Yellow Archives - Smashing the Glass

An Adrianna Papell Bride for a Colorful, Intimate Jewish Wedding with a View at Greens Restaurant and Fairmont Heritage Place, San Francisco, USA

04/05/2018 by Emily Sacharin

Happy Fri-yay! Emily here, and as a former Bay Area kid, today’s glorious Jewish wedding tugged at every last one of my heartstrings. From the ceremony at Fairmont Heritage Place at Ghirardelli Square, held on a balcony gazebo overlooking the bay, to the reception at iconic Greens Restaurant, which features yet more beautiful views of the bay – and also happens to be my absolute favorite special occasion restaurant from my California days – Judy and David’s wedding is so quintessentially San Francisco it hurts.

So I might be just a little biased. But even if you’re not a nostalgic ex-San Franciscan, there’s so much to love about this wedding, from the orange and yellow floral color scheme to the whimsical tree-themed ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ink With Intent to the ultra-intimate ceremony, where the couple had their guests stand around them rather than facing them.

Keeping things intimate was key for Judy, an elementary school principal, and David, a software engineer. The pair always knew they wanted a small wedding, with lots of participation from their closest family and friends: Judy’s friends assembled and decorated the chuppah (which the couple found on Craigslist!), family members recited the seven blessings during the ceremony, and they were married by David’s sister, who is rabbi.

Now over to Judy, who looked absolutely radiant in her Adrianna Pappell dress…

How we met

Judy, the bride: We met on Coffee Meets Bagel.

A BHLDN and Mordechai Avraham Bride for a Magical Forest Egalitarian Jewish Wedding at Tzel Hadumim, Neot Kdumim, Israel

24/11/2017 by Karen

We are totally in love with Esther and Yoni’s magical forest wedding venue, Neot Kdumim, which we’ve featured before on STG. Saying “I do” under the stars just sounds too dreamy and romantic – we can’t even!

Beautiful bride, Esther, couldn’t decide between a beautiful BHLDN number and a vintage lace boho gown by Mordechai Avraham – so she chose both! We are very much on board with this decision, and it perfectly tied together their laid-back-meets-formal vibe.

Esther accented the bohemian vibe with natural-look makeup and fresh flowers in her hair, making her the walking centerpiece of the whimsical forest wonderland. Guests were also adorned with flower crowns, which doubled up as favors, making everyone who attended a living part of the décor. Divine!

Surrounded by natural beauty, Esther and Yoni kept things simple, with sweet floral accents adorning the chuppah and a much bigger focus on their egalitarian, highly personalized Jewish ceremony. We love these priorities, and it’s no secret that we’re always huge fans of consciously gender-equal weddings.

Phenomenal photographer, and much-loved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor, Ben Kelmer, captured the story of the day, and was met with absolutely glowing praise by the happy couple and their families. Looking over the stunning spread of images below, it’s easy to see why.

The vibe was also beautifully captured in the spine-tingling wedding video below, provided by Studio Polly.

It’s Esther’s turn to take over the blog to tell us all about her and Yoni’s unbelievably beautiful big day. Take it away, Esther!

Getting married under the stars

Esther, the bride: We got married in Tzel Hadumim; the wedding venue in Neot Kdumim. We wanted a place that was relaxed and fun, but also worked with the more formal direction our families were into, and this place perfectly combined the best of both worlds.

I also really wanted to get married outside and not in a hall. Tzel Hadumim has all the amenities of a hall, but it’s in the middle of a forest, under the stars. We also live in Jerusalem and it was only 40 minutes away, so it was pretty convenient.
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A Meital Zano Bride for a Galilee Summer Camp-Themed Jewish Wedding at Ramot Resort, Israel

04/10/2017 by Karen

We ADORE a laid-back Israeli wedding, particularly when the couple in question consists of two wedding planners and a wedding-planning sibling, combining the cool Israeli attitude with a gorgeous wedding aesthetic!

Arielle and Alon – a fashion-forward couple for sure – looked incredible, from handsome groom Alon’s unique suit to beautiful bride Arielle’s Meital Zano Bridal boho-style lace dress, surrounded by bridesmaids in mismatched florals. We say it a lot on Smashing The Glass, but there’s nothing quite like an Israeli dress designer!

Arielle and Alon did things their way, incorporating their own ideas to create a bespoke Jewish ceremony they felt represented who they are as a couple.

Fabulous photographer Idan Canfi captured the sensational spread of pictures you see below you, and Arielle wrote up all of the details below. We’ll leave you in their capable hands now. Enjoy!

