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A Rosa Clará Bride for a Wedding Planner’s Traditional Jewish Wedding with a Twist at The Langham, London, UK

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We always love seeing what choices Jewish wedding pros make when it comes to planning their own big day – so naturally we’re thrilled to be featuring the wedding of Lara, the wedding planner behind Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Uptown Events! She and Grant, a data analyst, had the most fabulous London Jewish wedding at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Langham, one of the city’s most iconic venues.

Having worked on so many incredible weddings, Lara had lots of time to think about what she’d want to do for her own – which was honoring tradition while bringing in some original twists. One of these twists was the color scheme: rather than leaning into classic white, Lara opted for a palette focused on soft pinks with touches of green – and was it ever gorgeous! We’re especially enamored with Lara and Grant’s stunner of a floral chuppah – don’t miss it in the incredible photos by Katie Rogers!

We also love the fun culinary touches the dessert-loving couple brought to their wedding menu. Instead of a wedding cake, they opted for a giant tiramisu – and there was also a crumble bar, where guests could mix and match between different fruit bases and crumble toppings. How good does that sound?! And if that wasn’t enough, they had not one but two roaming desserts: a chocolate mousse trolley and a doughnut belt!

There are so many more fun details – everything from the way the couple included their beloved dog in the day via an AI cartoon image they used on custom matchboxes to the Picante tower the tequila-loving duo dreamed up instead of the classic Champagne version – but we’ll leave it to Lara, who looked so elegant in her beautiful lace gown by Rosa Clará, to tell you the rest…

How We Met

Lara, the bride: We met at secondary school when we were 18!

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A Jane Hill Bride for an Ultra-Personal Foodies’ Jewish Wedding at Braxted Park, Witham, UK

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Saydee and Eldar, Braxted Park Estate, Witham, UK

This Jewish wedding has it all – tons of personal touches, gorgeous countryside setting, great food, and an epic party. Londoners Saydee, a senior food buyer, and Eldar, a director at an advertising agency, worked with their planner Sophie Amor to craft the most magical celebration at picturesque Braxted Park, with so many fabulous details it’s hard to know where to start.

We could go with the couple’s stunning chuppah, inspired by the enormous oak tree on the grounds that formed the focal point of the outdoor ceremony – Saydee and Eldar wanted it to feel as though it was growing into the landscape, and did they ever! (Don’t miss it in the natural, documentary-style photos by Susie and Harley of  Barker Evans.)

Or the chuppah explanation cards the couple created to guide guests unfamiliar with Jewish weddings through the ceremony – hand-drawn by the bride’s mother!

And then there’s the food. Eldar’s family is behind beloved London restaurant group Delamina, so exceptional wedding eats were a must. Working with kosher caterer Dvash, the couple put together a menu with food inspired by Eldar’s mother’s cooking, featuring Middle Eastern-inspired dishes like short rib Delamina-style, slow-cooked with dates, pul-biber chilies, Jerusalem artichoke three ways, and roasted okra.”

Read on for the full story in Saydee’s own words…

Saydee and Eldar, Braxted Park Estate, Witham, UK Saydee and Eldar, Braxted Park Estate, Witham, UK Saydee and Eldar, Braxted Park Estate, Witham, UK Saydee and Eldar, Braxted Park Estate, Witham, UK

How We Met

Saydee, the bride: Introduced by a mutual friend but had crossed paths once that year and Eldar grew up on the road Saydee went to school!

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A Joyce Young Bride for a Jewish Wedding Worth the Wait at Dartmouth House, London, UK

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Jos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UK

We’re so excited to be featuring the Jewish wedding of our beautiful Brides Club member Jos today! As with so many couples over the past few years,  Jos, who works for a tech company in product marketing, and Daniel, a lawyer, had lots of setbacks on the way to marital bliss – including THREE postponements and a change of venue – but the final outcome was more than worth the wait, as we’re sure you’ll agree if you scroll through the incredible photos by Rachel takes Pictures.

We so loved having Jos in Brides Club, where she made real-life friends she’s still connected with post-wedding and found some of her fabulous vendors, including their videographer Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Adrian Stone and planner Katy Cresner.

Speaking of Adrian Stone – The Dream Catchers – we can’t say it any better than Jos did herself: “When we received our Storybook film and highlights edit it was better than anything I could ever wish for. Adrian captured the spirit of the day and so many moments that would have been forgotten if we didn’t work with him.”

We’re also in awe of the couple’s florals by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Blue Sky Flowers. Jos and Daniel chatted with founder Liz about their preferences and then left her to run the show… and they were absolutely blown away by the results, as are we! The duo also loved that Liz donates flowers leftover at the end of the night to Floral Angels, so that other people can enjoy them!

There were so many more wonderful personal touches to this day, but we’ll leave it to Jos, who looked stunning in Joyce Young, to tell you about all that…

Jos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UKJos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UKJos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UKJos & Daniel, Dartmouth House, London, UK
How we Met

Jos, the bride: We met on a cold January evening at the Freemasons Arms pub in Hampstead, but originally we both swiped right on Tinder. Well he swiped for me, my friend swiped for him, but that’s another story.

We got engaged on the Greek island of Naxos, which is now our absolute favourite place on this planet. It was simple and quintessentially us, and we set about planning our wedding almost as soon as we got back. 

We were originally meant to get married in June 2020 with 250 people at Hackney town Hall. We were one of many couples who had to cancel because of covid and we were a little optimistic with trying two more times in November 2020 and March 2021, both dates fell during national lockdowns and we pushed it to April 2022 and got on with our lives.

We bought a house and a dog like good covid millennials. I have to say, that I put wedding planning completely on the back burner. I found it really hard to get excited and I was super anxious about moving forward with a wedding date before 2022 because I was terrified that people would get sick. Being honest, I’m not sure if I saw how much limbo we were living in, it was an important event that we were very keen to have, but we were also totally paralysed by the events in the world.

In August 2021 my mum went on holiday with her cousin and called me from the beach declaring she thought it would be a great idea of we just got married in October. She wanted to be as early into Autumn as possible, in the hope that there were no covid restrictions. Initially she had suggested getting married in their garden, but that proved to be unworkable, so in 6 weeks we planned a cut down, but just as fabulous wedding, it was a whirlwind but one we couldn’t be more grateful we did when we did it.Continue ReadingContinue Reading