Pronovias Archives - Smashing the Glass

A Pronovias Bride for a Sustainable Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA

24/05/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Today’s fantastic couple, Alana and Leo, are always up for an adventure – whether that means marking their 10-month dating anniversary by taking part in The Amazing Race or retooling their plans for a three-day summer camp-style wedding extravaganza in the Berkshires to an intimate micro affair in their very own backyard!

And do we ever love the way these two ended up leaning into their homey, sustainable low-pressure celebration. From a gorgeous simple chuppah built by a friend a wedding gift to a ketubah handcrafted by a designer friend featuring hand-pressed wildflowers from the couple’s own garden, this Jewish wedding is just chock full of meaningful touches.

We’re in love with Simi Rabinowitz’s luminous, joy-filled photos of the day. And though only a handful of the couple’s original guest list could attend in person, thanks to the professional live streaming services of Bob Antonelli friends and family around the world were able to take part.

Echoing the sentiments we’ve heard from so many couples who’ve married during the pandemic under circumstances very different than the ones they’d expected, Alana says, “We wouldn’t have done our wedding any other way. It was true to us, and felt like a real celebration of our friends and our neighborhood!”

Over to you, Alana!

How we Met

Alana, the bride: We met on Tinder in January 2018! And then, right after moving in together six months after we met — all our friends thought we were crazy! — we did something even crazier and applied for The Amazing Race on a whim … and we were cast! It was such a whirlwind. We actually started the first leg of The Amazing Race on our ten-month anniversary!

Racing around the world together wasn’t what convinced us we were meant to be (we’d known that probablyyyy since our third date) but it was such an affirming experience. After you’ve done such wild things with someone and been in such high-stress situations, getting married is a no brainer. We got engaged on our one year anniversary at Walden Pond in Massachusetts.Continue Reading

A Pronovias Bride for a Picture Perfect Jewish COVID Wedding at Larz Anderson House, Washington DC, USA

26/03/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Merav and Dmitri’s Jewish wedding was SO incredibly dreamy, if not for the personalized masks and “vaccine” shooters we’d never have guessed it took place during the pandemic.

We’re obsessed with their gorgeous venue, Larz Anderson House in downtown Washington, DC – a spot the couple had looked at and loved when they first started planning, but eventually rejected because it couldn’t accommodate their pre-COVID guest list.

Once the pandemic hit and they had to scale things down, though, the Anderson House became a viable option. We’re not sure which we love more, the lush garden where Merav and Dmitri held their outdoor chuppah or the beautiful ballroom they used for their reception. Don’t miss a single detail in Adam Mason’s luminous photos or Wise Films’ wonderful trailer.

We’re also in love with Merav and Dimitri’s fabulous ketubah by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent. The couple searched long and hard for a ketubah that felt truly them, and when they stumbled onto one of Ink with Intent’s past ketubot featuring text printed over a picture of the couple, they knew that was the direction for them. Needless to say, the pair adore their ketubah, and it now graces a wall in their home as a special piece of art.

We’ll let the bride, who looked so elegant in Pronovias, take it from here…

How we met

Merav, the bride: Dmitri and I originally met in 2008 through a mutual friend, but we didn’t know each other well and only saw each other sparingly over the years. When he moved down to Washington, DC to start a data analytics company, we reconnected over coffee and we started working together to make the dream a reality.

Together, we worked at WeWork Chinatown (where we did our pre-wedding photo shoot!), 7 days a week, through holidays and snowstorms to build our company. Today, we have 40 employees and a growing business.

As our respect and trust for each other grew, so did our relationship. A year and a half after working together, we started dating. After 4 years of growing our company together, moving in, and adopting two cats, Dmitri proposed at a private dinner on a beautiful beach in Mexico.Continue Reading

A Pronovias Bride for an Elegant Pandemic Jewish Wedding at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, Paris, France

12/03/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

We’re absolutely obsessed with the uber-chic Jewish wedding of Parisian couple Lauren, a resident in medical oncology, and Eitan, a dental surgeon. These two planned such a perfectly elegant celebration in the luxe ballroom of the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand, if not for the masks in their photos we’d never have guessed they wed during the pandemic.

Though the pair did have to postpone from July to September, they were fortunate in being able to stick with their original venue – at the time of their wedding, France’s only restrictions on gatherings were that masks and social distancing were required, and by cutting their original guest list in half Lauren and Eitan were able to make the Intercontinental’s ballroom work by spacing tables far apart and keeping the crowd at 1/3 the space’s full capacity. And we’re so glad they did, because this venue is really something special – don’t miss it in all its glory in Sprod Events’ gorgeous photos!

Because of the need for social distancing, not much dancing was possible – and so Lauren and Eitan had the clever idea to have a light show to keep everyone entertained! We also can’t get over the fact that their venue hired a security guard to walk around and make sure all the guests were wearing their masks properly throughout the wedding – and Lauren reports that to this day, guests are still joking about the “Mossad agent” they had at their wedding!

