We love it when a couple plans a Jewish wedding that’s a true reflection of who they are as a couple. So naturally we’re head over heels for the fab festive weekend of  Simone, a nurse, and Etai, who works in finance.

They got married in glorious Tuscany – since their friends and family were spread out all over the world, they figured they might as well have everyone meet up somewhere fantastic, and spread the celebration out over three days to make sure they got in some quality time with all of their guests – no rushing around during the wedding dinner for these two!

We love that they opted to skip the bridal party because it’s just not a tradition that spoke to them, and we’re obsessed with the beautiful, personal ceremony they crafted, writing their own vows,  having seven family members each recite one of the original 7 blessings in Hebrew plus a modern English blessing, and choosing the most beautiful geometric floral ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubata.

Being that this wedding took place in one of the most beautiful places in the world, it’s no wonder that the couple’s trailer from wonderful Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor HD Moments is nothing less than jawdroppingly gorgeous – but it’s all the love and emotion on display that truly makes it unforgettable.

Photographer Roberta Facchini too captured the couple’s happiness – and the evident joy their guests took in celebrating them – wonderfully.

Despite a few mishaps – rain not one, not two, but ALL THREE days of the wedding weekend, friends who couldn’t make it, a guest who partied so hard he broke BOTH of his feet dancing – this was truly a perfect day.

We’ll leave it to Simone, who looked stunning in Berta, to tell you the rest of the story…

 
How we met

Simone, the bride: We met on Bumble – the online dating app. I really wasn’t interested in going on another bad date, but when he told me he was Jewish and Israeli (hello – accent!!) I couldn’t resist. We’ve been together every day since unless one of us is travelling.

A Tuscan Wedding

We got married in Tuscany. In a beautiful small Tuscan town called Poppi. Our venue was Borgo Corsignano. 

The reason we picked Italy – My father is from South Africa, and my mum is from England. My fiance is from Israel. We have so many family and friends that live in these three countries, as well as many from Canada and Australia, as well as the USA.

I am from Minnesota, but I have lived in North Carolina, North Dakota, New York, and Philadelphia, and he went to college in California. Basically – our friends were scattered throughout the US and we had just made a big move from Minnesota to Philadelphia so we thought everyone is going to have to travel somewhere, let’s meet in the middle and get married somewhere fantastic! ITALY!

I was going back and forth between Amalfi coast and Tuscany for our wedding. We picked Borgo Corsignano for a few reasons. 1. It was a little piece of home. Lots of trees, birds, and space to roam around – felt like Minnesota to me. 2. Why we ended up picking Tuscany over Amalfi, we wanted all our guests at one location for 3 days. This was not an option in Amalfi. Plus it was so chaotic with tourists. I wanted our wedding to be intimate. 3. We wanted a gorgeous plan B in case it rained. Thank goodness we did that, because it rained all 3 days!

Blush and Blue

We really never understand picking a theme, or a wedding style. I did quizzes on “what type of bride are you?” “what type of wedding should you have” in the end I just picked things I loved, and it all seemed to fit well together. Colors we did pick, blush and blue with accents of greenery and gold. 

I never met my grandfather (my dad’s dad); he had a heart attack when my dad was 17. My dad’s favorite last memory of my grandfather is playing soccer out in their backyard and their King Protea (South African flower) was in full bloom. I wanted to honor my dad, my grandfather, and my South African roots by having King Protea in my bouquet and chuppah.

Floral Invitations

There were areas where we ended up splurging on our wedding. The videographer and photographer were the two most important parts for our wedding. We also went over budget because we weren’t willing to settle on just any photographer/videographer. Because of this, we had to find ways to cut costs. I also wanted to have more freedom with options and creating my invitations. I ended up finding gorgeous templates on Etsy and personalizing them. They matched our wedding flowers/color scheme. Blush peonies and flowers with gold accents. They were beautiful!!! We also saved quite a bit of money by doing this!

Hair + Makeup

My friend Jen Morgan, who I met in Philadelphia, is a makeup artist (lucky me!). I was lucky enough that she agreed to join me in Italy to do my hair and makeup! My makeup I wanted to look natural. I don’t think I look great with lots of makeup. I wanted my eyes to not be dramatic and only use natural tones. Same thing for my lips too. Something natural.

Hair she curled it in the morning, and we let it set for hours. Then she brushed it out with a flat brush, giving it that 1920’s curl at the ends. It was comfortable, it was beautiful, and most of all, it was me. I feel prettier when I feel natural. 

A Berta Dress

I found my dress at M. Elizabeth in Minneapolis, MN. It’s a Berta dress. It had a low plunging neckline made of lace and continued all the way to the bottom of the dress. The back of the dress had the same lace. 

It’s a funny story how I found my dress. My sister was getting married 8 months before me, and I was going to be there for moral support. She insisted I try on dresses myself just for fun. She went first and didn’t find her dress (she ended up getting hers completely custom made!).

I was next, I told them I want a low back and very long train. I tried on this very beautiful Berta dress with exactly that description. I loved it, but as I continued to look at myself in the mirror, it didn’t feel original. I felt as though every single one of my girlfriends who’s gotten married before me as a very similar dress. Strapless, mermaid, low back, long train. It was gorgeous, but I wanted something more unique. My mum is a very quiet, proper English woman. She isn’t the typical American woman who cries and says “Yes!! That’s the dress!” and has every opinion you can imagine! 

Instead, she politely says, “That’s nice” “Looks pretty” after every dress I put on. However, when I put on the dress I ended up marrying my husband in, my mum said, “Yes! That is gorgeous. It’s the right amount of sexy too!”. And that was that. I felt unique, I felt beautiful, I felt sexy, I felt like a woman. I said yes to the dress!

Accessories

I wore simple pearl earrings that really didn’t have any meaning behind them. They matched my headpiece and bracelet perfectly. My bracelet had a lot of meaning behind it. My grandpa (my mum’s dad) was the closet grandparent to me. I would write letters to him from the day I was able to write. Every couple of months, we would write each other letters (he lived in England). 

My grandad died on Christmas day 2015. It is still hard for me to talk about him without tearing up. I was back in York, England visiting family friends with my mum (that’s where he lived – York). We went into a bridal store and found this beautiful bracelet. It was the first accessory I bought for my dress. I loved it and wanted to wear it to represent my grandad and my English roots. 

The headpiece I wore was gorgeous! I wanted something with a little bling because I knew I wanted to have my hair down and relaxed with loose curls. I didn’t wanted to look like I had just put on a dress and did nothing with my hair, so I found the headpiece at M. Elizabeth (in Minneapolis) to dress up my hairstyle. I did wear a veil, it was beautiful and had lace at the borders. It fit perfectly with my lace on my Berta dress.

Princess Shoes

I wanted to be comfortable but still feel like a princess with the shoes I would pick. I found 2 ½-3 inch stilettos that had a bluish/silver sparkle to them. They were elegant and simple. I loved them! They were very comfortable to wear! Especially when standing under the chuppah!

The handsome groom

My gorgeous husband got his suit from Indochino. It was custom made. It was definitely fun for him to be able to pick every little detail of his suit. He waited for spring to hit before choosing his suit because he wanted a lighter blue suit. He has gorgeous eyes, and it made his eyes so pretty on the day! He wore a light blush tie, and a white pocket square. Simply put, he looked so handsome!

No bridesmaids

No bridal party! We were SO happy we didn’t! We went back and forth between should we or shouldn’t we. My husband is Israeli, and there is no such thing as bridal parties in Israel. So when I suggested it, he came back to me with about 12 guys that would be his groomsman… he clearly didn’t get it. Nor did he like the idea of making some friends feel left out. 

To be honest, I’m so happy we didn’t have a bridal party. The amount of money bridesmaids and groomsman have to spend is insane! Our guests were already travelling to Italy for our wedding. Now they have to spend money on a dress and suit. We didn’t want to have those typical bridal party photos – they seem forced.

We wanted our guests to be able to relax and have fun on our wedding day. Wear whatever made them feel beautiful in, and just have a good time. Plus, as you start to plan your wedding you realize a lot of your decisions aren’t based on what you, the bride and groom, want. It’s what will make your guests the happiest. So, we wanted our ceremony to be truly about Etai and me. However, with that said, we did have both our families walk down the aisle as if they were the bridal party – we wanted our family to stand out from the rest of the guests. Give them a part to make them feel special and loved.

A Floral Chuppah

I searched and searched for the perfect chuppah design! Found one just like it on Pinterest only with different flowers. I wanted something large, a statement piece. I saw it and from there, none of the other chuppahs I saw even came close to its beauty!

A Personalized Ceremony

Because neither of us are really religious and are more culturally Jewish, we put our own spin on the ceremony. We created our own vows, we also created our ring exchange vows. We had 7 family members say the 7 blessings, however, we not only had the original 7 blessings in Hebrew, but we also found 7 beautiful English blessings regarding: love, laughter, building a home, etc. So our 7 family members said both a Hebrew and an English blessing. 

Ketubah

Our ketubah was gorgeous! We had it custom made by Ketubata – we found this company on Etsy. We also had them add at the top of the ketubah “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”. We signed our ketubah as well as having our 2 witnesses (both of our best friends) sign.

Our music choice

For the ceremony we had a cellist and violinist playing our songs we picked. Etai and all our family walked into the ceremony to ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol. The reason I wanted this song, other than the fact that it’s beautiful, is the lyrics, “Those three words, are said too much, but not enough” – my brother pointed those lyrics out to me when I was in college. Telling me how important it is to not just tell anyone you love them, and to save it for someone who truly deserves it. It always stuck with me, and that’s why I picked that song. 

I walked in with my dad to the song ‘This years love’ by David Gray. It’s our song. It was a surprise for my husband, he didn’t know what song I was walking in to, and it was the only song I could think of that would mean something between him and me. 

When we signed the ketubah, they played ‘Falling Slowly’ by Prague Cello Quartet, when we exited the ceremony they played ‘Just The Way You Are’ by Bruno Mars and when we entered into the reception they played ‘Here Comes The Sun’ by the Beatles.

My dad and I danced to ‘My girl’ by the Temptations. It was in the movie ‘Father of the Bride’ with Steve Martin. I watched that with my dad when I was about 7 years old. It’s also one of the only times I have ever seen my dad cry. He was telling me he never wants me to grow up and get married and wants me to stay little forever. That movie has such a soft spot for us both!

Our first dance song was ‘This Years Love’ by David Gray… I was listening to it one night, fell absolutely in love with it, asked Etai if he loved that song, he said yes, and I said, excellent! It’s the song we are dancing to then! Every few weeks, we would turn it on and just start dancing to it in the middle of our living room. <3 We’re romantics. 

Flowers

La Gardenia was our florist. She was lovely! She made all my visions a reality. For my bouquet I wanted peonies and roses that were blush and accents of baby blue with greenery. I wanted the bouquet to be large and not symmetrical, almost like you grabbed a bunch of wild flowers in a field and tied them together! I used long blush and ivory ribbon to tie to bouquet. 

Our table centres we wanted to be simple but romantic. We had different size glass vases with candles and small gold accent vases with candles in the center with greenery and peonies.

Photographer

Our photographer was Roberta Facchini, I found her on Instagram. I loved her work, it was light and airy. She is based in London. When I contacted her regarding her work, she sent me a few weddings she had shot, one of them being at the Borgo Corsignano (our venue). I couldn’t believe when I opened up the album, not only was it the same venue I will be getting married in, but the bride was WEARING THE SAME DRESS I PICKED!!! We are so thankful we picked Roberta! Her candid photos of us and our guests are amazing! She really captured the true feeling of the day from everyone – happiness!

Italian Food

Our caterer was Preludio! The food was absolutely fantastic! Quite a few of our guests told us it was the best wedding food they had ever had!

We had to start: puff pastry, lentils, truffle and potato puree

2nd course: Tortelli with Sage and spinach and butter

3rd course: fillet mignon with roasted potatoes 

We had vegan and vegetarian dishes for those who were in need. 

Our cake was STUNNING! It was a 4 tier Italian cake with fresh fruit! We got sparkles for the cake and they put our flowers around the cake. It was magical!

We also had a 2-hour cocktail hour that had our signature drinks – Hers: Bellini and His: Aperol spritz as well as endless prosecco. Different tables housed an array of foods.. Tuscan corner – meats and cheeses with bread, a fried vegetable corner (an Italian must), puff pastries, bruschetta, among many other mouth watering finger foods!

Entertainment

We had a DJ, and created a playlist for him to play a mix of American and Israeli music. I don’t think either of us ever left the dance floor!

Olive Oil Favors

When you’re getting married in Tuscany, I feel like it’s an obvious choice of what to have as a wedding favor! Olive oil! One of our wedding planners makes his own! He made our wedding favors for us, and then I used Etsy to create tags. 

At the ceremony we had kippahs for our guests and had a sign saying “gentlemen, kippah on your head during the ceremony”.

