Laura Ashley The Manor Archives - Smashing the Glass

A Pronovias Bride for a Glam Garden Party Jewish-inspired Wedding at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, Hertfordshire, UK

19/11/2018 by Karen Cinnamon

Squeal! Proud mom moment… yes, another one of my beautiful blogging brides is married! I’m so sad to say goodbye to lovely Clare, but also delighted to share her GORGEOUS Jew-ish wedding with you today…. and my goodness doesn’t she look gorgeous?!

Clare, a nursery school teacher, and Chris, a planning manager for a property developer in London (#onclouddeeks), started off their Smashing The Glass journey with a session with me as part of my wedding consultancy service. We worked together to to help bring her vision to life for what would eventually become her spring garden-themed day, and Clare reports that gained some incredible vendor recommendations from this session too — awww – that’s the best news!

Neither Clare nor Chris is Jewish, but the couple have Jewish family and opted to incorporate some traditions they found especially meaningful. I love the modernized, personal rewriting of the seven blessings their friends and family read to them (some of the blessings guests came up with are pretty hilarious!) and, of course, the magical birch chuppah with lanterns and candles strewn around the base.

Speaking of candles… the couple made liberal use of luxe scented candles throughout the day, which not only made their venue smell amazing but also made for wonderful memories: Clare reports that every time she smells, say, Jo Malone’s ‘wild fig and cassis’ (one of her picks), it immediately brings her back to the big day. Such a clever idea!

Photographer Catherine Carter and videographer Jeff Woods captured all the emotion — not to mention the fab creative touches — to perfection, and Clare looked beyond stunning in the exquisitely beaded fishtail-style Pronovias dress she purchased from STG Recommended Vendor The Wedding Club in South Kensington (where she had “the most amazing experience” — not that we’re surprised).

Okay, enough from us… take it away, Clare!

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How We Met

Clare, the bride: We met in 2014 by swiping right!

Real Blogging Brides: Clare – Difficult News, Learning Calligraphy, and Some DIY Wedding Projects…

26/09/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Clare will be marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Clare is not Jewish but discovered Smashing The Glass via her Jewish sister-in-law and during her wedding planning journey it has (in her own words!) became her favorite and most useful wedding blog (2) She finds STG refreshing in a sea of wedding blogs as she loves reading stories of couples for whom the ceremony itself is as pivotal as all the other details. (3) Due to falling in love with so many amazing Jewish weddings through the blog, and then booking a wedding consultancy session with STG founder, Karen, it confirmed to her that there were a number of Jewish elements she was going to bring into her wedding that symbolise a lot of things that are very important to her and her fiancà© in their future marriage – she will be having a ‘Jewish-inspired’ wedding!

Losing my father and my aunt

Planning a wedding when your father is terminally ill is never going to be easy and when in July the news hit that my aunt had stage three cancer, the future looked even more bleak. Sadly they have both passed away since my last post, going just six days apart from one another. I have felt broken.

For my main wedding planning partner in crime (my mum) and I, there have been funeral plans to make rather than wedding. But thinking of this upcoming celebration has been the chance to share times of joy rather than sadness and has definitely kept us going!

Celebration of friendship

Weddings are a time for family, and the thought of neither of them being there was never much fun. Fortunately I’ve had some time to prepare for the lack of a ‘father of the bride’ and some wonderful friends will be fulfilling the roles of walking me down the aisle and giving a speech… Let’s just hope they don’t go too cringey in a bid to be an embarrassing ‘dad’!

Friendship is something that I have come to truly value since planning my wedding amidst this trauma. Our wedding will be a true celebration of friendship, and for me, my friends have and continue to fulfil a vital role in my life that can’t always be met by family relations.

So what better thing to write about than all the wonderful things we have been doing as part of the planning process, and the different ways in which they will be involved in the build up to the big day, never mind on the day itself!