We can’t turn you over to Lauren without mentioning that she is a beloved member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club, and we’re so touched to hear how much she valued the group during her wedding planning – so much so that, in her words, “joining the club is my first advice to other brides!”

Take it away, Lauren!

How we Met

Lauren, the bride: We met through mutual friends, during a Birthright trip to Israel in summer 2015.

I did this trip with my best friend, who brought her sister, and the sister brought some of her friends. One of them was Eitan. We got to know each other during the trip, then we kept in touch, and became good friends. Two months and a half later we were finally dating. 4 years later we were engaged, and 11 months later, we are married !

A Pronovias Bride for a Jewish Micro Wedding at Pierce House in Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA

18/01/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

To look at this gorgeous Jewish wedding, you’d never know it was planned in just two months! Boston couple Alisa, a product manager, and Evan, an architect, got engaged in August, and knew they were ready to move forward with building their future together – pandemic or not.

With just a few months to plan a COVID-safe outdoor celebration before the New England winter set in, Alisa and Evan knew it was time to call in the big guns. In this case, that meant Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Primavera Dreams, who helped them pull together the day of their (socially distanced) dreams, stat. Within three days of the couple’s engagement, founder Luba set the pair up on venue visits, and a couple weeks later they’d booked all their key vendors. Alisa and Evan say they couldn’t have done it without Luba’s expertise.

The couple’s number one goal was to plan a day where their friends and family would stay safe, and so they opted for a short guest list, socially distanced seating arrangements, table-side bar service, additional cleaning staff at the restrooms, and sanitization stations throughout, among other touches. They also opted to livestream the ceremony for those who weren’t able to attend in person. Because a dance floor wasn’t allowed due to COVID restrictions, Alisa and Evan went with a classical string duo for the ceremony and a jazz trio for the reception for their entertainment.

Photographer Kataram Studios did such a beautiful job capturing the day. Don’t miss all the gorgeous details, like the couple’s Enya Keshet ketubah, which they found online at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com. With a multilayered cut paper design, gold leaf, and Swarovski crystals, it’s truly a work of art.

We’ll turn you over to the bride – who looks gorgeous in the Pronovias dress she found just days after getting engaged – for the rest…

How we Met

Alisa, the Bride and Evan, the groom: Despite living less than a mile from each other in Brookline, Alisa and Evan’s paths never crossed. Like many 21st century relationships, theirs started by “swiping right”. After a week or two of texting, Alisa and Evan finally met for a drink after work in Copley Square.

The date went well, and they scheduled another shortly after. After the second date, Evan wanted to let Alisa know how special she was – so he sent flowers to her apartment. Evan knew this was a bold move, but he also knew he needed to let her know how he felt. He proceeded to send flowers to the wrong apartment, that got course-corrected with a help from the security desk.

In early March of 2020, Evan cleared out a large portion of his closet and Alisa brought an entire car-load of her stuff over to his place. One week after moving in, the world changed, and they were quarantined together.

Alisa and Evan went from spending most of their time together – to spending ALL of their time together. Fortunately, the relationship thrived, and they became closer than ever. During quarantine, they could only see their parents, and spent most of the weekends in 2020 visiting each other’s families. In a span of 6 months, Alisa & Evan spent less then 24 hours apart.

A Pronovias Bride for a Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Santa Barbara, California, USA

11/12/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

It’s a familiar story: Hailey, an attorney at a technology company, and Jeffrey, a management consultant, had planned a Labor Day weekend Jewish wedding at a historic Santa Barbara club, with a weekend’s worth of plans for their 150 guests flying in from all over the world.

That was pre-COVID. Once the pandemic hit, the couple made the decision to go forward with a 12-guest micro wedding on their original date, which the bride’s aunt and uncle generously hosted in their backyard. We’re obsessed with Hailey and Jeffrey’s cool copper chuppah adorned with greenery and white and pink blossoms – not to mention their beautifulblue and white paper cut ketubah was purchased from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com. Don’t miss Wedding Nature Photography’s gorgeous pics!

We also love the favors the pair put together for their guests, each containing a mask hand-sewn by the mother of the bride, a kippah, and a personalized embroidered handkerchief, plus a “Jeffrey and Hailey” granola blend.

And how sweet is it that the mother of the groom secretly reached out to the original guest list and asked them to submit a video with stories and well wishes?! She kept it all under wraps until the night before the wedding, when she surprised Hailey and Jeffrey with an incredibly touching video. Awwwww!

There’s so much more to say about this beautiful day, but we’ll leave the rest to Hailey, who looked stunning in her Pronovias dress (which she’d bough for the big bash, but happened to work perfectly for this intimate celebration)…

How we met

Hailey, the bride: We were matched on a dating app called Coffee Meets Bagel. After we met in person, we realized that we had one mutual friend in common: a Jewish matchmaker!