USA Archives - Page 26 of 77 - Smashing the Glass

An Essense of Australia Bride for a Jewish Wedding at the Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

07/06/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

There’s nothing like a good museum wedding. And we’re seriously smitten with the Jewish wedding of Melissa, a personal stylist, and Evan, who works for the U.S. government as an outdoor recreation planner and project coordinator. These two held their celebration at Baltimore’s Maryland Historical Society, which is chock full of cool history displays and art galleries – and it made the absolute perfect setting for their black-tie festivities. Have a scroll through the couple’s incredible photos by The Oberports and we bet you’ll agree!

We adore Melissa and Evan’s gorgeous ketubah, created by Nava Shoham of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor 1-800-Ketubah. The couple chose her “Royal Claddagh” design, in honor of their Scottish and Irish ancestry, and we’re in love with the bold, beautiful, colorful ketubah. In the bride’s words, it’s a real statement piece!

Now over to Melissa, who looked radiant in Essense of Australia…

How we Met

Melissa, the bride: We met in college where we were both involved with the marching band. Although, we weren’t in the band at the same time, we attended the same band parties and hit it off there. That was 15 years ago!Continue Reading

A Jewish Micro Wedding with the Most Breathtaking Floral Chuppah at Jacob’s Pillow, Becket, Massachusetts, USA

31/05/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

We see a lot of cool chuppahs around here, but the one Gaby, a life and career coach, and Michael, an investment advisor, dreamed up for their big day at Jacob’s Pillow in the picturesque Berkshires really takes the (wedding) cake. Filled with gorgeous flowers, centered on an otherwise empty stage overlooking the mountains surrounding the venue, it’s really, truly, 100% #chuppahgoals. We’re absolutely obsessed with the dreamy photos by Lauren Foley of 309 Productions, and we’re guessing you will be too.

Gaby and Michael had initially planned a 200-person wedding, but when the pandemic hit they had to scale their day down to just 20 guests. Luckily, the couple had incredible wedding planner Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Tara Consolati on their team to redesign the day to perfectly fit their new, smaller event. Together, they came up with a unique “interactive” ceremony that included participation by 32 guests (including some of the 300 who attended virtually via Zoom)! Friends and family gave musical performances, mini speeches, and blessings, and lit memorial candles. What an incredibly special way to make guests really feel a part of things – especially those who are physically far away!

Another wonderful touch is that Gaby’s step-sister Rachel painted the most gorgeous border on the ketubah they purchased from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com, incorporating lots of personal touches with special meaning to the couple.

There’s so much more we could say about this fab day (did we mention that Gaby found her dress by chance off the rack at Bloomingdales, for 1/10 of the price of the bridal gowns she’d been looking at?), but we’ll leave it to the bride to fill you in on the rest…

How we Met

Gaby, the bride and Michael, the groom: Gaby and Michael met on the dating app, Hinge, in the summer of 2018! After only a few messages back and forth they met for drinks at La Pecora Bianca in Midtown Manhattan. The night was perfect and was filled with many laughs, stories and glasses of wine. Even more fitting, Gaby went to her family home in the Berkshires the weekend afterward, a place that proved incredibly important to our relationship given we lived there for nearly 7 months during the pandemic.Continue Reading

A Pronovias Bride for a Sustainable Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Somerville, Massachusetts, USA

24/05/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Today’s fantastic couple, Alana and Leo, are always up for an adventure – whether that means marking their 10-month dating anniversary by taking part in The Amazing Race or retooling their plans for a three-day summer camp-style wedding extravaganza in the Berkshires to an intimate micro affair in their very own backyard!

And do we ever love the way these two ended up leaning into their homey, sustainable low-pressure celebration. From a gorgeous simple chuppah built by a friend a wedding gift to a ketubah handcrafted by a designer friend featuring hand-pressed wildflowers from the couple’s own garden, this Jewish wedding is just chock full of meaningful touches.

We’re in love with Simi Rabinowitz’s luminous, joy-filled photos of the day. And though only a handful of the couple’s original guest list could attend in person, thanks to the professional live streaming services of Bob Antonelli friends and family around the world were able to take part.

Echoing the sentiments we’ve heard from so many couples who’ve married during the pandemic under circumstances very different than the ones they’d expected, Alana says, “We wouldn’t have done our wedding any other way. It was true to us, and felt like a real celebration of our friends and our neighborhood!”

Over to you, Alana!

How we Met

Alana, the bride: We met on Tinder in January 2018! And then, right after moving in together six months after we met — all our friends thought we were crazy! — we did something even crazier and applied for The Amazing Race on a whim … and we were cast! It was such a whirlwind. We actually started the first leg of The Amazing Race on our ten-month anniversary!

Racing around the world together wasn’t what convinced us we were meant to be (we’d known that probablyyyy since our third date) but it was such an affirming experience. After you’ve done such wild things with someone and been in such high-stress situations, getting married is a no brainer. We got engaged on our one year anniversary at Walden Pond in Massachusetts.Continue Reading

A Helena Kolan Bride for a Tarrytown-Meets-Tel Aviv Jewish Wedding at Sleepy Hollow Country Club, New York, USA

14/05/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Tel Aviv-based couple Maya, who works in marketing, and David, who works in tech as a front end developer, opted to get married in Tarrytown, close to both of their hometowns. But naturally they wanted to bring the epic vibes that come with a good Israeli wedding all the way to New York – and did they ever pull it off!

First off, how elegant is Maya’s dress from Israeli designer Helena Kolan, purchased at her atelier in Tel Aviv?! And we love that Maya and David flew in an Israeli singer to perform their favorite Israeli pop hits and help cultivate that unmistakable Israeli wedding atmosphere. The pair even incorporated some Middle Eastern style foods into their menus for the cocktail hour and dinner!

We’re so in love with Maya and David’s incredible trailer from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Kiss the Bride Films and photos by Amy Sims. We’re obsessed with the way, as Maya says, both teams captured the special “in-between” moments of the day, with so much emotion and love.

Now over to Maya…

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How we Met

Maya, the bride: We met in college through a very close mutual friend, thanks Taco! We were friends for a few months before we started dating.Continue Reading

An Amsale Bride for a Backyard Jewish Micro Wedding in Boynton Beach, Florida, USA

30/04/2021 by Karen Cinnamon

Like so many 2020 couples, Marissa, a physical therapist and reiki master, and Rory, an accountant, ended up with a Jewish wedding very different from the one they’d originally planned. The NYC couple had originally opted for a jam-packed wedding weekend on the beach at a private club in Florida’s Palm Beaches. Everything was just about ready to go for their May 2020 date when the pandemic hit.

Despite all the work and dreams that went into planning their dream wedding, two changes of date later Marissa and Rory ultimately had to make the hard decision to cancel their original celebration and plan a micro wedding for ten in Marissa’s parents’ backyard from scratch. For the most part, the pair had to find new vendors, but two of the ones they’d originally booked were able to make the shift: first, there was Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Nava Shoham, Marissa and Rory’s rock star ketubah designer, who came through with not one, not two, but THREE versions of the couple’s gorgeous ketubah, to account for all of their changes of date. Second was Emily Harris Photography, who’s responsible for the couple’s exquisitely joyous pics.

In Marissa’s words, “The day and night was the most perfect imperfect celebration and ended up being so much more than we imagined. We do hope to get the big party eventually but the night will always be so incredibly memorable.” We’ll let her take it from here…