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A Monique Lhuillier Bride for a Modern Rustic Jewish Wedding at The Grove Hotel, Chandler’s Cross, Hertfordshire, UK

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It’s always a special day when we get to blog the real Jewish wedding of one of our wonderful Brides Club members, and today it’s Sami’s turn!.

Sami and Toby (#happilywebberafter) had the most wonderful big day, and we’re so thrilled to be able to share it with you. We’re also totally blushing at Sami’s kind words about the club:

“It was so heart-warming to have lots of lovely ladies around you sharing the build up and excitement. I feel like it is one big family and everyone wants the best for everyone else and their wedding!”

We think Brides Club is pretty special too – and the doors are open for new members to join (we now have almost 200 members!). Do come on in and join us too! If you’re planning a Jewish or Jew-ish wedding, it’s truly an incredible resource and community and we are offering 30 free days to every bride-to-be if you join before this Monday 11 June!

But back to Sami’s wonderful wedding – we’re pretty jazzed that she and Toby worked with so many of our very favourite UK-based Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors, from the amazing Jonny Mosesson, who sang during the chuppah (and we totally agree with Sami’s description of him as having the voice of an angel!) to The Function Band, who created an electric atmosphere that kept everyone dancing from start to finish, and videographer Denee Motion, who not only captured the emotion and energy of the wedding so perfectly (don’t miss their trailer!) but also developed a wonderful friendship with the couple over the buildup to their wedding.

We’re thrilled that Sami had a fantastic experience shopping for her Monique Lhuillier gown at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Wedding Club – she’d had a preventative double mastectomy prior to the wedding, so it wasn’t a given that wedding dress shopping would be smooth sailing. In fact, Sami’s experience was so wonderful that since the big day she’s left her old job in fashion buying to work for The Wedding Club, where she’s now store manager and runs operations for both of their London boutiques!

As joyful as this wedding was, the fact that Sami’s mum tragically passed away from cancer 5 and a half years prior cast a bittersweet shadow. We love that Toby bought Sami a locket with a photo of her mum to attach to her bouquet so they could still walk down the aisle together – what a meaningful touch.

There’s so much more to this fab celebration, but you’ll have to read Sami’s beautiful writeup (and immerse yourself in Paul Toeman’s wonderful photos) for the rest…



How we met

Sami, the bride: Toby and I met in a club in Birmingham, he was in his first year of university and I was on my gap year. We got on straight away, although at the time I was with somebody else. It started as an incredibly strong friendship, and after a year and a half (by which time my other relationship had ended), it turned into love, and we haven’t looked back since. 

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A Nautical New England Jew-ish Wedding at Latitude 41 in Mystic, Connecticut, USA

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It’s always a special day here in STG land when one of our wonderful blogging brides’ weddings shows up in our inbox. Especially when it’s as gorgeous as Alyssa and Colin’s luminous light house-themed Jew-ish wedding.

Seriously, just LOOK at Taylor Dunn Photography’s bright, airy, emotion-filled snaps of the big day.

It doesn’t get much more picturesque than this. Everything from the couple’s sweet, whimsical ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink with Intent to Alyssa and Colin’s adorable lighthouse logo to the fact that they used our very own Smashing The Glass pouch for their smash glass under the chuppah is total wedding goals.

And speaking of that chuppah? First of all, it’s a charmer, with birch poles, a clean green and white color scheme, and just a touch of asymmetrical greenery and florals. But it gets even better when you find out Alyssa and Colin’s fathers – plus Alyssa’s brother – teamed up to build it – using branches taken from trees in the yards of the bride and groom’s childhood homes (!!!). I KNOW.

Now for the rest from Alyssa…

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How we met

Alyssa, the bride: I met Colin at just 13 years old. He was a silly kid in the back of the school bus and to be honest one of the only Jewish people I knew. We spent countless rides to school laughing and teasing each other relentlessly.

Senior year of high school we reconnected and rekindled our friendship. I was drawn to his humor, easy-going demeanor, kind nature, and his ability to be friends with everyone! Our friendship effortlessly evolved into an amazing relationship that I never expected.

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A Nurit Hen Bride for a City Chic Urban Jewish Wedding at 8 Northumberland, London, UK

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We knew we were going to love Francesca and Brad’s London Jewish wedding the moment we learned the couple found inspiration for their gorgeous white floral chuppah (the perfect place to put their Smash Glass pouch to use) right here on STG — do these two know the way to a wedding blogger’s heart, or what?!

