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Anika & Dan | Jewish / Hindu multi-cultural wedding at the Mandarin Oriental London

25/03/2014 by Karen

Er….. WOW!

That’s pretty much all I said for 5 minutes when Anika and Dan’s Jewish/Hindu (or HinJew) fusion wedding hit my inbox. These two certainly know how to throw a party. And throw a party they did — more specifically a big day that embraced a vibrant union of culture, tradition and romance, all beautifully captured by Aneta Mak.

I’m particularly impressed with the way that Anika and Dan intertwined two religions and both Indian and Jewish heritage into the ceremony. It’s a tricky issue for many interfaith couples but these two did it with authenticity and heaps of style and panache.

I almost don’t know where to begin telling their epic wedding story, but luckily for me Anika, the bride explains it a lot better than I ever could.

Anika, the bride: I think most couples want their wedding to be a true reflection of themselves. Dan and I were no different in this respect, we wanted our wedding to showcase our passion for food and how we love to throw a good party, whilst also reflecting both our Indian and Jewish heritages.
The Mandarin Oriental enabled us to do just this. They were super accommodating on the food front, creating a menu that was non-offensive to Jews and Hindus that was also distinctly fusion, and the ball room is stunning and was the perfect place for us party hard after the day’s festivities. It ticked all our boxes.

Chelm & Jake | Uber cool Jewish Wedding at the Doodle Bar + Testbed1, Battersea, London

06/03/2014 by Karen

I promise that what you’re about to see is truly epic. This folks is how to do a super cool, super fun, superfly wedding.

There are so many things that I love about this W-day that I’d be here until midnight listing them all, but I’ll just mention Los Desterrados playing ‘The Final Countdown‘ in the synagogue; pornstar martinis and chilli martinis as the cocktails of choice in the reception; an after-party stretching until sunrise, a Jenny Packham bride with her Vivienne Westwood groom… and I’ll stop now. You just need to see it.

And as fabulous as this wedding is, some of my favourite elements are the way in which Chelm and Jake personalised their Jewish ceremony — in particular what they did with their Sheva Brachot, and also their spin on the traditional circling of the groom.

They chose the Doodle Bar in Battersea (don’t you think it’s one of the best venue websites you’ve ever seen?) for their reception. It’s housed in an old dairy in Battersea, on the banks of the Thames and the adjoining space, Testbed1, where the party continued, is normally used as an arts venue. It’s an incredible warehouse space that Chelm and Jake and their very creative friends decorated with real pizazz and flair. I’ll let Jake continue with all the details – yes it’s our cooler-than-a polar-bear’s-toenails groom reporting the wedding today! He’s a real character – we need more groom wedding reports!

The photography is phenomenal and it’s by our newest Smashing Supplier and STG favourite, Blake Ezra Photography.

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Jake, the groom: Friends of ours own Doodle Bar in Battersea and I’d visited the place several months previously and thought it was very cool – a bit of East London in Battersea! I asked my friend if there was any chance that it would make a workable wedding venue, and to my delight, he said yes – they’d already done a lot of parties there.

Tali & Mo’s Jewish wedding | Art Deco afternoon tea at The Savoy and an evening soirée in Soho, London

12/02/2014 by Karen

Today’s wedding looks like such a fun filled affair – it’s a twist on the traditional hotel wedding: yes, Tali and Mo chose to have the first part of their wedding at The Savoy, but *no*, there wasn’t a sit-down 3 course dinner, or show band in sight.

Instead (partly due to Tali’s pastry chef background) they went for a splendid afternoon tea theme with everything from flowers arranged on cake stands (genius!) to beautiful home made jam favours, to a splendid art deco theme, sprinkled with some lovely DIY details.

Then, to top it off, for the second part of their wedding, they held an evening soiree at Kettner’s in nearby Soho, complete with props and a rocking dance floor, and celebrated their big day with a larger circle of friends.

