Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog

Inspired Jewish Weddings

Home > the delicate brush > Page 2

A Pnina Tornai Bride for the Coziest Winter Wonderland Jewish Wedding with Magic Cabin Vibes at Foxfire Mountain House, The Catskills, New York, US

by

Jenna-Joe-Foxfire-Mountain-House-Catskills-New-York-USA

We knew we were in for something special from the moment we read that today’s couple, Jenna, an event manager, and Joe, director of referee operations for the NBA, dreamed of a winter Jewish wedding with magical cabin vibes. And their big day did not disappoint!

The New York couple opted for an intimate wedding in the Catskills at FoxFire Mountain House, where 30 of their closest family and friends gathered for a cozy weekend retreat, where they went all in on the wintry mountain vibes. Scroll through the dreamy images by Brian David Photography and we’re pretty sure you’ll fall in love too!

Their ceremony took place indoors in front of a roaring fire – and to keep with the intimate, low-key vibes Jenna and Joe had loved ones hold a tallis above their heads rather than opting for a freestanding chuppah. And even their beautiful ketubah, designed by mega-talented Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush, features a forest-scape to match the theme!

Now over to the bride, who looked like the dreamiest snow princess in her Pnina Tornai gown…

Jenna-Joe-Foxfire-Mountain-House-Catskills-New-York-USA Jenna-Joe-Foxfire-Mountain-House-Catskills-New-York-USAJenna-Joe-Foxfire-Mountain-House-Catskills-New-York-USA
How We Met

Jenna, the bride: Like any modern love story- we met on Hinge!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

Two Dancers’ Interfaith Jewish Wedding at Louland Falls, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

by

Tori-Shawn-Louland-Falls-Salt-Lake-City-Utah-USA

When two competitive dancers tie the knot, you know it’s going to be something special! Tori, a musical theatre performer, and Shawn, who works in financial planning, met on the ballroom dance team at the University of Utah, and though they now live in NYC, they decided to return to the state where they met for their interfaith Jewish wedding.

Needless to say, their wedding was quite the party – including an epic first dance that the bride and groom spent three months choreographing and perfecting!

As an interfaith couple – Tori is Jewish, while Shawn isn’t – the duo knew they wanted to plan a ceremony with traditional Jewish elements that would be accessible to all of their guests. They found the perfect ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rachelle of The Delicate Brush, centered on a Tree of Life design with Hebrew on one side and English on the other. Tori and Shawn adored having their ketubah at the wedding, and they love it even more now that it’s on display in their home! Don’t miss it in the wonderful images by Courtney Blair Photography.

There’s so much else to say about this joyous wedding – how fun is it that the couple organized a photo scavenger hunt around the venue for guests, with pics of the bride and groom growing up?! – but we’ll let Tori take it from here…

Tori-Shawn-Louland-Falls-Salt-Lake-City-Utah-USATori-Shawn-Louland-Falls-Salt-Lake-City-Utah-USA Tori-Shawn-Louland-Falls-Salt-Lake-City-Utah-USATori-Shawn-Louland-Falls-Salt-Lake-City-Utah-USA
How We Met

Tori, the bride: Shawn and I met in 2013 on the ballroom dance team at the University of Utah during my freshman year of college! We never danced together on team because of our height difference, but we were drawn to each other. We started dating, got engaged in 2019, and now here we are married!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Galia Lahav Bride for a Luxe Disney-Inspired Jewish Wedding at Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, California, USA

by

Aliza & Nathan, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, California, USA

This isn’t the first Disney-themed Jewish wedding we’ve seen, but we’re pretty sure it’s the one with the most wow factor! Aliza, a freelance Casting Associate Producer who’s worked on shows such as Love is Blind and Married at First Sight, and Nathan, a stay-at-home-husband with a background in the non-profit world, are big Disney fans, and they knew from the start they wanted their big day at Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel to feel like a magical fairy tale come true.

And did it ever! The pair dreamt up an elegant-yet-whimsical enchanted forest wedding featuring a Mickey head made of rose petals, a real-life Cinderella carriage, and mango sorbet served in “Glass Slippers” carved out of ice!

To make their magic mirror meets “through the looking glass” motif a reality, Aliza and Nathan hunted for rare collectable Disney figurines and memorabilia to incorporate into their centerpieces and spent countless sleepless nights DIYing favors and decorations. All their hard work paid off big time – you don’t want to miss a single stunning detail in the luscious images by Michael Anthony Photography and cinematic video by Custom Made Productions.

Naturally, when it came to Aliza and Nathan’s ketubah only the best would do. And so they turned to Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Rachelle Tchiprout of The Delicate Brush, who crafted a custom watercolor creation featuring flowers and ivy to match the couple’s wedding décor. Rachelle worked closely with Aliza and Nathan to bring their vision to life, and they were totally bowled over by the results!

This mega-luxe wedding is chock full of details, but we’ll turn you over to Aliza – who looked simply ravishing in of Galia Lahav – to fill you in on the rest…

Aliza & Nathan, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, California, USAAliza & Nathan, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, California, USAAliza & Nathan, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, California, USAAliza & Nathan, Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel, California, USA
How We Met

Aliza, the bride: In 2014, we matched on JSWipe, bonding over having several unlikely and random mutual friends. After exchanging long messages about everything from music and tech to travel and languages, we had our first date at the Santa Monica promenade, which lasted 12 hours! I left that date knowing that I had just met “The One.” We went on to have our second date at Disneyland, which, as a hopeless romantic, was a dream come true. Admittedly, our relationship wasn’t always smooth sailing.

