Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Home > Reportage Gallery

A Pronovias Bride for a Wintery Chanukah Wedding at West London Synagogue and Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK

by

Jewish wedding West London Synagogue and Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK_0066

We love a good Chanukah wedding – and there’s no time more special than the eighth and final night. We’re loving the way Emma, an account director at a medical education communications agency, and Mike, an accountant, made the most of the holiday in their beautiful Jewish wedding.

The pair had the bride’s two grandmothers light the menorah together during their chuppah – how special is that?! Speaking of that chuppah, we’re in love with the green and white floral creation, and we can’t go without mentioning the couple’s gorgeous green and purple ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com. Also, fabulous chazan and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jonny Mosesson sang at the chuppah (and Emma and Mike found him through Smashing The Glass!). Oh, and they used one of our smash glass pouches.

The couple kept their general vibe wintery, with rich burgundy tones and sparkly fairy lights abounding. And to keep things in the Chanukah spirit from start to finish, they even served doughnuts in personalized paper bags for their guests to take home at the end of the night!

Emma looked stunning in her fitted mermaid lace Pronovias dress, which she found at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ann Louise Bridal – whose delightful service she can’t stop raving about. We’ll let her fill you in on the rest.

Jewish wedding West London Synagogue and Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK_0028 Jewish wedding West London Synagogue and Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK_0028 Jewish wedding West London Synagogue and Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK_0028 Jewish wedding West London Synagogue and Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK_0028
A Family Venue

Emma, the bride: We got married at the West London Synagogue on Upper Berkeley Street. Not only is this a beautiful synagogue, but both Mike’s parents and grandparents got married here so this made it extremely special for us.

The reception and party followed at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel which has a beautiful art deco style ballroom which we loved from the first time we saw it. Dina the event planner there was an absolute dream to work with, no matter how many questions and requests we had!

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

An Essense of Australia Bride for a Jew-ish Wedding at Poundon House, near Bicester, Buckinghamshire, UK

by

Jewish wedding Poundon House, near Bicester, Buckinghamshire, UK_0042

One of the things we most love here at Smashing the Glass is hearing how we’ve helped couples plan the Jew-ish wedding of their dreams. So when lovely bride Philippa (who just happens to be a member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club) told us she found STG while looking for interfaith wedding inspo, it melted Team STG’s collective heart — and even more so when she told us reading other brides’ writeups of their Jew-ish weddings “made me realise we weren’t the only ones out there!”

So you can only imagine out delight in finding out that she and groom Jerome booked their officiant, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rabbi Paul Glantz, via STG! Rabbi Paul helped the couple — Philippa is Christian, Jerome’s Jewish — craft an ultra-personal ceremony that reflected both of their backgrounds and traditions, complete with plentiful description of the Jewish parts of the ceremony so everyone could follow along, plus an explanatory order of service crafted by the bride. This is such a smart idea if you know you’ll be having guests who are unfamiliar with Jewish wedding traditions!

We also love that toward the end of the ceremony, after the rabbi recited the traditional Jewish seven blessings in Hebrew, the couple invited some friends and close family to give seven humanist blessings in English!

And with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor the Function Band performing, this wedding was no slouch from an entertainment standpoint either. The Function Band are renowned far and wide for their ability to get the party started, and we’re not surprised that guest after guest came up to the couple to tell them how awesome the band was!

We haven’t even gotten to the fab rustic elegance aesthetic, the gorgeous floral chuppah, or Philippa’s stunner of a dress from Essense of Australia, but we’ll leave it to the bride — with some support from the fab photography by Pascal from Reportage, and videography by Cedar House Productions — to fill you in on all of that…


Jewish wedding Poundon House, near Bicester, Buckinghamshire, UK_0042 Jewish wedding Poundon House, near Bicester, Buckinghamshire, UK_0042 Jewish wedding Poundon House, near Bicester, Buckinghamshire, UK_0042 Jewish wedding Poundon House, near Bicester, Buckinghamshire, UK_0042

How we met

Philippa, the bride: Jerome and I both work in the media industry – I’m a producer at a creative agency making commercials and promotional content, and Jerome is head of strategic development at a creative studio, working in VR and CGI.

We met through a mutual friend whom Jerome lived with at the time and we finally got together on a big group trip to Ibiza where we started kissing in the middle of a Hardwell gig at Ushuaia! We didn’t stop kissing after that. It didn’t take long for us to realise that it was meant to be and we moved into together after 3 months.

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Monique Lhuillier Bride for a Jewish Wedding at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, UK

by

Jewish wedding Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, UK_0146
For years, we’ve been dreaming of blogging a Jewish wedding at one of the most spectacular venues in all of London: the majestic Natural History Museum in lovely South Kensington. An absolute masterpiece of Victorian architecture, it doesn’t get much more iconic than this.

And today, our wedding blogger dreams are coming true with the epic wedding of Orly and Zak! Following a ceremony at the New West End Synagogue in Bayswater — no slouch in the architecture department itself — the pair and their guests decamped to the museum’s stunning Hintze Hall — if you’ve been, or seen it in pictures, it’s the main space with the whale skeleton overhanging! HOW awesome is that?! And how cool are the epic action shots from Pascale at Reportage Gallery?