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Francesca, who works in finance as head of customer service, and Brad,  who works for Linzi, his family’s shoe business, worked with some of our very favorite Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors, from the wonderful Mirror Mirror, where the bride found her fishtail Nurit Hen gown, to powerhouse band Totem — as Francesca says, “no one gets a party started like they do”!

And then there’s the couple’s wedding planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rachel Flax. She brought their dreams of a fresh white ballroom aesthetic to life — and, even more importantly, took the stress right out of planning. So much so that Francesca’s top tip for other couples planning weddings is “get a Rachel Flax”!

Oh.. and did we mention that we love how these two met?! You never know where love is going to strike you…

Photographer Benjamin Toms and videographer AtMotion captured all the excitement of the big day so perfectly — read on for all the fun details from Francesca!


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How we met

Francesca, the bride: We had always known each other from school although we were in different years, but we met and started talking in a Tesco car park on my 17th birthday and have been inseparable ever since.

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An Ines Di Santo Bride for a New York-Meets-London Jewish Wedding at the Gramercy Park Hotel, NYC, USA

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Where do we even start with this epic Jewish wedding? Catherine’s sensational bridal style? The way she and now-husband Perry, combined their NYC (hers) and London (his) backgrounds? The ceremony they crafted to reflect their “Judaism Lite” approach to religion? The editorial-style photography from Christopher Lane Wedding?

Or maybe the fact that the bride is a beloved member of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club?

Okay, we’ll go with that last one… Catherine has the absolute sweetest things to say about the advice, tips, and resources she found through being a member of our Brides Club (and also her SMASHED IT bag for her smash glass)!

In Catherine’s own words: 

“Karen (founder of Brides Club) was absolutely SMASHING in everything from her one-on-one advice inside Brides Club, to daily tips, and as neither my husband and I are very religious, the vast breadth of Jewish related questions and answers I was able to get answered was priceless.”

So back to Catherine’s bridal fashion sense… this super stylish bride, and she had not one but TWO gorgeous dresses: for the ceremony, an uber-glam long-sleeved Ines di Santo, and for the reception an edgier custom gown by the bride’s friend designer Paul Raymond — and we’re TOALLY obsessed with both looks.

There’s so much more to say, but we’ll let the bride take it from here…

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New York Meets London

Catherine, the bride: We got married a the Gramercy Park Hotel in NYC. I had wanted to get married in the UK as my husband is from London… plus who doesn’t want to be an English countryside bride?!

However, my mother put the kibosh on that (after we had already traveled to and picked the venue in England), claiming the wedding should be in the bride’s hometown. As I am born and bred NY’er, there was no shortage of venue options. We decided on the GPH as it embodied the perfect symbiosis of New York City glamour and London chic. Additionally, my parents’ first apartment was also on Gramercy park and the rooftop terrace has a Robert Mapplethorpe by Andy Warhol portrait… given my mother was Robert’s publisher while he was alive, it further supplanted the idea that the GPH was the venue for us.

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A Pronovias Bride for a Tuscany-in-London Jewish Wedding at The Brewery, London, UK

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It’s not every day one of our beautiful blogging brides gets married — and at one of our very favorite London venues, no less! Everything about the Jewish wedding of Charlotte, (a much-loved member of our Brides Club for Jewish Brides) and James is pure #weddinggoals.

Not that you can really go wrong when you get married at Smashing The Glass Recommended Venue The Brewery. Though the location could hardly be more central, this is not your run-of-the-mill London venue — with its flexible spaces and vintage architectural touches like exposed brick walls, wood-beamed ceilings, The Brewery somehow manages to have a ton of character while also serving as an amazing canvas for wedding dreams of all stripes.

Like, for instance, recreating an outdoor Tuscan wedding indoors in London. Sounds impossible, right? But with the help of long banquet tables, romantic lighting, and seriously elegant florals  (how cool is the high/low tabletop dà©cor scheme?!) we think these two managed to pull it off. Be sure to take it all in via Adam and Hannah’s exquisite documentary-style photos and AT Motion’s stellar videography.

There’s so much more good stuff about this awesome wedding, from the fact that Charlotte and James used one of our Smash Glass pouches to the espresso martini syringe shots they served on the dancefloor to keep everyone’s dancing energy up to the fact that the couple registered with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Prezola… but we’ll leave the rest of it to the bride, who looked so classically elegant in her Pronovias gown.

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How We Met

Charlotte, the bride: I met James through a mutual friend nearly four years ago, before going on a night out to none other than Ministry of Sound. We really hit it off and have been inseparable ever since.

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