We had welcome packages for everyone when they entered their room at the venue with “mint to be” mugs with mints filled to the top, custom hand sanitizer, a custom candle, custom m&m’s, wild flower seeds in a packet that said “let love grow”, a handwritten note to each of our guests to thank them for coming, a bottle of wine, and a map of the venue with an itinerary for the 3 days.

8 speeches

We had 8 speeches! Both our fathers spoke. My dad found a letter I wrote to my grandad when I was 13 and read it to our guests. It was quite funny because it was about why I don’t like any of my siblings (who I am very very close with now).

My sister read out emails that I wrote to her when I was 12-16 years old… Hilarious, and cringe worthy I must add. Etai’s brother and sister spoke, and they were both so loving and kind. His sister’s speech is the only one that made me cry! His best friend spoke as well and was so sweet and shows how much Etai means to him!  My brother and best friend spoke, and not only did I feel like it was Simone’s roast special, they also roasted each other. My cheeks hurt so badly, I couldn’t tell if I was laughing anymore. The speeches were so good, I have now paid my videographer to give us all the speeches on video now too. 

Etai and I gave a speech the night before the wedding at the welcome dinner to thank everyone for coming and to tell them how special and loved we felt that they were all here. 

broken feet

Something that wasn’t planned… My best friend (my sister’s boyfriend) was dancing all night with me, and decided to join the Israeli’s in their style of dancing, jumping up and down… He was jumping up and down, up and down, and something didn’t feel right when he landed – fell backwards, however, got up and continued to dance for another 30 minutes to close down the wedding.

We all went to bed and woke up the next day and both of his feet were swollen and black and blue. My father took him to the hospital in Italy, and turns out he broke BOTH of his feet! He cancelled the remaining part of the trip and flew home to make sure he didn’t need surgery.

4 weeks since the wedding, and he is still in boots, unable to get around the house, basically wheelchair bound, and living with me and Etai (because we have an elevator in our condo). So since our wedding we have adopted a very large child who needs to be pushed everywhere. Very sad! Must have been a really good wedding, and it’s funny to say, he literally danced until both his feet broke!!

Italian Honeymoon

Since we were already in Italy for our wedding we decided to make our honeymoon easy and we drove down to Amalfi Coast and stayed in Positano. We stayed at the beautiful hotel, Palazzo Murat! When things got serious between us we talked about getting married, having kids, and where we would want to go for our honeymoon. Originally, we both wanted to go to the Maldives! It was just too much travelling. Plus, Positano is breathtakingly beautiful! 

I never use a travel agent! I am my own travel agent! We travel all over the world and I am the one who researches where to go, where to stay, what to do, where to eat, etc. So my advice to couples looking for the perfect honeymoon. Figure out what type of holiday you both want. Relax by the pool? Hike? Water vs mountains? Exotic? Do you love animals? Do you like art and museums? Do you want to be around lots of people or feel like you’re the only two in the world? Once you figure out what type of honeymoon you want, research places that have this. Lock down a location and take it one step at a time.

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

We were told that it would definitely be sunny at the end of May in Italy, and even if it did rain, it would rain just for a little bit, and then the sun will shine. Well, it non stop rained for 2 days – the welcome dinner and the wedding day.

We initially thought maybe we would need to use one of our Plan B options, but we ended up having to use our Plan B options for all three days. Going into the wedding week, my husband and I were visibly upset about it. I cried the first night we were at dinner in Italy. All my visions of our wedding felt like they were being torn away from me. My husband tried to remind me that we picked a venue that had beautiful plan B options. We did, and I knew that, but it didn’t take away the pain from realizing that all 3 days we would have to use our plan B options.

Advice on bad weather 

Long story short, advice to future brides: If it rains, it rains, it is what it is. You can’t change the weather, but you can change how you react. The morning of the wedding, I was happy. Happy that all my family were surrounding me and getting excited about the wedding. The day was perfect.

Would I have liked for it not to rain? Of course! Do I think it could have been even better had it not rain? Sure. But it doesn’t change the fact that the wedding was still perfect, and the best day of my life! The photos look amazing because we don’t have any bad lighting, so that’s a huge bonus. No one was uncomfortable and hot at the ceremony. It even stopped raining for the ceremony and cocktail hour and the sun came out for a few minutes, and we got some beautiful photos before it started to down pour again! My famous motto I have always lived by (and sometimes have to remind myself to live by): “You just gotta go with the flow.”

Advice on friends disappointing you

Etai was very fortunate, 4 of his very best friends were right by his side on his wedding day. I was so happy for him! My best guy friend was there, and I can’t imagine my wedding day without him! (He’s the one that broke his feet).

However, my best girlfriends? The girls that I was in their wedding, the weddings that I wouldn’t miss for the world, the ones that I have been best friends with for 26 years, over 10 years…were not by my side. Not a single one of my best girlfriends was at my wedding. Friends might disappoint you.

How to heal and handle this situation. Tell your friends how they have made you feel. Never stop being the amazing friend you are, but maybe redirect what friendships you are putting all your energy into. Realize you have an amazing husband that would 100% be by your side if the roles were reversed and be grateful for having a husband who loves and supports you!

Lastly, your wedding is going to be amazing – You have your future husband, and family. That’s all you need. You are so busy, and you spend so much time that day with your husband that everything else is a blur. Planning this wedding has taught me, that my husband is an incredible partner, and I am so lucky to have found him, and that my family will always be there for me. Family is everything!

First Look

We did it alone with just our photographer and videographer. My sisters wanted to come along for the ride. Absolutely not! I wanted this moment to be just me and Etai. I am SO thankful we had this moment to ourselves, and we are the only ones who can share this beautiful memory. Side note, it was the best moment of the day for me.

Shorter engagement

 If I could do it all over again, I would have a shorter engagement. We had a 17-month engagement. One year would have been perfect. You end up spending too much time planning a wedding, and by the time it gets here, you are sick to death of talking and thinking about your wedding. Everything will get done in a shorter engagement and it forces you to make decisions quicker. 

Longer wedding

For us a 3-day destination was exactly what we needed for our wedding. The main reason I loved having 3 days, you actually got to catch up with all your guests. The best part, we both got to enjoy our food, because we never had to get up and talk to our guests at dinner, we had already spent so much time talking to them prior to the wedding dinner! I can’t imagine planning a wedding and all that time and energy going into just ONE day!

Stress 

Let it go, what will be will be. You have spent so much time, money, and energy planning for this one day! Things will come up, and you just “gotta go with the flow”. Nothing you can do about it, so just sit back and enjoy the ride. Find the humor out of things that don’t go completely right. You don’t want to think back to this day, and wish you hadn’t been so worried about the weather, or gotten upset that the wrong song was played, or that the flower arrangements were wrong. 

Simone & Etai’s little white book

Photography – Roberta Facchini
Videography – HD Moments
Ketubah – Ketubata {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Wedding planner – Tuscan Tours and Weddings
Venue – Borgo Corsignano
Bride’s dress – Berta found and fitted at M. Elizabeth
Groom’s attire – Indochino
Flowers – La Gardenia
Catering – Preludio
DJ – Wedding Music & Light

The post A Berta Bride for a Personal Jewish Wedding at Borgo Corsignano, Poppi, Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

We’re pretty sure this is a first for STG: an interfaith Jewish wedding that took place in the crater of an extinct volcano! Yes, really.

Though you’d never know it from the photos of Panama’s lush paradise of El Valle de Anton, where lucky bride Ida, a college counselor at a Jewish high school in Panama, has a country home in her family. She and Joey, a photographer and videographer, couldn’t have found a better spot for their dreamy modern country wedding. We’re positively drooling over the gorgeous photos by Mauricio Arias from Chrisman Studios and  Alvaro Chingand the wonderful trailer by Visu Films.

Despite having 600 (!) guests at their wedding, they managed to keep the feel intimate by keeping things personal with touches like personalized vows the bride and groom read to each other (both of which happened to begin by talking about food – our kind of couple!) and having their miniature dachshund walk down the aisle.

We’ll let the bride, who looked lovely in  Patricia Avendano, fill you in on the rest.

 

How we met

Ida, the bride: We met in a geology class at Florida State University (they have a branch here in Panama). And our love story began like any other… with chocolate chip cookies! As usual, like with any other man (including the skinny ones like him) the way to his heart was through his belly. I brought cookies to class one day and offered them to everyone in the class and the rest is history!

Before we started dating we became friends, good friends, at least that’s what I thought. But friendship quickly turned into something more and in February 2011 we started dating, even though we knew I was leaving for college in the USA in August of that same year. We did long distance for 3 years, have been dating for 7, and now we’ll be together forever because we are getting married!

A Wedding in the Country

Our ceremony and reception were both at Criadero del Leon, my family’s country house which is located in El Valle de Anton, Cocle. El Valle de Anton is a small town located in the crater of an extinct volcano. It’s a 2-hour drive from Panama City, and it is a popular getaway for people who live in the city. The weather is usually cool ranging between 22C – 18C, in our opinion perfect for an outdoor wedding.

We always dreamed of having a “different” wedding, at a place where nobody had ever gotten married before. Also, we wanted it to be personal, because even though we were planning on a pretty big wedding (600 guests) we wanted it to be as intimate as possible. El Valle has always been part of my life as I have been going there on weekends since I was born with my family. It also became special for us as a couple because we have made it a habit to go at least once a month on weekends.

Fairy Tale Wedding

We didn’t have a specific theme in mind, however, I wanted something modern, but with country style, given the location. I think what it ended up being was a fairy tale, or at least what my perfect fairy tale wedding would look like.

In terms of color scheme, I always dreamed of having light colored decoration, whites, and pastels with a lot of green. I love hydrangeas, therefore, we incorporated them into the decoration as well as in our invitations. We did have a wedding planner who doubles as a decorator, and it would have been impossible to do it without him. His name is Rolando Domingo, and he has been planning our family events since my Bat-Mitzvah!

What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us

I found Smashing the Glass on Instragram and fell in love with your posts. I love how you are inclusive of all types of Jewish weddings. Now I read the blog from time to time and love reading about the different love stories and weddings.

Hydrangea Invitations

I wanted something simple and elegant, but special for our invitation. We went with a very simple design in letterpress in dusty blue. As a detail, we added embossed hydrangeas to two corners on the invitation. The invitation was designed by Tarjeteria Persa.

Hair + Makeup

At first I thought I wanted to get married with my hair in a bun, because it’s what you’re supposed to do… But then, I went to try it out and decided that I definitely didn’t want to get married with my hair that way. That day I decided I felt more myself with my hair down, and that is what I wanted to look like on my wedding day.

After the ceremony, my hairdresser put my hair up in a messy bun so I could dance all night long and not worry about being hot! I am so happy I was able to get married with my hair loose, and then pick it up for the party. It was the best decision! Carlos “Tino” Silva, has been doing my hair and makeup since my Bat Mitzvah, therefore I would have nobody else do it for my wedding day.

A Patricia Avendano Dress

I bought my dress at Gaudi Novias here in Panama. It’s the best bridal shop! My dress was designed by Patricia Avendano, a Spanish designer. I tried on many dresses at the shop, but none completely convinced me until I tried one of Patricia’s designs and started crying. However, the sad part was, it didn’t fit and it also had several details that I was not exactly excited about. Because I got so excited about the dress they spoke to the designer and had her make something custom for me. As soon as it arrived in Panama I knew it was “the one”. It was exactly what I dreamed it would be and more!

Something Borrowed

I wore very simple jewelry that day. Just earrings and a tennis bracelet. The tennis bracelet is my mom’s, and the earrings were my great grandmother’s. Of course, I wore my perfect engagement ring which is from Mercurio Joyeros.

My headpiece was from Always and Forever. I wanted something sparkly but that wasn’t too much. I found the perfect one there. Judy, the owner is the best! I always dreamed of wearing a veil for my wedding, but I didn’t want the veil to overshadow or cover my dress’s long train. I went for a simple but voluminous veil that was at the length of my hips. I had the veil custom made at Bodas Gladys.

Teal Manolos

I knew I wanted colored shoes, be it blue or red or anything but white! I searched for a long time and ended up getting teal Manolo Blahnik heals. The same one Carrie from Sex and City wore, but in teal.

Of course, I was not going to dance all night in those shoes, so I changed into super funky and cool sneaker heals from the brand Grezzo. I would 100% recommend any bride to buy these, they were SO comfy and I danced with them from 7pm until 2am, when I finally could not take it anymore and switched to flip flops!

The handsome groom

Joey wore a beautiful blue suit. It was perfect for the occasion. He has always said that he is more of a bow tie kind of guy, however, he had never in his life worn a bow tie, until our wedding. We picked an Hermes bow tie, and to make it a little playful it was blue with ladybugs.

Bridesmaids in Red

They were dressed in red, as I wanted them to contrast and stand out from the decoration which was very light. I wanted them to be comfortable with their dresses so I gave them the fabric and told them they could design their dress however they liked. I think they all looked fabulous. The groomsmen wore guayaberas and khakhi pants, they looked very handsome!

