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Real Jewish Brides – Mel: An Interview with my Fiancà©!

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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!


The Groom’s Perspective

Every post I have written so far is about my thoughts and experiences to planning the wedding so I thought it was about time to have a role reversal. This is all about Mitch and his perspective on planning our wedding.

Picture the scene, Mitch and I sat comfortably on our L-shaped sofa in our lounge. Me wrapped in my blanket with a cup of green tea. And Mitch in his grandpa slippers trying not to laugh at my attempt at being a chat show host. I wanted to ease us both in to this ‘role play’ so I started with an easy question…

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Real Jewish Brides – Charlotte: Picking our Wedding Vendors

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Charlotte will be marrying James on 26th August 2018 at The Brewery, in London, UK. Click here to read all Charlotte’s planning posts to date.

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 !


The venue is booked, now begins the search for vendors. Having been to many weddings over the past few years you get to know what you like and just isn’t your style or taste. Do your research and look at reviews, I found that vendors Instagram feeds are really useful and really show what they can do in abundance. ­

Make sure you go to each vendor with a clear idea of what you want and have your questions ready. This is your wedding and the one day in your life where you get to celebrate your marriage. Make sure you stick to what is right for you both. I’m very fortunate that James has the same vision as me for our big day, and that I have very open minded parents as well.

Tony Page Kosher Caterers
Image: Robert Shack from Georgia & Sam’s Jewish Wedding (Catering by Tony Page)
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Real Jewish Brides – Leah: 8 Months Until Our Destination Wedding… Update

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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

When Zak and I got engaged, we hadn’t really put a lot of thought into the details of our wedding beforehand. Immediately we were flooded with questions asking when and where we would be wed, especially since our family and friends are spread out throughout the country. One of our favourite things to do together is travel, so it didn’t take us long to decide that we wanted a destination wedding, but we didn’t realize how many small hurdles we’d have to overcome by planning a wedding from afar.

Finding an Officiant

Finding someone to officiate our wedding was harder than we originally thought. It’s important to both of us that we have a more traditional Jewish ceremony but finding a rabbi in a predominately catholic country proved difficult. Luckily for us, our wedding planner, Becky from Barcelona Brides, was able to help us locate a wonderful rabbi that we began working with to help us craft a custom ceremony that is meaningful to us. Thank goodness for modern technology as we are able to have Skype sessions with our rabbi leading up to our wedding. This was one of our top priorities after choosing a venue and I urge others to begin this process early if their options are limited.

Reviva-Weddings-Destination-Weddings-in-Spain_1293

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Real Blogging Brides: Clare – Difficult News, Learning Calligraphy, and Some DIY Wedding Projects…

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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!


Losing my father and my aunt

Planning a wedding when your father is terminally ill is never going to be easy and when in July the news hit that my aunt had stage three cancer, the future looked even more bleak. Sadly they have both passed away since my last post, going just six days apart from one another. I have felt broken.

For my main wedding planning partner in crime (my mum) and I, there have been funeral plans to make rather than wedding. But thinking of this upcoming celebration has been the chance to share times of joy rather than sadness and has definitely kept us going!

Celebration of friendship

Weddings are a time for family, and the thought of neither of them being there was never much fun. Fortunately I’ve had some time to prepare for the lack of a ‘father of the bride’ and some wonderful friends will be fulfilling the roles of walking me down the aisle and giving a speech… Let’s just hope they don’t go too cringey in a bid to be an embarrassing ‘dad’!

Friendship is something that I have come to truly value since planning my wedding amidst this trauma. Our wedding will be a true celebration of friendship, and for me, my friends have and continue to fulfil a vital role in my life that can’t always be met by family relations.

So what better thing to write about than all the wonderful things we have been doing as part of the planning process, and the different ways in which they will be involved in the build up to the big day, never mind on the day itself!

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Real Jewish Brides – Amanda: Top Tips For Bridesmaid Dress Shopping

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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.


Shopping with my Bridesmaids

In my opinion, there’s no better feeling than coming home from a shopping trip with a new dress… or three. There’s something about the smug sense of achievement that comes with a successful shopping trip, made even better if you had no intention of buying anything. For me, wedding dress shopping was the epitome of this feeling. I had never expected to find something and so, with no pressure at all to buy ‘the dress’,  I managed to come away with something I absolutely loved. It was the dream scenario (but without the drama of Say Yes To The Dress). 

But with wedding dress shopping, there’s one dress, one person and one opinion. It’s about finding something you love and are comfortable in, and can imagine yourself getting married in. It is not about finding dresses for four separate individuals, each with their own personality and style. It also tends to be less rushed, because it’s one of the first things brides-to-be will do! 

Bridesmaid dresses

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