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Real Jewish Brides: Jos on the wedding journey

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Jos will be marrying Daniel in March 2021 at Hackney Town Hall, London, UK. Click here to read all Jos’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Before meeting Daniel, Jos was known for her torrid dating tales – so much so that her friends used to call her Bridget Jonestein! (2) Daniel proposed to Jos in the Greek island of Naxos! (3) Jos is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

When we got engaged in June 2019, I was hit by the usual plethora of emotions. Feeling excited, and overwhelmed, emotional, happy, scared, it was quite the whirlwind. However, one emotion I didn’t talk about too much was a bit of relief. Why relief? Well, finding my guy didn’t come particularly easy for me. I spent my 20’s dating all the wrong ‘uns, watching as one by one, my friends found their partners and started to settle down. The day after I turned 30 I broke up with the archetypal bad boyfriend, and had a two month stint off work after complications with my endometriosis left me pretty sick in hospital for three weeks. I remember thinking on January 1st 2016.. where do I go from here?

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Real Jewish Brides: Jos on her original wedding date

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Jos will be marrying Daniel in March 2021 at Hackney Town Hall, London, UK. Click here to read all Jos’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Before meeting Daniel, Jos was known for her torrid dating tales – so much so that her friends used to call her Bridget Jonestein! (2) Daniel proposed to Jos in the Greek island of Naxos! (3) Jos is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

In another life, the 27th June 2020 would have played out very differently. The plan had been crafted months ago. Firstly, me, my bridesmaids, my mum, aunt, sisters in law, cousins, and grandma would decamp to one of my favourite London haunts: Pivonie Nail spa in Belsize village. Having been a regular there since they opened, myself and my girls Aya and Lily (they’re the best) had already decided that Fairy Tailor by Essie would be the colour of my wedding nails.

I had pretty much intended on booking it out so that every female I hold dear could be pampered before our wedding. In the evening, I’d asked for as many of my bridesmaids as we’re comfortable to come and hang out at my parents, my bestie Taylor and I already decided which side of the double bed on the top floor of my parent’s house we’d be sleeping on the night before I got married. I’m fairly sure I requested a movie to watch, probably something like Pitch Perfect, nothing wedding themed to be honest.

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Real Jewish Brides: Jos on the Coronacoaster

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Jos will be marrying Daniel on 1st November 2020 at Hackney Town Hall, London, UK. Click here to read all Jos’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Before meeting Daniel, Jos was known for her torrid dating tales – so much so that her friends used to call her Bridget Jonestein! (2) Daniel proposed to Jos in the Greek island of Naxos! (3) Jos is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


Coronacoaster
Verb

The ups and downs of your mood during the pandemic. You’re loving lockdown one minute but suddenly weepy with anxiety the next.

“It truly is an emotional coronacoaster”.

My two favourite activities are making plans and making lists. Before Coronavirus hit, I would fill our diaries weeks and months in advance, and like all the other extroverts, this long period of ‘social isolation’ is quite hard. We also made the unsurprising decision to push back our wedding a few weeks ago.

It became increasingly clear that it would be unlikely that we would be able to have our wedding as we planned it, and it was most important to us that our friends and family felt safe celebrating with us. What is most difficult is living with uncertainty. Will things be ok, will we need to push back again, and frankly, how do we need to rethink our carefully laid plans in order that we don’t continuously delay our future.

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Real Jewish Brides: Jos on Support for Wedding Vendors

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Jos will be marrying Daniel on 1st November 2020 at Hackney Town Hall, London, UK. Click here to read all Jos’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Before meeting Daniel, Jos was known for her torrid dating tales – so much so that her friends used to call her Bridget Jonestein! (2) Daniel proposed to Jos in the Greek island of Naxos! (3) Jos is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!


Let’s hear it for our vendors

Like for many other people, the last few weeks have been a devastating whirlwind for me and my family. We have watched, horrified, as this horrible situation has escalated out of control, threatening the lives of our loved ones, our financial stability and, sadly, rendered us unsure of whether our weddings will go ahead on the dates we’d planned them for.

Two weeks ago, we quickly hustled and put in place a contingency date for our wedding, thanks to the advice of Karen during a Live in the Brides Club! We were lucky that we were able to align all of our amazing suppliers to move our wedding to November, if the situation didn’t look like it was going to clear up and they all agreed. Speaking honestly, I found this process extremely difficult.

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Real Jewish Brides: Jos’s Grooms’ Eye View into Wedding Planning

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Jos will be marrying Daniel on 28th June 2020 at Hackney Town Hall, London, UK. Click here to read all Jos’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Before meeting Daniel, Jos was known for her torrid dating tales – so much so that her friends used to call her Bridget Jonestein! (2) Daniel proposed to Jos in the Greek island of Naxos! (3) Jos is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

The lead up to Daniel and I getting engaged was one of great anticipation. My mum called me one day and said ‘just tell him, the minute he proposes, I’m ready to get organising’. I too had tentatively started googling things… not wanting to tempt fate, but just to prep.. you know… just in case. Fast forward to the week after Daniel proposed, and I received of the biggest shocks of the wedding planning process so far.

Daniel, had an opinion. 

And I really don’t blame myself for the surprise I felt. We’re conditioned to believe that the wedding is the biggest day of a girl’s life. That the bride is the centre of attention. And if you think about popular culture, that’s really not surprising.

Take movies as an example. A cursory google brought up 99 films with ‘Bride’ in the title. These of course don’t include films that focus on a bride, but don’t specifically call it out in the title (i.e. almost every Disney cartoon). It does include the ‘Bride of Chucky’, which is not exactly within the romantic genre, but this isn’t an exact science.

Guess how many films I found with the word groom in the title? Five. Four of those films were made in the 1930’s, and one, confusingly, was called ‘The Well-Groomed Bride’, so, it doesn’t count. TV is another example. 

The only TV show I can think of that really features a groom is called… ‘Don’t tell the Bride’. So, I think I can be excused for the surprise when it dawned on me that this wasn’t the movies, it was real life and in real life, the Groom has a say. 

So, in true British style, I’ve decided to dedicate this post to the underdog. The most underrepresented demographic in the wedding world. The Groom.


From left to right: Jen, Jos, Charlotte and Jocy, all Brides Club Members and actual/former Real Blogging Brides. Their partners have been interviewed by Jos.

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