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A Country House Jewish Wedding in White at Sopwell House, St Albans, UK

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We love a country house Jewish wedding – and Natalie and Josh’s big day at Sopwell House in St Albans is really something special! Natalie and Josh loved the gorgeous grounds and the private, remote feel – all while being an easy trip from London.

We’re obsessed with the couple’s super cool Lucite chuppah, adorned with gypsophila and hanging white roses – don’t miss it in the wonderful photos by MIKI Studios.

To make sure everything ran to plan on the day, Natalie and Josh turned to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Toastmaster Jango. He made sure everything went smoothly so the bride and groom could relax and enjoy their day stress-free, and the couple give him lots of credit for making the day of their dreams a reality.

Now over to the bride, who’ll fill you in on all the details…

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How We Met

Natalie, the bride: We met on Hinge back in October 2020, when the covid lockdown curfew was 10pm!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Berta Bride for an Enchanted Garden Jewish Wedding at the Fairmont Windsor Park, UK

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It’s been a long couple of weeks for the Jewish people. In light of Hamas’s horrific acts of terrorism, we’ve taken a few weeks off from our usual wedding content to focus on supporting Israel and each other. While we sadly can’t say things have gotten to a better place, we are feeling more than ever that we need all the Jewish joy we can get – and that includes weddings.

Hence our decision to resume publishing the joyous, life-affirming celebrations of love that are the core of what we do here at Smashing The Glass. And we’re back today with something really special: Bianca and Jordan’s beautiful Jewish wedding at The Fairmont Hotel in Windsor, just outside London – made possibly by a fabulous team of #STGvendors.

 Bianca and Jordan turned to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Michelle Jacobs of Elegante by Michelle J to make their enchanted garden dreams a reality. Michelle planned Bianca’s sister’s wedding a few years back, so the couple knew from the beginning they were working with the best of the best. In Bianca’s words, “She was amazing and really helped guide us through the process and really understood our vision and what was important to us… Any concerns we had Michelle would deal with it for us and we knew we were in the best hands.” You can see for yourself how exquisitely it all came together in the wonderful photos by Paul Santos and the moving trailer by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion.

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Big Day Designs crafted Bianca and Jordan’s invitations, featuring rose gold foiling and wax seals, as well as their wedding day stationery, and Bianca found her stunner of a gown at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Wedding Club in Knightsbridge. She chose a strapless corset A-line dress by the Israeli designer Berta – which is all the more meaningful in light of the current situation.

Do read on for more Jewish joy, in Bianca’s own words…


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How We Met

Bianca, the bride: We knew of each other as we are both from Essex but we matched on J Swipe; after a few weeks of talking we finally met up and went on a date!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A David’s Bridal Bride for a Disney Meets Midsummer Night’s Dream Jewish Wedding at New West End Synagogue and Jumeirah Carlton Towers, London, UK

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We’re so excited to be sharing the beautiful Jewish wedding of our beloved STG Brides Club member Melissa, a nanny and cake maker, to Nick, a design technician in a secondary school! Melissa, a self-described hopeless romantic obsessed with Disney, fairy tales, and butterflies, had been dreaming of her big day since she was a child, and did she ever bring all that enthusiasm to play when it came to planning!

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Alexandra’s Florist helped the couple merged all these passions with a Midsummer Night’s Dream aesthetic, with plenty of white flowers with ivy, green leaves – and butterflies. Melissa and Nick’s gorgeous rustic chuppah featured was swathed in twigs, white flowers, and silver butterflies, and the wonderful centerpieces for the reception followed suit.

And we adore the unique invitations the pair designed, working with STG Recommended Vendor BigDay Designs and an architectural artist, featuring a hand-sketched illustration of their gorgeous ceremony venue, New West End Synagogue.

We also love that the pair incorporated some awesome DIY projects into their big day, most notably Melissa’s handcrafted arches (see pic above), made from cut up hula hoops and covered in artificial ivy and roses, to keep with the theme (she’s even shared a tutorial inside Brides Club should you wish to follow suit!) – and Nick’s heart-shaped wooden table name signs, each etched with the name of the Disney song the table in question was named for!

Photographer Chiko and videographer and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion captured all the special moments of the day so exquisitely – we really feel as if we were there! And Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Toastmaster Jango kept the day running smoothly and stress-free.

