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Lee & Gary | Show-Stopping Jewish Wedding at The Criterion, London

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Lee and Gary married at the gorgeously opulent Criterion Restaurant in Piccadilly, London. And when I say opulent, I’m talking a sumptuous neo-Byzantine Piccadilly haven with marble walls, decorative archways and a glorious golden mosaic ceiling.

And that’s not the only reason I’m excited to feature this wedding. You see I’m also totally in love with Lee’s couture dress and head piece which she designed herself. AND the fact that Le Gateau Chocolat, the big black transvestite opera-singer, with a penchant for being wrapped in body-hugging glittery lycra, performed at this wedding!

So here’s their story: Although this gorgeous couple are both Jewish, Lee (a  former fashion designer, now a full-time mummy)  and Gary, a barrister, are both, in their own words, “devout atheists”. Even so,  both felt a need for some familiar cultural background in a partner and ended up finding each other on the Jewish dating site, JDate.

I’ll now hand over to Lee with all the delicious detail from the day:
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VENUE + DECOR
Lee, the Bride: Gary, my then fiancà©, had been to The Criterion Restaurant before and knowing my love for art deco, thought I might like it. He literally thought of it the day after he proposed (which by the way completely flew over my head as he did it in his usual verbally subtle way!) We were on holiday at the time and arranged to see the venue a few days after our return over lunch. The moment we sat down and took the place in, we knew we needn’t look any further.

With such a beautiful venue choice, we didn’t need or want a theme or colour scheme as we didn’t want to detract from the beauty of the room with many other colours. Our  floral and table layouts were fairly clean and simple too, with a combination of old school & clean modern – just how we like it!

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Andrew & Elliott | Uber-Stylish Soirée Wedding at One Marylebone, London

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CITY-CHIC-LONDON-WEDDING
Today you lucky readers get not one but two lovely grooms who together organised an incredibly entertaining (think confetti canons, swing band, full-on Shirley Bassey wedding entrance)  and glamorous black tie wedding in the heart of London’s West End. Their story is full of phenomenal detail, useful tips, fabulous eye-candy and impeccable style.

Andrew, originally from Australia, is an Operations Director for a boutique London creative agency,   and Elliott is a Client Relationship Manager for a global investment manager. They met in Melbourne, whilst Elliott was traveling for work, and the rest, as they say, is history.

With their wedding being very much a joint planning effort (and boy was there a lot of planning), the account of their double groom w-day is recounted in both their words:
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AN EXCUSE TO THROW THE BEST PARTY WE COULD IMAGINE
Andrew + Elliott: As well as being a celebration of our Civil Partnership we always wanted our day to be a celebration for our friends and an excuse to throw the best party that we could imagine.   For a venue, we imagined a lavish stately home [with Andrew being from Australia, he had always had the grand notion to have a lavish party in a stately home or palace (somewhere older than the 225 years of his colonised country)], but in keeping with the idea of it being a party for friends we were also adamant that we wanted a Central London location so that guests didn’t need to plan accommodation or travel.   Free from needing to marry in a “place of worship” we also wanted the ceremony and reception in the same venue so that there was one less travel logistic for our guests and us.

The problem we faced with a lot of the Central London properties available was that they were either sterile, were just another banqueting room in a grand hotel or were private member clubs with dominating dà©cor that would stop any chance of us adding our own personal touches.   We started with a list of over 30 properties that could accommodate 100 guests. We researched via the web and various venue guides and then shortlisted around half a dozen that seemed to meet most of our requirements.
ONE MARYLEBONE GLAM WEDDING LONDON
Off we trotted to spec out the various venues on the shortlist after work or on weekends. Several we wrote-off without even entering the building, others were excluded because of silly charges and inflexible terms and conditions.   One, in particular, we rather liked but we didn’t gel with the event planner — her creativity extended only as far as suggesting neon pink lighting because this was a gay event!   We were becoming slightly worried that our expectations were too high.   We started to reconsider the stately home alternative.   We unconsidered it again and armed with a bottle of wine we sat down and spent another evening reconsidering venues that we had previously ruled out (thinking we should at least go and inspect them as we were only reliant on photos from the web). A late addition was One Marylebone, which a good friend of ours had recommended.
ONE MARYLEBONE GLAM WEDDING LONDON
WOWED BY ONE MARYLEBONE
We went to see One Marylebone one wintery evening after a stressful day at work, and apart from being wowed by the beauty of the building we immediately hit it off with Alicia, their fabulous event planner.   We’d barely taken our coats off and already her suggestions were filling us with inspiration.   We knew there and then that One Marylebone was the right venue — as an event space it was new enough that we would be original, as a venue it is awe inspiring and needs little additional decoration and, above all, we knew Alicia would make our day into what we wanted it to be!

