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Country House Jewish Wedding Inspo at Offley Place, Hitchin, Hertfordhsire, UK

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Who doesn’t love an English country house wedding? Here at Team STG, we sure do! So we were pretty excited when we found out that some of our very favourite Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors – photographer Rafe Abrook, planner Rachel Flax Events, and makeup artist Katy Angelidi – had teamed up to organize a gorgeous styled shoot at Offley Place in Hitchin, North Hertfordshire. 

Offley Place is a totally gorgeous venue in North Hertfordshire – one of those magical places that hits that tiny spot on the Venn diagram where classic English countryside meets proximity to London. 

It’s a favorite with STG readers – and our Brides Club member Shelley‘s interfaith Jewish wedding to Chris last spring just happens to be the very first to take place in the newly opened Hester Ballroom (with capacity for 250 guests!).

And they even used one of our very own smash glass pouches!

Plus, how cool (and rare) is it to see a Jewish-themed styled shoot?

All the stationery and signage used in this shoot was created by wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Liv & Luc!

And that gorgeous gown (as well as the others used in this shoot) came from another beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor, Morgan Davies Bridal!

How dreamy is this tablescape? We’re obsessed with the chic florals by Sian Ryan Design, who created all of the stunning arrangements used in this shoot. 

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A Pronovias Bride for a London-Meets-Israel Jewish Wedding at Offley Place, Hitchin, UK

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What do you do when you’re dreaming of a destination wedding in Israel but family obligations keep you closer to home? Well, you could do worse than to follow the example of STG Brides Club member Nicola, a senior business analyst for a technical consultancy, and Dave, the CTO and co-founder of a digital design and marketing consultancy, who made it their goal to bring a little bit of Israel to their Jewish wedding right here in the UK.  

How’d they do it? For starters, they worked with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor XS Showband to put together two party simcha sets with a mixture of Mizrahi and Israeli music that kept everyone on the dance floor in true Israeli style – Nicola also can’t stop raving about how helpful the XS team were in creating the couple’s day of plan and processional order, plus providing day of coordination.

And in good Israeli wedding style, Nicola and Dave had the “reliable and fantastic” (in the bride’s words) Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Magniv mobile photo magnet team taking photos of everyone throughout the festivities so that people could have a keepsake to take home.

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Crawleys photographed the whole day so beautifully in their trademark artsy documentary style, and we’re so touched to hear Nicola say that the ultra-supportive community of STG Brides Club was “literally the only thing that kept me sane” during wedding planning

Now over the bride, who looked simply smashing in Pronovias…

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How we met

Nicola, the bride: We met in the good old fashioned way… on a dating app – Jcrush to be precise (seems this is the only way to meet your soulmate these days).

There was an instant connection when we met but both of us were not long out of relationships and not ready for anything serious so we maintained a strong friendship. Even as friends, we would go out for regular dinners and lunches together, him insisting on paying for every single one being the kind and generous soul that he is.

It wasn’t until a mutual friends party, and the help of a bit of dutch courage (tequila), that we both realised what was right in front of us and shared a kiss. The first of many more to come.

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An Enzoani Bride for an Interfaith Jewish Wedding with Tons of Creative Touches at Offley Place, Great Offley, Hitchin, Hertfordshire UK

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It’s always a special day when we get to blog the big day of one of our beloved Smashing the Glass Brides Club members, and Shelley’s gorgeous interfaith Jewish wedding is no exception. She and groom and Chris not only crafted an ultra-personal celebration full of creative touches, they used some of our very favourite vendors to pull it off too!

First and foremost, we love that the bride, who’s Jewish, and the groom, who isn’t, chose to work with the wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rabbi Paul Glantz (who they found right here on Smashing The Glass!) to craft an individual Jewish blessing that truly reflected the pair as a couple – complete with a lovely floral ketubah reflecting their theme of rustic elegance from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubata.

This wedding is just so full of love and emotion, perfectly captured by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rafe Abrook in the exquisite photos. And speaking of photos, we love that Shelley and Chris gave each table an ‘Instagram Challenge’ to complete, with instructions like ‘your whole table must take a photo that recreates a famous movie scene’ – what a great way to get everyone involved and socializing, right?!

Lovely Shelley could not have looked more radiant on the day, and we’re in love with her gorgeous bridal beauty look from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Makeup by Katy. Between the beautiful makeup and perfect gown from Enzoani, it’s no wonder she felt like a princess all day!

And we love that Shelley and Chris worked with the wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Abby Taubman of Colletts Travel to plan their fab honeymoon to Singapore, Bali and Hong Kong.

We so loved having Shelley in Brides Club and helping her along as she planned this amazing day – if you’re planning a Jewish or Jew-ish wedding of your own and could use a little support, guidance, community, referrals to great vendors, or anything else you can think of that will help make your day the very best it can be – do sign up for your free 30-day trial and join us!

Now over to Shelley…


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How we met

Shelley and Chris, the bride and the groom: It’s Chris writing this part! Shelley and I are teachers, as you probably would have guessed from all the crafty things we incorporated into the wedding! We met training on our PGCE, where I knew that she was the one I was going to ask to be my wife. 6 years, two houses and one cat later, we are now Mr and Mrs Amoss ☺

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Alana & Marc | Country Garden Boho Jewish wedding at Offley Place Country House, Hertfordshire, UK

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Offley Place Country House Wedding
Alana and Marc were introduced by a mutual friend over Facebook (the Rabbi even thanked Mark Zuckerburg during the ceremony), and after a few messages back and forth they met up in a Camden pub, and the rest, as they say, is history!

They had a fantastic marquee-in-the-garden wedding and chose to hold their ceremony outdoors, complete with super-sized balloons lining the aisle, and the BEST bridesmaid entrance you have ever seen. Yes, Alana’s 8 month old niece arrived in a a remote controlled mini cream Fiat 500! EPIC or what?

But that’s not all. I also absolutely adore Alana’s entire outfit — from her exquisite wedding dress to her sensitively designed birdcage veil and headpiece which she accessorises perfectly with a pink and peach Peonie bouquet.

Alana and Marc have written their wedding report together and it’s lovely to hear from a Groom who had so much input into the big day, even though he confesses that “Alana had so many ideas for the wedding that [he] wasn’t convinced by, but “[he has] to admit they ended up being amazing” (And he said that he promises he wasn’t forced to write that either!).

Images come from our fabulous Smashing Supplier, Mark Seymour, back with a bang to STG with this wedding. As always, he captures every last detail beautifully. And there’s an immense highlight film right at the end of the post by Wedding Films London. It really captures the spirit of the day and if you’ve never been to a Jewish wedding but always wondered about the “crazy Jewish wedding dancing thing” scroll to 3 minutes, 5 seconds in and you’ll get a terrific example (WARNING: you’ll feel exhausted just watching!).

Country Garden Boho Jewish wedding at Offley Place Country House Hertfordshire UK
THE PERFECT VENUE FOR AN OUTDOOR CEREMONY AND A GREAT BIG PARTY!
Alana the Bride, and Marc, the groom: Our venue was called Offley Place. We dreamed of having the ceremony outdoors and we wanted the venue to have real character to it too. We also needed to find somewhere that could fit our huge family. We had a few venues fall through and we were really finding it difficult to find anywhere that worked for us. When we went to see Offley Place we knew straight away that we wanted to get married there. The grounds were stunning and the marquee had capacity for our huge family. The fact that the manor house had rooms for us to stay in ensured that the party could continue late into the night. Also, the manor house itself was very beautiful. Offley Place had the potential to incorporate all our ideas and the team there were clearly geared up for Jewish weddings already.

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