not on the high street weddings Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Smashing the Glass

A Jewish-French-Greek-British Animal-Filled Wedding at London Zoo, London, UK

25/10/2017 by Karen

Before we get started, we need to present today’s bride, Clelia, with a medal for THE most Smashing The Glass-obsessed bride ever to grace these pages. Clelia took an extraordinary amount of inspiration from the blog, including sourcing almost every vendor and having one of our past real brides, Lauren, create her incredible chuppah design.

Helping Jewish brides to plan their weddings is exactly what Smashing The Glass is all about, and Clelia embodies our spirit and ethos and then some! Thanks for making us such a huge part of your journey, Clelia, we are truly honored.

Now back to staring at wedding pretty and getting inspired, which is what we’re all here for. If you’re a fan of adorable monkeys and meerkats (and if you’re not, who even ARE you??) you’ll love today’s into-the-wild venue, London Zoo. We’re SO here for Clelia and George’s animal kingdom selfie competition – what an inspired way to make the most of such a unique venue!

Clelia and George were full of gratitude for the way their loved ones came together to help make their dream day perfect, and it really shows in the images and Clelia’s moving writeup. We’re all also totally behind Clelia’s words about body positivity and self love, and are so grateful to her for sharing her feelings on this.

It was also, as we mentioned, a wedding packed with STG Recommended Vendors, including ludicrously talented klezmer band, Shir, wonderful rabbi, Paul Glantz, and ultimate gift-list service, Prezola.

Famed photographer, Laura Babb, and her partner in crime, videographer Peter Wilbourne, did an outstanding job of telling the story of the day through their stunning spread of images and Peter’s cinematic wedding video. We feel like we were there in person!

It’s finally Clelia’s well-deserved and long-awaited turn to take over the blog for a post. Take it away, Clelia!

How we met

Clelia, the bride: We met in a car park in Northampton when our colleague, Richard, offered to drive us both back to London. Instead of awkward work chat, I asked George every question in the Proust questionnaire.

When Richard dropped us off at a north London tube station, George asked me out on a date. I introduced him to long haul-holidays, he introduced me to beans on toast and football. I agreed the kids would support Spurs, he agreed the kids would be raised Jewish and proposed under Tower Bridge, a few meters from where he’d first seen me in the office.
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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Picking our Wedding Vendors

10/10/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK. Click here to read all Charlotte’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence…. on her parent’s 36^th wedding anniversary (aaaah – we love that!) (2) They are planning a Jewish urban-rustic wedding in East London (3) They have already decided on their wedding hashtags — it’s #dropitlikeitshart !

The venue is booked, now begins the search for vendors. Having been to many weddings over the past few years you get to know what you like and just isn’t your style or taste. Do your research and look at reviews, I found that vendors Instagram feeds are really useful and really show what they can do in abundance.

Make sure you go to each vendor with a clear idea of what you want and have your questions ready. This is your wedding and the one day in your life where you get to celebrate your marriage. Make sure you stick to what is right for you both. I’m very fortunate that James has the same vision as me for our big day, and that I have very open minded parents as well.

Image: Robert Shack from Georgia & Sam’s Jewish Wedding (Catering by Tony Page)
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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: The Advantages of a Two Year Engagement

22/08/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK.

Planning a wedding with over two years to go, most people have questioned are we mad? Why not get married within the next year? I could not recommend more having a longer engagement, the date we have picked and the ease of not having to stress was important to us. We wanted to enjoy all of the planning. James is luckily relaxed and we have agreed on a lot of the same details and he is quite accepting of the ideas I have brought to the table.

Next was to speak to my parents about the initial plans. We had dreamt of getting married in Tuscany, it is where we got engaged and therefore is sentimental to us. We had sat down with my parents in June of 2016 ready to play a video of this incredible venue we had found, a castle in the Tuscan countryside overlooking Florence. We initially thought that having our idea accepted would be a sure thing, we had done our research and we were passionate about it. Unfortunately our pitch did not go to plan and we had it shut down. We were obviously thinking of the smaller picture, and not about how do we get our family there! Back to the drawing board…

Image: John Lewis
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A bespoke Shadive’s Brides dress at a party-it-up-atmosphere wedding at Terra, Caesarea, Israel

20/02/2017 by Karen

It goes without saying that we adore an Israeli wedding — and somehow it’s even more special when the couple have chosen to travel to Israel to say “I do”.

Secondary school teacher, Katie, and business owner, Mark, got married at Terra in Caesarea, Israel. Despite coming down with a horrific stomach flu on the day, love won out and Katie still made the very best of the situation, looking back on her big day with love.

I was particularly moved by Katie’s sincere and heartfelt words about her decision to get married in Israel. She writes so eloquently that I won’t step on her description here, but it’s perfect and definitely worth sitting down with a cuppa and reading.

At 5ft2”, Katie struggled to find the perfect dress until she went bespoke with Shadiye’s Brides in Islington. Seeing the end result, we think it was a match made in heaven — just how gorgeous did she look?

Smashing Supplier Live Band and DJ, Caliente, created an electric atmosphere until 4.30am and the whole wedding was peppered with brilliant, thoughtful ideas. For example a designated kids’ corner with fun activities to keep little ones entertained, a flower station, bags of sweets for a middle-of-the-night pick me up and so much more. It’s clear that Katie and Mark considered their guests’ feelings and the importance of their experience at every turn.

The magic of the day was captured by STG regular – Ronen Boidek, videographer – Canelà© (don’t miss out on the wonderful wedding video at the bottom of the post) and Katie herself with her fabulously descriptive account. Over to Katie for more on her Israeli wedding day.

How we met

Katie, the bride: We met at university. For the first six months we were together, Mark managed to say ‘this is nothing serious’ on every single date. Charming, I know. Joke’s on him though — this marriage is for life!

An Enchanted Woodland-Themed Destination Jewish wedding at Baya’ar, Israel

09/01/2017 by Karen

destination-wedding-israel
What do the words “fairytale wedding” evoke for you? For some, they conjure images of opulent castles, extravagant gowns and dreams come true. Colette and Rob’s fairytale took a wonderful twist away from the clichà©, through enchanted forests in a truly magical woodland-inspired celebration (check out the themed chuppah — it’s just sublime).

The backdrop for the big day was Baya’ar, a breathtaking Israeli nature reserve. We’re thrilled to say that STG had the immense honour of playing a big role in the venue selection, as the happy couple had come across it before right here on the blog.

Aside from the absolutely stunning aesthetic (including a breathtaking wedding dress by a hot new Israeli designer, and the cutest flower girls), captured by photographer Ronen Boidek, the wedding was also full of heart. Colette had been through a tumultuous time, surviving cancer before meeting the love of her life, and so seeing her walk down the aisle was an incredibly emotional moment for her whole family.

We’ll hand over to Colette to tell us more — it goes without saying that everyone at Smashing the Glass wishes the happy couple a long and wonderful married life together.