An Open Chuppah

Rolando, our wedding planner, showed me an initial design, which was nice, but that wasn’t what I had in mind because it covered the green backdrop and sunset that I wanted. I asked him for something more open and that was it. Five days before the wedding when they started to put everything together they showed me how it would look like and it was perfect, exactly what I dreamed it would be.

An Interfaith Ceremony

Given that we had an interfaith wedding, I think it was already special. I don’t know anybody who has gotten married in an interfaith ceremony in Panama yet! Besides this I think what was most special about our ceremony was the fact that we both wrote and read our vows. I found it particularly funny that we both started out vows by talking about food, I think this says a lot about us, lol! Reading our vows was definitely our favorite part of the ceremony.

Our music choice

Joey walked with his parents down the aisle to ‘Good Life’ by One Republic.

Bridesmaids, groomsmen and the cute kids that also walked down the aisle had ‘Sweet Disposition’ by The Temper Trap.

I walked down the aisle to ‘Maestro’ by Hans Zimmer.

For recessional we had ‘Do You Believe In Magic’ by The Lovin’ Spoonful.

We entered the party with our bridesmaids and groomsmen to the beat of ‘You Make My Dreams’ by Hall and Oats.

Our first dance was ‘Many I Have This Dance’ by Francis and the Lights.

Finally, in Panama it’s tradition to dance the waltz after the first dance with family members. Instead of playing the waltz we decided to dance to ‘The Way You Look Tonight’ by Frank Sinatra.

Truenos y Relampagos was in charge of music and entertainment for the night.

Flowers

It was beautiful, and all designed by our wedding planner and decorator Rolando Domingo.

On my bouquet, I had a picture of my father, who wasn’t able to be there in person, but I know he was there in spirit. He passed away when I was 17. I had my mother walk me down the aisle.

Photographer

Toughest and easiest decision at the same time. Joey is a photographer and videographer, therefore you know he would be VERY picky about who would document the most important day of our lives. We decided on Mauricio Arias from Chrisman Studios to be our photographer, and we were so happy with the results.

Joey had met him a couple of years ago in Medellin, where he attended a workshop that Mauricio was teaching. To help him, we had Joey’s friend Alvaro Ching also photographing the wedding. He is the best photographer in Panama, no doubt about it! We are so so so happy with our wedding pictures; they are more than perfect! Exactly what we wanted, and MORE!

Videography

For video we had Visu Films, which is owned by Joey’s friend Sebastian. They were able to capture the love and happiness we all felt that day.

Dulce de Leche Cake!

When the time came I immediately went to my friend Maria Alejandra, the owner of Carmelitas, a boutique bakery in Panama as I knew she would help me create the cake I dreamt of. We decided on a simple white cake with white flowers and small details such as leaves in gold. The flavor was chocolate with dulce de leche filling, delicious!

My overall catering was done by the one and only Charlie Collins. Best catering in Panama! Food and desserts were all exquisite.

Entertainment

Before the ceremony and after the ceremony (right before the party began) we had an amazing Jazz band called C3 Project. For the party we had Truenos y Relampagos DJ’ing throughout the night. We also had a surprise musical guest. His name is Mr Saik, a famous reggeaton singer from Panama. Our guests were so excited when he began to sing, it was insane!

Goodie bags

We didn’t have party favors per se, but for our guests that travelled from other countries we had goodie bags waiting for them at their hotel rooms. Those included snacks, water bottles, a map of El Valle, and suggestions of what to do around town. The bag was printed with our wedding crest, and served as a favour for those guests who made the long trip to Panama!

I made special cups for the bridal party and immediate family. I wanted them to feel special throughout the night and I thought that was a cute way of letting them know that they were a big part of our big day.

I made robes for the bridesmaids and handcuffs for the groomsmen.

We had flip flops for our women guests who wanted to continue partying even when their feet couldn’t take the heels any longer.

Dog Down the Aisle

Our dog, Maggie, walked down the aisle! She is a four-year-old miniature dachshund, and she is our daughter. Her leash and collar were made by hand by Rolando our wedding planner. She looked SO cute! Maggie isn’t very well behaved so we had to have someone walk her down the aisle. At first, my nephew Rafael walked her, but halfway down the aisle, my 1-and-a-half-year-old niece Ivanka decided she wanted to take her, so she took her from Rafael, and continued to walk alone with Maggie!

Hora Loca

At 10pm we had the “hora loca” aka crazy hour, where the guests were given cute hats and props to party with. The animal hats were a complete success, all of the guests loved them so much, they took them with them. Some guests have even sent me pictures of their kids wearing the hats!

My grandmother

I had a little corner in the dessert area dedicated to my grandmother. She is currently 93 and was a baker before. I baked her famous prune cake and we served it at the wedding. There was a picture of her next to it. She was really excited to see it. I thought it was a great idea to honor her, and her legacy.

Backup Honeymoon

Not everything could be perfect… We were supposed to go to New Zealand for our honeymoon, however… when we arrived at Los Angeles for our layover and tried to check in for our next flight to Auckland, they told us we weren’t going to be able to board because we didn’t have a visa. We didn’t know we needed one, and the travel agency didn’t tell us!

However, we had to figure something out, and thankfully we ended up going to Argentina, where we had a great time. We visited Iguazu Falls, Patagonia, and Buenos Aires. Our favorite part was Patagonia for sure, but the rest was also great!

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

The best advice I can give is to not worry about the things that didn’t go as planned. The only ones who know that they are not going the way you planned is you! Guests have no idea if the flowers were supposed to be a lighter shade, or that your bouquet was supposed to be red roses. For all anyone knows, things are going exactly as planned! My wedding day went by SO fast, I can’t even explain how it was gone in a minute. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s because it’s true: ENJOY EVERY SECOND!

Ida & Joey’s little white book

Photography – Chrisman Studios and Alvaro Ching
Videography – Visu Films
Wedding planner – Rolando Domingo
Bride’s dress – Patricia Avendano found and fitted at Gaudi Novias
Bride’s shoes – Manolo Blahnik and Grezzo
Bride’s accessories – Mercurio Joyeros, Bodas Gladys and Always and Forever
Groom’s attire – Hermes
Hair + Makeup – Carlos “Tino” Silva
Band – C3 Project
DJ – Truenos y Relampagos
Catering – Charlie Collins
Cake – Carmelitas
Stationery – Tarjeteria Persa

The post A Patricia Avendano Bride for a Modern Country Interfaith Jewish Wedding in Criadero del Leon, El Valle de Anton, Cocle, Panama appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

Okay, so today’s interfaith Jewish wedding just might have one of the most stunning locations we’ve seen yet, in the breathtaking Canadian Rockies. It also happens to be the wedding of our beautiful Brides Club member Rebekkah to Jakob, so we’re extra obsessed – and so in love with the incredibly artistic images from Abbey Raine Photography, which totally look like they belong in a glossy magazine.

These two truly had one of the most gorgeous ceremonies we’ve seen, and while the majestic mountain backdrop obviously had more than a little to do with that, the couple’s simple birch chuppah adorned with white flowers, beautiful papercut ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ketubah.com, and inclusion of sweet personal touches – like making sure their beloved dogs were present for the chuppah – really made the day.

Rebekkah, who looked stunning in Galia Lahav, also offered the great tip that when things are held up for whatever reason, use that time to take extra photos!

Take it away, Rebekkah!

 
How we met

Rebekkah, the bride: We met through a mutual friend and Tinder simultaneously. We had our first date walking our dogs along the river and have been inseparable ever since, and that was four years ago.

Venue

Our wedding location was Kananaskis Country Provincial Park, and our reception was at the Pomeroy Delta Kananaskis Hotel. We picked this location because my husband’s main wedding request was a July wedding in the mountains. Finding a July wedding location in the mountains happened to be a difficult feat. Most locations I originally had in mind in, places like Banff, Canmore and some ski resorts, had stunning venues with the silliest shut down times like 11 o’clock or 12:30. Which in my humble opinion is ridiculous, also I wanted a few specifications about the reception location.

In Canada especially near the mountains you cannot bank on an outside wedding because the weather is so unpredictable; you need to have an inside/covered back up available. Then I wanted to have a room with a nearby washroom and patio/smoking area. I always find at weddings (specifically in Canada) that the people get split up between the bar, the dance floor, the washroom, and the smoking area.

After driving a few hundred kilometers around our glorious Rocky Mountains and feeling completely defeated… my MOH/BFF/SIL Willow remembered the Pomeroy Kananaskis, a lovely mountain hotel nestled in a secluded valley an hour from where we live. The Pomeroy had everything we wanted and more; a gorgeous outdoor ceremony location, dog friendly, a lovely reception room with a massive attached patio, great food, and they were willing to let us party till 12:30 then move our group to a pub nearby where we could keep dancing for as long as we wanted.

Theme

I made our wedding about me and Jakob by very simply doing exactly what we wanted to do. I wanted a dark theme for our wedding: my goal was Addams Family chic; so dark colors but not full gothic. Elegant darkness. Me and my BFF/MOH/SIL were my wedding planners, I did hire a wedding decorator/coordinator.

What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us

Having discovered Smashing the Glass when I did 100% made my wedding planning so much easier and honestly more fun! Brides Club is a great group to be apart of. Having the support and unbiased opinion of other brides, and Karen plus team was incredibly helpful in my planning journey.

I wish I had discovered Smashing the Glass back in 2015 when I was MOH at my brother and his wife’s wedding! We were googling and going to our JCC library trying to ace all the Jewish wedding traditions on our own, growing up not so religious and then trying to plan the first Jewish family wedding of our generation was very stressful. It was comforting to me to be able to chat with other ladies and get knowledge from the ones that know more about our traditions. And at the same time see other Jewish brides also not know the same things I didn’t know.

Invitation

Our invitations were simple – double sided, one side a collage of me Jakob and our dogs. On the other side a silly bit about how our parents and our dogs are inviting you to come to our big day. They were cute I loved them, but I printed wayyyyy too damn much I ordered 130 for our 155 guests and have at least 80 left over that I need to find a way to re-use.

Hair + Makeup

On your wedding day, the way you look is so incredibly crucial to how you’re going to feel and how confident you’re going to be. I took choosing my glam squad very seriously. Only pick a glam squad that will make your trial a priority! I chose a very talented hairdresser who also happened to be a friend of mine from high school. She did my hair in our other friend’s wedding where I was a bridesmaid. Her work spoke for itself, I booked her to do my bridal hair that day (almost a full year before my wedding).
Courtney Dendy would send me snaps of the hair style I chose while she would practise the vintage curls I wanted. I loved my hair on the day!

Sarah Stokes was recommended to me via my photographer. She offered to do my makeup trial for my boudoir shoot (yes, I did! It was super fun I left the shoot feeling so confident, and my hubby was stoked when I gave him the pictures the morning of our wedding day). Sarah was great! Very professional, she even arranged bring a second makeup artist Jessica Mercury with her on my wedding day to get bridesmaids makeup done efficiently. These ladies were lovely upbeat and quick, we were super on schedule for getting ready, and all the girls were happy with their hair and makeup.

Dress

My dress is a Galia Lahav, the Gia dress. It’s a sheer strapless champagne ball gown with a pleated silk tulle skirt, white beaded and crystal floral embroidery on the corset down the waist. My dress is stunning, it was the first dress I tried on and my mom and Willow instantly cried, I tried on a few more but the “one” was obvious. I honestly really liked it but my selling factor was my mom and Willow, I trusted their opinion and it wasn’t till a year later when we flew back to Israel, and I tried it on again that I was like .yesses thank gosh I got this dress!”.

I wore my mother’s Tiffany diamond tennis necklace and a Galia Lahav veil. I kept my hair and jewelry simple: small crystal hoop earrings, no bracelets. My mom had lent her necklace to both my sister in laws on their wedding day to my brothers. I thought she should wear it for once, but she insisted that it was exactly what my look needed, and she was very correct. Mothers know best… and Jewish mothers never let you forget that.

Shoes

I knew from the get-go when I was looking for a dress that I wanted a dress that would hide my feet so I could rock Chuck Taylors. I’m average tall, 5 foot 8, I decided it would be a treat to be comfy at on my big day and it would be a nice treat to have my girls be my height or taller. The shoes I ended up wearing, (again shout out) Willow bought for me as a surprise. They arrived just in time for my fitting and they are amazing! She ordered them off Etsy from The Queen Of Bling.

They are Converse All-Star Blank Canvas Chucks, that The Queen of Bling bejewels so sweetly. They’re finished off with white ribbon laces, and my husbands last name Strasser embroidered on the back. 

The handsome groom

My husband wore navy suit pants, with navy suspenders and vest. He wore a white shirt, black dress shoes, and no tie… he insisted. His looked excellent!

Bridesmaids

I had seven bridesmaids. They all wore mismatched jumpsuits, their outfits all looked great.

Chuppah

Choosing our chuppah involved a simple chat with me showing Jakob some pictures and us both having similar taste. We decided on birch trees, with white and dark flowers and a black striped tallit on the top. My father-in-law and step mother-in-law googled ‘chuppah traditions’ and got excited to build it for us. 

