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Home > wedding

Sara & Ben | Gloriously Colourful and Creative Jewish Wedding at Castle Green, Pasadena, California, USA

26/01/2016 by Karen

pasadena-Jewish-wedding
Sara is a true Smashing The Glass bride — she did it her way (to paraphrase old blue eyes). For Sara, this meant a traditional Jewish ceremony with some of her and Ben’s own egalitarian touches added in. It meant a beautiful home-made chuppah, created by her mother, that integrated small pieces of her and Ben’s past, and it meant listening to her instincts when she felt weird, alternate pressure to create something quirky and cool, and needed a middle ground. Ben was great at helping her to acknowledge when she needed to relax and let it go, and he did much of the work, making a lot of small details happen.

The end result is a wedding full of personality, astonishing detail straight from the heart, intimacy and gloriously magnificent colour. What could be be more perfect?
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The gorgeous couple first met in Israel whilst Sara was living there and Ben was visiting on holiday. She was taking classes in Jerusalem, and while Ben was in town he wanted to sit in on a class, since he had attended the same school a few years earlier. One morning in January, Sara walked into her usual class and Ben just happened to be sitting next to her regular seat. They struck up a conversation and ended up being chevruta (study partners), but spent most of their study time chatting and getting to know each other. By the end of that day’s class, they had exchanged emails and after Ben returned to the US they started getting to know each other first on email and Gchat, and then long hours over the phone. Several months later, when Sara arrived back in NYC, Ben was waiting for her at the airport with a bouquet of flowers. That was three and a half years ago…. I’ll now hand over to the lovely Sara to tell the story of her and Ben’s wedding day from June earlier this year.

PASADENA JEWISH WEDDING B
VENUE + LOCATION

Sara, the Bride: We were married in Pasadena, California, which is a city in Los Angeles county. I’m from the Pasadena area, and although I moved to New York City seven years ago, I still feel very connected to Southern California. My family and many of my dear friends still live there.

Ben is from the Bronx, and likewise, feels very connected to his city, NYC.  Since we both live in NYC, and our lives are anchored there now, I really wanted a wedding that would change the centre of gravity a little. California is such a huge part of who I am, and therefore it felt like an authentic place to officially declare our love. In addition, I wanted my family to feel connected and involved. The fact that I live in NYC often means they can’t be involved in the details of my life, and I wanted to change that.

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Cheryl & Ernest | Super-special + meaningful Jewish wedding at The Long Center, Austin, Texas, USA

13/05/2014 by Karen

Jewish wedding at The Long Center Austin Texas USA 20
Sometimes I think we forget that a wedding is about more than just the Bride and Groom. Weddings are also about two families coming together; the start of a new generation — but also about appreciating the older generation who have loved you and supported you through the good and the bad times.

Cheryl and Ernest’s wedding is a real celebration of that. Their chuppah (pictured above — and isn’t it one of the most beautiful you’ve ever clapped eyes on?) is the most meaningful and moving one I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many! It’s a tribute to Cheryl’s mother who tragically passed away just as Cheryl and Ernest were embarking on their wedding planning, and it’s exquisitely made out of Cheryl’s mother’s clothes and other momentous pieces including her grandmother’s wedding dress and a shirt her mum had kept of her grandfather’s after he had died.

How special is that?
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I also have to mention that they dreamed up a brilliant idea for their ‘conversation starter’ escort cards — scroll down to see what I’m talking about — in fact these two made sure that they spoilt their guests with little treats here and there throughout their entire celebration ensuring that everyone had a day to remember.

Enough of me, I’m going to hand over to our gorgeous Bride, Cheryl, and the fabulous images of Daniel C. Photography, and let you lovelies experience this heart-warming, life-affirming, hearty big day for yourselves.
Jewish wedding at The Long Center Austin Texas USA 60 Jewish wedding at The Long Center Austin Texas USA 60 Jewish wedding at The Long Center Austin Texas USA 60

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Michelle & Robin | Beach Party Jewish Wedding in Caesarea, Israel

24/09/2013 by Karen

beach-party-wedding
Today’s lovely couple, Michelle and Robin, met 10 years ago on an FZY Israel summer tour,  so it seemed fitting that they’d return to get married in Israel, and they did it in style. They chose one of the most spectacular beachside venues I’ve ever seen:  Al Hayam in Caesarea, Israel – totally breathtaking stuff, right on the seafront with Roman ruins all around.

From the start the couple knew that their dream wedding would have to be by the beach and hired Israeli wedding planner Nikki Fenton to help them bring their wedding day vision to life. There are lots of lovely creative ideas to glean from this wedding, as well as thoughtful touches for guests like a welcome pack that included sun cream, a  map of Tel Aviv, information on local shops and restaurants and then at the actual wedding, guests were given fans and flip flops, as well as lots of midnight sustenance like hot dogs, sweeties and ice lollies to keep them going all night long!
Jewish Wedding in Caesarea Israel 22
A VENUE BY THE SEA + A PURPLE AND WHITE COLOUR SCHEME
Michelle, the Bride: We chose a venue called Al Hayam  in Caesarea.  We knew we wanted a beach venue and Al Hayam has the added beauty of being surrounded by Roman ruins next to the sea. Within 5 minutes of meeting our amazing wedding planner, Nikki Fenton, she knew exactly which venue we would fall in love with and she was right!

