smashing The Glass

Jenna will be marrying Mat on 13th June 2021 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to read all Jenna’s planning posts to date.

I have to say I struggled with this blog post. There hasn’t really been any update in regards to my wedding planning progress, as we were set to be married on September 6, 2020 and postponed to June 13, 2021, so we have been mostly set with our planning process. It has also been hard to get the little details done when my fiancé and I live across the country from where we are getting married. Things feel pretty much the same as when I wrote my last blog post about our postponed wedding weekend and Mat’s birthday.

We have been doing things, like the occasional brunch outside, socially distant weekend afternoons spent with friends in our building, exploring our neighborhood by letting the streetlights tell us where to go on our walks, or taking the ferry between Brooklyn and Manhattan. I guess the main life update for us has been regarding my job becoming a fully remote position. That for sure has been a big change for me and has taken a lot to wrap my head around. With so much changing in the world and my own life, I’ve needed things to keep me feeling grounded.

One has been cooking and especially baking (if you are not a member of the Bride’s Club, join and you will get access to the recordings of the Pumpkin Spice Roll Challah virtual bake I am leading on 11/7) and choir – well, virtual choir.

Real Jewish Brides: Jenna on Making the Most of Postponement

09/09/2020 by Smashing The Glass

Jenna will be marrying Mat on 13th June 2021 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to read all Jenna’s planning posts to date.

It’s so crazy to think that our wedding was supposed to be in 16 days (from the date I’m writing this post, 8/21/20). September 6, 2020 was supposed to be our wedding date. But we postponed at the end of May to June 13, 2021 due to being cautious with Covid (the dreaded C-word), and that we wouldn’t be able to have the wedding we dreamed of with all our friends and family there. For my fiancé and I, while we hate having to wait 9 extra months to get married, not having all of our friends and family at our ceremony especially (and the fact that dancing looked like it wouldn’t be able to happen) made us feel strongly that we wanted to postpone the wedding.

Jenna and Matt
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Real Jewish Brides: Jenna on How We are Customizing our Jewish Wedding

15/07/2020 by Smashing The Glass

Jenna will be marrying Mat on 13th June 2021 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to read all Jenna’s planning posts to date.

Judaism is a huge part of our identity – both for my fiancé, Mat, and for me. We not only grew up at the same synagogue, where we were bar and bat mitzvahed, but also attended Jewish summer camps (and worked as counselors), were members of our Jewish youth group USY, went to the Jewish day school or the synagogue’s Hebrew school, and so much more (I taught b’nai mitzvah class for 5 years!).

Growing up for me, I always remembered going to Shabbat dinner at my Bubbie and Grandpa’s house – I even learned how to bake challah from my Grandpa, who would bake two fresh loaves every other week. We always celebrated all the Jewish holidays as well, with the entire family getting together to eat good food and celebrate. For Mat, going to Hebrew school 3 times a week at the synagogue kept him connected in his daily life to Judaism – it is where he learned about our history, culture, religion, and it taught him the importance of his Jewish identity.

Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Jenna + Mat: How They Met To The Present Day…

12/05/2020 by Smashing The Glass

Today on the blog we’re introducing our latest gorgeous crop of 2020 / 2021 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Jenna, who will be marrying Mat on 6th September 2020 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona.

THREE FACTS: (1) Jenna + Mat have known each other all their lives (2) Their relationship began at the University of Arizona in March 2012 (3) Mat proposed at Jenna’s parents house in December 2018

How We Met

When people ask me what my first impression of my fiancé was, I like to say, “I think he needs a diaper change.” You see, we have a love story you don’t hear every day. The year was 1994, we were both one-year-olds, and we were at a local park in Tucson, Arizona at a baby tumbling class. Our moms connected, and they brought us to the same playgroup until we started school. While we never went to the same school growing up, we both belonged to the same synagogue, and we were even in the same B’nai Mitzvah class together – my Bat Mitzvah was on Mat’s 13th birthday!

We lost touch for the next few years until we both happened to be at a mutual friend’s high school graduation party. Mat was about to start his freshman year at the University of Arizona and I was about to start my sophomore year. They got to talking, and it turned out that Mat was joining the same business mentorship program Jenna had done her freshman year. Mat and his best friend happened to attend the orientation session that following week, and he serendipitously received a book for the business mentorship program that I had read and signed! I was one of 60 students in the program the year before, and of all the incoming freshmen that could have received my book…Mat was the lucky recipient.

Come the beginning of the school year, I was helping our Chabad at the U of A table on the mall (center grass strip of campus), and I may have enticed Mat to come for free food…and my company (which Mat couldn’t turn down). Over the course of the next few months, our friendship began to blossom. FINALLY, Mat asked me to be his girlfriend in March of 2012, and we have been dating ever since. Our relationship has withstood two and a half years of long distance while I attended graduate school at Brandeis and my subsequent move to New York City. Six months after I moved to NYC, Mat followed.Continue Reading