Ceremony

I think our dogs were really the only individualized thing we planned in our ceremony. Jakob and I are obsessed with our dogs so naturally they had to be there.

My favorite part of my ceremony was Jakob. I planned our wedding day so well and things still went wrong, our rabbi missed entire parts of our ceremony, his parents missed the ketubah signing, my parents were an hour late for the ketubah signing, and all the other silly things that went completely wrong. I was so happy to just be up there with my beloved.

The balagan is here to stay probably but at least I get him next to me to roll our eyes together at our insane families. (TIP when things aren’t going as planned or other people are holding you up just use that time on the fly to take more pictures, some of my best wedding pics were taken when we were waiting).

Ketubah

I got my ketubah from Ketubah.com. It’s a lace papercut by Enya Keshet. We chose it because I loved the incorporation of the 15th century Lisbon ketubah cut out. The white cut out looks divine on the moon glass background we selected. Shout out STG for the awesome discount!

Our music choice

The songs played at our wedding were:

Jakob’s mother picked the song he and his parents walked to which was Van Morrison ‘These Are The Days’.
The bridal party danced down together to ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.
Me and my parents walked to an instrumental version of ‘Yerushalym Shel Zahav’, is a very special song a) because it’s beautiful and I had to acknowledge my first love Israel, and b) it was one of my bubby’s favorite songs. And after the glass broke Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Big Love’ started.

Our first dance was ‘I Can’t Tell You Why By’ the Eagles. We chose this song because we felt it portrayed our relationship well, not flawless but just crazy in love and drawn to each other.

My father and daughter dance was to Alan Jackson Daddy ‘Let Me Drive’. This song is deeply significant to me and my family, because my parents raised us on a farm and my father used to own a trucking company, and as a family we spent countless hours driving. Me and my brothers’ most treasured memories with our dad was all the times growing up he would let us drive his truck, or a big truck, a tractor, his boat – anything my dad taught us how to drive everything; dirt bikes, speed boats, fishing boats, even heavy equipment.

Even though most of the song is about a boy and his father I relate to it. I was the only girl in our family and my dad always treated me the same as my brothers, I’ll always be grateful to him for that. Also, my dad taught me how to two-step (country dance) so we rocked our dance it was awesome! Last year my father was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease, so the past year has been a very painful, stressful, and emotional time for our family. My dance with my father meant a lot to me and my father and may other loved ones in the room.

 
Flowers

For our flowers I simply picked all the white flowers I liked, and anemones because they were one of few black flowers I could get my hands on.

Photography

My photographer was a very easy choice for me because I picked a very talented photographer who also happens to be a dear friend of mine. Danielle Anderson of Abbey Raine is not only my lady love, she is also an incredibly ambitious and passionate professional. Danielle has taken my engagement pictures, and done a boudoir shoot for me. I am so obsessed with every picture this girl takes, her love for what she does shines through in every picture she snaps.

Food

Our venue did our catering, we picked a basic yet delicious meal and had midnight snacks. Our cake was from a lovely local lady, she made us a beautiful three tiered semi naked dark chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream icing and dulce de leche filling, with gold flakes, blueberries, blackberries, and a dark chocolate drip down the sides. We loved our cake so much for future events I am 100% using Pam at Black and White Bakeshop. 

Entertainment

We had a DJ service do our entertainment for the evening we hired the same DJ that DJed my bat mitzvah, that we didn’t realize till after I booked them. I ended up getting a double mitzvah discount, haha. My DJs were fantastic, our dance floor was hopping all night. We also had the pleasure of having a couple of our talented friends perform a couple songs for us, Our dear friend James played electric guitar along with our first dance song and then him and my bridesmaid Sarah did a cover of Etta James song ‘At Last’. 

Honeymoon

My husband and I are going on our honeymoon in December to Mexico! Because our dear friends are getting married there and we chose to make that our honeymoon.

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

My advice for future brides is really make sure you slow down and enjoy the day. Somewhere after our ceremony ended right up till after dinner I got crazy nauseous and was struggling to breathe so bad that I sat at our head table with a fake smile trying not to vomit. In retrospect I think the residual anxiety of the day from waiting on family that was late or had messed up my extremely well-planned timeline hit me all at once.

I had my husband loosen the zipper on my dress so I could breath, I danced my first dance and my father daughter dance with my dress opened slightly so I wouldn’t faint… gotta love corsets! I realize now I should have taken some more time to breathe between my ceremony and reception and been more selfish on the day instead of caring so much about my guests’ enjoyment.

My other piece of advice is bring a second outfit to change into even if your goal is to wear your dress all night. I had brought 3 outfits for my wedding one for the rehearsal, my Galia, and a white sun dress for the next day. Thank goodness I was too lazy and stressed the night before to get dolled up, because when 11:30 rolled around on the night of I had to get outta my stunning yet suffocating dress!

In fact, you might not realize how painful beading can be till you’ve been in the dress moving around for several hours. After our ceremony I had to put band-aids all around my titties because my bodice was rubbing me raw! Thank goodness my makeup artist was beyond prepared. As the saying goes pain is beauty, but its always good to have an out. I changed into white palazzo pants and a white lacy crop top and a leather jacket, and I was sooo happy to have something soft and sexy to dance the night away in!!

My wedding day as a type A was stressful because my family was all over the place late and just confused (even though I typed up detailed schedules and went over the schedules with everyone individually, most of them were still late and confused.) There wasn’t much I could do to mitigate that, so I just rolled with it. Take any extra waiting time to take more pictures and do what you must do to keep yourself happy and hydrated!

Rebekkah & Jakob’s little white book

Photography – Abbey Raine Photography
Videography – Red Finch Studios
Ketubah – Ketubah.com {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – The Pomeroy Kananaskis Mountain Lodge
Bride’s dress and veil – Galia Lahav
Bride’s shoes – Converse personalised by The Queen Of Bling
Hair + Makeup – Courtney Dendy, Sarah Stokes and Jessica Mercury
Cake –  Black and White Bakeshop
Invitations – Emerson and Clarke Printing

The post A Galia Lahav Bride for an Interfaith Jewish Wedding at the Pomeroy Delta Kananaskis Hotel, Alberta, Canada appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

We love seeing couples find unique, personal ways to merge their backgrounds in their interfaith Jewish weddings – and did Gabby, a doctor, and Jason, an aircraft engineer, ever pull it off! These two had the most delightful Jewish-Scottish destination wedding in Israel, with the perfect combination of the bride’s Jewish and Israeli identity and the Edinburgh-born groom’s Scottish heritage.

With a hora AND a bagpiper, a groom in a kilt, plentiful use of tartan (we’re obsessed with the tartan kippot!), and a meaningful personalized ceremony combining Jewish and Scottish traditions (officiated by Chen BenBrit Shapira, who the couple found right here on STG), this wedding is pure Scottish-Jewish perfection.

Gabby and Jason’s photographer, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Ori Carmi, captured all the emotion and the special details of the day so perfectly – and also made the couple feel completely at ease on camera, plus delivered super quick turnaround after the big day!

Now over to the bride, who looked fantastic in Sassi Holford…

  
How we met

Gabby, the bride: We met in my favourite pub by the River Thames in Barnes on a beautiful March evening just as the sun was setting over the river, and the rest is history.

 
A Tel Aviv Wedding

We got married in May 2019 at Bayit Al Hayam in Jaffa. We decided to get married in Israel as I am half Israeli, I spent a lot of my childhood in Tel Aviv and love the city. Jason had already fallen in love with Israel and Tel Aviv after four previous visits, and he proposed in Tel Aviv which made it the perfect meaningful place for us. We also knew we wanted to have an outdoor wedding with high likelihood of sunshine, and it was a fantastic excuse for us to finally bring all our friends over from the UK to experience this amazing country!

  
A Scottish-Jewish wedding

Our theme was a “Scottish-Jewish” wedding as Jason is from Edinburgh, Scotland, and wanted to show the Jewish crowd something new (as well as introducing the Scots to something most had never seen before). We really made the whole theme about ‘us’ by ensuring it was a massive party without too much predictability!

Our colour scheme was green and tartan, so the bridesmaids wore long forest green dresses and the groomsmen wore kilts with green ties. We had five little page boys (my four nephews and Jason’s cousin) who wore green tartan shorts and a flower girl who wore a white dress with a green tartan sash. The florist used tartan ribbon for the flowers on the roof and we had tartan Kippot made by David Kippot. We had green and white fans made for the women, designed by my brother in law Carmel Cohen, and produced by The Event List.

What ‘Smashing The Glass’ did for us

We found Chen, our officiator, on Smashing the Glass, and without him the day wouldn’t have been what it was. As much as we loved the party, we will never forget the amazing ceremony he gave us. Our friends and family still talk about how unique and refreshing it was to this day.

We also loved reading about all the other interfaith weddings, particularly some of the other Scottish weddings which gave us some of our inspiration for the day. We had already decided on Ori Carmi as our photographer but then to read the wonderful comments and see some of his photos on Smashing the Glass made us even more confident in our decision.

Invitations

The invitations were produced by my cousin Laura Graham, the founder of GG Print. We chose the design with her and then Carmel designed the personalised map which she combined into an amazing invitation. We also used the map design for our welcome tote bags which we filled with some useful info and goodies and then handed out on the Friday night to out of towners.

Hair + Makeup

I had my hair done by Yochai Elmakies. He isn’t very active on social media but is a brilliant hairdresser and you can find him on Kikar Hamedina, Tel Aviv. I was very torn about whether to go hair up or down as I always wear my hair down but was worried about it looking a mess after dancing…In the end I went for half up, half down which I was really pleased with, despite it being hard to keep tidy in the evening wind!

I had my makeup done by Maya Oppeneim and she was fantastic! I went to Israel a few months before the wedding to meet her and must say the makeup trial was a really enjoyable part of wedding planning. We got on so well and I knew Maya had understood the look I was hoping for within minutes.

Along with my family and bridesmaids I wanted natural looking makeup, and she did this perfectly as well as being so calming and relaxed on the day.

A Sassi Holford Dress

My dress came from a shop in Teddington, London called The Dress. The designer is Sassi Holford and the dress is called Amelia. I tried on lots of lovely dresses in different shops but when I got to The Dress I knew I was going to end up buying my dress from them. The owner, Emily, offered such a personal experience and was very helpful and patient with my indecisiveness!

I loved this dress as soon as I put it on; not only did it make me feel like a princess, but it was so comfortable, and I knew I’d be able to dance in it for hours and hours.

 
Accessories

I had a long veil by The Couture Veil, a Sassi Holford company. I enjoyed wearing it for the photos and a few minutes of the ceremony before the wind blew it off me mid ceremony!

In terms of jewellery, I love everything by Monica Vinader so Jason gave me matching rose gold diamond earrings and a necklace as a wedding gift for the day.

Shoes

I knew I wanted shoes that would look elegant with my dress whilst still being comfortable. I searched in London for months but struggled to find anything I liked. I ended up going shopping with my mum in Paris whilst I was there for a family Bat Mitzva in April and found exactly what I wanted in a shop called Parallele. They were off white with a subtle shimmer and made from a very soft lambskin leather with a small 3 inch heal. I did eventually have to take them off and switch to the flip flops we were handing out to the guests, but I blame the intensity of the Hora rather than the shoes!

The handsome groom

Jason looked very handsome in his Sutherland Tartan Kilt matched with a navy waistcoat and jacket. His Sporran was a gift from his stepfather and has a silver thistle design on the top. The Sgian Dhu (Pronounced: ski-an du) he had in his sock was a gift from his mother and similarly had a silver thistle on the handle. He wore his own red tie to stand out from the groomsmen and when I saw him standing there the first thing I noticed was his huge smile!

An Interfaith Ceremony

We had a personalised and modern style wedding ceremony. Jason really wanted to have a Jewish ceremony and we were so pleased when we came across Chen BenBrit Shapira. He had only ever officiated one interfaith wedding before but after hearing our story, he said he’d love to be involved. He encouraged and embraced all the personal touches as well as the Scottish traditions we discussed during our FaceTime sessions over the year leading up to the wedding. When we finally got to meet him in person for a beer a few days before the wedding it felt like we’d known each other for years!

We combined our traditions by using the kiddush cup my grandparents received for their 25th wedding anniversary for the betrothal blessing, alongside a Quaich (a Scottish love cup) which was given to us by Jason’s best man John, and later used for the Sheva Brachot.

My favourite part of the ceremony was when Jason met me half way up the aisle. All my nerves disappeared when he took my hand and we walked to the chuppah together. His favourite part was exchanging rings as that, from his reading about Jewish ceremonies, is the moment that we were married in the eyes of Judaism. We both really enjoyed the smashing of the glass as our DJ immediately played ‘Levels’ by Avicii which then marked the beginning of the party.  

Chuppah

We chose a solid chuppah and left our florist, Vlada Trugman to design it for us. All we asked was that it followed the theme of green and white and that it was simple. On the day it looked absolutely stunning.