As we each navigated our early twenties and found ourselves living in different places, we dated on and off for a few years. It wasn’t until 2017 that we reconnected once and for all at a Shabbat dinner & the rest was history! In 2019, Nathan proposed to me in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, making our engagement extra magical. My engagement ring features a hand cut diamond from the early 1910’s. Nathan worked with Steve from Korshak Diamond Corporation to custom design both my engagement ring and my diamond wedding band!

Full of excitement and imagination, we began planning for a July 5, 2020 wedding, We chose July 5th as our wedding date because it was the day after Nathan’s grandparents’ wedding anniversary – July 4th. At the time of our choice, they had been married for 65 years and we felt it would be good luck! (They made it to 68 years, before Nathan’s grandma sadly passed away in January 2023.) When the pandemic hit in early 2020, we were left with no choice but to postpone our celebration.

While a party can wait, we felt that we didn’t want to put our love story on hold, so we decided to still get married as planned on our original date in a beautiful intimate ceremony in my parents backyard in Boca Raton, FL. What we lost by having to postpone also afforded us an extra year to fully bring our dream wedding celebration to life. We spent the months leading up to, what would now be our July 4th, 2021 “vow-renewal” and belated reception, planning out every unique detail!Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Mia Pava Bride for an Ultra-Personal Family-Focused Jewish Wedding at Tur Sinai, Jerusalem, Israel

by

Laura-Ray-Tur-Sinai-Jerusalem

We love it when a couple has their Jewish wedding, their way… and that’s exactly what today’s couple did! Laura, a photographer, and Ray, a public health consultant, made it their top priority to craft a wedding that was “so incredibly us,” and they put their own stamp on everything from the color scheme to the vibe, the music to the souvenirs.

Laura and Ray even designed the invitation themselves, along with matching programs and seating cards! And when it came to the ketubah, they opted for a gorgeous design by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush.

Laura is a mother of six mostly grown kids, and it was important to her that they all had major roles in the wedding ceremony. Two of the kids were the emcees, Laura’s oldest daughter was her attendant, two kids sang Laura down the aisle, and her youngest daughter was her maid of honor – so special!

Given that Laura herself is a professional photographer, she naturally wanted only the best when it came to photographing her wedding – and so she opted for none other than Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman! His images of the day are so full of emotion and love, we can’t stop scrolling through them.

Read on for more fabulous details of the day in the couple’s own words…

 

Laura-Ray-Tur-Sinai-JerusalemLaura-Ray-Tur-Sinai-JerusalemLaura-Ray-Tur-Sinai-Jerusalem
How We Met

Once upon a time there was Ray, a public health professional living in the US with no plans to move anywhere. And there was Laura, a divorcee, mom of 6, living in a settlement in Israel. Their mutual friend, Shoshanna, came up with the crazy idea that these two people should date each other. She told them. They were unimpressed… And did nothing about it at the time.

When Covid took Laura’s dad summer of 2020, just a few months after it took Ray’s dad, Ray reached out to Laura via Facebook messenger with a really kind message and even followed up a few weeks later to see how she was. Laura was impressed. With the ice broken they began speaking occasionally via Facebook messenger. Laura was charmed by Ray’s unique sense of humor and skill at SongPop. Ray was astounded by Laura’s seemingly endless cocktail concoctions and her ability to stay up later than God…

Their conversations grew more frequent and deeper and by October they were messaging daily, and starting to add phone calls and FaceTime as well. And yet, they had never met in real life. Because of covid, they could not even entertain the idea of travel for months. Finally, in April 2021, Laura flew to the US and they met for the first time at the airport when Ray came to pick her up. That first date lasted 11 hours and started two weeks of what they dubbed ‘concentrated craziness’.

Since then Ray and Laura have been back and forth to Israel and the US numerous times, documenting it all with a steady stream of photos. They even managed to meet in ‘neutral territory’ with a trip to Switzerland. Finally, on July 8, 2022, on a bluff overlooking the Sea of Galilee, and over a glass of cabernet, Ray proposed to Laura and the rest is history 🙂 (Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that their dads have met up in heaven and are kvelling together over this beautiful turn of events…)Continue ReadingContinue Reading

A Martina Liana Bride for an Elegant France-Meets-New Jersey Jewish Wedding at Park Chateau, East Brunswick, New Jersey, USA

by

Ester-and-Alex-Park-Chateau-East-Brunswick-New-Jersey-USA

A local venue that feels just like being whisked away to a chateau in the Loire? Yes, please! That’s exactly what today’s couple, Ester and Alex, found in East Brunswick, New Jersey’s Park Chateau – a venue so gorgeous Ester knew she wanted to marry there before she even met her now-husband!

Naturally, this was an uber-elegant wedding, with a color scheme of white and green with hints of gold, the perfect princess gown by Martina Liana, and a stunning modern ketubah by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Delicate Brush.

All the wonderful details and emotion of the day were captured exquisitely by photographer Maria Kalitina – who not only shot some fab images but kept everyone calm on the big day – and husband-and-wife videographer duo Greg and Dierdra from Lorenzo Media Productions.

Read on for all the details of this special day in the bride’s own words…

Ester-and-Alex-Park-Chateau-East-Brunswick-New-Jersey-USAEster-and-Alex-Park-Chateau-East-Brunswick-New-Jersey-USAEster-and-Alex-Park-Chateau-East-Brunswick-New-Jersey-USA Ester-and-Alex-Park-Chateau-East-Brunswick-New-Jersey-USA
How We Met

Ester, the bride: We met in a funny way. We matched on JSwipe October of 2018 but didn’t meet in person until Christmas Eve 2018 at this event called Matzah Ball.Continue ReadingContinue Reading