A Mirror Mirror Bride for an Enchanted Forest Jewish Wedding at Luton Hoo Walled Garden, Luton, UK – Smashing the Glass

A Mirror Mirror Bride for an Enchanted Forest Jewish Wedding at Luton Hoo Walled Garden, Luton, UK – Smashing the Glass



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Get ready for a Jewish wedding FULL of emotion! Danielle, a midwife, and Jake, a vet, had the most special day in the verdant surroundings of Luton Hoo Walled Gardens, and it was as meaningful as it was gorgeous.

There were so many special touches to this day, but one of the best has to be Danielle’s wedding dress from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Mirror Mirror. Lots of brides make Mirror Mirror their first stop because of its fab service and selection, but this bride had an additional reason: Mirror Mirror was where Danielle’s mum had bought her own dress for her wedding to Danielle’s beloved stepfather, who tragically passed away before Danielle got married. Needless to say, Danielle adored her Mirror Mirror experience – and the wonderful Inbal Dror gown she found not only looked stunning, but also served as a special reminder of her stepdad on the big day.

One look at the moving photos by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Chloe Delmonte is all it takes to see what an emotion-filled day it was for all involved. In Danielle’s words, Chloe “was sensational and just when we thought her talents couldn’t get any better she kept outdoing herself. The entire morning I was getting ready she was my absolute rock!” Doesn’t get much better than that!

We’re also in love with the couple’s wedding videography by Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Michael Pearl. Michael has quickly become a favorite among London-area Jewish couples, and it’s easy to see why looking at the results – plus, in the bride’s words, the man behind the camera is “extremely kind and lovely to work with,” and great at putting video-shy couples at ease.

 Read on for all the rest of the details in Danielle’s own words…



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




How we Met

Danielle, the bride: We met at the University of Birmingham. I was living in Jewish accommodation, Hillel House, and Jake was living in the university kosher flats. Jake was friends with some of the same people I was friends with and so he would often come to Hillel House or we would see each other on a night out and it all blossomed from there.



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




A Country House Wedding 

We got married at the conservatory Luton Hoo Walled Gardens. I knew from the minute I was driving up the drive way to go and view this venue that it would be the one. As we drove up it was just miles and miles of green and farmland which was beautiful and so US!

Once we had arrived at the venue we walked into a marquee that was surrounded by a stunning walled garden and a beautiful spot to have an outdoors ceremony which is what we wanted. The surroundings were just so breathtaking we instantly knew we wanted to get married in the middle of it. The fact it was a huge marquee was also ideal for us as we wanted a blank canvas to create our perfect vision. One of the biggest perks for us was how remote it was and ourselves and our guests would be the only ones there.



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Enchanted Forest

When we began planning the wedding I knew I wanted to plan every inch of the wedding myself and thus did not want a wedding planner but we did have a toast master to ensure everything went smoothly on the day and he was just fantastic!



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The theme we went with was an enchanted forest theme where we wanted the indoor décor to feel almost like we were still outside and so we had green tree centrepieces with floating candles on them. We also did have a colour scheme which was all different tones of pink. We mainly had bright coloured pinks to make everything really pop! We also asked all the men coming to wear a pink tie as we thought this was a great touch for the photos.



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Invitations / stationery

We used Paperless Post as we knew that invites all get thrown away in the end so it would be a more economical way of doing the invites.



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Hair + Make-up

My glam team were the best of the best! I literally could not have been more happy with my hair and makeup. I had my hair up in a low bun with two curled pieces of hair down at the front and a beautiful headpiece from Mirror Mirror Bridal Boutique.



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The reason I decided to have my hair up was because my dress was strapless and the top of the dress had so much going on I didn’t want my hair to cover it. My make-up I went for soft glam which was very glowy and bridal. My make-up despite to 32 degree heat stayed in place all day and night. This glam team made getting ready in the morning so fun and made us all look and feel a million dollars



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




Dress

I went to Mirror Mirror bridal boutique in Islington to find my wedding dress. This was always going to be the first shop I would look in as my mum bought her wedding dress there many years ago. Unfortunately my step father, who she married, passed away and therefore buying my dress from Mirror Mirror was always going to be extremely special. I had been looking on their Instagram and they posted a picture of a dress and instantly I knew in my heart that was the dress I wanted. When I arrived at Mirror Mirror I was greeted by a lady called Becca and she was incredible!



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From the word go she made me feel super special and it just made the whole experience amazing. I tried on 3 dresses before I tried on THE dress, the dress I had seen on Instagram.  There was one dress I tried on that I really liked and I would have picked had it not have been for THE dress. When I tried on THE dress I just knew there was not another dress on the planet that I would have loved more than that one. It was a beautiful princess dress but also so unique with a touch of sexy too! I felt a million dollars and my Mum agreed this had to be the dress!



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Accessories & Shoes

My veil was made for me by the amazing Becca from Dolecka Bridal at Mirror Mirror Bridal Boutique, it was a 3.5m veil with sparkles all over it to compliment my dress and was absolutely exquisite. I also bought my beautiful headpiece and earrings from them. I am not the kind of girl that can wear heels, so I decided to get personalised converse from Etsy to wear.



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The handsome groom

My husband got a bespoke tailor made suit from Moss Bros. He decided on a traditional black suit with a zebra pattern on the inside of the jacket and waistcoat. This was a lovely touch to incorporate his love of animals.



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Bridesmaids

I wanted all my bridesmaids to have matching dresses and because my bridesmaids all have varying shapes and sizes, I wanted something that everyone would be comfortable in. Initially I ordered blush pink dresses and I tried one on myself. I felt so uncomfortable in the dress that I knew not all my bridesmaids would like it so I decided to send it back. I decided I would try the dresses on myself and anything I didn’t feel comfortable in I wouldn’t make them wear. So in the end I went for a really flattering blush pink flowy dress from Asos.