Ketubah

We chose the text for our ketubah and Chen then designed it for us. Rather than signing it beforehand behind hidden doors, we decided to incorporate it into the ceremony. Whilst we signed it along with our witnesses, we had an Israeli bagpiper playing and dressed in full highland gear, which was really magical.

Our music choice

For the procession, Jason walked down the aisle to Bruno Mars ‘Marry You’ and I walked down the aisle to an acoustic version of ‘Can’t Help Fallin’ In Love With You’ by Hayley Reinhart. When Jason smashed the glass, ‘Levels’ by Avicii started playing which felt so surreal as our friends and family ran up to the chuppah to congratulate us.

For our first dance our DJ combined an acoustic version of Sigala’s ‘Came Here For Love’ with the well-known dance version so we had about 40 seconds of slow dance before everyone joined us on the dance floor for the dance version.

Flowers

Our florist was Vlada Trugman and she really was fantastic. We told her we wanted white and green to continue our theme, low flowers on the tables so people could interact easily, and then left the rest to her. Both the tables and the roof top looked incredible, and the chuppah was exactly what we had imagined.

Photographer

Our photographer was Ori Carmi and we couldn’t have been happier with our decision. He photographed my cousin’s wedding in Tel Aviv last year where Jason had a chat with him and immediately knew we should use him for our wedding!

He was so easy to talk to from day one and made us feel completely at ease behind the camera. He captured the whole day perfectly and was so quick to send us all the photos. He and his assistant photographer were incredible.

Food

Mazal Talle were the caterers, provided to us by the venue. All the food was delicious and plentiful. We were so busy talking to friends and family and dancing that we didn’t get to try much of it on the day but thankfully we got to sample everything at the food tasting a few months before. Also, many people complemented us on the reception food served on the roof as well as the quality and quantity of all the food we had during dinner!

We decided not to have a cake after we realised how much food there was going to be and how many delicious deserts were on offer. We did however have veal hot dogs for the after party which were a big hit to soak up all the rum and Jager!

Entertainment

We decided we wanted a band for our wedding in order to have some live musicians but also wanted to make sure we had a great DJ. The main aim was that we wanted a massive party and to keep everyone on the dance floor with us into the early hours. We had DJ Shai with his live on DJ band Party Toura until midnight and then DJ Jeremy who kept the party going until 4am (Jeremy works with Shai and is also fantastic!).

Shai also surprised us with a live singer for the hora dancing which we weren’t expecting, and what an amazing experience it was to be in the centre of the ‘action’. A lot of Jason’s Scottish friends and family as well as my friends and family from all over the world got stuck in and really made the hora for us both. Jason’s top tip for the hora as a man wearing a kilt is to wear underwear!!

As an additional Scottish touch, we had Alon the bagpiper playing as everyone arrived on the roof before the ceremony.

Honeymoon

We looked at a map of the world to narrow our choices down to the Galapagos, Argentina, Australia and a safari/beach combo. We wanted to plan something that we would not have done for a regular holiday. We did some research and eventually decided on a three-week trip to the Galapagos Islands and Peru, mainly because we are both nature lovers and saw this as a perfect opportunity to have an adventure. We are going in November so will let you know how it goes!

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Make sure you stand back and soak everything in from time to time and take mental photographs. I spent most of the night on the dance floor but occasionally just stood back and watched – not only had I just married the man of my dreams, but I could barely believe all the people that had come all the way to Israel for us, and how much fun everyone was having. It felt very surreal! If you can, make sure you have a videographer, as every time we watch back our video, we see new faces and details we missed on the night.

Gabby & Jason’s little white book

Photography – Ori Carmi {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – Adam Shimshi
Venue – Bayit Al Hayam
Bride’s dress – Sassi Holford found and fitted at The Dress
Bride’s shoes – Parallele
Bride’s accessories – The Couture Veil and Monica Vinader
Makeup – Maya Oppeneim
Flowers – Vlada Trugman
DJ Band – Party Toura
Catering – Mazal Talle
Kippot – David Kippot
Fans – The Event List
Officiant – Chen BenBrit Shapira
Invitation – GG Print

The post A Sassi Holford Bride for a Scottish-Jewish Wedding at Bait al Hayam, Tel Aviv, Israel appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

There’s nothing like a Tuscan Jewish wedding. And we’re totally obsessed with the incredible nuptials of London-based couple Chloe, who works in PR, and Danny, who’s in property.

The couple’s incredible planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Elegante by Michelle J, helped them bring the day of their dreams to life – not the easiest feat when planning from abroad! Michelle set them up with many of their fantastic vendors – like photographer David Bastianoni and videographer Waterfall Visuals– and suggested their picturesque venue, Villa di Maiano.

With grounds straight out of a Renaissance painting and epic views of Florence, this is a venue that doesn’t need much help to shine. But even so, Michelle knocked it out of the ballpark with her incredible chuppah setup – and the table décor’s pretty fantastic too.

There’s so much more to say about this gorgeous wedding, but we’ll leave the rest to the bride – who could not have looked more elegant in her Galia Lahav gown, which she worked with beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Browns Bride to customize…

How we met

Chloe, the bride: We met at Glastonbury for the first time about 5 years ago but we only started dating 2 years ago.

An Italian Wedding

Danny and I went to the Amalfi coast for a holiday in the summer just after we got engaged and we knew instantly that Italy was the destination of choice for our wedding.

We got married at Villa di Maiano in Florence, Italy. Michelle of Elegante by Michelle J, our wedding planner suggested a few venue options for us to choose from and I knew as soon as she sent across a link to Villa di Maiano it would be ‘the one’. It’s absolutely breathtaking. As soon as we walked into the venue I cried, it was that special.

The pictures don’t even do it justice. The views are incredible overlooking the beautiful city of Florence.

What we love about this venue is that there are so many different areas you can choose from to host your ceremony, reception, dinner and party.

We utilised the whole villa from the tisch in one of the main dining rooms, carriage drive away for our ceremony, main gardens for the dinner and reception and limonia (cave) for the after party!

An Amazing Planner

We had a wedding planner called Michelle (Elegante by Michelle J) who was absolutely incredible to work with. She provided us with so much support and made our wedding ideas come to life.

We wanted our wedding to be a big party and that’s exactly what we achieved.

Invitation

We designed our wedding invitation with the help from Love Print. They created our unique logo which we then replicated on all other aspects of the wedding from the thank you cards, menus, reserve signs.

Hair + Makeup

Luckily my friend who is a very talented makeup artist did my makeup. I found some gorgeous inspiration from Instagram with quite a strong statement look. Rose gold eyes and bronzed skin, however on me it just didn’t look right. I don’t wear a lot of makeup so to change my look completely on my wedding day didn’t feel right. So on the day of my wedding I said to the makeup artist I want to look glowing and natural and that’s exactly what we did and I loved it. She spent about 20 minutes massaging my face to give me a natural glow before applying lightweight dewy makeup on top and it lasted all night.

Hair – again I kept it so classic and simple. I went for really loose waves and that’s it!

A Galia Lahav Dress

My dress was from Browns Bride by the designer Galia Lahav. It was a custom-made sheer lace strapless mermaid gown. I added a skirt to give it a bit more drama as I had always dreamt of walking down the aisle with a long train! I loved this dress because I felt comfortable in it, it felt bridal and I loved the 3D flowers and embellishment which made it look so special.

I tried on so many different styles of dresses but because I’m petite at 5ft 1 I wanted a dress that was elongating.

Accessories

I had the matching Galia Lahav veil but no accessories or jewellery, the dress speaks for itself.

Miu Miu Shoes

I wanted a pair of shoes I felt comfortable in. There’s nothing worse than wearing heels that kill you after 5 mins. I wanted to last in my shoes all night and that’s exactly what I did. I wore Miu Miu silver block heels and they were so comfortable and the great thing is I can wear them again with so many other outfits.

The handsome groom

Danny had a custom made suit by Massimo Dutti and shoes from Russell & Bromley.

Maids to Measure

I had 7 bridesmaids and they all wore dresses from Maids To Measure. They were so perfect and looked great on all different body shapes. I went for dove grey to tie in with the colour theme and added a diamante belt to make it a little more special.

 
Chuppah

We decided to have our chuppah ceremony in the car park which was originally used as a carriage drive way. We transformed the space from what is a car park into our ceremony of dreams.

I love foliage and greenery and found inspiration from Instagram and Pinterest. I wanted something wow and that’s exactly what we achieved.

Ceremony

I am very lucky enough to have had 3 of my grandparents in Italy who all walked down the aisle and stood under the chuppah. I would never have had a wedding abroad if I knew they wouldn’t be there. They all renewed their passports after not being away for over 25 years and travelled for us.

We did a public badeken down the isle which was so special as that’s the first time Danny and I wanted to see each other.

Photographer and videographer

Our wedding planner suggested David Bastianoni and Waterfall Visuals. We met them both on our first trip to Italy and loved their style of work. They are both so personable and made us feel so special. They both captured some incredible pictures and video footage. We wanted all our shots to be reportage and natural, nothing too posed and that’s exactly what we achieved.

Food

Delizia Ricevimenti – we went proper Italian style wedding food with parmigiana to start, truffle pasta first course and fish for main with a millefoglie for dessert. It was the most delicious food!

Entertainment

We flew out the amazing band Club Live – they really know how to get the party started and really understood us as a couple and what we wanted. We had a classic RnB and hip hop set which was incredible and then we had a dinner set where all our guests were standing around a piano, all singing at the top of our lungs. We then had Club Lives DJ set in the cave which was also amazing.

Marble place names

We had personalised marble place names which can then be used as coasters which were made by my dad! My dad’s a stonemason so he was able to source the marble and create them in his factory. It really was a lovely personal touch and everyone loved them.

Speech

Danny’s bestmen speech… well let’s just say it didn’t go down too well with our parents friends but our friends found it hysterical.

Honeymoon

We went to a gorgeous medieval village in Tuscany called Il Borro for 5 days after the wedding which was just what we needed. It was so relaxing and luxurious. We chilled round the pool, had massages, ate amazing Italian food and of course drank lots of Aperol spritz!

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

I knew that every part of our wedding was going to be amazing. I had 100% trust in our wedding planner. What I stressed so much about was the weather! Something that was completely out of my control… you can’t control nature and that’s what I had to keep reminding myself and whatever happens on the day will still be the best day of our lives. Luckily for us it didn’t rain but my one price of advice is try to switch off from things you cannot control and enjoy the build up and wedding day.

Danny and I took ourselves to the back of the venue and ate our wedding cake (which was absolutely delicious) whilst we watched all our guests party on the dance floor. That was a real special moment.

Chloe & Danny’s little white book

Photography – David Bastianoni
Videography – Waterfall Visuals
Wedding planner – Elegante by Michelle J {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Bride’s dress and veil – Galia Lahav found and fitted at Browns Bride {offers a free veil worth £250 to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Kippot – Hebrewear {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Villa di Maiano
Bride’s shoes – Miu Miu
Groom’s attire – Massimo Dutti and Russell & Bromley
Bridesmaids – Maids To Measure
Hair + Makeup – Giulia Cresci and Jo Lorrimer
Flowers – Il giardino delle fate
Band – Club Live
Production – Alma Project
Catering – Delizia Ricevimenti
Fireworks – Pirotecnica Soldi
Stationery – Love Print
Calligraphy – Laura Mazzetti
Honeymoon – Il Borro

The post A Galia Lahav Bride for a Jewish Wedding at Villa di Maiano, Florence, Tuscany, Italy appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

How we met

Venue

Theme

 
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club’ Did For Us

Invitation

 
Dress

Accessories

Shoes

Hair + Makeup

The handsome groom

Bridesmaids

Chuppah

Ceremony

Our music choice

Food and cake

Entertainment

Favours 

A Wedding That Feels Us

 

One of the most special parts of our wedding day, which isn’t traditional, but was very us was waking up together and exchanging cards we’d written to each other. We’d each gotten the other a small gift (even though we agreed on not giving gifts!) and then spent the morning having breakfast with both our families and giving them meaningful cards and gifts as well before we all went our separate ways to prepare for the wedding. Those private moments set the day off to a great start and the love continued all day long. 

 

Honeymoon

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Samantha & Jeff’s little white book

The post A WToo by Watters Bride for a DIY Jewish Wedding at Newhall Mansion, Piru, California, USA appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

We were sold on this DIY Jewish wedding on a budget from the moment we read in the brides writeup, “We wanted the wedding to be about the community coming together.” Because isn’t that really what it’s all about?

Super crafty couple Federica and Nathan did nearly everything either themselves or with the help of family and friends – from building their own birch chuppah (from fallen trees on the groom’s family’s property!) to creating their own playlists to setting up on the day. Nathan’s mother grew and picked the flowers, and designed Federica’s bridal bouquet. Even the photographer, Mandelette, just happened to be the groom’s cousin!

And Federica did her own hair and makeup, baked her own wedding cake, AND designed and illustrated the invitations, on the day stationery, and ketubah – talk about a triple threat!