Orly, an OB/GYN, and Zak, who works in property development, rounded out their marvellous day with kosher catering from fabulous STG Recommended Vendor Food Story (the pair are STILL getting compliments on their unique canapà©s, cocktails, and everything else by the amazing Food Story team), and they also benefitted from the ultimate day-of coordination (plus a little assistance wrapping up the last few weeks of planning) from the amazing Georgia of Moriarty Events.

Orly’s princess-perfect Monique Lhuillier gown purchased from much-loved STG Recommended Vendor The Wedding Club (who added the PERFECT lace straps to keep Orly’s shoulders covered for the ceremony).

If that’s not enough to catch your attention, there’s also a super sweet story about the couple’s history with the venue, plus a dramatic Hora incident (don’t worry, though, it all ended well!).

We’ll hand you over to the bride in a moment, but first a quick reminder that our FREE online event, ‘The secrets to an unforgettable Jewish wedding’ with our founder and editor, Karen, is happening next Monday November 12 and spots are filling up FAST! Grab your place now to ensure that your Jewish or Jew-ish wedding is as unforgettable as Orly and Zak’s…

Jewish wedding Natural History Museum, South Kensington, London, UK_0147

Jewish-wedding-Natural-History-Museum-South-Kensington-London-UK

Jewish-wedding-Natural-History-Museum-South-Kensington-London-UK

Jewish-wedding-Natural-History-Museum-South-Kensington-London-UK
An Iconic Venue

Orly, the bride: We got married at the New West End Synagogue in Bayswater and had our reception in Hintze Hall at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. The synagogue is really one of the most beautiful in London with such magnificent architecture and such a warm, welcoming community.

The Natural History Museum has always been a really special place for us as a couple — on our very first date I told Zak about a little mistake I had noticed on a poster in the dinosaur exhibition. A few weeks later, unbeknownst to me, Zak had already decided we were going to get engaged and started trying to convince them to give him the poster for when he proposed.

It took him a few years, but eventually the NHM gave him the poster and he surprised me with it during his speech on our wedding day! Now it’s up in our hallway! Hintze Hall is such a stunning space and it was such a privilege to party under Hope the whale in such an iconic London venue!

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

2018/19 Real Blogging Brides: Introducing Gaby + David: How They Met To The Present Day…

by

Today on the blog we’re introducing our 8th gorgeous bride from our crop of 2018 and 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Gaby who will be marrying David on 26th May 2019 at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, UK.

THREE FACTS: (1) Gaby and David met at work at an advertising agency in London (2) Gaby is Jewish and David is Christian, and they are planning an inclusive ceremony and party that will embrace both of their cultures (3) They are planning an urban luxe wedding in a converted London lighthouse – we LOVE the sound of this!


How We Met

David and I met at work, at an advertising agency in London. We knew each other for roughly 18 months before anything happened between us, in fact, we were both in different relationships when we met and truth be told, we weren’t each other’s biggest fans!

Overtime we became friendlier and after both our respective relationships ended, we naturally grew closer. It was only when David handed in his notice he took me on our first date. We kept our relationship because we wanted to develop as a couple without office gossip getting in the way. However, during his leaving drinks, David drunkenly declared his love for me, standing on top of a table at the bar. Needless to say, the reaction was a mix of shock and “everyone already knew” so needless to say, we had nothing to worry about! Everyone was very supportive and happy for us.

Due to the nature of our work, David and I we were used to be wined and dined by clients and were lucky enough to often be taken to beautiful restaurants. When we officially started dating, we just wanted to keep things simple. He didn’t need to impress me and I didn’t need to impress him, we had already established a long standing friendship so the need to wine and dine wasn’t necessary.

After living in South London together for the past year, we have just bought our first home in Mill Hill and can’t wait to move in this June!

Continue ReadingContinue Reading

2018/19 Real Blogging Brides: Introducing Harlie + Ben: How They Met To The Present Day…

by

Today on the blog we’re introducing our 3rd gorgeous bride from our crop of 2018 and 2019 Real Jewish Brides! Please give a warm welcome to Harlie who will be marrying Ben on 19th August 2018 at the Landmark Hotel, London, UK.

THREE FACTS: Harlie met Ben on an ‘Aish’ trip to Israel during their university years (2) They will be bringing in lots of Spanish influences into their London wedding, for a variety of reasons, not least because that that’s where they got engaged! (3) They will be having a fairly traditional orthodox London wedding, but are including lots of modern twists.


How we met

Ben and I met in Israel during our University summer of 2013, on a tour that was part of a Jewish youth programme for students. I was at University in Leeds and Ben was at law school in London. We got talking over Shabbat lunch in the beautiful, spiritual city of Tzfat, and in the spirit of romance completely ignored each other for the rest of the trip!

It wasn’t until December that year when we both ended up in Spain with the same organisation that the sparks started flying. On the last night after a few shots of tequila, we both plucked up the courage to start chatting. After some grafting in the weeks to follow (although he wont admit it!), Ben won my heart.

Our dating days… up and down the country.

We only had a few low key casual dates back home, and it then wasn’t long until Ben was travelling up to Leeds and back from London to visit me at University. We went on a five week travelling stint around South East Asia that summer after only five months of dating, and have since made many amazing memories around the world. That was our story for the next three years, both travelling up and down the country every other weekend to see each other and spending many summers together jetting off around the globe.

Continue ReadingContinue Reading