A Galilee venue

Arielle, the bride: We got married in Ramot at a beautiful hotel overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Ramot Nofesh Hotel. We searched far and wide for a location that embodied the summer camp feel that we wanted to emulate, and a place that we could host the majority of our guests for the night.

We purposely chose a location that was a bit far from Tel Aviv, which is where we and our guests mostly live, to basically force our guests to spend the night, creating the destination wedding vibe we wanted.

A Suzanne Neville Bride for a Stunning Midsummer Night’s Dream Jewish Wedding at St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, London, UK

27/09/2017 by Karen

Hands up who wants to see the ULTIMATE London Jewish wedding? Set at an iconic London venue, with some of the city’s finest Jewish wedding vendors, and styled like an absolute dream, Lauren and Mark’s magnificent big day deserves to have praise HEAPED upon it.

Before we get to the gorgeous aesthetic of the wedding, we must acknowledge just how much this brave couple went through before the big day. Losing Mark’s mother shortly after their engagement was a terrible blow, and Lauren and Mark honored her memory in beautiful and moving ways.

Bride Lauren broke her foot, and so her dream of showing off glitzy heels in her stunning Suzanne Neville dipped-hem gown was replaced with a new dream of walking down the aisle in glitzy Converse, with groom Mark surprising her with his own matching pair.

The big day came together like a dream – a Midsummer Night’s Dream, to be exact, with an abundance of flowers, expertly arranged by Tony Marklew, culminating in the ultimate floral arch chuppah. Your eyes will pop out of your head when you see it. This was matched only by the stunning production by Outrage Events.

Of course, a Jewish London wedding was buzzing with incredible Smashing the Glass Recommended Vendors, including much-raved-about kosher catering by Food Story, sensational cinematography by the inimitable Imaginarium Cinematography, who will, incidentally, be joining me for a Facebook live chat tonight at 8pm GMT with… (drum roll) one of my all-time favorite photographers, Blake Ezra Photography, another much-loved insanely talented STG Vendor. Blake is widely known for being one of the UK’s top photographers, and the pictures below really do speak for themselves.

We’ll leave you in Lauren’s capable hands for the full report of the day – we’re sure you’ll be swooning (and Pinning) the whole way through!

How we met

Lauren, the bride: Mark and I actually met in 1991! We attended the same school when I was six and Mark was almost eight. Although he doesn’t remember me, I do remember him. It wasn’t until we were at his dad’s house when his mum had died, and got out all the memorabilia to look at, that we found an old Westwood 1991 school play programme and we were both in it! It brought the happiest of smiles to all of our faces during a very hard time. We have since watched the footage and we were standing yards apart on stage.

We finally came together almost three years ago when I was in Brasserie Zedel with my brother and his future wife. Mark and my brother go back a very long way. As fate would have it, my brother and Mark’s brother have also been best friends from the age of about 12, and even shared a ‘romantic’ trip to Marrakech together a few years ago.

Mark added me on Facebook the next morning, and the rest, as they say, is history. I knew from our first date that he was going to be the one. It was clear from the start that we shared a very special bond, and that even though our paths had tried to cross over 26 years ago that the timing was now right and that we were always destined to meet.
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A Yoav Rich Bride for a Liberal Jewish Wedding at Hamam, Old Jaffa, Israel

25/09/2017 by Karen

Anyone who’s had the good fortune to visit Old Jaffa knows what a spine-tinglingly special place it is. Steeped in history, spirituality and an inexplicable atmosphere, fostered by its ancient stone streets and walls and its stunning views over the sea and Tel Aviv, Old Jaffa is a place like no other. If you haven’t been – go! And if that’s not realistic at this moment in time, never fear. Céline and Oliver’s liberal Jewish wedding day will transport you there.

The happy couple chose to honor their surroundings with their wedding aesthetic and color scheme, in blues and whites with accents of yellow. The cohesive theme was created by wonderful wedding planner Miss Dandelion Events & Design, who not only designed every detail, but brought together a team of formidable vendors to bring everything to life!

Beautiful bride, Céline, absolutely stunned in her perfectly pitched boho-style, custom-made Yoav Rish gown, with her chic yellow bouquet.

All of the joy, laughter and décor details were captured with expert ease by our incredible Recommended vendor, photographer Luz Weddings who we ADORE, and have featured many times on STG before (for reasons that will become very obvious as you scroll through these images.

We’ll pass you on to Céline now for all of the wedding day details. Enjoy!