Jos. A. Bank Archives - Smashing the Glass

A Bride in Cowboy Boots for a Jewish Wedding at Texas Federation Women’s Club Mansion, Austin, Texas, USA

02/08/2017 by Karen

Ladies and gentlemen, if you’d please pull up your cowboy boots and saddle up, we’re off to Texas for Rachel and Ben’s super sweet, family-oriented Jewish wedding day, beautifully planned by Eclipse Event Co.

First of all, let’s talk about those cowboy boots – those beautiful, floral, bridal cowboy boots. We would sincerely like a pair kicking about STG HQ – what a gorgeous touch!

The theme of the wedding was a marriage of tradition and modernization, with a color scheme in hues of gorgeous greens and glamorous gold accents. This carried through from the stationery to the floristry to the beautiful Alfred Angelo Bridal bridesmaids’ dresses.

Stunning bride, Rachel, also wore Alfred Angelo over her standout DiJore boots.

Another incredibly cute touch was an actual honest-to-goodness PIE BAR! We’re getting hungry just typing the words ‘pie bar’, so we’ll hand over to the beautiful spread of images by Awake Photography, the moving video by Marty Robbins and bride, Rachel, to give you the full lowdown on their Texas knees up.

How we met

Rachel, the bride: We met online, but not on a dating site. It was a unique occurrence where I was online for a class in college and Ben was working on the channel I happened to be in. We got talking, and just didn’t stop.

A BHLDN Bride for a Jew-ish South American Celebration in Quito, Ecuador

12/07/2017 by Karen

Here at Smashing the Glass, we’ve taken little virtual trips absolutely everywhere – from Paris to Tel Aviv, New York to LA – and today, to Quito, Equador, for Adina and Mauricio’s romantic Jew-ish wedding celebration.

Power couple, Adina and Mau met for the first time in Ecuador, and it was love at first sight. The pair shortly reunited in Washington D.C., where they now live. Mau is an international relations consultant at the Organization of American States whilst Adina is a non-profit immigration attorney.

For their big event, the pair returned to Ecuador for an interfaith Jewish ceremony, conducted by a friend in both English and Spanish, with Latino influences throughout the day. Their venue overlooked the Andean mountains, where the loved-up couple first met.

Special touches that we absolutely love include a relaxing lounge area complete with a caricaturist, beautiful bulb lights to add to the magical, mystical atmosphere of the surroundings and a totally stunning, floral chuppah!

Beautiful and vivacious bride, Adina, looked sensational in her glamorous Wtoo by Watters for BHLDN gown, as you can see in these stunning images by Juan Pablo Velasco.

We’ll leave you now with Adina’s articulate and emotional words about her and Mau’s big day. Take it away, Adina!

How we met

Adina, the bride: We met in the summer of 2012 in Quito, Ecuador through our mutual friend, Amela. I was in Ecuador for an internship working with refugees, and Mau was just coming back from living in Europe, about to move to D.C. for an internship.

One of my first nights in Quito, we met for dinner and were each impressed and amazed by each other. We talked for hours, and Mau ordered me an ice cream sundae. Every weekend, we traveled together with friends and explored beautiful places all over Ecuador.

Together, we got to experience many exotic and diverse environments in Ecuador for the very first time. We discovered indigenous markets in Otavalo, enjoyed gorgeous beaches and fresh ceviche in Montaà±ita and Manta, rode chivas and swam in waterfalls in Baà±os, and mountain biked down Cotopaxi. Knowing Mau had already planned to move to D.C. for work before we met, we never really questioned being together, even when I had to return to D.C. to start law school.

A Texas-meets-Jewish knees up wedding with pie on Pi Day at Hyatt Regency La Jolla, San Diego, California, USA

20/01/2017 by Karen

Yeeehaw! Get ready for a cool cultural collision you just don’t see every day.

Taylor and David were best friends for several years before a fateful kiss after a West Wing marathon prompted them to realise what had been right in front of them all along.

Their Texas-meets-Jewish wedding, captured by husband-and-wife photography team, Shane and Lauren Photography, was planned specifically to fall on March 14^th, a.k.a. Pi Day.

Pi, a number that goes on indefinitely, was the perfect choice to echo Jewish wedding traditions, such as the breaking of the glass under the Chuppah with the sentiment “may your marriage last as long as it would take to repair this glass” (forever). We reckon the idea is a must-steal for math-loving Jewish couples everywhere!

In keeping with the Pi theme, the couple served… you guessed it — pie! Mini pies in mason jars were served for dessert and the couple cut an apple pie instead of a wedding cake. In fact, good luck reading this entire post without getting hungry — if you manage it, you’ve done better than the Smashing the Glass team.

To honour San Diego’s growing craft beer scene, they also had an epic beer bar and gave out koozies (fabric sleeves designed to keep a drink warm, for any non-Texan natives out there) as favours.

Over to Taylor to take us through all the details of her and David’s big day…

From best friends to husband and wife

Taylor, the bride: David and I met in law school. We were both student representatives for Kaplan Bar Review and got to know each other better by working there. I graduated school and then came back two years later to work in San Diego for Kaplan Bar Review in a full-time position. He was in his last year of school and was still a student representative and we reconnected.

We were best friends for over a year and a half with no romantic involvement. I dated other guys (that he knew), he dated other girls (that I knew) but no spark was there.

Then, eventually, something changed. A few days after Valentine’s Day in 2013, we were both single (him very newly so having just broken up with a long-distance girlfriend) and hanging out at his house watching The West Wing and we kissed.

We became even more inseparable after that day, got a dog named Bartlett (named after the president on The West Wing), and got married a little over two years later.