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Real Jewish Brides: Orli On Dress and Shoe Shopping and Flowers For Her Wedding

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Orli will be marrying Ben on 6th September 2020 at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK. Click here to read all Orli’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Orli and Ben met on Jswipe. (2) Although their venue, the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, couldn’t be more quintessentially London, Orli and Ben are going for a countryside feel. (3) Orli is a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club!

My Wedding Dress Shopping Experience

As a little girl I had always dreamt of my wedding day. What would I be wearing as I walked down the aisle to meet my Prince Charming? For me, this was all coming true and the next thing I had to do was start looking at wedding dresses.

From the moment we got engaged, my mum was desperate for us to pick a date to go wedding dress shopping, yet I was slightly reserved but couldn’t work out why. Was it going to be everything that I dreamed it would be? Would I put on one dress and know instantly that it was the one, feel like a princess and buy it on the spot?

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A Jesus Peiro Bride for an Elegant Jewish Wedding with a Roaming Band at New West End Synagogue and One Marylebone, London, UK

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Jewish wedding New West End Synagogue and One Marylebone, London, UK

We’re super psyched to be featuring our very first Jewish wedding with the amazing acoustic roaming band and Smashing The Glass RecommendedVendor Balagan! This incredible group – formed by another beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor, Sensation Band (who also performed, keeping the dance floor packed all night long in their signature style) – is the UK’s first and only roaming band to offer Jewish sets, and we can’t get enough of the fun, personalized vibe they bring to any big day.

STG Brides Club member Ella, a project manager at a branding and digital agency, and Matt, head of data at a life insurance start-up, say booking Balagan was the best wedding planning decision they made, and we’re not at all surprised – they are a truly incredible group!

And until February 7, you have the chance to enter to win an epic performance from Balagan for your very own wedding! Head over to this post for full details.

So obviously the music at this wedding earns top marks… but believe it or not, that’s only the tip of the iceberg of this wonderful day. First off, we can’t get over the fact that Matt built the couple’s birch wood chuppah as a tribute to his late grandfather who taught him about woodwork (and how sweet is it that after the wedding the pair donated it to a nearby synagogue for other couples who may need it?).

And then there’s Ella’s impeccable bridal style. She found her gorgeous dress at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Morgan Davies, who worked with her to combine two Jesus Peiro dresses into the style of her dreams. Ella’s got nothing but rave reviews about the team at Morgan Davies – and the result could not have been any more perfect. We’re also obsessed with the tulle Savannah Miller cape the bride wore to cover her shoulders during the Orthodox ceremony.

Photographer Barney Walters (who the couple found right here on Smashing the Glass) and videographer Ben Foster captured this beautiful wedding so perfectly – it’s really not to be missed. Do read on for Ella’s full writeup – there’s far more good stuff going on than we have room to mention here!

New West End Synagogue and One Marylebone, London, UKNew West End Synagogue and One Marylebone, London, UKNew West End Synagogue and One Marylebone, London, UKNew West End Synagogue and One Marylebone, London, UK
How We Met

Ella, the bride: Matt and I met on none other than Tinder. When I came across Matt back in 2015, Tinder said we had around 90 friends in common which I assumed was a glitch with the app. It turned out we grew up around a mile away from each other and did have many friends in common. We must have both been at various parties in the past but had never met.

When we matched I messaged two close friends to ask what they thought of him and they both said he was a real mensch. One week later we’d been on our first date and that was that! Because of all of our mutual friends there were definitely more than a few people walking around our wedding claiming that they’d made the shidduch.

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

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Destination-wedding-Jonah-Club-in-Netanya-Israel

“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 STG 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!)

Destination-wedding-Jonah-Club-in-Netanya-Israel
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.

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Real Jewish Brides: Janine Has Designed Her Own Stationery

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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

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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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