Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Home > Metallics > Page 11

Carys & Baz | Super glam, super stylish destination Jewish wedding ‘in the desert’ at The Parker Palm Springs, California, USA

by

palm-springs-wedding
How about we all jet off to Palm Springs to revel in the à¼ber glam destination wedding of Londoners, Carys and Baz?

Carys is half Welsh, half American (with Jewish heritage) and Baz is half English, half Persian, and they had the most exquisite wedding full of stylish, creative details and more than a hint of Palm Springs glitz and glamour.

It’s swoon-inducingly pretty… I just love every element — from Carys’s entire outfit — a divine gown by Israeli wedding dress designer, Berta, a sweeping, full length veil, and glittery Louboutins — to the pink ombre wedding cake, the glittery details, the dreamy flowers, and the Mexican mariachi band that played during the cocktail hour. It’s all just so much fun and beautifully stylised.

One thing that might not have gone so much to plan was the breaking of the glass… A member of the cleaning staff had mistaken the bulb and napkin for rubbish, but fortunately the groomsmen spotted the slip-up at the last minute before Carys and Baz had even noticed, and the equipment was saved!

This wedding proves that you don’t necessarily need to hire a destination wedding planner for a big day abroad. Anything is possible if you have a clear vision, great suppliers, and some helpful friends.

Let’s hand over to Carys for the inside story, but before I do, I must just mention Mi Belle who took all the gorgeous imagery on the page today.

palm springs wedding_0066   palm springs wedding palm springs wedding
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Intimate and Joyful Israeli Wedding Organised in Just 3 Months at Lawrence Gallery, Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel

by

jaffa-wedding
I have a real sweet treat of a Jewish wedding for you this afternoon folks. Set amidst the boats and charm of Old Jaffa in Tel Aviv, today’s W-Day was planned in just 3 months (nope, I’m not even kidding!) and is bursting at the seams with lots of personal and thoughtful touches.

Rachel and Moshe both come from Modern Orthodox backgrounds, yet it was important for them to make their ceremony as egalitarian and personal as possible. For example, for the Sheva Brachot part of their Jewish wedding ceremony, they invited couples to come up to the chuppah together. The man said the traditional blessing, whilst the woman wrote a personal blessing. Rachel says, “hearing the personal blessings written by the closest women in our lives was so moving and special. They are words that will accompany me throughout my life.”

They also loved the concept of having a procession with klezmer musicians parading through the alleys of Jaffa, leading them to their chuppah in a park overlooking the city and the sea. To them, it felt very timeless, reconnecting to a special tradition that doesn’t happen so much anymore.

Today, not only do I have the usual dose of W-day eye candy for you, taken by the super talented Noa Magger (in particular I am loving the Jaffa harbour images, and the ‘party faces’ of the guests – you have to check them out!) but for those of you that may be stressing over every minute detail in the run up to the big day, Rachel’s words are both wise and super helpful. I particularly love what she says at the end of the post: “I think the biggest piece of advice is to find ways to incorporate friends and family in a meaningful way —  I think it makes for the best memories.”

So true… Let’s hear more from Rachel and Moshe, a smashingly creative, fun and outgoing couple.

Jaffa Wedding
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Sarah & Ben | Jewish Muslim Bangladeshi Wedding at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

by

Jewish-Muslim-Wedding
I hope you are ready for elegance, sophistication and a touch of magic this Tuesday afternoon. Sarah and Ben’s’s gorgeous wedding embraces four vastly different cultures (Judaism, Islam, USA, Bangladesh) and has more than a touch of class about it.

It’s a vibrant fusion of culture, tradition and romance, and they absolutely nailed it when it came to creating the perfect balance of rituals. They chose to have two wedding ceremonies back to back so that they could incorporate all their separate traditions and still have one unified moment when they could walk out together as husband and wife. They also tried to incorporate little touches that reflected their personalities, such as having their ring “bear” be a giant stuffed panda that Sarah had given to Ben when they first started dating. What a super cute idea!

Aside from all the wonderfully rich cultural details, I love that their wedding cake and petit fours came from the same bakery that had created Ben’s parents’ wedding cake thirty-seven years ago…

It’s also so lovely to see a non-white wedding dress on STG this afternoon. Sarah really is  the most breathtakingly beautiful bride, don’t you think?

