Online dating success story Archives - Smashing the Glass

An Alon Livne Bride for a Shabbat Dinner-Inspired Jewish Wedding with a Macrame Chuppah at Jonah Club, Netanaya, Israel

24/01/2020 by Karen Cinnamon Leave a Comment

“When planning this wedding, we looked at it like the most epic Shabbat dinner we would ever throw.”

From the minute we read this line from Brides Club member Nikki, who works in marketing at a digital health startup (and also gives food tours and teaches yoga on the side), and Adam, who works in tech as an engineer, we were sold on their beautiful Jewish wedding.

Nikki and Adam, both Americans who met and live in Israel, wanted their wedding to be an occasion for their far-flung family and friends to come together and get to know each other – and get a taste of the couple’s life in Israel. And by the looks of the incredible photos and video from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Aya-Avi Photography, a husband and wife team handling photography and videography, they pulled it off with aplomb. Aya’s luminous photos really let the love between the pair for each other and for all their loved ones gathered together to celebrate them shine through.

We’re also in love with Nikki and Adam’s super cool macramé chuppah – and how awesome is it that they found their florist, Tom of Tomka Designs (we featured Tom and Matan’s own wedding on the blog a while back), right here on STG? The East Meets West boho style he worked with the couple to create for their chuppah area is truly beyond.

And we’re totally obsessed with Nikki’s bridal style, from her timelessly elegant gown from Israeli designer Alon Livne to her natural-with a-touch-of-glam hairstyle by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Yehonatan Yaeish – who not only styled the bride’s hair superbly but also brought great energy on the day.

There’s so much more we could say, but we’ll leave the rest to the bride… (and if you want to join Brides Club like Nikki did, click here (we’ve just released a few more free entry places – grab one before they all go!)

How we met

Nikki, the bride: We happened to move to Israel one week apart and met 6 weeks later on Bumble. We decided to meet 10 minutes after our first conversation began and got married 2 years and 4 days later.

Real Jewish Brides: Janine Has Designed Her Own Stationery

22/01/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Janine will be marrying Paul on 26th July 2020 at Fasque Castle, Scotland, UK. Click here to read all Janine’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Janine and fiance Paul met on Bumble. (2) The two of them are planning an interfaith Jew-ish wedfest weekend, to include everything from a whiskey tasting to mini highland games! (3) Janine is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

Designing my own stationery and other ways I’ve put creativity into my wedding

I’ve always been one to make social norms and traditions my own and I’m fortunate that Paul thinks in a similar way to me. In planning our wedding, we want the celebrations to show our personalities, and involve our guests in the ideas, to create an enjoyable weekend for us AND our guests. The last thing we want to do is to have an identikit London hotel wedding which was most definitely expected of us!

Fortunately, I run London Paper Crafts – a wedding and event stationery studio – so we’ve been able to design and print our own stationery. We wanted our stationery to reflect where we’re getting married as well as being able to have our guests’ input into the wedding.

In terms of design, the blue thistle (which will be part of our wedding flowers) has been a continued design feature from our Save The Dates and invitation suite and will continue in our On the Day stationery too.

Our Save The Date featured the blue thistles on a base layer fastened with an eyelet and a vellum overlay with the two fonts we’ve used throughout our stationery design. I especially love the italic-calligraphy style font which features leaves – it ties together the floral elements we’ve featured on our stationery design.

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Real Jewish Brides: Jos on Finding Her Place in Judaism

15/01/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Jos will be marrying Daniel on 28th June 2020 at Hackney Town Hall, London, UK. Click here to read all Jos’ planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Before meeting Daniel, Jos was known for her torrid dating tales – so much so that her friends used to call her Bridget Jonestein! (2) Daniel proposed to Jos in the Greek island of Naxos! (3) Jos is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

When I Was 21

On my 21st birthday my synagogue sent me a card. In the card, they wished me a very happy birthday, and explained that I was no longer a member on my parent’s membership and that I’d have to start paying for my own membership.

As a second year student at Birmingham University, I wasn’t particularly flush with money although, in truth, this is probably because I spent most of my student loan on M&S ready meals – this Jewish Princess wasn’t up for slumming it.

However, I can’t really blame my penchant for indulgent convenience for my decision not to pay for a shul membership.

Image by STG Recommended Vendor The Crawleys from Nicola and Dave‘s wedding
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Real Jewish Bride: Sarah Had A Weekend of Fun Planning Her Destination Wedding

08/01/2020 by Smashing The Glass Leave a Comment

Sarah who will be marrying Rich on 21th June 2020 at Tikitano Beach, Marbella, Spain. Click here to read all Sarah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Sarah knew Rich was the one when he brought a gift of dog treats for her toy poodle Nuala along to their fourth date! (2) They are crafting an amazing destination wedding weekend in Marbella with beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended vendor optimum weddings as their planner. (3) Sarah is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

Richard and I both knew that we wanted a destination wedding from day one! We have been to so many weddings in London which are fabulous, but we wanted a more relaxed atmosphere with a huge party and no one having to worry about waking up early for work the next day!

With a destination wedding there is a lot more to think about! Since we are asking people to come out to another country and spend that much more on our wedding, we felt that we needed to provide them with a weekend of fun to make it all worthwhile!

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

09/12/2019 by Karen Cinnamon

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 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…

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.