It’s really touching to hear how this wedding brought the couple’s friends and family together – with the bridal party, the families, and the couple themselves all pitching in to help with setup the morning of the wedding. But we’ll let the bride, who looked stunning in her Davidʼs Bridal dress, tell you about that…

 
How we met

Federica, the bride: We met in 2013 attending Ulpan in Israel. The first time I saw him he had just gotten off his Aliyah flight and still had his suitcase with him. We went from the small Kibbutz where we met to living in Tel Aviv, from Tel Aviv to northern Italy and now Rome.

 
A Backyard Wedding

We got married in Nathanʼs parentsʼ backyard in Door County, Wisconsin. He lived there from age 5 to age 18. We chose to do it there because we have never lived in the same country as his parents since we started dating. We met in Israel, we live in Rome, Italy (where I grew up and where my parents live). We wanted to honor his family and his roots by having the wedding where he grew up.

DIY 

We did not use a wedding planner. The “theme” (if we can call it that) was DIY, and being on a farm it ended up looking rustic. We did not have a precise color scheme, it was mostly dictated by the flowers on the property. We wanted the wedding to be about the community coming together, not about spending a ridiculous amount of money. The most important thing for us was to be able to look at our wedding and say “we made this”, and share that pride and happiness with our friends and family who made it happen with us.

What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us

As a recent convert Smashing The Glass was so useful when it came to deciding how to incorporate our faith in our wedding. I also loved the “outdoor” and “DIY” weddings sections, I got a lot of inspiration from there.

Stationery

I designed and illustrated the signs and the seating chart, my mother wrote in her beautiful handwriting each guestʼs name on their escort cards. I designed and illustrated the cake toppers that were then printed on wood.

Unfortunately we do not have professional photos of the invitations but I designed them and illustrated them myself.

Hair + Makeup

DIY hair and makeup and I could not be happier. I took two private makeup classes and decided what I liked and what I did not like for my wedding day. I was sick of being told I “needed” fake eyelashes or dark and thick eyebrows. I usually wear no makeup whatsoever, I wanted to look like myself on my wedding. I kept it as simple and natural as I could. I think my final look fits perfectly with the vibe we were going for.

A David’s Bridal Dress

My dress was a Davidʼs Bridal allover lace strapless a-line wedding dress (style WG3805) in ivory. It was my bridesmaidʼs pick that I initially didnʼt even want to try on. I was not sure I liked lace. I was so wrong.

Accessories

As a bride I think less is more, so I picked an extremely simple drop veil, simple golden earrings my mother gave me and a dainty golden star of David pendant I bought in Tel Aviv and wear every day.

Shoes

Have I mentioned how I think less is more? My shoes were simple satin ballet flats I found on Amazon. I tried dozen of shoes before falling in love with them. I wanted something I could be comfortable in during the ceremony and something that wouldnʼt sink into the grass as I walked down the aisle.

Regardless of how much I loved my shoes I took them off 10 minutes into the ceremony, you can see my bare feet in almost every wedding photo after that point (including my first dance).

The handsome groom

Nathanʼs suit was a present from my father, they picked it out together in Rome. His bow tie was my late grandfatherʼs, and his cufflinks were his late grandfatherʼs. The dates engraved on the cufflinks are his grandparentsʼ first date and wedding date.

Bridesmaids

I had four bridesmaids: my cousin, my sister in law, my two best friends. They picked their own dress styles in lilac and steel blue. I wanted the dresses to be long and airy to tie into the summer wedding vibe.

Chuppah

We wanted to build it ourselves, we picked the fabric together and went out to the woods on their property to make the posts out of fallen birch trees.

Ceremony

Nathanʼs father officiated our wedding. He usually officiates interfaith weddings, but even though we are both Conservative we couldnʼt have imagined anyone else officiating. It made the whole ceremony much more special. I designed our ketubah myself in the same style as our invitations.

Our music choice

My bestie and bridesmaid played a medley of ‘What a Wonderful World’ and ‘Canʼt Help Falling in Love’ during the processional. Our first dance was to an Italian song (I am from Italy) ‘Sotto le Stelle del Jazz’ by Paolo Conte. During the reception I played and sang our song ‘Temptation of Adam’ by Josh Ritter.

Flowers

Nathanʼs mother picked the flowers for the wedding and grew them herself on the property. The arrangements included flowers in various shades of purple and yellow with some white here and there. My cousin and maid of honor helped with the arrangements and Nathanʼs mother designed the bouquet.

Photographer 

Nathanʼs cousin Rachel is an extremely talented wedding photographer in the Chicago area, we could not have imagined going with anyone else for our wedding day. She was able to read my mind and deliver what we hoped for and more. Her style was perfect for the mood we were trying to create.

Food

We hired a local caterer for some of the food, some we provided ourselves with the help of Nathanʼs aunt. I made the wedding cake(s) from scratch and decorated them with the help of a friend. I have always been a baking enthusiast, but back when I decided to make my own wedding cake I had never even taken a class. It took me a year of trials, research and classes to come up with my own recipe and design. Three separate genoise sponge cakes filled with Italian pastry cream and a different berry for each cake, covered in whipped cream.

Entertainment

I have been to several weddings where the DJ messed up so I chose to go with my own playlists. They were very carefully crafted with the help of my husband,  and my bridesmaids. One was a mix of Italian and English love songs to use as background music during the meal, the other was for dancing.

Favours

We chose to go with an old Italian traditions and gave out small bags of Italian confetti (sugared almonds).

A family and friends effort

My favorite wedding story is how at 8am (ceremony started at 10.30) I was in my pyjamas helping the groomsmen wipe the tables and carrying boxes of plates and silverware. We were so worried about how much time it would take to get everything ready, but so many people came over to help that we were done in under one hour. The bridal party, our dads and siblings, our friends who showed up early to help, everyone was carrying something or cleaning something. It really showed us how amazing and supportive the people in our lives are.

Speeches

Five of our friends spoke, one of them made me sob with the most beautiful speech about Nathanʼs kindness even through the hardest times.

Honeymoon

We are going over winter break, we are not sure where yet and should probably decide soon.

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Nothing will go according to plan and that is the beauty of it. Breathe, relax, look at your husband and hug your friends a whole lot. DIY weddings are hard and stressful, but so much worth it when you can look around and say “we made this.” Surround yourself with positive people, ignore those who bring negativity. Donʼt feel pressured to spend a lot of money on things you “must have” but think long and hard about what matters to you as a couple.

Federica & Nathan’s little white book

Photography – Mandelette
Bride’s dress and bridesmaids – Davidʼs Bridal
Bride’s shoes – Amazon
Bride’s veil – Anza Bridal
Groomʼs attire – Boggi Milano
Catering – Pink Bakery 
Stationery – The Almond Art
Chairs – Vintage Farmhouse Tables
Tent – Shore to Shore Rental

The post A David’s Bride for a Rustic DIY Backyard Jewish Wedding on a Budget in Door County, Wisconsin, USA appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

We’ll be taking a little break from posting over the holidays. We’ll still be active over on our Instagram, and inside our Brides Club and Smashing Life memberships, so hopefully see you there! Otherwise we’ll be back here on Friday January 3rd for our very first real Jewish wedding of 2020 (and it’s an epic one). Happy Holidays!

How was your first night of Hannukah last night? We’re so excited for the Festival of Lights and together with all our Brides Club and Smashing Life members, we lit our Chanukiahs together inside our Facebook group last night and it was magical!

Not yet a member of Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club? You can join here – we’d love to have you inside our community (and of course also help save your time, your money and  your sanity on your way to creating your day your way).

Speaking of Brides Club members, we are totally in love with today’s real Jew-ish wedding of Brides Club member, Bethany, an assistant merchandiser, to Gavin, a project coordinator.

They held their wedding at Trinity Buoy Wharf, a stunning warehouse venue in London, And with the city skyline as the dramatic backdrop to their big day, what a celebration it was!

We love the way the interfaith couple – Gavin is Jewish, while Bethany was brought up Christian – followed their civil ceremony with a personalized religious blessing they crafted alongside their rabbi to reflect their shared values and beliefs. We’re also obsessed with Voyteck’s emotional-packed documentary-style photography, which captures the essence of the day so perfectly.

And with top-notch ‘sharing style’ catering from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Adam Nathan – who the bride praises for going above and beyond in his willingness to run with any idea, no matter how out there (not to mention his delicious food, which guests are still raving about) – served alongside beer and damson gin the couple made themselves (!), we’re experiencing serious FOMO that we didn’t get to attend ourselves. (Also, how perfect is it that Bethany and Gavin named their beer“How Amaze is this Porter” to tie in with their wedding hashtag, #howamazewedding?)

Now over to the bride, who looked beautiful in Essense of Australia…

A London Wedding

Bethany, the bride: We got married at Trinity Buoy Wharf. It was a long search for a venue as we were determined to not have a wedding/party in a hotel ballroom and additionally we wanted a venue that none of our friends had been to! We did a lot of searching for venues, but it was all worth the wait! We also chose this venue as we knew that if we were going to get married in London then we actually wanted to be able to see London (Bethany grew up in the Suffolk and Shropshire countrysides, so that was an option too!).

We didn’t want all of our guests who were coming from across the world to come to our wedding and then be in a room which could have been anywhere. So we found a lighthouse on the Thames, opposite the O2 with the city in the background, it was perfect!

A Fab Planner

Our colour scheme was shades of blue, we filtered this through our invitations, table stationery, flowers, groomsmen suits and the flower girl!

We used Sama Hemsley (Utterly Wow) as our wedding coordinator, she took over 5 weeks before the wedding and tied all of our suppliers together, created a plan for the day so all suppliers knew what they were doing and when. Sama also answered all of our last minute questions, concerns and was a very friendly and patient ear for anything we wanted to run by her. We met her at our venue on a couple of occasions to talk through how we envisaged the day and what we had planned.

On the day she coordinated everything together and everything ran like a dream (at least as far as we were aware and what better praise can you get than that!) She also offers a full wedding planning service and I can honestly not recommend her enough, she is such a calming presence but in addition has modern, on trend ideas!

What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club’ Did For Us

Smashing The Glass‘s Brides Club is a great space for brides to be to share ideas and #wpws (wedding planning wins), and most importantly support from each other. As much as wedding planning is a fun amazing experience at times it can also be testing, so to have the support of all of the members is amazing!

Invitation

We designed our invitation ourselves with the help of U-Name-It, a wonderful North London based personalised invitation company. We knew from the start we wanted something different so opted for a gradient watercolour theme. We felt like this was apt for us as our wedding venue is based on the Thames and Bethany grew up by the water. It was so much fun being able to choose every aspect of our invitations and really make it personal to us. Linda at U-Name-It was also patient with us and extremely flexible and knowledgeable designing the invitations with us.

Hair + Makeup

I had the lovely Laura Lester assist on my makeup, my bridesmaids’ and my mum’s on the day. She is such a wonderful calming influence and made us all look so natural and feel so comfortable. We had a makeup trial a few months earlier and tried out different looks but I knew I wanted to look as natural as possible. Laura was the perfect person to create any look and for me she perfected the natural look. She was so great with my bridesmaids too who all wanted different looks!

Dress

I bought my dress from a boutique in Shropshire, I had gone back home for the weekend before my parents went off on a 3 month holiday and my mum persuaded me to pop in so she could see me in a dress in real life, as she knew I’d likely find one whilst she was away.

We managed to get an appointment and had the most wonderful experience, the dress I chose was actually the second dress I tried on and as soon as I put it on I knew it was the one. It felt perfect and so special. My mum was so happy to be there when I found the one, it all worked out well!! I loved that it has multiple layers of different types of lace giving it such dimension. I then decided once it came in that I wanted to make some alterations to it, I managed to source the same lace that was used one on of the layers and added a small sleeve onto it. I decided I wanted to not have a fixed strap, so my seamstress made it slightly loose so that one, it wouldn’t tear and two, I could then position it in different places throughout the day.

Accessories

My veil was my sister’s who got married 3 months earlier, she had long beautiful ‘cathedral length’ veil and I knew that it would be so special for us to share something (something borrowed). The veil was from Pronovias and its simplicity worked perfectly with the detail on my dress.

My jewellery all came from Net-A-Porter, earrings were by 14/Quatorze – Baby Breath earrings, their intracity and delicacy worked perfectly with my dress. My necklace by Melissa Joy Manning was a 3 circle drop necklace, whenever I wear something which is a 3 I always do so as it represents myself and my two sisters.

I also bought hair accessories from Botias Accessories – I actually was flicking through Instagram and saw the most gorgeous hair style with opal pins popped in, I immediately purchased the pins and text my hairdresser to see if we could recreate the look.

Louboutins

Christian Louboutin – Naseebasse. I decided I wanted shoes that I would wear again but that were also super special, I love this shoe as it had a chunky gold heel then from the front it looked so classic. I had envisaged changing out of these at some point in the evening so had bought flip flops and some wedges just in case but I didn’t end up wearing either. I didn’t once think about my feet and it wasn’t until the end when everyone had gone, I finally took them off that I realised how much they hurt! Lets just say it wasn’t so easy to walk the next day…

The handsome groom

Gavin wore a made-to-measure Ted Baker suit with brand new Ted Baker shoes to match. He wore a dusty pink tie and pocket square, the groomsmen wore the same style of tie and square but in sky blue, it looked great!