There’s so much more to say about this fantastic day, but we’ll let Melissa, who looked beautiful in Davidʼs Bridal, fill you in on the rest…

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Venue

Melissa, the bride: We got married at New West End Synagogue in St Petersburgh Place – ever since I was a little girl I always dreamed of getting married at this synagogue. The interior is just picturesque, with stunning stained-glass windows, too.

After the ceremony, we made our way to the Jumeirah Carlton Towers in Knightsbridge, which allows the bridal party use of their gorgeous and exclusive private park. This made for a stunning set of photos!

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2018/19 Real Blogging Brides: Introducing Harlie + Ben: How They Met To The Present Day…

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Today on the blog we’re introducing our 3rd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2018 and 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Harlie who will be marrying Ben on 19th August 2018 at the Landmark Hotel, London, UK.

THREE FACTS: Harlie met Ben on an ‘Aish’ trip to Israel during their university years (2) They will be bringing in lots of Spanish influences into their London wedding, for a variety of reasons, not least because that that’s where they got engaged! (3) They will be having a fairly traditional orthodox London wedding, but are including lots of modern twists.


How we met

Ben and I met in Israel during our University summer of 2013, on a tour that was part of a Jewish youth programme for students. I was at University in Leeds and Ben was at law school in London. We got talking over Shabbat lunch in the beautiful, spiritual city of Tzfat, and in the spirit of romance completely ignored each other for the rest of the trip!

It wasn’t until December that year when we both ended up in Spain with the same organisation that the sparks started flying. On the last night after a few shots of tequila, we both plucked up the courage to start chatting. After some grafting in the weeks to follow (although he wont admit it!), Ben won my heart.

Our dating days… up and down the country.

We only had a few low key casual dates back home, and it then wasn’t long until Ben was travelling up to Leeds and back from London to visit me at University. We went on a five week travelling stint around South East Asia that summer after only five months of dating, and have since made many amazing memories around the world. That was our story for the next three years, both travelling up and down the country every other weekend to see each other and spending many summers together jetting off around the globe.

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Jodie & Joel | Woodland-style rustic Jewish wedding at Luton Hoo, Hertfordshire, UK

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Happy 1st of the month  everyone! I hope that 2016 has been kind to you so far and that your wedding planning is going brilliantly.  If you haven’t booked  your wedding photographer yet, you might want  to enter our win your wedding photography competition with Claudine Hartzel, the brilliantly  talented camerawoman behind today’s gorgeous  Jewish wedding. Have a read of what the bride had to say about working with Claudine, further down the page — you’ll see that  if you’re the lucky couple to win this competition you’ll be starting the celebrations early!

So onto this beauty of a W Day. Although set just outside London, Jodie and Joel wanted to create a woodland-style wedding amongst  the lush gardens, lakes and waterfalls  of the beautiful  Luton Hoo  in Hertfordshire.  Initially Jodie, who runs her own mobile juicing business, wanted to get married in the middle of a forest so this setting was a perfect compromise. The table centres by  Platinum Raspberry  are particularly exceptional, and really bring the woodland theme to life.

This is a truly  inclusive wedding with family and friends involved every step of the way, from Jodie’s  step-brother singing a prayer under the chuppah (to the Indiana Jones theme tune no less), to  one of Jodie’s  oldest friends singing  Ellie Goulding’s  How Long Will I Love You   for the couple’s  first dance. Jodie’s  mum had secretly arranged  this as a surprise along with a few other  touches    – how thoughtful  is that?

Jodie has  some brilliant advice for all of you at the end of the post — I particularly love ‘Remember to say prayers for everyone you love as you circle  your groom —  it makes the ceremony that much more meaningful’.

Not only do we have the lovely images from Claudine Hartzel, but we also have the film from  Bloomsbury Films, which includes a heart warming speech from Jodie’s mum.  Without further ado, I give you Jodie and Joel.

Woodland-style rustic Jewish wedding at Luton Hoo
how we met

Jodie, the Bride:  Joel was one of my martial arts instructors. I later found him on Facebook, gave him my number, and the rest is history!

We got married in the grounds of beautiful  Luton Hoo  in Hertfordshire, just outside London. We just fell in love with the gardens — there was a lake and a waterfall and it was surrounded by trees and greenery. Initially I wanted to get married in the middle of a forest so this was a perfect compromise.

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