Images come from the fabulous Joy Marie, back with a bang to Smashing The Glass with this wedding. As always, she captured every last detail beautifully — I really struggled to chose the images for this post! Joy Marie is a Smashing Supplier, so can always be relied upon for beautiful images. And at the end of the post there’s the wedding film from Matt Giesler too – watch out for a magical sparkler exit followed by a horse-drawn carriage. Oh my!

Jewish Muslim Wedding Jewish Muslim Wedding
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Danny & Aaron | Extraordinary Gay Jewish Wedding, with the Couple Arriving on a Unicorn, at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA

by

Gay-Jewish-Wedding
OK guys, we are starting the week at TRULY EPIC on the wedding spectrum. Are you ready for what I have in store for you?

The truth is, I actually don’t know where to start with all the love that I have for Danny and Aaron’s immense Jewish wedding. And by the time you lot are through you won’t know what to do with yourselves either.

To begin with these two rode down the aisle to their chuppah atop a tallit-wearing horse dressed as a unicorn (or Jew-nicorn, as they dubbed it!) to the tune of Madonna’s Like a Virgin. What’s more Joss Stone (yes, the Joss Stone) undertook the role of cantor, singing Circle of Life as Danny and Aaron circled each other under the chuppah, and a 16 person gospel choir was on hand for a few of the ceremony songs as well.

When I asked Danny and Aaron what advice they’d give to brides and grooms currently planning their Jewish wedding, they told me, “be unique to your personalities. You can create new Jewish traditions by adding a personal flare to more traditional Jewish rituals, making your wedding unique to you as individuals and as a couple”, and boy did they live up to their own advice!

Danny and Aaron certainly know how to throw a phenomenal party. And throw a party they did. At their reception, John Legend, Ciara, Joss Stone, and Korean rapper, Psy (aka Mr. Gangnam Style!) performed live  keeping guests entertained till well into the small hours. But as much as there was world-class entertainment and flamboyant gestures, Danny and Aaron’s W Day was absolutely all about sharing, loving and being together. An ethos that the pair stood from the very start as they decided not to uphold the traditions of being apart until the ceremony, instead opting to get ready together — sharing every single moment of their wedding day.

Thank you to Danny, Aaron and Maya Myers Photography for letting me give you the most incredible start to your Smashing The Glass week!

Gay Jewish Wedding at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Choosing Paramount Studios in Hollywood as our wedding venue

Danny and Aaron, the Grooms: We both work in the music and television industries. We wanted to have our guests experience a Hollywood studio and wanted to create a grand overlaying look of our wedding and so Paramount Studios was a perfect fit for us. We wanted to design the whole room.

Gay Jewish Wedding at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles
Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Roupa & Marcus | central London Jewish Hindu ‘HinJew’ wedding at The Criterion, London, UK

by

Jewish-Hindu-wedding
As a huge fan of glorious  colour, multi-cultural weddings are such a visual treat for me and I love all the creative  ways that our  interfaith couples fuse their varying cultures, ceremonies and traditions into one magical blended  feast.

Today’s couple are a prime  example, and Marcus, the groom, puts  it brilliantly, “Quite simply we amalgamated both religions, building the symbolic chuppah/mandap and so weaved together a merry religious dance come ceremony.”

Roupa and Marcus’s wedding is extra special because it has two ceremonies and three (yes THREE!) gowns. So there’s thrice  as much wedding pretty for you, and it all takes place in the heart of London at the super opulent Criterion.

But I digress… Marcus and Roupa planned their spectacular, yet very laid back day in incredibly timely fashion, and in a very authentic,  creative way. Marcus says, “Roupa  was the planner, I was the protagonist and thorn in her side and together we planned a wedding from booking the venue to wedlock in around 12-14 weeks. We brought 160 guests together from all over the world, requesting the soothing colours or cream, ivory or  beige to be worn… apart from us! With the opulence of the Criterion, I added brilliant blues and greens, whilst Roupa wore gold and green, mauve, and a luscious red for her three outfits.”

You can understand why I love this wedding already, right? And I haven’t even told you about the  Brazilian carnival dancers, the Blues Brothers style entrance up to the chuppah / mandap, the thoughtful home-made wedding favours, not to mention the  the  DJ playing Mauritian  Sà©ga!

Roupa, our inspirational  bride, provides the full inside story  below, whilst all  the stunning photography is by  Matt Parry.

Jewish Hindu ‘HinJew’ wedding at The Criterion, London, UK
Continue ReadingContinue Reading