Bridesmaids

I had 3 bridesmaids, both of my sisters and my now sister in law, we had 1 flower girl, my god daughter and my nephew as a page boy. The 3 bridesmaids all wore Vera Wang, they all had a different style which they chose themselves but all in the same colour (midnight blue), the flower girl wore a pale blue flowery dress from Monsoon and the page boy who was 2 wore a little pale blue and grey waistcoat suit from Marks and Spencer.

An Interfaith Ceremony

We had a mixed faith wedding, Gavin is Jewish but I was brought up Christian. We had a civil ceremony the civil ceremony first and then had a ceremony of celebration which was created in collaboration with Rabbi Hannah Kingston from Alyth synagogue. Alyth were extremely supportive and involved in the lead up to our wedding and we loved creating a religious blessing that reflected our values and beliefs.

We chose to have readings in the second part of our ceremony. Beth’s sister Kate read an extract from Les Miserables (a nod to our love of musicals), Gavin’s sister Susannah read some wise words from Friends character Joey Tribbiani (a TV show we love) and then Gavin read a poem by Leonard Cohen (an artist close to our hearts). It was the perfect ceremony for us and showed many different aspects to us and our relationship.

Our music choice

We decided to have a string quartet for the ceremony, the wonderful Carnaby Strings. It took a long time to decide what I wanted to walk down the aisle to, I knew I wanted a piece that incited excitement and built to a crescendo. My sister, Kate actually suggested the song I chose, ‘Spring 1’ recomposed by Max Richter, however I then decided to get it recomposed again for us and so it would work for the string quartet. This made it even more special as I knew nobody else would have had my song quite like ours!

As we had a mixed faith ceremony we then had a couple of songs whilst signing the registrar, one being ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’, and I have to be honest I chose it because of my current obsession with the movie Crazy Rich Asians! We also chose ‘Hallelujah’ by Leonard Cohen, my family are huge Leonard Cohen fans so I had to get one of his songs in somewhere! We then also had Carnaby Strings play during the reception, we gave them a mix of modern songs and good classic pop songs as there’s nothing I love more than hearing a string quartet suddenly crack out a tune you’d never thing you’d hear from them!

We then had the most amazing band lead us into Israeli dancing and then the most phenomenal set, The Talent Band. We knew from the get go that even though we were having a mixed faith wedding we wanted Israeli dancing, we both felt like its such an easy way to get everyone joining in and who doesn’t love it?! The Talent Band went above and beyond with creating the party atmosphere and they truly read the room. We’ve had SO many people raving about them and it was so nice using a band that none of our friends and family new! Our entrance song was ‘One Vision’…

Our first and last dance was ‘The One’– Kodaline, this was actually one of the first things we chose for our wedding, we were attending a gig of theirs and they started playing the song and we both just looked at each other and said this is it, this is our first dance and every time we’ve listened to it since we’ve cried!

Flowers

We used the wonderful Gayle at Bloomingayles for our flowers. She is the most wonderful, bubbliest, calming and patient florist we could have wished for. We knew we wanted to use Proteas as Gavin’s family are South African so it felt right to give a small nod to such a special place. We then spoke through with Gayle how we wanted flowers to complement our theme, we wanted the wilder rustic look, as that’s a bit more us. We both loved eucalyptus leaves and as we were having olive trees dotted around the room and outside we also wanted to tie these in. We knew we didn’t want the traditional roses for the men’s boutonniere’s so we chose blushing bridal protea and thistles to give a gorgeous contrast.

We had many wonderful phone calls and meetings throwing around lots of ideas…I think the pictures speak for themselves, she really did excel herself. Gayle came up with the amazing idea to use glass cubes so the flowers would sit underneath the glass and then as our main meal was feasting style we could place the plates on top, so they became great space saves too, genius! We’ve already had a few people ask if they can use the idea, such a compliment!I also really loved that she put together bags of the flowers at the end of the night so our guests could easily take them away, one of my biggest needs was that these beautiful flowers wouldn’t be wasted, it gave me such joy to see so many happy guests choosing which flower bags they wanted.

Dwarf delphenium – flower of the July birthday’s which is Gavin’s and symbolising ardent attachment!
Dicentra – meaning a deep and passionate love between two people.
Phlox – Partnership, harmony and sweet dreams.

Photographer 

Our photographer was Voyteck. Very early on in our wedding planning process we decided we’d use a photographer Gavin’s cousin had at their wedding. She wasn’t available but right away recommended us Voyteck who photographed her wedding. That was enough of a recommendation for us and after having a look through his amazing photo slideshows and wedding photography we were absolutely sure he was the right person to document our day. We liked that he specialised in the more candid photography which we’re both big fans of. All his photos seemed to capture the essence and vibe of the party no matter how big or small. We had decided not to have a videographer, so someone that could capture the mood of our day was important. We were blown away with his finished product and can’t stop looking through the photos, it’s become a daily ritual!!

Food

The lovely Adam Nathan did our catering, we had been to a few small parties which he had catered for previously and the minute we tasted his food we both looked at each other and knew we had to have Adam cater our wedding. Adam went above and beyond what I’d expect of a caterer, the thing we loved the most was no idea was too ridiculous and there was never a ‘I can’t do that.’

We had two separate tastings to make sure we got it spot on. One for a starter and main course and another for canapes and desert. We went on a bit of a journey with our menu for our wedding and Adam was constantly helping us out with what he thought would be best with our venue/timeline. A week before our wedding we changed the menu up a bit after advice from Adam as the weather (luckily for us) had been so warm that we wanted to serve less of a hearty three course meal. We had originally planned to have a salmon sashimi dish as a starter but a decision was made to cut that and turn it into another canapes instead. The main course and dessert were served ‘sharing style’ which is a style that Adam specialises in and worked really well with our table layout. All of our guests raved about the food at our wedding.

Cake

We also very last minute (just over 2 weeks to go) decided we wanted a cake! Adam put us in touch with the lovely Nadine who went above and beyond for us, she sent us lots of possibilities and like Adam, nothing was too crazy. We went for 2 tiers, one coffee and one Victoria sandwich, as our dessert was already lemon and chocolate.

Entertainment

We had a band called The Talent and they absolutely SMASHED it. We spent a long time looking for the right band. It was important for us to find a band that was a bit different but could also do the Israeli dancing live. We really lucked out with finding The Talent. After listening to a lot of their stuff on line and videos too we went to see them at another wedding in Essex. Advice we’d give other couples looking for band is to imagine them playing to your ‘crowd’. You will know if you’ll have a crowd that will be up on the dance floor the whole evening or if they’ll need a bit of encouragement. Craig from The Talent was really lovely to deal with and kept in constant communication with us in the lead up. They really listened to our likes and dislikes and fed off the crowd the whole evening. They even let Gavin indulge in a dream of his and let him lead the whole of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ backed by their awesome band. We’ve been trying to come up with reasons to use them again! One year wedding anniversary anyone?

Favours

We used mini succulents as place names that everyone was able to take home with them at the end of the day, we chose these as we both love plants and really wanted a little something that everyone could take home!

Eco-friendly

We created our own personalised paper cups for people to have drinks in before the ceremony, we thought it would be a bit more fun and unusual than having just the normal glasses or plastic bottles… we were trying to be as eco friendly as possible and not create unnecessary waste!

Personalised beer

We also made our own beer called “How Amaze is this Porter” which incorporated our wedding hashtag and was also really good fun to go and make a few weeks before the wedding! We also made damson gin which was served with dessert, which we made using all homemade ingredients from Bethany’s parents home in Shropshire! We can safely say all went down extremely well. As we had so much alcohol on offer we also made “Hangover kits” for everyone, we just popped in paracetamol, vitamin C sachet and some sweet chocolatey treats!

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Everyone said to us before the wedding to make sure you keep stopping during the day and taking it all in. It was something I was worried I wouldn’t be able to do but we did do it. We asked friends to tell us to do it and I was very conscious to look at everyone’s faces and take it all in as the day went a long. One of my favourite memories is during our last dance everyone congregated around us, hand in hand, we didn’t realise initially and then I looked away from Gav towards everyone else for a moment and saw all these happy smiley faces, it was the best feeling.

Bethany & Gavin’s little white book

Photography – Voyteck
Catering – Adam Nathan
Wedding planner – Utterly Wow
Venue – Trinity Buoy Wharf
Bride’s dress – Essense of Australia
Bride’s shoes – Christian Louboutin
Bride’s accessories – Pronovias, Net-A-Porter, 14/Quatorze, Melissa Joy Manning and Botias Accessories
Groom’s attire – Ted Baker
Bridesmaids – Vera Wang, Monsoon and Marks and Spencer
String Quartet – Carnaby Strings
Band – The Talent
Flowers – Bloomingayles
Stationery – U-Name-It

The post An Essense of Australia Bride for an Interfaith Jewish Wedding at Trinity Buoy Wharf, London, UK appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

There’s not much we love more than seeing a couple combined their diverse backgrounds into one unforgettable day. So naturally we’re all about the beautiful Israeli-British-Indian wedding of Hannah, who runs a dog-training and dog-assisted therapy business, and Amir, who works in security.

Using flowers, décor, music, a blue and gold color scheme – see the bride’s stunning Indian-style wedding dress, which she chose as a reflection of the new culture she’d be adopting with her marriage – and even a pre-wedding Jewish-Indian henna ceremony, these two crafted a truly one-of-a-kind day bringing together all the most beautiful elements of their cultures.

And they couldn’t have done it without their amazing wedding planner, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Victoria Rosen. In the bride’s own words:

Employing a wedding planner helped enormously to relieve the stress. Vicki proved us with suppliers and recommendations that I almost certainly would not have been able to find myself. I made sure that all details were in place before the big day itself so that I could just enjoy every moment without worrying about a thing!

Hannah and Amir’s venue,  Pichonka, really highlighted the natural beauty of the couple’s current home country, Israel, with their outdoor chuppah held on a balcony that jutted out over the breathtaking Judean Hills. Check out Rehovot Studios’s beautiful photos and video.

We also love that Hannah and Amir went all out to ensure their wedding was accessible and enjoyable for all of their guests – both the many English-speakers who flew in from abroad, as well as the Israelis. They made sure they found a fully bilingual rabbi to conduct their ceremony so that all of the guests were able to follow along, and providing a wedding program explaining the various Jewish traditions for those unfamiliar.

There’s so much more to say, but we’ll leave the rest to the bride…

How we met

Hannah, the bride: We met online via a dating website.

An Outdoor Wedding

I chose Pichonka as our venue because of its stunning, yet natural and intimate setting, as well as its location (relatively easy to reach from both the centre and south).

A Multicultural Wedding

I used Victoria Rosen as my wedding planner from start to finish including the day itself. I wanted a wedding that touched on the three cultures that my husband and I represent (Israeli, British/European and Indian). We hinted at all three via the flowers, Indian-style wedding dress and accessories and music. We had a dress colour scheme of blue and gold. 

Invitation

I designed and made the invites myself using a simple, floral pattern I found online. I wanted to input some of my own creativity into the planning process. I sent the invites virtually as opposed to via mail, in a bid to be more eco-friendly.

Hair + Makeup

I have very curly hair and have always wanted a Grecian-style up-do which is what I had. My makeup focused mainly on bringing out my eyes with golds and a touch of blue to mirror my dress. 

An Indian Dress

I bought the dress from an Indian shop in London which imports beautiful authentic materials and styles from India. I converted a two-piece Indian lehenga skirt and top into a one-piece dress, accompanied by a matching veil. I loved the colours (blue, gold and cream). I wanted a non-traditional dress that I felt better reflected me as well as the new culture (Indian) that I would be adopting by marrying my husband and becoming a part of his extended family.

Accessories

I had a veil with a matching blue/gold trim and matching Indian bangles all bought from the same shop as my dress. I also wore a delicate gold necklace and teardrop gold earrings which were both gifts. I bought a simple, gold leaf-style hair clip from a local shop in Israel.

Shoes

In the end, I wore some medium-heeled pale pink sandals that I already owned instead of the higher heels that I ordered for comfort reasons. The shoes were not in any case visible under my long skirt.

The handsome groom

My husband had a petrol blue suit and matching tie to compliment my dress, bought from Celio in Israel. 

Bridesmaids

Our little nieces were informal bridesmaids. They wore blue-gold dresses bought from the same shop as my wedding dress from and held a miniature version of my bouquet.

Chuppah

The position of the chuppah (on a white, wood panelled balcony that jutted out over the Judean Hills) really spoke for itself. So as to make the most of the stunning view from the balcony, we opted for a simple, wooden pole supported chuppah which was then draped in a white sheet and decorated with some white and dusty pink flower bouquets.

