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Coming Together in the Face of Coronavirus: #STGvendors Helping #STGbrides

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Mayan and Mola’s micro Jewish wedding in the face of COVID-19 | Photo by Jossef Si

In these uncertain times, one thing we’re finding really comforting is seeing how all strands of the wedding community are coming together to support each other. We see it every single day in our Brides Club, and we’re seeing it in all the new initiatives our wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors have come up with to help couples whose weddings have been affected by the pandemic.

A digital change-of-date design by Liv & Luc

There’s no denying that this is a challenging time, but the outpouring of generosity we’re seeing these days is so heartwarming, and we want to share with you some of the creative ways vendors are working to help couples make the best of this difficult situation.

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Kristin and Bryan‘s ketubah by The Ketubah  | Photo by Perfect Circle Photography

Change the Date

A stunning suite of wedding stationery by E.Y.i. LOVE

If coronavirus has forced you to postpone your wedding, you may as well inform your guests in style. And luckily, a bunch of our wonderful stationers agree – and they want to help!

E.Y.i. LOVE – one of the finest bespoke luxury wedding stationers around – are offering a free digital design service to couples who need to let guests know they’ve been forced to postpone their weddings. If that’s you, get in touch at info@eyilove.com.

How cheery is this floral change of date card from Papier?!

Papier has a wonderful range of change-of-date or postponement cards – whatever your style, whether sleek and modern, whimsical, using a photo from your engagement shoot – they’ve really got all tastes catered for.

Liv & Luc are also providing complimentary digital save-the-date designs. They’ll pop your names and date into one of four gorgeous templates, and you can even mix and match your preferred colors and fonts. If you’d like one, get in touch and they’ll get you set up.

Malka Klein has created a free digital file for couples to download to announce that they’re rescheduling or postponing their weddings, and she’ll even add your names in calligraphy.

Dresses at Your Doorstep

A Berta gown from The Wedding Club | Photo by David Pullum from Salena and Stefan’s wedding 

The Wedding Club, one of London and Birmingham’s very finest bridal boutiques – and a favorite among STG brides -have made a selection of sample sale dresses available for delivery right to your doorstep, available to purchase via email – perfect for any bride finding herself in need of a dress ASAP during this time of self-isolation whether it’s due to manufacturing delays or because you’ve had to move your wedding date up. The range of gowns on offer includes pieces from Pronovias, Berta, and many, many more. For more info and to see the styles and sizes currently available, email appointmentsbham@thewedding-club.co.uk

Take Away, but Make It Gourmet

Adam Nathan’s delectable canapés for Bethany and Gavin‘s wedding | Photo by Voyteck

Adam Nathan Catering – one of our very favorite London-based kosher-style caterers – has risen to the present challenge of, in his own words, “having to create new businesses overnight” by temporarily pivoting from events catering to home delivery. Yes, this London-based kosher-style caterer is now bringing his delectable Middle Eastern-inflected dishes right to your (UK) doorstep – at very reasonable prices. And it’s all kosher-style (so no meat+dairy), using kosher meat. Plus, everything’s freezable, so you can buy in bulk and save for later.

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A Carolina Herrera Bride for an Elegant Argentinian-American Jewish Wedding at the Gramercy Park Hotel, New York City, USA

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Today’s real Jewish wedding is just SO very NYC… which is appropriate, because this week Karen’s taking the Big Apple by storm! All of us at Team STG are VERY excited for her first official STG trip to the greatest city in the world – check out our Instagram Stories for the next few days to see what she’s up to!

But back to the wedding… wonderful STG Brides Club member Julie and groom Guillermo got married at the Gramercy Park Hotel, which is also where they went on their first date! The fact that it’s got killer NYC views didn’t hurt either.

Everything about this wedding was perfectly NYC chic, from the understatedly elegant floral chuppah to the simple, timeless ketubah the couple chose from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor (and East Village local!) The Ketubah to the artsy, creative photography by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Jossef Si (who Julie and Guillermo loved so much they flew him in from Tel Aviv – and no wonder, his style was such a perfect fit for their big day). The pair even brought in quirky entertainment like a tarot card reader and a poet to write personalized haikus for guests!