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Real Blogging Brides: Clare – All About My Wedding Inspiration Session with Karen, Founder of Smashing The Glass

08/08/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Karen Cinnamon, founder of Smashing The Glass. Image: Blake Ezra Photography

Clare is one of seven brides-to-be currently blogging her wedding planning process on Smashing The Glass. She is marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Clare is not Jewish but discovered Smashing The Glass via her Jewish sister-in-law and during her wedding planning journey it has (in her own words! became her favorite and most useful wedding blog (2) She finds STG refreshing in a sea of wedding blogs as she loves reading stories of couples for whom the ceremony itself is as pivotal as all the other details. (3) Due to falling in love with so many amazing Jewish weddings through the blog, and then booking a wedding consultancy session with STG founder, Karen, it confirmed to her that there were a number of Jewish elements she was going to bring into her wedding that symbolise a lot of things that are very important to her and her fiancà© in their future marriage – she will be having a ‘Jewish-inspired’ wedding!

Being Engaged: The First Couple of Months

Due to getting engaged back in June 2016 and setting a date of May 2018 I figured that the planning process would be a breeze with this long engagement…..

The first couple of months were filled with the excitement that this was actually happening! My living room was a sea of engagement cards (which were only begrudgingly brought down three months later because we were moving!) and I whiled away many hours of perusing blog posts and every form of social media containing wedding inspiration.

Our choice of venue was easy- in the February before our engagement Chris had taken me for valentines dinner at the Laura Ashley The Manor and I fell in love with its beautiful simplicity and the stunning mix of modern and traditional. I couldn’t bear the thought of swirly patterned red carpets or dark wood panelling which seem to have featured in many of the wedding venues I’ve attended, and a castle or big stately home didn’t really feel like me so this seemed the perfect balance for us.

Excitingly Booking our First Wedding Vendors

Following the booking of the venue I also was quick to book our photographer and videographer. Catherine Carter did one of my very good friends weddings and came highly recommended. She produces some beautiful images and I felt I could trust her to capture our day.

The video was perhaps most important to get right to both Chris and I. Jeff Woods had come on my radar years before I was even engaged after an acquaintance of mine shared her wedding trailer on Facebook. I fell in love with the cinematic style and his films are truly a work of art and feel like you’re watching an actual movie, which I cannot wait to star in next year! Continue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Clare + Chris… How They Met to the Present Day

13/06/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Today on the blog we’re introducing our 5th gorgeous bride from our crop of 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Clare who will be marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Clare is not Jewish but discovered Smashing The Glass via her Jewish sister-in-law and during her wedding planning journey it has became her favorite and most useful wedding blog (2) She finds STG refreshing in a sea of wedding blogs as she loves reading stories of couples for whom the ceremony itself is as pivotal as all the other details. (3) Due to falling in love with so many amazing Jewish weddings through the blog, and then booking a wedding consultancy session with STG founder, Karen, it confirmed to her that there were a number of Jewish elements she was going to bring into her wedding that symbolise a lot of things that are very important to her and her fiancà© in their future marriage – she will be having a ‘Jewish-inspired’ wedding!

How We Met

Chris and I met in the summer of 2014 through that wonderful medium that I never wanted to admit… Tinder! Needless to say I was certainly not looking for a partner at the time and having both downloaded the app without much thought on the weekend (and most definitely with a bit of alcoholic influence!) we had begun chatting by the Monday. After what seemed like endless hours of funny messages where I genuinely laughed out loud he took me for a drink which turned into a dinner and a walk along the river by night. Following that I’m pretty sure we never went a day without talking and with a few ups and downs along the way, the rest is history….

A lucky auction

Our engagement in June 2016 wasn’t a complete surprise in that we had spoken very openly about marriage for some time and had begun looking for a house to buy together and generally planning a future. Chris had asked my views on rings and there had been plenty of screenshots sent over a good six months or so of the dream rock!

Several months before he popped the question, his parents had come across a beautiful vintage ring at an auction house where they were looking for furniture. I had been away for the weekend and Chris had received a phone call from his step mother and a multitude of texts with pictures. After she sweet talked the auction rooms staying open long enough for Chris to make the last minute dash down there to see the ring he decided it was the one!