Real Jewish Weddings Archives - Smashing the Glass

A Martina Liana Bride for a Jewish Wedding with a Fabulous Paper Flower Chuppah at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan

18/09/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

We are totally and completely OBSESSED with the incredible paper flower chuppah featuring in today’s beautiful Jewish wedding. Taylor, a manager of implementation at a software company, and Ross, a manager for sales operations and business development at a finance technology company, wanted to make their big day fun, classy, and a little bit out of the ordinary – and did they ever succeed!

After spotting some chuppahs incorporating giant paper flowers on social media, Taylor knew it was just the thing for her own wedding, and she found the perfect creative partner to pull it off in The Crafty Sagittarius, who brought her vision to life. With giant pink, gold, and taupe paper flowers covering a lucite structure, this chuppah couldn’t possibly be any more delightful. Photographer and videographer Visi Productions captured the chuppah – not to mention the entire day – in all its glory.

We’re also in love with Taylor and Ross’s gorgeous laser cut ketubah, adorned with gold foil and some subtle rhinestones designed by artist Enya Keshet. Like so many STG couples, these two found the ketubah of their dreams via beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com.

There’s much more to say, but we’ll leave it to Taylor – who looked so elegant in Martina Liana– to share all the details…

How we Met

Taylor, the bride: Ross and I met at a Jewish event here in Atlanta, Havinagala. Both of us are originally from up north (Ross from Akron and I’m from Detroit). Ross had moved to Atlanta for work right after college and ended up moving back to Ohio for a few years to work for a new company. They let him move back to Atlanta and we met the same month he moved back!

10 Gorgeous Ways to Cover Your Shoulders Under the Chuppah

30/04/2020 by Karen Cinnamon

Splendid cape cover-up from Ella and Matt’s Jewish Wedding. Image by Barney Walters.

What happens when you’ve bought the dress of your dreams, but later realize that you need some sort of coverup for under the chuppah? Maybe your Rabbi requested that your shoulders remain covered during the ceremony, or perhaps there’s a family member that expects certain traditions to be followed through.

Then again, maybe it’s a personal choice, and while you absolutely ADORE the dress you’ve picked out, covering yourself under the chuppah is something that is important to you personally.

I promise you don’t need to run out and return your dress for a long sleeve option—although a long sleeve dress is a great way to have the best of both worlds

A chuppah covering is not a death sentence for your dress! In fact, there are so many ways to use a cover up to your advantage and add a bit of personal flair and style to your bridal look.

Below are my top ten favorite ways and styles to bring modesty and your personality with you under the chuppah. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!

Sensational illusion sleeves from Natalie and Edward’s Jewish Wedding. Image by Ran Bergman.

1. Illusion Sleeves

Illusion sleeves seem like such an obvious fix, but it’s a classic for a reason. I love how glamourous adding illusion sleeves to your dress can look. It’s such a great idea to make sure that every detail of your dress shines through, while still maintaining a certain modesty. One of our own Smashing the Glass Bride’s looked sexy and gorgeous in TWO Lee Petra Grebenau gowns with stunning illusion embellishments.

Two extraordinary brides for a sumptuous bohemian Jew-ish Wedding at Broger’s End Kangaroo Valley, Australia

10/05/2016 by Karen

Today’s wedding reaches new heights on the wedding spectrum and I am entirely and whole-heartedly in love with every little bit of it. The attention to detail and the amount of creativity is phenomenal. I hardly know what to talk about first because it’s such a total feast for the eyes, but what I love the most is that Lara and Cass’s union remains as the focal point throughout.

On the other side of the lens for a change, Lara is one of the world’s most renowned creative wedding photographers, and indeed I have featured her work on Smashing The Glass several times. She’s a girl after my own heart wearing not one, not two, but THREE wedding gowns, accessorised by a simply astonishing bouquet by Mikarla Bauer + Jardine Botanics — truly one of the best I’ve ever seen.

So much originality permeates Lara and Cass’s day from choosing to get ready and walk down the aisle together, to all sorts of gorgeous DIY like a ‘Guess Who’ game handmade by Cass using their family members, to an idea that I’ve never seen before: a flower crown station for the guests to accessorise with before the ceremony so that when the couple walked down the aisle they saw all their guests with flowers in their hair. Love love LOVE!

Sheree from She Designs Events blended their two very different loves into one creative theme which works brilliantly even though it combines everything from Country & Western to Vintage Romance! I love the idea of not compromising to one theme but rather merging both your loves.

Our two brides come from different religious backgrounds and chose to incorporate Lara’s Jewish culture with some crazy Jewish Dancing that really set the tone for the evening. Lara said:

We had the Jewish dancing before entering the reception and it really loosened everyone up! We were being thrown up and down on chairs and tossed in the air and running around in circles and forming conga lines around the fire pit! It was a definite highlight.”