And in true New York tradition, this wedding was delightfully multicultural, with all kinds of touches incorporating Guillermo’s roots in Argentina, from Argentinian dance music to late night empanadas.

As always, we’re so happy to hear that Brides Club helped make this wedding the smashing success it was – Julie loved our planning resources and vendor recs, and she was able to take advantage of a bunch of amazing discounts offered just to members of the club!

There’s so much more we could say, but we’ll let Julie, who looked stunning in Carolina Herrera, fill you in on the rest…

Jewish weddingGramercy Park Hotel in New York City, USA_0061 Jewish weddingGramercy Park Hotel in New York City, USA_0061 Jewish weddingGramercy Park Hotel in New York City, USA_0061
Venue

Julie, the bride: We got married at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City. We chose this venue because it is where we had our first date! The story goes… I was moving from Boston to NYC, and while on a trip to NYC for work/apartment hunting, I stayed at the Gramercy Park Hotel. We connected through an app the day I arrived in the city and arranged to meet one week later (my last day before returning home). I asked if he could meet me at the hotel bar, since I needed to grab my bags before heading to the train.

Two hours before the date, I got an unexpected job offer in London, which was a city I’d been dreaming of living for 10+ years. I debated with my friends if it was more rude to cancel last minute or to show up and say I was moving to London! Good thing I didn’t cancel 🙂 One year later, we celebrated our engagement with a night at GPH and dinner at the hotel restaurant where we had our first date.

Aside from its significance, we loved the venue because it provided stunning views of New York City and a unique floorplan. Rather than a standard ballroom, the hotel has an outdoor terrace surrounding multiple interior rooms. We did not want to follow the typical wedding structure (skip the long sit down dinner, and let’s get right to the party), and this venue naturally lent itself to something less traditional. Bonus: it is also covered in incredible modern artwork from Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Jean-Michel Basquiat and more.

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A Mira Zwillinger Bride for a Casually Elegant Destination Jewish Wedding at The Lawrence, Old Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Israel

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Jewish wedding at The Lawrence Old Jaffa Tel Aviv Israel_0083
Planning a wedding from 7,000 miles away isn’t easy. But you’d never know it looking at this gorgeous Jewish wedding, which LA-based Rachel and Yonatan planned all the way on the other side of the world in Tel Aviv.

Their secret? Amazing wedding planners. Specifically, Naama and Yael of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Naama Raicher Event Workshop. These two not only set the couple up with some of the best vendors Tel Aviv’s got to offer, they enabled the pair to actualize their vision of a wedding that felt less like a formal event and more like a casually elegant dinner party.

Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor LUZ, who managed both photo and video, did an awesome job capturing the vibe. Rachel and Yonatan say booking LUZ was one of the best wedding planning decisions they made, and we love Rachel’s description of LUZ’s stylish work as “something you would see across the room and think, ‘Wow, that’s a beautiful shot,’ and then as you approach closer ‘wait a minute, is that your wedding?’”

We’re obsessed with the pair’s Rothko-inspired ketubah by Stephanie Caplan of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor The Ketubah, and we love Rachel and Yonatan’s tip for making a destination wedding as painless as possible for your guests: over the months leading up to the big day, they sent a series of custom travel guides covering everything guests needed to know at that point in time, from favorite movies about Israel, to hotels and flight recommendations, to what to expect upon arrival at Israeli immigration, and go-to bars, restaurants and walks about town. Such a great idea!

There’s so much more to say about this stunner of a wedding – from the enchanting venue to the sunset ceremony held on the fly in a public park – but we’ll leave it to Rachel, who looked smashing in her Mira Zwillinger gown (followed by a fun, non-traditional floral party dress from Zimmerman) to tell you about all that…

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How we met

Rachel, the bride: I am in brand development and global marketing for the beauty industry and Yonatan is in finance and real estate. Although we had offices on the same hallway at the original WeWork location in Soho, it took us a few years to finally meet. We would often say “Hi, there” as we would pass each other but we both were so absorbed in our budding start-ups that there wasn’t much more than that.

