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Home > Real Jewish Bride > Page 39

Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Mel + Mitch… how they met to the present day

30/05/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Today on the blog we’re introducing our 3rd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Mel who will be marrying Mitch on 18th March 2018 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!

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES_Mel
How We Met

Mitch and I met on JDate (yes, we are one of those couples!) in 2013. I had not long come out of a long-term relationship so I joined with the main intention of just knowing that there were people out there and that I wouldn’t be single forever! I didn’t for one minute think that I would end meeting the man I was going to marry — funny how things come along when you least expect it. After a month or so I was actually going to delete my account — until I received what can only be described as an essay from ‘mitch2302’. I thought, if this person has taken the time to look through my profile and made the effort to write a long message, the least I could do is respond.

Going on a first date — particularly never having met the person before — is quite unnerving. I suggested a nice gastro pub for a drink near where I lived. I always think that a drink on a first date is the best option as you’re less committed to spending long there if you weren’t feeling it, compared to if you go for dinner (call me crazy!).

Three hours later, we were still talking but it was time to go, with so much still to say. Our second date was four days later. This time we went for lunch. Eight hours later we were still in the same spot, chatting away like we had known each other for years. I left still wanting to know more about him #GoodSign.

People in common…

Being Jewish, it doesn’t take long to come across mutual friends. We did the usual “do you know such-and-such?” Little did we know just how ‘close’ we were — it turned out his parents are best friends with my aunt and uncle and have known each other since they were 16! *Cue MIL-to-be insane excitement*

We chose to keep my last name a secret at first (that would have given the game away) so that Mitch’s mum didn’t get too ahead of herself and call my aunt and cry with excitement that she will be related to her best friend of 40 years — bearing in mind I met his parents after the fourth date so marriage was definitely not on the cards yet. Sadly, my identity was revealed – I was practically quizzed when I first met Mitch’s parents. His mum then decided to have a Facebook stalk (as you do when you meet someone for the first time) and found me. Luckily, she honoured our wishes not to tell my entire family we were dating until we were ready.

After a few more dates, we became ‘official’. And then gave Mitch’s mum ‘permission’ to call my aunt — she was probably more excited about this than knowing Mitch had a girlfriend.

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Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Gillian + Pete… how they met to the present day

23/05/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Today on the blog we’re introducing our 2nd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Gillian who will be marrying Pete on 8th September 2017 at the Ballroom at Ellis Preserve in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania.

THREE FACTS: (1) Gillian is Jewish and Pete is Catholic (2) A Rabbi and a Priest will officiate at their wedding (3) Gillian is a Health & Wellness Coach and Pete is a Travel Occupational Therapist.

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES
How We Met

Pete and I met almost 9 years ago while attending graduate school in Philadelphia. We became fast friends and dated for two and a half years throughout grad school. We loved experiencing our early twenties in the city of brotherly love. We had the best time trying out new BYOBs around the city, hanging at tailgates with friends, dancing at local bars (I enjoyed this more than Pete lol), and having each other as built-in study partners made school nights much more fun.

However, as grad school came to an end we decided it wasn’t the right time for us  to be a couple and amicably went our separate ways. I know what you’re thinking, “This doesn’t sound like a good start to a love story?!” But stick with us, I promise we pull through!

After some years…

We didn’t live near one another (about an hour and a half apart in NJ) so it’s not unusual that we went three years without seeing each other, and our only form of communication was the occasional text and happy birthday message. We each dated other people as we grew in our careers. We grew as individuals and matured into late twenty-somethings. Luckily we grew in the same direction, although miles apart.

We had been chatting a bit in the spring of 2014, and this is when I discovered Pete was invited to a wedding of a mutual friend from grad school, and he didn’t have a date to bring. I thought the obvious answer to this problem was to bring me, right?!

So, I invited myself to a weekend wedding 6 hours away (keep in mind, we hadn’t seen each other for almost 3 years). After some joking back and forth Pete agreed we would have a great time together, as I already knew the groom and neither of us would know anyone else at the wedding.

During that six-hour car ride we caught up on EVERYTHING: Life, family, relationships, work, and our own past together. Anyone who has been on a road trip knows this could have gone horribly wrong or perfectly right. Lucky for us, that weekend was the first of many road trips to come. We had the best time at the wedding and realized we owed it to ourselves to give our relationship another shot. That was in August of 2014, and we’ve been together ever since (I told you we pulled through!)

Now we are traveling the country while Pete works as a travel occupational therapist, and I work as a health and wellness coach from wherever our home is at the time. We have been living in different places and love experiencing new cities, moving every three to four months (so far we have lived in Las Vegas, San Diego, LA, Palm Desert, Monterey, and Portland, OR).

We love adventure and we have the best time exploring new places together. We enjoy going on hikes, eating at great restaurants, and spending time with our family and friends as much as we can while we are home visiting.

It has been the best experience to be on our own in each new location. It has made us stronger as a couple and showed us just how well we complement each other’s weaknesses and benefit from the other’s strengths.

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Real Jewish Brides: Introducing Hayley + Ashley… how they met to the present day

16/05/2017 by Smashing The Glass

Today on the blog it’s the first post from our crop of gorgeous 2017 and 2018 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Hayley who will be marrying Ashley on 17th September 2017 at El Cortijo De Los Caballos in Spain.

