Stephanie Allin Archives - Smashing the Glass

A Stephanie Allin Bride for an Ultra-Personal Country House Jewish Wedding at Parklands Quendon Hall, Essex, UK

21/05/2018 by Karen Cinnamon

We absolutely LOVE today’s bride, Tash, who is an avid Smashing The Glass reader, and looked so elegant in her Stephanie Allin gown (with “the best twirling skirt ever!”).

She made some amazing vendor choices (choosing three STG Recommended Vendors all found on the pages of Smashing The Glass) and she had so many beautiful creative ideas. We particularly love the couple’s extra-meaningful chuppah design inspired by a previous wedding on Smashing The Glass, where the guests helped decorate the canopy with flowers (so gorge).

Their fab florist, the amazing Emma from STG Recommended Vendor Urban Flower Farmer, designed a simple birch pole chuppah laden with greenery and arranged flowers in buckets by the entrance to the ceremony, with a sign asking the guests to add them to the chuppah.

And that’s just one of the beautiful ways Tash and Ian personalized their ceremony while embracing Jewish tradition — you’ve got to read about their ultra-meaningful badeken. Photographer Andy Tyler and videographer Rideout Films did a wonderful job capturing all the emotion of the day.

The pair had a large wedding (230 guests!) with LOTS of children, and to make things easier for the parents in the crowd they hired another fabulous STG Recommended Vendor Safe and Sound Childcare to provide a creche, which kept all the little ones entertained and allowed the adults to enjoy the party.

Tash and Ian knew they wanted a band that could handle some serious Israeli dancing. Turning to Smashing The Glass for ideas, they found STG Recommended Vendor XS Showband. The couple report that the band created a fab atmosphere and kept their guests dancing all evening — and, most important of all, they ably handled not one but two rounds of Israeli dancing! Speaking of which, be sure to check out Tash’s top tips for Israeli dancing in her writeup…

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How we met

Tash, the bride: We met online – if you’d told me 5 years ago that I’d end up marrying someone I met online I would have thought you were mad, but here we are!

We met through Mysinglefriend, which is the site where your friends write your profile, which means you get slightly more interesting descriptions than the classic “I like eating out with friends and country walks.”

But it turns out it doesn’t actually mean you get more truthful profiles, as Ian’s friends Jo and Stu wrote lots of things that I’ve subsequently discovered were complete lies – like the suggestion that Ian is not a football obsessive!

Divine Designer Dresses and Dancing Brides at White Gallery 2017

24/05/2017 by Karen Cinnamon

All images by Kate Nielen

It’s that time of year again – when the wedding industry gathers for its own version of Fashion Week — London’s world-renowned White Gallery. Having had such a blast last year, I decided, of course, to do it all over again. Armed with fabulous photographer and STG Recommended Vendor, Kate Nielen, I spent last Monday in the company of some of the most exquisite designer gowns out there.

Sassi Holford

The highlight of the event was, of course, the stand-out catwalk show by STG Recommended Vendor and leading designer, Sassi Holford, complete with dancing models – see video below! (and we swear they were dancing to “Israeli Men”…. who’s even heard of “It’s Raining Men“?!).

Needless to say, Sassi Holford’s 2018 Collection was truly a sight to behold, with its sweeping, regal silhouettes, and the show-stopping Ivana gown, truly fit for a queen.

A post shared by Sassi Holford (@sassiholford) on May 15, 2017 at 7:14am PDT

All catwalk images above, from the 2018 collection by Sassi Holford (and that’s the designer herself in the image above!)

White Gallery London 2016

20/05/2016 by Karen

On Monday I attended The White Gallery in London’s Battersea Evolution which is essentially the London Fashion Week of the bridal industry. It’s a trade event for UK and international bridal designers to showcase their 2017 collections to press and buyers, and it feels like stepping through a vortex into the bridal apparel future.

The show took place in the heart of a blossom-filled Battersea Park inside a pavilion that was transformed into an elegant showroom, complete with catwalks and press lounges. The event ran over three days and offered press and buyers access to a diverse range of designers, runways, and of course industry lovelies!

You may have already seen a few sneak peeks of my photos on Instagram, and live commentary and video on Snapchat (and if you’re not yet on Snapchat, you’re missing out on ALL the fun and behind-the-scenes footage!). This post takes it up a notch with my favourite wedding dress and wedding shoe designers, and my six key bridal trends for 2017 as spotted at White Gallery.

If you’re currently on the hunt for your wedding dress or shoes, I do hope that this post will inspire you. All the gorgeous images (unless otherwise stated) are by the super talented Kate Nielen who accompanied me to the show. Feel free to pin and share them to your heart’s content!

Below: clockwise from top: Sassi Holford catwalk show / Emmy London / YolanCris

Stephanie Allin Couture

Stephanie Allin designed my wedding dress and is genuinely one of the loveliest people in the business. What appeals to me about Stephanie, besides her wonderful service and giving nature, is her contemporary take on classic couture and her desire to create wedding dresses for the ‘real bride’ as opposed to what looks best on a model. Her latest collection is inspired by the Italian lifestyle and artistic flair, and incorporates compelling fabrics including metallic jacquard prints on silk organza, and concepts like bridal separates of bra-lets teamed with dramatic skirts.

One a side note, Stephanie definitely gets the award for the most inspired creative campaign (shot by Matt Bird). How uh-mazing is the shot below taken from Stephanie’s new Bellisima collection?!