Ceremony

We really liked the design of the ketubah provided by Zohar and so felt no need to get a ketubah especially made for the occasion. We wanted a traditional Jewish ceremony, conducted by a young, modern rabbi who was approachable and bi-lingual – it was important to us that he spoke both Hebrew and English so that all of our guests could understand what was going on.

We had a significant number of guests who flew in from abroad from English-speaking countries as well as a large number of native Israeli guests. We provided overseas guests with a brief written explanation of the wedding ceremony in English so that those less familiar with Jewish weddings could understand the process.

Our music choice

We wanted something a little alternative that would suit a day wedding atmosphere and so chose a 6-member live instrumental band who upon our request, played a mixture of musical genres from Klezmer to Israeli so as to reflect the mixture of cultures present at the wedding. Traditional chuppah songs including ‘Sameach Tesamach’, ‘Kol Sasson Kol Simcha’ and ‘Boi Cala’ accompanied us from the badeken through to the chuppah. My husband also sang me a traditional Indian-Jewish song, as I proceeded towards the chuppah.

Flowers

I wanted a relatively simple floral scheme that blended in with the stunning natural scenery that surrounded the venue. Therefore, we opted for a single medium-size pot of begonias or petunias in a variety of colours, each housed in a ceramic pot and wrapped in a ribbon. A pot was placed as the centre-piece on each table and guests were invited to take the flowers home with them after the wedding as a both a gift and a way to limit waste. These, in addition to the previously-mentioned flower arrangement that adorned the chuppah, I carried a a white and pink bouquet. 

Photographer

We chose Rehovot Studios as they offered a conclusive package which offered two photographers as well as two videographers who could ensure that both me and my husband were pictured separately before the ceremony as well as together afterwards. The package also included a drone which would be able to capture the magnificent views surrounding our venue from above.

Food

Catering was provided by the venue (kosher, meat) but we made sure that the menu was inclusive, so as to cater for those with special dietary requirements such as vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free. We did not have a cake.

Entertainment

We felt no need to provide entertainment additional to the band as we wished to keep to a fairly low-key day wedding. The venue and surrounding views helped contribute to a light and happy atmosphere that needed no extras!

Favours

In addition to the floral arrangements which guests were invited to take home with them, as it was a Friday day wedding, we provide mini-challot which were beautifully arranged in a vintage suitcase and given to each guest as they left the venue. We also gave colourful mini-hamsot to our overseas guests (obtained through our flower designer) as a thank you for travelling so far to celebrate with us.

Creative ideas

Our wedding was actually a series of celebrations starting with a traditional Jewish-Indian henna ceremony, to the wedding itself, to a Shabbat Chatan and finally, to a special dinner and tour around Jerusalem for our overseas guests. We wanted to spend as much quality time as possible with our families and friends who had travelled from both near and far to celebrate with us. We asked both of our fathers to make a short speech during the wedding itself.

Honeymoon

We stayed in a lovely zimmer for the weekend a short while after the wedding and then took an extended trip touring around the UK over the summer.

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Employing a wedding planner helped enormously with the planning and organisation and in general, to relieve the stress. Vicki proved us with suppliers and recommendations that I almost certainly would not have been able to find myself. I made sure that all details were in place before the big day itself so that I could just enjoy every moment without worrying about a thing!

Hannah & Amir’s little white book

Photography and videography – Rehovot Studios
Wedding planner – Victoria Rosen
Venue – Pichonka 
Groom’s attire – Celio
Hair + Makeup – Makeup by Saraha
Flowers – Wedding Flowers Design
Band – Sum Sum

If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, join Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club for step-by-step guides, handpicked wedding vendor discounts, Jewish wedding action plans, a free smash glass pouch, Jewish wedding checklists and templates, and SO much more!

Guided by the world’s number 1 Jewish wedding expert, Karen Cinnamon, Brides Club is the private community for brides that minimizes wedstress and overwhelm and maximises your budget. Join our Brides Club here.

The post A Multicultural Israeli-Indian-British Jewish Wedding Weekend at Pichonka, Israel appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.

It never fails to set our hearts aflutter when we see a couple merge their diverse backgrounds into one beautiful Jewish wedding. And we adore a peony chuppah. Therefore, we knew from the get go that we were going to fall head over heels for the wonderful Chinese-Jewish wedding of college sweethearts JingJing, who works in data analytics, and Andrew, who’s in software development.

Since these two were planning a Massachusetts wedding all the way across the country from their home in Seattle, they knew they’d need some support in planning the big day. And so they turned to the fabulous Luba of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Primavera Dreams, who they knew they could trust to understand their diverse families and cultures.

Luba worked with the couple to incorporate traditions both Chinese – like pops of red, the traditional Chinese wedding color – and Jewish – like the stunning peony chuppah – into the day. There were even some small touches reflecting the groom’s Russian heritage thrown into the mix, like chamomile incorporated into the florals.

And back to that peony chuppah… peonies are JingJing’s favorite flowers (and, after scrolling through these lovely photos by Mark Spooner, maybe ours too?), so it was only natural to showcase them. Mixed with fresh greenery and other flowers in shades of pink, peach, and white, the chuppah struck the perfect balance between minimalism and whimsy, simplicity and lushness.

There’s so much more we could say, but we’re going to leave the rest to the bride, who looked so elegant in her 3D floral lace dress from Emmy Mae Bridal…

A Garden Venue

JingJing, the bride: We got married at The Gardens at Elm Bank at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society in Wellesley, MA. We wanted a primarily outdoor venue that would be beautiful on its own, and we were definitely partial to the garden aspect (we got engaged at a botanic garden!). Elm Bank checked all our boxes for setting as well as location and flexibility as a vendor.

 
A Chinese-Jewish Wedding

We wanted to embrace the aesthetics of a bright, summery garden wedding with colorful florals, and kept the rest of the design clean and simple while still incorporating small elements of our personality and style. We also wanted to include both Jewish and Chinese traditions with the chuppah and by incorporating small pops of red (the traditional Chinese wedding color) in the decor.

We hired Luba of Primavera Dreams because we knew we needed help planning from across the country and wanted someone we could trust to understand our families and culture!

Invitation

Our invitations were a custom design from an Etsy seller that we printed with Catprint. We wanted them to reflect our floral meets modern minimalist design style.

Hair + Makeup

I chose Maricruz Hairstyles after reading nothing but glowing reviews about her and she is the sweetest person and so talented. I wanted something modern but relaxed and she was wholly enthusiastic about doing essentially a “fancy ponytail” for me on the day-of!

My makeup artist was Lisa Chy who I found through a blogger, and I couldn’t have been happier with her! I really wanted to have someone who was experienced in Asian brides and she was so easy to work with and made all my different bridesmaids look fantastic as well.

An Emmy Mae Bridal Dress

I wore the “Bec” dress from Emmy Mae Bridal, which I found at Lovely Bride in Seattle. I loved the 3D floral lace and the sleek silhouette.

Accessories

I wanted a bold but lightweight statement earring in line with the floral theme and went with the Frida Kahlo pair from Moss Handmade. I didn’t want a veil but liked the look of something sheer and flowing so instead attached tulle “wings” onto my dress for a similar effect.

Shoes

I wanted all the extra height I could get but also wanted to be comfortable and practical! My shoes were simple strappy nude sandals with a chunky platform heel purchased from Nordstrom.

The handsome groom

The groom’s suit was customized from Suit Supply – we went with a dark, slightly ink-y blue that complimented him and gave his jacket a red lining. The floral tie was a last-minute find that managed to match our bouquet colors perfectly!

Bridesmaids

I had three bridesmaids and they wore different styles of chiffon dresses from Amsale in a dusty slate blue color, which they got from Bella Bridesmaids. We matched the groomsmen’s floral print ties to their dresses.

Peony Chuppah

It was discussed with the floral designer. The chuppah had incredible bunches of peonies blended with other flowers and fresh greenery. I wanted something that was lush in florals but also had both whimsical and clean/modern elements. Kseniya of Floristika Studios couldn’t have been more accommodating in translating my vision into reality! We went with a simple, minimalist frame, lots of peonies, strung flower garlands and light greenery to keep it fresh.

A Personal Ceremony

We worked with our rabbi to customize the ceremony to focus on the traditions we felt resonated the most with us and our families. Andrew’s young cousins were the flower girls/ring bearers and they handed out flowers to guests as they walked down the aisle, and a dear family friend from Israel gifted us the ceremony wine. My favorite part of the ceremony was that the fountain behind us turned on right at the moment of our kiss, which was a total surprise!

Ketubah

Our ketubah was also from Etsy and we worked together on customizing a modern text that reflected our values. We did our ketubah signing at the wedding rehearsal the day before.

Our music choice

Our wedding party walked down to the instrumental version of ‘Dog Days Are Over’ by Florence and the Machine, which I think has such a light and optimistic intro. We switched over to Jim Brickman’s rendition of ‘Air From The Water Music Suite’ by Handel for the flower girls and bride processional.

Our recessional song was ‘This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)’ by Natalie Cole and the guests existed to the cocktail hour to the Brasstracks cover of ‘In My Feelings’ (a groom request ).

Our first dance was to ‘Coming Home’ by Leon Bridges and we did parent dances to the Florence and the Machine cover of ‘Stand by Me’.

Peony Perfection

I love flowers and knew I wanted to include my favorite peonies for our wedding. The lovely and talented Kseniya of Floristika Studio helped refine our vision for not only the florals but the overall decor. We went for a palette of a lot of pinks and peaches with small pops of red and cream and light blue accents. (We also incorporated a little chamomile as a little symbolism to the groom’s Russian heritage!) I loved how our escort table turned out with all the little bud vase arrangements, that were later used as favors for our morning-after brunch!

Photographer

Our photographer was Mark Spooner – we loved Mark’s work for the range and depth of emotion he captures, and think he has such a good eye for those little moments.We used Stop Go Love to capture only raw footage for video (for posterity!).

Food

Our catering was done by Cuisine Chez Vous, who were so incredibly fun and easy to work with! They did an excellent job helping guide our menu as well as accommodating our many little asks, such as our signature cocktails and dessert choices. We skipped the traditional wedding cake in favor of chocolate-covered strawberries, specialty donuts from Blackbird Donuts and cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake.

Entertainment

We had a DJ (Michael O’Neill, who is a veteran in the industry and was wonderfully easy to work with) which was great for ease and flexibility for our eclectic music tastes. We had all generations on the dance floor and folks we’d never expect dancing, which was great!

Favors

Both sides contributed to the favors! We had traditional Chinese candy in red pouches from as well as handmade chocolate-covered candied orange slices made by the mother of the groom!

Instax Polaroid and Tattoos 

We wanted to sprinkle in some small, fun touches of the things we enjoy at parties to incorporate our personalities, while keeping the atmosphere focused on friends and family. We skipped the traditional guestbook in favor of a couple Instax polaroid cameras so guests could leave us a photo and document the night as it went on. We had botanically-themed temporary tattoos as an additional party favor. For the reception, we displayed old photos of our parents and us as children, which is always fun for us to see at other weddings!

Honeymoon

We went to Greece, and split our time between the islands of Crete and Santorini. We stayed at the Sophia Luxury Suites in Imerovigli in Santorini which was amazing, and our room had an indoor cave pool!

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Do the details for you, but don’t sweat the small stuff that other people won’t notice! It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with planning the perfect party with all the perfect details, but in the end the things that matter most are the intangibles – the mood, attitude, love and you and your partner – these are the things that make a great wedding! So plan early and thoroughly, but on the day of, let yourself relax!

JingJing & Andrew’s little white book

Photography – Mark Spooner
Wedding planner – Primavera Dreams {save $350 on any package + a bottle of Champagne to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – Stop Go Love
Venue – The Gardens at Elm Bank 
Bride’s dress – Emmy Mae Bridal found and fitted at Lovely Bride
Bride’s shoes – Nordstrom
Bride’s earrings – Moss Handmade
Groom’s attire – Suit Supply
Bridesmaids – Amsale purchased at Bella Bridesmaids
Groomsmen – Indochino
Hair + Makeup – Maricruz Hairstyles + Lisa Chy
Flowers – Floristika Studio
Catering – Cuisine Chez Vous
Donuts – Blackbird Donuts
Cupcakes – Georgetown Cupcake
DJ – Michael O’Neill
Lighting – Retonica
Ketubah – Happy Project
Rabbi – Avi Teken
Honeymoon – Sophia Luxury Suites

If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, join Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club for step-by-step guides, handpicked wedding vendor discounts, Jewish wedding action plans, a free smash glass pouch, Jewish wedding checklists and templates, and SO much more!

Guided by the world’s number 1 Jewish wedding expert, Karen Cinnamon, Brides Club is the private community for Jewish and Jew-ish brides that minimizes wedstress and overwhelm and maximises your budget. Join our Brides Club here.

The post An Emmy Mae Bride for a Chinese-Jewish Wedding with a Peony Chuppah at the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Wellesley, MA, USA appeared first on Smashing the Glass | Jewish Wedding Blog.