Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Home > Real Jewish Bride > Page 33

Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Designing Our Wedding Stationery

by

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

THREE FACTS: (1) James proposed to Charlotte in Florence… on her parent’s 36th 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 !


Choosing our wedding stationery

In September 2016 I had been to the bridal show with one of my bridesmaids, looking for invitation inspiration. I think it is a good way to speak to vendors and get sample packs, and also to look at what the brands are specialist in, there are so many different categories and styles available on offer, and I found it really good to see the stationery in real life. 

I had already used Papier for our engagement party invitations. Which were great quality and also allow you to do a mix of printed and online. They offer such a huge variety of styles, and you can personalise them to suit you. They are also really affordable! They suited the need for our engagement party but we decided against them for the wedding, as we wanted to go for something bespoke for our wedding stationery.

Knowing that I wanted the calligraphy feel, I actually designed our save the dates myself. I downloaded a lot of calligraphy and handwriting fonts on dafont.com. And created them in a Word document and got them printed with Vistaprint. I was lucky that I tested them out before ordering nearly 200 copies, as they originally came out blurred (!). Which then followed with me on a live chat with Vistaprint for over two hours to try and remedy this, luckily they refunded my original order, and actually sent my complete order out for free! It sometimes pays to complain!

Oh-Wonder-Calligraphy-4

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides: Leah – Flying To Spain To Plan My Wedding

by

Leah  will be marrying Zak in a Jewish wedding on 1st June 2018 at Masia Notari in Spain. Click here to read all Leah’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Leah knew she wanted to convert to Judaism long before she met Zak. She feels that having a Jewish wedding is another milestone in her Jewish identity and is an opportunity for some of her family to experience new traditions. (2) Leah & Zak met on JDate (3) Leah and Zak are planning a beautiful black tie destination wedding in Barcelona, Spain


The difficulties of planning a wedding from afar

I’ll admit, wedding planning has been the furthest thing from fun for me. My family and friends live a 2.5 hour flight away, and my wedding venue is thousands of miles away, which makes planning very hard. When we chose a destination wedding, we didn’t consider that we wouldn’t have the traditional experiences.

Zak and I wouldn’t be going to taste cakes or try our wedding food, meeting with my florist wouldn’t be in person, and I would have to put a whole lot of trust in my planner, Becky of Barcelona Brides, who I had never actually met in person.

The process was becoming overwhelming for me, so I scheduled a trip to Barcelona in November to meet with my vendors and help narrow down a caterer and live music. Zak wouldn’t be able to make it as it’s the busiest time of the year for him, so I planned to go alone.

When I mentioned to one of my bridesmaids, Cristin, that I had found a cheap ticket to Barcelona, she opted to come with me. Later, I mentioned to my other bridesmaids and couldn’t believe it when they all took time off work and opted to come with me to Spain! Becky and I scheduled a full wedding planning day to cross as many items off my list including: a hair and makeup trial, two full menu tastings, a visit to the venue, and meetings with a DJ, my florist and the videographer.


Picture of my girls and I with Becky

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Blogging Brides: Clare – Confessions of a Wedding Dress Shop Avoider (including how I found The Dress!)

by

Clare will be marrying Chris on 5th May 2018 at Laura Ashley The Manor in Elstree, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Clare is not Jewish but discovered Smashing The Glass via her Jewish sister-in-law and during her wedding planning journey it has (in her own words!) became her favorite and most useful wedding blog (2) She finds STG refreshing in a sea of wedding blogs as she loves reading stories of couples for whom the ceremony itself is as pivotal as all the other details. (3) Due to falling in love with so many amazing Jewish weddings through the blog, and then booking a wedding consultancy session with STG founder, Karen, it confirmed to her that there were a number of Jewish elements she was going to bring into her wedding that symbolise a lot of things that are very important to her and her fiancà© in their future marriage – she will be having a ‘Jewish-inspired’ wedding!


When I was young I used to play ‘weddings‘. My mum in fact recently revealed that she has lost her wedding veil and believes it’s because it lived for some time in my dressing up box!

I once claimed my future ambition to be a wedding dress designer and carried around a note pad with my creations (all variations on a theme of a puffy ball gown, very early 1990’s…) I also used to make my mum drive slowly past the bridal shop in our town so I could peak in the window and check out the latest designs.

When I was 16 my parents had their 25th wedding anniversary and I helped plan a vow renewal ceremony and reception and spent a great deal of energy on my ‘bridesmaid’ dress and the perfect gown that my mum should wear as a ‘bride’ once more…

So all of this and yet ironically I have only just bought my wedding dress for our wedding in just over five months time. Bearing in mind we got engaged summer 2016 you can imagine the looks of disbelief, the gasps of horror and sheer exasperation of my mum, bridesmaids, work colleagues etc!


Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides – Amanda: choosing my florist… and special gifts

by

Amanda will be marrying Adam on 25th March 2018 in a Jewish wedding at Braxted Park, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Amanda & Adam met outside in a bar in Tel Aviv (2) Adam has a ridiculous sense of humor (as described by Amanda!) and we love him all the more for it (3) Amanda & Adam’s wedding is 100% focused on all the people and things that mean the most to them. You can click here to read all Amanda’s planning posts to date.


All I Know About Flowers

My knowledge of flowers is extremely limited and can be reduced to the following statements:

  • Flowers have healing powers, which, when combined with a glass of wine can instantly better a terrible day at work
  • They give a room character and make it feel like home
  • Supermarket flowers can sometimes surprise you and last for AGES, unless you happen to buy them during the week leading up to Valentine’s Day
  • In place of a vase, wine bottles, port decanters and other containers work just as well
  • Flowers are a great gift for any kind of celebration

I don’t know about you, but that’s where my knowledge pretty much ends. So when it finally came to talking about flowers for the wedding, I was a bit stumped. I love flowers, but thinking about them at scale, for a wedding seemed like a bit of a minefield.

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Real Jewish Brides – Mel: A Whole New Kind Of Shopping

by

Mel  will be marrying Mitch on Sunday 18 March 2018, in a Jewish wedding at Warren Weir at Luton Hoo, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Mel and Mitch met online on JDate (2) Their Jewish wedding will be classy and traditional with plenty of modern touches  (3) Mel is a member of Smashing The Glass’s private Jewish & Jew-ish Brides Facebook Group. Not yet a member? Come join us here!


Dresses: ✔

I recently ticked off one of the most stressful tasks so far… finding bridesmaid’s dresses! âœ” A couple of months prior, my mum also found her dress, and I said ‘Yes to the Dress’ earlier this year.

Now that I and the important ladies in my life have found a dress for the wedding, and having been to all the appointments, I have built a good insight into how to approach finding the perfect dress.


Continue ReadingContinue Reading