A Stephanie Allin bride in a blue and white wedding dress for an English country garden Jewish wedding at Adwell House, Oxfordshire

05/04/2016 by Karen

Girl crush, girl crush! Oh my goodness, today’s bride, Claudia is utterly gorgeous, and what amazing fashion choices she made — an astonishing Stephanie Allin wedding gown adorned with blue flowers, followed by a party dress to dance the night away in, not to mention some spectacular jewellery. She made a speech too (a smashing-the-glass-ceiling bride if ever there was one!) and I could literally write pages about Claudia’s creative talents alone… She’s definitely one clever and very accomplished woman.

But full credit to her dashing groom, Edward, too… Claudia was working as a doctor in Africa for much of their engagement so Edward spent many a weekend wedding planning and venue-hunting with Claudia’s mum. Hat’s off, Edward!

Details-wise, I can’t kick off with anything but that glorious chuppah… The groom’s father cut branches off a tree in his Norfolk garden where the couple got engaged and together with Edward built the chuppah in his back garden. The delightful Liz from Blue Sky Flowers worked her magic on the chuppah structure with the most sensational blooms, and for the canopy, one of Claudia’s friends assisted all the hens in decorating fabric ‘Stars of David’ on the hen weekend. The stars were then sewn on to a simple white tablecloth and it felt like the most wonderfully personalised starry sky.

What’s more the couple are now repurposing the chuppah poles as a gazebo in their garden and growing flowers up it in time for summer. Perfection!

What makes this wedding all the more special is that both families had known each other long before Claudia and Edward had ever got together. Oh, and as an aside, Claudia has a twin brother and identical twin sisters — how extraordinary is that?!) Claudia told me.

During the ceremony our Rabbi asked us to turn around to look at all our family and friends. It was overwhelming… To have so many people you love all there for you. Our families have been friends for 40 years and lots of people commented that they’ve never been to a wedding before where they love all the people under the chuppah – we are incredibly lucky and were completely surrounded by love all day.

There are lots more treats, surprises, advice, tips and just a wonderful account of a glorious day so if you can get five minutes with a cuppa to sit down and read Claudia’s wonderful words, as well as look at the stunning photography from Ria Mishaal, I promise you will get so much out of this wedding story.

With thanks to the lovely Alex from The Bijou Bride for submitting this very original Jewish wedding (and although heavily pregnant at the time, spot how ‘on theme’ Alex was in her beautiful blue and white ‘ceramics pattern’ maternity dress… I love you girl!)

Speaking of which, you’ll see Alex holding an umbrella over Claudia in one or two of the images. Claudia quite rightly says, “don’t stress about the weather – it poured with rain all day for us but we had so much fun no-one even noticed and if you’ve surrounded yourself with the right professionals they’ll make the reorganisation needed completely seamless. We walked around the grounds having our picture taken through the rain and you’d never know from the pictures!”

Spot on, Claudia… SPOT ON! Enjoy every last detail of this very special Jewish wedding.

how we met

Claudia, the Bride: Our families have been friends forever but somehow Ed and I didn’t meet until a few years ago. We hid our relationship from our mothers for the first few weeks because we thought they’d start planning our wedding after the first date! He took me to the Zetter Townhouse for cocktails, and we ended up in the games room playing Jenga until they closed. When Edward walked me home, we narrowly missed my brother who I lived with at the time who got home minutes later. He took me for a picnic two days later and cooked me dinner after a set of night shifts later that week and the rest was history!

I’m a doctor and had always planned to work abroad for a year and Ed was unwavering in his support for me doing this even though he couldn’t come with. He proposed in our favourite place in Norfolk just days before I left the country to work in Zanzibar. He didn’t realise he’d signed himself up to months of Sunday lunches with my mum planning and Saturday expeditions to wedding venues!

A super cool and creative, colourful Jewish wedding at Middle Street Synagogue, and The Grand, Brighton, UK

01/12/2015 by Karen

Oh my goodness. Where on earth do I start with this wedding?! It’s such fun, and it’s just bursting at the seams with creative details that will make you squeal. Seriously — it’s that good!

There are gold pineapples, the most exquisitely branded stationery (all designed by the bride), an enchanting alternative to a guest book, bridesmaids in the most epic shade of coral, a personalised head-in-hole board (a must-have when your wedding is by the English seaside!) and beautifully designed welcome bag totes (again designed by bride) filled with Brighton Rock, fish & chips shaped crackers, and all sorts of other seaside-themed treats.

It’s clear from looking at all of the delicious details in this big day that Danielle poured her heart and soul into all of the planning. Everything was evidently created with the greatest care and love, and, not surprisingly, her wedding features some of my much-loved Smashing Suppliers doing an AMAZING job.

I’m talking about Jonny Mosesson (their incredible chazan under the chuppah —who also was the chazan at my wedding!) and Stephanie Allin, Danielle’s sensational wedding dress designer, who bizarrely enough, designed my wedding dress too! Danielle says, “I hope that anyone reading this who likes the sound of anything we did gets in touch with our vendors because they made our day so incredible — they were absolutely brilliant.”

This wedding is literally the perfect mix of Jewish tradition and super cool creativity and I think you’re going to love it. I certainly did!

Oh, and their ‘How We Met’ story is beyond… their mums set them up!!

All of the laughter was captured by one of my favourite photographers, Kristian Leven, making a very welcome debut on STG today.

Take it away Danielle!

how we met

Our mums set us up. Yes, it’s true!

They knew each other when they were kids growing up in Leeds and then happened to be seated together at a wedding two years ago. They figured out that they both had kids the same age. Who were single. My mum had had a few too many cocktails and so Gideon’s mum, someone who will never take no for an answer, ended up going home with my phone number! When I spoke to my mum about the wedding the next day, she never mentioned it because she never thought he would call. And he didn’t. But he texted! And the rest is history!