Sometime later, I moved to a larger office on the other side of the floor and Yonatan finally felt compelled to knock on my door, introduce himself, and congratulate me on growing my team. Again a few months passed and nothing came of it. Then one day he popped up on my Tinder account. I swiped right and we’ve been together ever since. I came to find out later that I was also the first swipe to come up when he first opened his Bumble account. I guess we are just a match made in the social media stars 😉

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Your Ketubah, Your Way: Our Top Ketubot for 2019

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Brooklyn Ketubah | Ink With Intent | From $280 | (10% off for members of Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club)

One of my favourite wedding industry developments since I founded Smashing The Glass is the abundance of beautiful, lovingly crafted ketubahs to suit every style you could possibly imagine. 

It used to be that your rabbi would set you up with a plain, standard ketubah – or if you really wanted to go all out, you might strike out on your own and find something a bit more ornate, maybe a traditional floral border. Even ten years ago, the range of possibilities was truly nothing like it is today. 

Now, there are so many incredible ketubah artists putting their personal stamps on the ancient Jewish marriage contract. Whether you go for contemporary or traditional, whether you’re a minimalist or a maximalist, whether you love bright colours, pastels, or neutrals – there’s a ketubah for you. In fact, there are probably lots of ketubot for you.

And it’s not just design that can be customized to suit your style, either. So many ketubah creators offer a range of text options beyond the traditional, whether you’re looking for something interfaith, same sex, egalitarian, or just a little more modern – or maybe you even want to provide your own text that the two of you have written together! These days, the sky is truly the limit.

I’m privileged to work with some amazing ketubah artists, and I want to draw your attention to some of my very favorite pieces I’ve spotted recently – so here are just a few…

Silver Jewel Ketubah | Danny Azoulay | Price available upon request 

This exquisitely elegant paper cut ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Danny Azoulay is truly a work of art. Like museum quality. It’s a true heirloom, with an incredible level of detail.

Geometric Bouquet Ketubah | Ketubata | From $125

If you’re after something with a more playful look, you couldn’t do better than to check out Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubata. Think gorgeous watercolors, sweet botanicals, and totally modern geometric shapes.

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We’re crazy about Ketubot!

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mashing The Glass Ketubahs
Artisan I by Ruth Mergi I $795 I Available to buy from Ruth Mergi 

Here at Smashing The Glass, we’re totally, insanely, ridiculously crazy about Ketubot! Funnily though, when I got married to Mr STG, I didn’t actually realise there were so many amazingly talented Ketubah artists out there. When our Rabbi asked us if we wanted him to source us a standard Ketubah we just said ‘yes of course’ and didn’t think much of it.

It was only after I started Smashing The Glass that I realised there were SO many beautiful Ketubot available to couples and they literally come in a design that will suit EVERYONE.  From luxe, to paper cut, to art deco, to traditional – there really is something for every taste.  What’s also super amazing is that the Ketubah text can be customised for every wedding whether you’re having an orthodox, reform, inter-faith or LGBTQ. 

We are so thrilled (and lucky) to have some amazingly talented Ketubah designers featured on Smashing The Glass over the years, so we have pulled together some of our favourite designs currently available. Let us know which is your favourite in the comments below and of course happy pinning! 

mashing The Glass Ketubahs
Sasson Papercut Luxe – Indigo Ketubah I By Enya Keshet  I $750 I  Available to buy at Ketubah.com

Super Luxe

We love this beautiful cut-out design. This ketubah features the quotation from the seventh blessing of the marriage appears in Hebrew in the cut-out design, and in English, in coloured print, around the ketubah text and vows of commitment and love. This Luxe Collection Ketubah is hand adorned with 23K gold leaf and Swarovski crystals making it literally shine.  Available at the amazing Ketubah.com


Good Earth Circle Botanical Ketubah I By Adriana Sape I $300 I Available to buy at Ink with Intent 

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