THREE FACTS: (1) Hayley & Ashley met on Tinder (2) Ashley proposed with a Haribo ring (after which he pulled out the actual engagement gem!) (3) Hayley is converting to Judaism to marry Ashley.

REAL-JEWISH-BRIDES
How We Met

Our love story is my favourite, I saw Ashley’s profile on my screen, his pictures yelled out “if you want a laugh, I’m your man, he was just what I was looking for. I swiped right on a dating website (I’m sure everyone knows which one this is…). My phone pinged back, we both matched!

I waited for all of about an hour being the impatient person I am and in the 21st century I decided to send the first message…. “My mum says you’ll be perfect son-in-law material” with obviously lots of laughing faces.

Suddenly I received a message straight back, this was the beginning of ‘US’

Our First Date

After messaging and numerous phone calls, we decided to meet in a bar in Chelmsford. As I was driving into a car park very nervous and a little early for our date I noticed a car driving into the ‘Exit’ of a car park…..yes I said Exit!

I drove past thinking really that’s super stupid, I hope that isn’t my date…Guess what it turned out it was! Thankfully we already had something to talk about, or more to the point something to laugh about.

We spent all night chatting away Ashley staring at me mostly, I’m not sure if that was because he was already in love or the fact that I had something stuck in my teeth (that I haven’t ever forgiven him for not telling me). 

The next day Ashley jetted off to Thailand for 2 weeks to see some of his friends, he FaceTimed me every night! Smitten he was indeed, but I was also falling for this very humorous guy. 

We dated for around a year and a half to some of the most beautiful restaurants in London, we went on the most amazing holidays to L.A., Vegas (including pool parties at the Encore), Venice and finally Spain, where I met Ashley’s parents for the first time before I asked him to move in.

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Real Jewish Brides: Putting the “Jewish” into our Jewish Wedding

07/05/2017 by Karen


As I write this, it is the fifth night of my last Passover as a Friedman (which is pretty much how I’ve been thinking of every event this year), so what better topic to write about than intertwining Jewish traditions and symbolism with our more modern, American wedding? (Disclaimer: This blog is more general than usual. Now that we’re less than 3 months away from the wedding, I’ve become more interested in the element of surprise!) 

When it comes to having a meaningfully Jewish wedding, it all starts with the Rabbi! With Harley’s childhood Rabbi living in Canada and my family being a part of multiple synagogues growing up, we really didn’t have a “family Rabbi” we wanted to marry us.

Rabbi Kaplan
Rabbi Kaplan

Luckily, my friend Chelsea’s dad is a fabulous Rabbi who performs the most beautiful wedding ceremonies I’ve ever seen. Admittedly, I’ve only seen Rabbi Kaplan perform Chelsea’s wedding, but I’m sure it will come close! He is such a popular Rabbi in South Florida who is known for beautiful life events, so we were absolutely thrilled when we were about to book him over a year out.

We met in his home office and spent hours talking about our vision for the ceremony, Panthers hockey, and playing with his tallit-adorned puppy. Needless to say, Harley was sold after the hockey conversation!

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Real Jewish Brides: Fran… My Favourite Wedding Blogs and Instagram Accounts

02/04/2017 by Karen

FRAN-INTRO-IMAGE
My favourite wedding blogs and Instagram accounts that have pretty much been saved in my favourites for the past 17 months! And with the one month countdown in full swing I wanted to share them with future brides as they have been a godsend to my planning journey! 

Smashing the Glass

Of course the fountain of all knowledge and the must-go to place for Jewish and Jew-ish weddings! Full of suppliers and wonderful real weddings it really is a fantastic resource! I used it extensively in researching chuppah ideas and general Jewish themes for our wedding. I also love the Smashing The Glass YouTube channel which gave me lots of inspiration for what I want from our videographer! 

www.smashingtheglass.com
@smashingtheglass

STG_1459
Smashing The Glass

Love My Dress

Both a wonderful blog and Instagram account, full of a range of style ideas and real weddings. They also have a wonderful list of suppliers called Little Book For Brides which gave me some ideas and pointed me in the right direction for a few things! In terms of Instagram they show real brides and snippets of featured weddings which I have spent many a lunch break screen shot-ing and saving for planning meetings with my mum and sister!

www.lovemydress.net
@lovemydress


Green Wedding Shoes

Although American I love how quirky and cool this account is! Full of rustic vibes and beautiful colours I want all of them in my wedding! It covers a range of areas from lifestyle to holidays as well as weddings so you get a good range of ideas and inspiration when dreaming about life post wedding!

www.greenweddingshoes.com
@greenweddingshoes

GWS_1453
Green Wedding Shoes

Ulyana Aster

Oh wow! This woman posts the most insane hair styles that have bridal hair written all over them! She posts videos as well which was great when thinking about whether a particular style would work for my hair length! I spent many an evening swooning over the styles and stealing some ideas for my own hair!

www.ulyanaaster.com
@ulyana.aster


Wedding Ideas

The Instagram account for the magazine. I found it quite good for real bride features and looking at the couple photos they post as ideas to share with my photographer. Although it wasn’t always my style of wedding it is a UK account so you can actually locate the items they post about with ease!

www.weddingideasmag.com
@weddingideas

WI
Wedding Ideas

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