And there are so many… You truly have to savour every one of Dan O’Day‘s astonishing images to take it all in. Oh, and there is a wonderful film by Light Noise Films at the end which you just must watch. What a total treat!

Planning the wedding ourselves

Lara: I think I completely underestimated how time consuming planning an entire wedding from start to finish can be, never mind running a business at the same time.

Cass was great as she really let me take full control of everything but was always there when I needed her to bounce ideas with and make final decisions or to get things done.

We had spread sheets and documentation for everything — its really quite overwhelming how many things / vendors there are to keep track of and all the little details to organise — but well worth all the effort in the end.

A Carolina Herrera bride for a destination Jewish Wedding in a castle at Castello di Vincigliata, Florence, Italy.

19/04/2016 by Karen

Today’s gorgeous bride first made contact with me back in 2014, when she was looking for supplier recommendations for her destination wedding in Florence. I immediately noticed that her email signature read ‘Head Scientist at playdohlab.tumblr.com‘ and I thought, WOW, I really do have the coolest readers in the universe!

And her wedding does not disappoint. Whilst it isn’t play doh-themed (which I was secretly hoping for!) it’s a delicious destination set in an astonishing castle in Florence, and the crazy thing is, I attended a wedding in the very same venue last summer!

Anna and Chaim enlisted the help of SposiamoVi (one of my much-loved Smashing Suppliers) to plan their big day, and what a great choice they made. Their fabulous wedding included two bridal gowns (a Carolina Herrera and a MaxMara Bridal), lace-adorned Jimmy Choo’s, exquisite Louis Purple tailoring (with some wonderful embroidered personalisation), Chaim’s father officiating the wedding, a brilliant band that included the bride’s uncle, as well as some glorious Tuscan candle favours (Anna says she wanted to create a memory of the wedding through smell), and an unplugged chuppah ceremony — something that I’m a really big fan of. Anna said:

We requested no cameras, smartphones, or iPad use by any of the guest during the chuppah — we wanted everyone to be in the moment. The only people taking pictures and videos were our photographer and videographer.

And what a fabulous pair they were: Edoardo Agresti captured all the stills, and Marco Caputo‘s film is simply a must-see at the end of the post.

A gorgeous couple in fabulous attire having their day their way. Perfect.

An orthodox Jewish wedding in Florence

Anna, the Bride: My parents actually met in Florence and live there part of the year. I also have a large extended family that lives in Europe, so Florence was convenient destination for many guests. For those that would have to travel, I knew that a long weekend in Florence would be the most irresistible magical getaway.

Originally, I wanted to get married in the Great Synagogue of Florence, as it just takes your breath away, but then we saw Castello di Vincigliata, a castle in the Tuscan hills- how could we not pick it? We contemplated having the chuppah in the synagogue and then transporting guests to the castle, but ultimately we thought the schlep to and from would disrupt the atmosphere. Chaim had his Shabbat Chatan at the synagogue so guests that attended were able to experience the beautiful Sephardi service and architecture.

A Mira Zwillinger bride for a super luxe ‘ethereal black tie’ Destination Jewish Wedding in Marbella, Spain

15/03/2016 by Karen

There is so much luxe and personality in today’s delicious destination from Spain I don’t quite know where to begin, but I guess I should start with the Mira Zwillinger wedding dress because it’s quite literally a gown of dreams. A vision of delicate dazzling detail with a generous dose of modern-day princess, and there’s quite a story behind it too — read Emily’s report below to discover exactly what I’m talking about…

And what shoes might one choose to compliment such splendour? Well Swarovski encrusted Miu Miu’s of course, but an additional pair of customised Nike trainers emblazoned with the bride’s new surname are required too, right? And that’s exactly why I adore today’s Jewish wedding. It has it all. The glamour, the pretty, the chic and most definitely the unique.

There are so many things I love about this wedding weekend — from their very special ‘all-white’ Friday night dinner to their beautifully spiritual Jewish wedding ceremony full of emotion, to the wonderfully personalised welcome bags with individual notes for every guest, through to thoughtful touches like ballet slippers on the dance floor for guests to change into. Every decision is quite literally the ultimate in sophisticated elegance topped off with symbolism as well as lots of fun for good measure. See this excerpt from Emily’s report as an example!

Because we got married outdoors, we provided “fancy” portable toilets for everyone just next to the dance floor. Our mum’s surprised us and hung photos of us as babies “using the potty.” The photo of David hung outside the men’s room and mine hung outside the ladies.”

I adore this idea – so creative and fun! Enjoy all the fabulousness and get those pinning fingers ready — you’re in for such a treat with Jeremy Standley‘s breathtaking imagery and the entire event designed and planned to perfection by Caprichia. I’ve also got the wedding film full of heart and emotion for you too. As Aerosmith sang, you won’t want to miss a thing.