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Home > JJ Hodari

A Pronovias Bride for a Timelessly Elegant Jewish Wedding at the Midland Hotel, Manchester, UK

21/07/2025 by Karen Cinnamon

Elissa and Jordan, The Midland Hotel, Manchester, UK

London couple Elissa, who works in finance, and Jordan, who has his own property development company, always knew they wanted to get married in the bride’s hometown of Manchester, UK.

When it came time to choose their venue, they picked The Midland Hotel , which is not only an iconic Manchester landmark but also the place where both Elissa’s grandmother and great grandmother got married – how special is that? It was the perfect spot for the timeless, elegant wedding of the couple’s dreams.

It also featured the dance floor of the couple’s dreams – in no small part thanks to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The White Keys. In Elissa’s words, “They were absolutely unbelievable! We had their 15-piece band and DJ Live, and they kept the dance-floor full all night. The band felt more modern and fresh than so many of the typical bands you see on the wedding circuit; and so many of our friends said how fantastic they were! We worked with Amy and the team to ensure that there was live music from the minute our guests entered the room right until the end. No request was too much to ask, and they worked with our Chazan too to make our ceremony music so beautiful.”

For photography, Elissa and Jordan opted for Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Claudine Hartzel because they loved the candid aesthetic of her photos. In Elissa’s words, “Jordan and I aren’t very posy people and were admittedly nervous about all the photos ahead of the day, but Claudine got so many brilliant action shots that we love.”

Now we’ll turn you over to Elissa…

Elissa and Jordan, The Midland Hotel, Manchester, UK Elissa and Jordan, The Midland Hotel, Manchester, UK Elissa and Jordan, The Midland Hotel, Manchester, UK Elissa and Jordan, The Midland Hotel, Manchester, UK

How We Met

Elissa, the bride: We met during our first year at the University of Birmingham over 10 years ago. I famously sold Jordan a club night ticket to Fab n’ Fresh during Fresher’s Week (I have the Facebook messages to prove it!), but we didn’t get together until we met again several months later and we have been inseparable ever since!

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A Millanova Bride for an Elegant Jewish Wedding in White at Merrydale Manor, Cheshire, UK

07/08/2023 by Karen Cinnamon

Felicity-Jacob-Merrydale-Manor-Cheshire-UK

Today’s UK Jewish wedding at Cheshire’s Merrydale Manor is a true feast for the eyes… Felicity and Jacob knew they wanted their wedding to be elegant from the get-go, and did it ever deliver!

As a style-conscious bride, finding the perfect dress was important to Felicity – and in the search for The One, she went to 15 bridal shops before finding the gown of her dreams at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Wedding Club in London: an off-the-shoulder satin number in ivory by Millanova. With a heart-shaped neckline, draped bodice, and open back with lace-up closure – not to mention a long train – it more than fit the bill. Don’t miss it in the fabulous photos by David Pullum Photography.

Felicity and Jacob weren’t all about the aesthetics, though – they also wanted to make sure their wedding felt like a party, and they turned to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The White Keys to bring the atmosphere. The couple went for a 14-piece band, and they couldn’t have been more thrilled with their decision. They knew they wanted something a little different than the standard Jewish wedding band, and as soon as they saw The White Keys’ Ibiza heritage set they knew they’d found their match!

We’ll let Felicity take it from here…

 

Felicity-Jacob-Merrydale-Manor-Cheshire-UK Felicity-Jacob-Merrydale-Manor-Cheshire-UK
How We Met

Felicity, the bride: Me and Jakey were childhood sweethearts. We have been together for 15 years since 2008 and finally tied the knot in October 2023. We met in school and have been soul mates ever since <3 he is my number one!

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A Joyce Young Bride for a Jewish Wedding Worth the Wait at Dartmouth House, London, UK

28/02/2022 by Karen Cinnamon

Jos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UK

We’re so excited to be featuring the Jewish wedding of our beautiful Brides Club member Jos today! As with so many couples over the past few years,  Jos, who works for a tech company in product marketing, and Daniel, a lawyer, had lots of setbacks on the way to marital bliss – including THREE postponements and a change of venue – but the final outcome was more than worth the wait, as we’re sure you’ll agree if you scroll through the incredible photos by Rachel takes Pictures.

We so loved having Jos in Brides Club, where she made real-life friends she’s still connected with post-wedding and found some of her fabulous vendors, including their videographer Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Adrian Stone and planner Katy Cresner.

