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A Maggie Sottero Bride for a Colorful Jewish Wedding with Lots of DIY Touches at Arlington Estate, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

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Aly and Benji, Arlington Estate, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

Calling all DIY-loving brides and grooms! If you’re planning on crafting some elements of your Jewish wedding yourself, the beautiful wedding of Smashing The Glass Brides Club member Aly to Benji is a must-read.

From the get-go, Aly and Benji knew they wanted their big day to feel fun and whimsical to reflect their personalities – in Aly’s words, she wanted “the opposite of a white wedding!” And with tons of pastel colors (plus a few pops of something brighter) and tons of DIY, that’s exactly what they got.

Soon after getting engaged, Aly bought a cricut machine, and in the leadup to the big day she DIY’ed the couple’s large welcome mirror, customized their ring box with their initials, made the MOB and MOG personalized hoodies to get ready in, customized the card box, and DIY’ed a vase with the signature drink menu on it. Aly also designed all of the digital and print elements – including the invitations – using elements from Canva for the table numbers in gorgeous frames, menu cards, cocktail hour signs, and digital signage around the venue – she’s truly the queen of DIY! Don’t miss all the special details in the wonderful photos by Nadav at Manning Avenue.

There’s so much more to say about this exuberant Jewish wedding, but we’ll turn you over to Aly for the rest…

Aly and Benji, Arlington Estate, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada Aly and Benji, Arlington Estate, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada Aly and Benji, Arlington Estate, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada Aly and Benji, Arlington Estate, Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

How We Met

Aly, the bride: On Benji’s birthday in 2019, we matched on Hinge! Benji might have been not-so-sober celebrating in Greece, but luckily, his location was still set to home for me to find.

A few weeks later, Benji suggested we “meet in the middle” at the Yonge and Sheppard Jack Astors (RIP) which was 10 minutes from his house and 20 minutes from Aly’s… but the date went well enough for us to keep our Snapchat streak going while Aly went to Disneyworld for two weeks and Benji waited patiently for her to come home (streak is still going strong at 2,200+ days!).

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A Maggie Sottero Bride for an Italy-Meets-England Interfaith Jewish Wedding at The Italian Villa, Poole, UK

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Sarah-Jayne and Emile, The Italian Villa, UK

Dreaming of Italy but grounded by lockdown? Take some inspiration from Sarah-Jayne  and Emile, who brought their love of the country to the UK in their (pre-COVID) interfaith Jewish wedding. Between their decision to wed at Poole’s The Italian Villa – a dead ringer for a Tuscan escape – adelectable Italian menu, and homemade limoncello favors, they truly created a little Italian oasis in Dorset!

We also love the way these two crafted a ceremony that was truly THEM. Their Jewish ceremony – officiated by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Paul Glantz, The Wedding Rabbi (who they found via Smashing the Glass!) – featured plenty of egalitarian touches: instead of the bride circling the groom the traditional 7 times, Sarah-Jayne and Emile each circled each other 3.5 times and did a badeken where not only did the groom veil the bride but the bride gave the groom a kippah in return – the pair even wrote and delivered a speech together!

These two were also ultra-attentive to their guests’ comfort and enjoyment, going out of their way to include special touches like a board game area and personalized kids’ packs for each child in attendance, featuring toys, snacks, coloring, and treasure hunts! All the love and joy of the day – not just the couple’s, but everyone’s – comes through so strongly in the beautiful photos from Ben Minnaar Photography and video from Mulhern Media.

There’s so much more we could say about this wonderful wedding, but we’ll leave the rest to the bride, who looked lovely in Maggie Sottero…

Sarah-Jayne and Emile, The Italian Villa, UKSarah-Jayne and Emile, The Italian Villa, UKSarah-Jayne and Emile, The Italian Villa, UKSarah-Jayne and Emile, The Italian Villa, UK
How we met

Sarah-Jayne, the bride: We have been together ever since our winter ball in our first year of university. We were in the same halls and we had the most incredibly extravagant winter formal in a huge circus tent, complete with a fun fair, acrobats and real snow.

A rather drunk, but cute guy approached me (my now husband) and said he remembered me from a go-kart social months earlier and he had thought about me since as I had given off dream girl vibes, rather flattered I added him on social media and 10 years later (including 3 long distance) here we are. We got engaged in the Gili Islands on the beach at sunset, whilst visiting his brother and sister-in-law. We had a long engagement of 3 years to save up and we are so excited for everything to come in married life!