So let’s partake in some champagne and a macaron or two and be serenaded to The Savoy followed by a night in Soho. What more could you ask for? Perhaps for the imagery to be by our very own Wedding Smasher, Blake Ezra? Oh yes, I’ve got that for you too… we’re in for a treat!

TWO LONDON VENUES
Tali, the Bride: Our choice of venue came down to a few requirements. First of all we wanted to get married in London. It’s where we met, and we are both great lovers of this beautiful city. We wanted to serve afternoon tea at our reception, and as I am a pastry chef it had to be good so we went with the only London hotel that offered in-house milchik kosher catering — The Savoy. Oh what a hardship! Luckily for us around half of the hotel is Art Deco and as we are massive fans of the Art Deco period it was a no-brainer.

We chose to split the day between two venues, we had the chuppah and afternoon tea at The Savoy, and we then moved on to an evening soiree at Kettner’s in nearby Soho. This allowed us to share our big day with a larger circle of friends.

Stacey & Jono | NYE Fancy Dress Jewish Wedding in a Cinema, West Sussex, UK

31/01/2014 by Karen

There are no words. Truly — there are no words worthy enough to even begin to describe this fantastically creative W-day photographed by the always amazing Martin Beddall. To start with this Jewish wedding is held in an old arthouse cinema (the oldest operating one in the UK) and all the guests are decked out in fancy dress which makes for such an inclusive atmosphere is genuinely special.

The couple organised everything themselves from the other side of the world (New Zealand!) and their attention to detail is astonishing. Jono, the groom, designed the delightful invitations himself, and both he and Stacey created the most beautiful short film that was played during their ceremony, full of images of their past, literally from birth through to the present day. You can watch their very special film lower down the page. Warning: you might tear up!

So without further ado, let’s dive into Martin Beddall’s exquisite photographs, and read all the juicy details in the words of Stacey and Jono themselves.

ORGANISING A NEW YEAR’S EVE WEDDING FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD
Stacey and Jono: We met and fell in love on New Year’s Eve 2007 so that has been such a special time for us. There’s also no better excuse for a party than New Year’s Eve so we decided to throw our big day five years later to the day! We now live in New Zealand but wanted to celebrate the big day in style with our oldest and dearest in the UK.Continue Reading

Emma & Simon | Intimate and Enchanting Garden Jewish Wedding at Home in London

09/01/2014 by Karen

Denis from Denee Motion Boutique Wedding Cinema, one of our Smashing Suppliers, recently contacted me to share one of his favourite wedding films from 2013 and I had to share it with you. It’s an ‘At Home’ wedding, and is full of warmth and lovely intimate creative touches.

As Emma, the bride says, “When it came to the venue for our wedding, we didn’t even look anywhere else but the family home. I knew I wanted my wedding to be a bit different and so being able to have it at home was the perfect way, and made it even more personal.”

“My mum and I spent a lot of time looking for ideas. She is very creative anyway and likes to add her own personal touches to things. We had a shared Pinterest account so we could both save images of things we found that we liked or could use as inspiration.”

“For the tables, rather than having people’s names printed on cards at their places, we wrote everyones names on fresh ivy leaves and placed them on the napkins which were tied with a ribbon which had the wording ‘live, love, laugh’ on. We were going to just use a coloured ribbon that tied into the colour scheme, but when I found the ribbon with the wording on, I felt it really summed up what I thought was important in life and it became a bit of a theme of the wedding as I had it engraved on my husband’s wedding ring and my mum used the wording in her speech.”

“My mum did a lot of the flowers outside of the marquee herself as she has a flower business and she even integrated pictures of myself and my husband growing up into some of the displays.”

“The wedding itself was a traditional Jewish wedding, but it was lovely again to be able to add personal touches into the ceremony by having our brother’s hold the poles of the chuppah, with one of my husband’s brothers actually taking part in the ceremony, as he is a Rabbi.”

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