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An autumnal Jewish wedding with a bride in a Melanie Potro dress at the Intercontinental on Park Lane, London

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Jewish-Wedding-Intercontinental-on-Park-Lane-London Fall has arrived early on STG! If you’re already missing all the seasonal colourful leaves, chunky knits and spicy drinks, then settle in and relive the season with Frances and Rudi’s magically autumnal real wedding, captured by photographer Elegant & Wild. 

Beautiful bride, Frances, wore an astoundingly stunning bespoke gown made by much-loved Smashing Supplier, Melanie Potro. The gown evoked echoes of Audrey Hepburn, and Frances looked like an absolute dream. We’re totally in love! We also highly approve of Frances’s choice to pair the dress with gorgeous, glittery gold heels.

Talented Frances was also able to harness her creative side, crafting the entire autumnal stationery suite for the wedding and even launching her own website selling her gorgeous products.

Melanie Potro wasn’t the only Smashing Supplier at Rudi and Frances’s big day. Amazing party band, Sensation Band, also played at the reception, even saving the day by keeping everyone entertained during a temporary mishap.

We also want to mention the beautiful, sentimental chuppah idea of using tallis from the bride and grooms’ respective grandfathers. The story behind this is so moving and it was a really wonderful way to honour generations of  their families. 

I’ll hand over to our gorgeous bride to tell us more. Take it away, Frances!  

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How we met

Frances, the bride: We have lots of mutual friends, we were friends on Facebook and knew each other from parties over the years, but in the end it was that good old matchmaker, Tinder, that got us together.

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An appropriately named venue: Intercontinental on Park Lane in London

We got married at the Intercontinental on Park Lane, quite simply because it was central and big enough to hold 300 people. My Dad gave a nod to its significance in his speech, commenting on the ‘intercontinental’ nature of our wedding. Rudi’s family is from Iraq and mine from London, although prior to that Austria, Russia and Poland. We had guests from all over too.

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Debbie & Eyal | A Jewish Turkish lovebird-themed wedding, filled with colour, at The HAC (Honourable Artillery Company), London, UK

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Jewish-wedding
It absolutely makes my day when I read that the couple who’s real wedding I’m putting together found their photographer via Smashing The Glass. That’s exactly what Debbie and Eyal did in order to discover the amazing Marianne Chua — and oh my goodness, aren’t Marianne images awesome?

Debbie and Eyal chose a really unusual theme… birds! They both adore our feathered friends so weaved them into their wedding stationery, their guestbooks, on top of their wedding cake, into their ‘nest’-style table centrepieces, and even as dancing props later on in the evening! Such an unexpected theme and so well-executed.

Not surprisingly with Debbie working in events, and Eyal being a theatre lighting designer, there’s a whole heap of personality and creativity flowing throughout the day. From the wedding logo of two birds, sketched by the bride, to their super fun wedding website, to the surprise song and dance performed by friends, to the highly personalised Jewish wedding ceremony punctuated by musical interludes, this W-Day is overflowing with individuality and character.

Debbie’s report is longer than average, there’s no denying it but it’s well worth an in-depth read. Perhaps gawp at the emotive imagery and then come back later for a proper sit down. I’ll admit that parts of Debbie’s report brought me to tears. It’s brilliantly written, straight from the heart, and she gives some of the best advice I’ve ever heard from a bride at the end of the post. An absolute must-read.

By pure coincidence, I also had the pleasure of meeting Debbie in the run-up to her wedding when I was giving a talk at Brides The Show last year. After the talk she came over for a chat to ask my advice on her big day. One of the things she wanted to know was how she could come up with an idea for a meaningful chuppah design. Well, without wanting to pat myself on the back, I must have said something right, as what Debbie and Eyal came up with couldn’t have been more perfect. It’s a great example of how your chuppah canopy can be one of the most meaningful and personal elements of your wedding day. I’ll let Debbie divulge the details — it’s so very special.

Oh, and the wedding film at the end of the post, by The Dreamcatchers is an absolute must-see too. So much love and happiness oozes out of it, I literally found myself gazing at it thinking how lucky I am to be able to watch this breathtaking film as part of my job. Don’t miss it!

Ok lovely Debbie, take it away…

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how we met

Debbie, the Bride: I was moving in with two friends, Alma and Shiri (my BridesMates!) who introduced me to Eyal. He helped us move into the flat actually. We were friends for a few months, and got together the day before he went off to South America for almost four months away. Timing! We thought we’d ‘pick up’ when he got back, but in fact we ended up Skype-ing, writing and essentially starting out as a couple. He returned in February 2013 and the rest was history.

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Deborah & Hernà¡n | ‘Intimate & international’ Jewish wedding on a farmhouse at South Farm, Cambridgeshire, UK

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Farmhouse Jewish Wedding
Over the past few weeks we’ve shown you real Jewish weddings on South American lakesides, Italian cliff tops, and a myriad of coastlines — but how about we take it back to the land and look at Deborah and Hernà¡n’s wedding on a glorious farm in Cambridgeshire, England.

With farmyard animals loitering outside the main reception, food and entertainment in the barn and painted gypsy caravans for the guests to sleep in — this was such an inspired choice of venue to share with their family and friends hailing from around the world.

Deborah and Argentinian-born Hernà¡n settled on stunning South Farm for their big ‘I do’ as they wanted to veer away from the traditional Jewish wedding — they wanted an international party and they certainly accomplished that, and all with such a thoughtful eye to detail.

I’m totally drawn to Deborah and Hernà¡n, not just because they’re regular visitors to Smashing The Glass or because they got married on my birthday (yay!) but because they seem such a happy, warm and inclusive couple…. And this spills out into their wedding. The love just radiates and the pictures and film by York Place Studios make me smile and well up in equal measure — everyone seems to be having the BEST time.

So how did they manage to be so inclusive for the whole international family? A few key things — as their speeches were in English and Spanish, they used a projector to translate, so all guests were in on all the jokes!

The order of service was in both English and Spanish and their Sheva Brachot were said in Hebrew, Spanish and English.

Their choice of band also showed such sensitivity to their guests needs — Storm played a mixture of Israeli, British and Argentinian music.

And even the chuppah had an international flavour — with materials bought in Argentina which were then taken back to the UK and the poles came from the North London Synagogue. I also love that the chuppah design incorporated handprints from both Deborah and Hernà¡n’s families…

With hosts like this — no wonder everyone looks so darn happy!

Jewish wedding on a farmhouse
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