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Karen & Jeremy | London Jewish Wedding at the Wallace Collection Art Gallery, London, UK

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Wallace Collection Wedding
As the founder of Smashing The Glass it’s only right that I share my own wedding day, and all the creative ideas that were behind it, with you.

I love so many of the centuries-old Jewish traditions such as the hora, the beautiful songs, the chuppah, the smashing of the glass etc. but what my now-husband and I very much didn’t want was a party that followed the typical London Jewish-wedding-by-numbers formula… ie. fancy hotel, too many guests, the same kosher caterer that everyone uses, the same band etc…..

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VENUE

I had always dreamt of an outdoor summer wedding and that’s one of the reasons why I love Israeli weddings – the chuppah under the stars, the all-night party vibe, the abundance of food and having the ceremony and party all in one venue. But when it came to organising our wedding it meant the world to us to have Jeremy’s 97 year old grandmother there and as she is unable to travel, a wedding abroad with guaranteed summer weather was out of the question.

London, our home city, was our next choice and the criteria for a venue was to have a feel of being in the outdoors without worrying about the unpredictable British weather spoiling the party, and a stylish, intimate venue, preferably with an arty slant to reflect our creative sides. Wallace Collection Wedding London
The Wallace Collection, once a family home, and now a stunning art collection, in the heart of the West End was our perfect choice. The stunning Courtyard flooded with natural light and dotted with trees and sculptures felt utterly al fresco, yet protected us from the elements with a phenomenal glass roof. Breathtaking and intimate at the same time, it ticked all the right boxes.

We wanted to have both the chuppah ceremony and the dinner dancing in the Courtyard to really feel as if the majority of the wedding was outdoors. We also loved the idea of the changing daylight from the hopefully sunny (and it was!) afternoon to the starry night sky. In between the ceremony and dinner our guests were able to look around all the artwork on the first floor of the house where all the galleries were open to our guests to meander round as they chatted, imbibed and grazed on Zafferano‘s (our chosen caterers) delicious canapà©s.

In terms of getting ready and spending our first night as a married couple, we stayed at the gorgeous Home House in Portman Square just a few minutes walk from the Wallace Collection.

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A Vera Wang Bride for a Jewish Wedding at Kensington Roof Gardens, London, UK

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This is a beautifully fresh and intimate summer wedding, set on a magical garden rooftop  in the heart of London, that oozes style and elegance. It’s also the magical wedding of my brother, André, and my amazing sister-in-law, Lee Ann, so it has a very special place in my heart… (and if you look closely you can spot me in red Vivienne Westwood in the big group picture at the end!)

But back to the wedding – I loved Lee Ann’s idea of taking the shade of her apple green sash on her dress and using the fresh green colour throughout all kinds of details on her day.

And how did these two meet? Well it’s verrrry romantic: Lee Ann, a Floridian, and André, a born-and-bred Londoner, married after a whirlwind long-distance romance. They met on a 5-day Caribbean cruise in September 2006, were engaged 6 months later, and were married, less than a year to the day they met, in August 2007.

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The Venue

Lee Ann, the Bride: Kensington Roof Gardens was our perfect venue. Towering above central London, the stunning gardens, complete with house flamingoes, seemed like the 8th wonder of the world! We wanted somewhere central as there were quite a few foreign guests in town for only a few days, but equally we wanted a beautiful, garden setting. Nothing could have been more perfect, and to top it all, Claire Vidler and her events term were superb to deal with throughout.

The magic ingredient, of which we have only the Gods to thank, was being blessed with glorious sunshine on the day.

THE DRESS WHICH LEAD TO THE THEME

My dress was by Vera Wang. I wanted something different and loved the ivory colour teamed with an apple green sash- perfect for our summer garden setting! In fact, the colour of the apple green sash set the theme of the wedding throughout, and the same shade was used on the invitation design, and all sorts of details from the sashes on the backs of the chairs to the flowers to the ribbons on the cake to the ketubah illustrations.
Kensington Roof Gardens Jewish Wedding

Kensington Roof Gardens Jewish Wedding

Kensington Roof Gardens Jewish Wedding
THE CHUPPAH + FLOWERS

We used a wonderful florist called Rebecca Fiest. I loved the idea of small arrangements all of one colour, and Rebecca interpreted my ideas sensitively and brilliantly. She also did such a beautiful job with the chuppah. I knew I wanted it to be constructed from bamboo poles with fresh spring flowers, and it couldn’t have turned out more beautifully.

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