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A Maggie Sottero Bride for an Industrial Rustic Jewish Wedding at the Art Factory in Paterson, New Jersey, USA

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Okay, HOW gorgeous is Avi and Daniel’s birch chuppah?! We adore every detail of the rustic industrial Jewish wedding of Avi, a pediatric audiologist, and Daniel, who works in real estate, but this chuppah really takes the (wedding) cake. Artfully adorned with occasional pops of red, white, and pink flowers plus hanging greenery – and covered with family tallitot – we’re totally in love with the overall effect.

The chuppah was the perfect fit for Avi and Daniel’s super cool venue, the Art Factory in Paterson, New Jersey. We love the eclectic warehouse vibe, the big windows and abundant natural light, and even comes with its own prop room! These two dressed the space up perfectly with giant paper flowers, vintage sewing machines, and all kinds of other awesome touches. We’re loving every single detail in Amy Sims’ wonderful photos, and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Kiss the Bride Films’ trailer is so full of emotion and love – pure perfection!

And how special is it that the couple’s beautiful navy paper cut ketubah was crafted by the groom’s mother?! She designed and calligraphed it from start to finish, all by hand.

We’ll let Avi, who looked so lovely in Maggie Sottero, tell you about the rest…

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Warehouse Vibes

We got married at the Art Factory in Paterson, New Jersey. It has a very eclectic warehouse vibe, and you can use the entire space however you want, using their prop room or bringing in whatever materials you want. This made our celebration so personalized because the space was completely naked and we decorated how we wanted to. Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Maggie Sottero Bride for a Festival Jewish Wedding at Lattenbury Hill Weddings, Cambridgeshire, UK

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We love a good boho festival Jewish wedding. And Alana and Adam’s is one of the best. These two worked hard to craft a day that was 100% them – filled with tons of DIY touches, from spray painting soup cans to turn them into flower vases, having the bride’s mother bake 500 brownies for the wedding dessert, and getting friends and family together to set up the venue – and they absolutely smashed it.

This wedding was full of so many exquisite details, from the gorgeous rustic turquoise stationery suite created by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Liv & Luc, inspired by a favorite holiday snap from a trip to Italy to the way Alana and Adam crafted a personal ceremony highlighting their shared values of feminism and equality: they both smashed a glass, gave a speech, wrote vows, and circles each other under the chuppah.

And because you can’t have a festival without awesome music, the couple opted to bring in the big guns: Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor TOTEM, who Alana and Adam picked partly for their vast experience with Jewish weddings and wide repertoire of Israeli dancing songs, kept the guests on the dance floor all night long in their signature style. We can’t get over all the love and energy captured in the photos by Aaron Collett Photography and videographer James Alexander Chapman.

Before we turn you over to Alana, we’ve also got to mention her stunner of a gown by Maggie Sottero, which she found at the wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Morgan Davies Bridal. Alana was on the hunt for a boho style figure hugging lace gown, and did the team at Morgan Davies ever help her make the dream a reality!


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HOW WE MET

 Alana, the bride: We met at a mutual friend’s engagement party 6 years ago, pretty sure we were the only single ones left in the room and were introduced to each other in an awkward year 6 disco style way. He managed to convince me he was a bomb disposal expert (he’s not) and the rest is history.

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A Maggie Sottero Bride for a Dog Lovers’ Barnyard Jewish Wedding at Red Gate Farms, Savannah, Georgia, USA

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We love a good barn wedding. And a wedding with pets. AND a Jewish wedding where the couple goes the extra mile to personalize their ceremony. Put all those things together, and you’ve got one incredible day.

Jacqui and James pulled off the perfect laid-back barn wedding – the bride wanted all the guests to feel “like they were hanging out in their own backyard,” and based on the gorgeous photos from  Sarah Diller, we’d say she definitely succeeded.

And how cute is it that the couple got their beloved dogs in on the fun? We’re obsessed with the pics of the pair walking back down the aisle with their sweet pups in tow.

Although Jacqui and James’ wedding was not religious – they were married by a friend, not a rabbi – we love the way they incorporated Jewish traditions in a way that was authentic and meaningful to them as a couple, opting to wed under a chuppah and sign a gorgeous ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com, while forgoing the traditional ceremony in favor of one the bride wrote herself!

There’s so much more we could say, but we’ll let the bride, who looked lovely in Maggie Sottero, take it from here..

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Venue

Jacqui, the bride: I have always dreamed of an outdoor, barn yard, casual wedding. Red Gate Farms located in the beautiful, historic city of Savannah, GA was the absolute perfect location!

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