We chose a colour scheme of purple, white and silver – we loved the idea of purple and white flowers everywhere and we ran the colour scheme right from the beginning with the Save The Date cards and Invitations arriving in purple organza bags with shells at the bottom of each bag.
Jewish Wedding in Caesarea Israel A Jewish Wedding in Caesarea Israel 12 Jewish Wedding in Caesarea Israel 13
A PURPLE AND WHITE FLORAL CHUPPAH
Nikki introduced us to an amazing event designer, Natalie Mann  who designed all aspects of our wedding. When it came to the chuppah she gave us options of the different types of flowers we could use. Natalie met us at the venue and took us through hundreds of pictures to inspire us with our chuppah design. We decided on purple and white flowers (lizianthums, roses and gypsofilia) across the top of the chuppah with two smaller arrangements to match on the inside back legs. Flower arrangements were placed on either side of the chuppah and we also had purple flowers on the back of each chair.

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Rachel & David | Garden Party Jewish Wedding at Home in London

03/09/2013 by Karen

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Back garden weddings always look so cosy, warm and welcoming and today’s is no exception. There are so many things that I like about this wedding — the homely setting is perfect and I love all the budget-friendly DIY ideas from the quotes attached to the drinks straws, to the colourful photo booth / guest book idea,  to the pashminas on hand to warm up the guests – so  very thoughtful! Rachel and Davids’ families and friends look like a really lovely, happy group of people, and it’s an overall joy to view this wedding through the eyes of their truly fantastic photographer, Dominique Bader.

Rachel and David met when she was invited to his 30th birthday party by mutual friends. She didn’t know that there was a theme (1980s TV and films) and that he would be dressed up as Tom Cruise from Top Gun in a flight suit. The first thing he asked, after looking at her non-costume, was who she had come dressed as. Twenty minutes later she gave him a delayed response and did an impression of the car voice from Knight Rider. They didn’t stop talking from that moment onwards…
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VENUE AND THEME
Rachel, the Bride: The wedding was at my parents’ house where I grew up. It was funny how Friday evening dinner at my parents also became about going to see the venue! The house has a beautiful garden so we simply went with a garden party theme and picked a colour palette of soft greens, whites and pale pinks. I think it’s good to have a loose colour scheme to help create a cohesive look, but one shouldn’t be too worried about it — guests brings the colour and in our case, my 4 year old nephew Theo decided to wear a Fireman Sam costume in pillar box red!
LONDON JEWISH WEDDING MENU
GARDEN PARTY THEMED INVITATION DESIGN
The invitation design process was the unique part! I was writing about design at the time and have always been fascinated by print. I also thought that the invitation sets the tone of the wedding and searched for a long time for existing garden party themed designs that felt right for us.

I ended up appointing Australian graphic designer Tabitha Bray (who I discovered through a blog) to design a bespoke floral motif and illustrated map. Closer to home, graphic designer Rebecca Leggett created the most beautiful calligraphy for the main invitation and printed the invitation suite in Dorset. Paperless Post might have been an easier route, but we loved the end result.

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18 Unusual and Creative Guest Book Ideas

30/08/2013 by Karen

original-guestbook-ideas
Image: Alively Photography via Style Me Pretty

It’s wonderful to have a wedding day guest book full of congratulatory messages and memories from guests, but how about mixing it up a little with these alternative ideas to the classic traditional book? These ideas will get guests chatting and mingling at the start of your reception so without further ado feast your eyes on these 18 fabulous and unique wedding guest book ideas to get you and your guests inspired, and check out Smashing The Glass on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for more amazing ideas.


1. Give the guest book a digital twist and make it part of your wedding day’s entertainment in its own right. This Digital Surface allows guests to scribble, doodle and create their own personal messages of congratulations and be as imaginative as they like. Best of all, guests contributions can be turned into a book after the event and reproduced for family members and in-laws.


Digital-guest-book
image: maketheirday.co.uk / Sternberg Clarke


2.Instead of a formal guestbook have a ‘postcard washing line’. Guests pick a postcard and write their messages to you on the back, before pegging them to the line.

GUESTBOOK WASH LINE
image: Joseph Hall / rockmywedding.co.uk

3. Have your guests choose a postcard and write a message on the back. Then after your honeymoon display the postcards in an album or frame them on the wall. A lovely idea and keepsake! Choose from lots of different postcard designs here.

alternative wedding guestbook
 image: S6 Photography / rockmywedding.co.uk

4. Have different colour ink pads and an illustration at the ready and  you’ll end up with a beautiful and personal thumbprint work of art.]

Thumbprint balloons as guestbook alternative
 image: bridesmagazine.co.uk 
Thumbprint guestbook alternative
image: lorynloves.com 

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