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A Suzanne Neville Bride for an Elegant Jewish Wedding at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London, UK

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We love it when a couple really brings their skills and passions into their Jewish wedding – and Samantha and Alex did just that. The bride, a video editor by profession and lifelong music lover on the side, added THE most special, personal touches to her big day – teaming up with some of our very favourite London vendors to make it happen.

Given Samantha’s career, it’s no surprise she wanted only the best when it came to choosing a wedding videographer – and indeed, she opted for beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Denee Motion. But instead of having her videography handle the whole business from start to finish, the team at Denee Motion handed their stunning footage over to Samantha and she edited it into her very own highlights film and wedding video – so special! (As if that’s not awesome enough, she also made a save-the-date video rather than sending out a standard paper note.)

This multitalented bride also happens to be an AMAZING singer, and she wanted to surprise Alex by performing at the wedding. She worked with the couple’s band, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Totem – who are just beyond awesome; in Samantha’s words, “watching them perform is like being at the greatest concert of your life” – to perform a song with Totem’s newly formed gospel choir. It made for such a special moment; please do scroll down and check out the video of her performance!

We love how photographer Paul Toeman captured all the emotion and energy of the day (and we’re totally obsessed with the post-wedding shoot he did of the couple wandering around London at midnight!). There’s lots more we could say about this wonderful wedding, but we’ll let the bride – who looked smashing in Suzanne Neville – tell you the rest…

Oh… and one final detail – the groom’s mother is the the manager at my daughter’s much-loved nursery. Mazal Tov Tina and family!


 
How we met

Samantha, the bride: We met at 18, he moved into the same flat as one of my best friends when he was at university in Manchester. I went up to visit my friend Anthony and ended up speaking to Alex for 2 hours instead. Fast forward 7 years when I happened to join his gym and bumped straight into him, a couple weeks later we went on a 3 hour dog walk and the rest is history.

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A Suzanne Neville Bride for a Kosher Chrismukkah Jewish Wedding at the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK

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A kosher Christmas wedding?! Sounds unlikely, but somehow Claire, a therapist, and James, who works in recruitment as a consultant in the City, pulled it off.

With a wedding date just a week before Christmas and the bridesmaids dressed in an unintentionally Christmassy hunter green, the pair decided they might as well go all out with their newfound Chrismukkah theme – even opting for a kosher Christmas dinner for the meal!

We’re also obsessed with Claire and James’s very cool chuppah – made out of copper pipes and decorated with a mix of flowers and hanging bulbs. It was a perfect fit for their stunning Victorian venue, the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel. All of the emotion and elegance of the day was captured so perfectly by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Blake Ezra, whose calm attitude on the day ensured Claire and James enjoyed their wedding photography to the max.

Claire looked stunning too, in her simple, sophisticated Suzanne Neville dress and her effortless natural makeup by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Philippa Louise.

And the fun didn’t stop once the big day was over: Claire and James went on an epic honeymoon to India, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives, organised by Claudia Newman at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Colletts Travel in London. Claudia made sure the honeymoon ran smoothly and even threw in some extra special touches, like leaving a framed picture of the couple on their wedding day waiting for them in one of their hotel room.

Now over to the couple…


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How we met

Claire and James, the bride and the groom: We went to the same university but never met there, we met at a close friend’s birthday party. The friend actually wasn’t sure it was going to work but is very happy now that it did – and was part of the wedding as a bridesmaid and witness to thank her for bringing us together!

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A Suzanne Neville Bride for a Destination Jewish Wedding at the Great Synagogue and Villa Miani, Rome, Italy

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We always love seeing what wedding pros choose for their own big days. On one hand, they’ve got a leg up knowing all the ins and outs of the industry. But on the other, when you’re surrounded by amazing wedding vendors day in and day out, how do you choose?!

Today’s beautiful bride Laura is a London-based wedding planner, and we’re not surprised that she and Moshi, a financial adviser, picked a whole roster full of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors for their beautiful destination wedding in Rome: from ultra-creative videographer Denee Motion (love that drone footage!) to a 10-piece band by the amazing Totem to a beautiful, colorful ketubah by artist Veronique Jonas from Ketubah.com, they went for some of the very best of the best.

And then there’s Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Italian Wedding Company. Being a planner’s planner is no easy job, but Stefania and Vanessa handled it with aplomb, helping Laura realize the wedding of her dreams despite her planning from abroad and speaking not a word of Italian.

Photographer Paul Toeman captured all the emotion of the day — not to mention the gorgeous setting — so perfectly, and we can’t get enough of the couple’s adorable wedding hashtag, #moshandbecks.

We’ll let Laura, who looked stunning in Suzanne Neville, fill you in on the rest…


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How We Met

Laura, the bride: He was sitting next to a friend’s husband one year and asked who was sitting next to his wife. After cancelling what would have been our first date and re-connecting a year later, we met up and the rest is history!