Speaking of Adrian Stone – The Dream Catchers – we can’t say it any better than Jos did herself: “When we received our Storybook film and highlights edit it was better than anything I could ever wish for. Adrian captured the spirit of the day and so many moments that would have been forgotten if we didn’t work with him.”

We’re also in awe of the couple’s florals by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Blue Sky Flowers. Jos and Daniel chatted with founder Liz about their preferences and then left her to run the show… and they were absolutely blown away by the results, as are we! The duo also loved that Liz donates flowers leftover at the end of the night to Floral Angels, so that other people can enjoy them!

There were so many more wonderful personal touches to this day, but we’ll leave it to Jos, who looked stunning in Joyce Young, to tell you about all that…

Jos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UK Jos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UK Jos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UK Jos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UK
How we Met

Jos, the bride: We met on a cold January evening at the Freemasons Arms pub in Hampstead, but originally we both swiped right on Tinder. Well he swiped for me, my friend swiped for him, but that’s another story.

We got engaged on the Greek island of Naxos, which is now our absolute favourite place on this planet. It was simple and quintessentially us, and we set about planning our wedding almost as soon as we got back. 

We were originally meant to get married in June 2020 with 250 people at Hackney town Hall. We were one of many couples who had to cancel because of covid and we were a little optimistic with trying two more times in November 2020 and March 2021, both dates fell during national lockdowns and we pushed it to April 2022 and got on with our lives.

We bought a house and a dog like good covid millennials. I have to say, that I put wedding planning completely on the back burner. I found it really hard to get excited and I was super anxious about moving forward with a wedding date before 2022 because I was terrified that people would get sick. Being honest, I’m not sure if I saw how much limbo we were living in, it was an important event that we were very keen to have, but we were also totally paralysed by the events in the world.

In August 2021 my mum went on holiday with her cousin and called me from the beach declaring she thought it would be a great idea of we just got married in October. She wanted to be as early into Autumn as possible, in the hope that there were no covid restrictions. Initially she had suggested getting married in their garden, but that proved to be unworkable, so in 6 weeks we planned a cut down, but just as fabulous wedding, it was a whirlwind but one we couldn’t be more grateful we did when we did it.Continue ReadingContinue Reading

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Real Jewish Bride: Sarah Had A Weekend of Fun Planning Her Destination Wedding

08/01/2020 by Smashing The Glass

Sarah will be marrying Rich on 21th June 2020 at Tikitano Beach, Marbella, Spain. Click here to read all Sarah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Sarah knew Rich was the one when he brought a gift of dog treats for her toy poodle Nuala along to their fourth date! (2) They are crafting an amazing destination wedding weekend in Marbella with beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended vendor optimum weddings as their planner. (3) Sarah is a member of  Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

Richard and I both knew that we wanted a destination wedding from day one! We have been to so many weddings in London which are fabulous, but we wanted a more relaxed atmosphere with a huge party and no one having to worry about waking up early for work the next day!

With a destination wedding there is a lot more to think about! Since we are asking people to come out to another country and spend that much more on our wedding, we felt that we needed to provide them with a weekend of fun to make it all worthwhile!

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2020 Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Sarah + Rich: How They Met To The Present Day…

11/09/2019 by Smashing The Glass

Today on the blog we’re introducing our 3rd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2020 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Sarah, who will be marrying Rich on 21th June 2020 at Tikitano Beach, Marbella, Spain.

THREE FACTS: (1) Sarah knew Rich was the one when he brought a gift of dog treats for her toy poodle Nuala along to their fourth date! (2) They are crafting an amazing destination wedding weekend in Marbella with beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended vendor optimum weddings as their planner. (3) Sarah is a member of  Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


How We Met

My fiance Richard and I met on the dating app J-Swipe. At that time, Richard was treating dating like a prospective business transaction and I was totally over the dating scene! However, my best friend was determined for me to meet someone and so she took my phone and signed me up to J-Swipe without even asking me! Before I knew it, she was swiping “yes” to all the prospective men that she deemed suitable and Rich was one of them!  

​​I was acting at the time and once we got chatting and Richard’s opening line to me on J-Swipe was, “If you could play any character in a TV show or film, who would it be?” I replied, “the fierce and sassy Olivia Pope from Scandal!” I was secretly impressed with his different opener and thought he was worth a shot! 

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