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New York Bridal Market Fall 2019 Recap {and Top Bridal Trends for 2019}

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Ines Di Santo’s afterparty at the Baccarat Flagship Photo by JP Yim/Getty Images

5 days, 18 appointments, approximately 57 million Insta stories (if you missed them, you can catch the best bits in our highlights), and countless fantastic dresses later, New York Bridal Fashion week is over for another season. Basically Fashion Week for wedding dresses, Bridal Fashion Week (aka Bridal Market) is easily one of the most fun times of a wedding blogger’s year. 

Some of the collections are presented at full-on runway shows (and Ines Di Santo put on a particularly epic one this Bridal Market, plus the coolest afterparty at the Baccarat Flagship), while others are shown at more intimate appointments for small groups of buyers from bridal boutiques (plus press, of course), sometimes with the designers present. 

Suzanne Neville

Limor Rosen

Ines Di Santo Photo by FIRSTVIEW

I had some fantastic conversations with designers and PR reps, learned a ton about everything from who actually buys those epic but unwearable-looking designs you see on the runway (answer: often no one, since some designs are purely intended for editorial impact and never even make it to production) to the differences between what American and British brides are looking for in a gown (according to Sassi Holford, it’s half an inch: Americans invariably want deeper sweetheart necklines, while the Brits prefer theirs with less of a dip). The more you know!

There’s so much fantastic bridal fashion in the pipeline for next year, and I’m so excited to share it with you, along with my take on some of the top trends we’ll be seeing (or, in some cases, continuing to see) over the next year. From classic elegance inspired by Meghan Markle’s gown to a burgeoning range of alt coverups from capes to ruffs (perfect for under the chuppah!) to unexpected bursts of color, 2019’s going to be an exciting year for bridal. Pin your favorite looks!

Caroline Castigliano 

Suzanne Neville

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A Suzanne Neville Bride for a Super Luxe Destination Jewish Wedding at the Great Synagogue of Florence and Villa de Maiano, Florence, Italy

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BRB — booking a ticket to Florence. Okay, maybe not, but we are a million percent tempted by today’s dreamiest of Italian destination Jewish weddings. Between the ceremony at the majestic Great Synagogue of Florence to the swoon-worthy reception at Villa di Maiano, Paige and Richard‘s day was as dreamy as it gets (and they also had an adorable wedding hashtag — #paigegetsrich).

Much-loved STG Recommended Vendor Michelle Jacobs of Eleganté by Michelle J helped the couple pull all the fab design elements together from London, where they live. From the magical floral chuppah (who would’ve thought such a fresh, natural design would be the PERFECT fit for such a grand, historic space?) to THE most stunning top table we have ever, ever seen complete with a pergola, crystal chandeliers, hanging glass globes filled with tea lights (seriously, check out David Bastianoni’s photos — it is not to be missed!), we can safely say she hit a home run with this epic day. Oh… and Waterfall Visuals‘s film  below is the dreamiest thing ever.

We’re thrilled to have a chance to chat with their awesome planner, Michelle Jacobs, live on the Smashing The Glass Facebook page tomorrow at 7: 30 p.m. GMT/2:30 p.m. EST tomorrow, Thursday, October 4. And if you love today’s wedding as much as we do, do not miss this one as we’ll be covering all the ins and outs of planning a Jewish (or Jew-ish) wedding in Italy. Please do tune in, and bring your questions!

Another wonderful STG Recommended Vendor, Totem (who Paige and Richard loved enough to fly out from London!) provided ultra-emotional chuppah music before transitioning to party mode at the villa, where they kept the dancefloor packed all night. Talk about a smashing party! Oh, and speaking of things that are smashing, did we mention Paige and Richard used one of our very own Smash Glass pouches?!

We are also LOVING their exquisite stationery by Ruth Kaye Design another STG fave and Recommended Vendor… we’re literally dying over how fabulous everything about this wedding is. —don’t you agree?

We’ll let Paige, who looked goooooorgeous in her glam Suzanne Neville gown, take it from here…

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A Room with a View

Paige, the bride: Our chuppah took place at the Great Synagogue of Florence and then afterwards we moved over to Villa di Maiano, a beautiful villa in Fiesole, a small town in the hills above Florence. Villa di Maiano is where the movie A Room with a View, was filmed (just celebrating the 30th anniversary of the film).

We went to see several venues, this was the first. We had a special feeling as soon as we walked into the gardens — we both cried — so we just knew this was the place for us. We did consider having our ceremony at Villa di Maiano, but Michelle suggested we visit the synagogue… and again, the minute we walked in we just knew we had to have our chuppah there.Continue ReadingContinue Reading