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Ceremony and Chuppah

It is hard to say which part of the ceremony was my favourite as the minute I walked onto the aisle and saw my husband everything else that was going on just disappeared, It was just me and him. His grandma even felt extremely unwell due to the scorching heat on the day and lots of people were having to help her during the ceremony and not myself or husband had any idea this was going on as we were so in the moment with one another.



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My husband and I, whilst Jewish and proud, are not religious and so we wanted the ceremony to be something we could both connect to and so incorporated some things to make it feel personal to us. The music we chose for our entrance down the aisle and for our bridesmaids and groomsmen were English songs that meant something to us.



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We both LOVE Ed Sheeran and connect romantically to his songs so Jake walked down the aisle to ‘Hearts don’t break around here’ and I walked down to ‘Tenerife Sea’. Whilst I could not wait to hear the music as I walked the aisle, it all drowned out as I saw my husband and like I said it was just us there at that moment.



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One of the very special touches that we had at our ceremony were two empty chairs right beside the chuppah with reserved seating signs on for two of the most special men in my life who sadly passed away. My stepdad who raised me as his own and my grandpa, who was meant to be walking me down the aisle, sadly passed away one month before our wedding.



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I chose our chuppah design by endlessly scrolling Pinterest looking at all different flowers and chuppahs until I came up with the right combination and designed it with my florist. The actual chuppah itself was provided and put together by our venue dresser’s Carole and David Jackson. We decided on a rustic chuppah to fit in with the theme.



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




Our Music Choice 

Initially I was stuck not knowing which song I wanted to walk down the aisle to but after randomly scrolling through Tik Tok a girl called Alice Kube was busking to Tenerife Sea and I knew instantly that was my song and she was who I needed to sing it. I emailed her and asked her if she would be able to come to Bedfordshire to sing at my wedding and she said yes! When it got closer to the wedding I realised I had made a massive error and due to us having an orthodox Jewish wedding I was unable to have a female singing me down the aisle.



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I messaged Alice telling her the situation and she was so understanding and said she could bring her friend Brad Ryan to sing me down the aisle and then they could both sing together at the reception. I looked at his Tik Tok account and was blown away by his talent and knew that if there was anyone that could make me feel close to what she had when I originally heard her singing it would be him. He did not disappoint! He was outstanding and when they both sang together at the reception you could tell that they both had an incredible talent, I was incredibly lucky to find them both.



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We also had an Israeli instrumental band, led by Stewart Curtis, play at the chuppah and to perform the Israeli dancing. They played an instrumental version of ‘Love story’ by Taylor Swift for the Bridesmaids and Groomsmen to walk down the aisle to and Jewish music for out recessional. They were also absolutely brilliant and would recommend them to anyone.



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For the party we decided we wanted a soul band but also a DJ for in between sets. We Hired OJ Soul Band which were able to provide everything we wanted and needed. When my Husband and I were on stage for our first dance and they started to sing, our mouths dropped open not believing the talent that was performing. We just couldn’t believe how lucky we were to have picked a band that no one had recommended to us and we had just found on the internet and were more amazing than we could have ever imagined.



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




Flowers

The florist that we used was Isabella florist. The main flowers I initially wanted were peonies, but we got married in August so they were not in season. Therefore, we decided to go with silk peonies and roses as our main flowers. We then had mixture of silk and real flowers all in different shades of pink and this was a great idea because it meant we didn’t have to worry about the flowers wilting as the silk ones kept them looking fresh. We also had a lot of foliage to mix the natural green with the green tree centrepieces . we only used the green tree centrepieces for half the tables as we were worried too many trees would block everyone’s view.



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




The other half of the tables had a floral reef style centrepiece with 3 LED candles in the middle. The head table had matching florals all the way along with foliage falling down the sides. I decided to go for a unstructured, wild and rustic style bouquet with a mixture of different pink flowers, including the bright pink silk peonies, roses and foliage. The groom and groomsmen’s buttonholes were eucalyptus and  a large Fresh rose which was a mixture of bright pink and light pink and tied in beautifully with the rest of the flowers.



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Photographer and videographer

Having a great photographer and videographer was one of the priorities for us, knowing one day being able to look back and see and hear the voices of loved ones that will no longer be with us will be more than worth the price. Our photographer Chloe Delmonte was recommended to us by a few people and after looking at her work we decided to go with her. Chloe was sensational and just when we thought her talents couldn’t get any better she kept outdoing herself.



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




The entire morning I was getting ready she was my absolute rock! She made me feel so confident and also dealt with any issues that were going on. The entire day and night she knew exactly what she was doing and made me deal at ease with all the pictures. Her and her team were so creative and when we received our pictures back we were beyond shocked at how perfect they all were and we still now cannot pick our favourites because they are ALL our favourites.



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When it came to choosing our videographer I knew there was a certain feeling I was looking for. I endlessly looked at different videographers work and nothing spoke to me. Until someone recommended Michael Pearl to me. I looked at his previous work and it clicked! It was excatly what I was looking for.

From the offset Michael was extremely kind and lovely to work with. He also made me feel completely at ease on my wedding day and most of the time you wouldn’t even know him and his co worker were there. We only got our highlights movie so far but it is absolutely perfect!



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK





Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




Food

As we had an orthodox Jewish wedding, we needed a caterer that did strictly kosher food.  We decided to go with Itzik Catering after I met with Diane from the company and she was so warm and friendly that it made me choose them. They were so helpful and accommodating along the way not just with catering matters but also offering advice and recommendations from their experience.



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When we had our food tasting we were delighted with the range of options and how amazing everything tasted! We liked that they had some options that we hadn’t seen at wedding before such as the pulled beef and guacamole tacos for the starter, which tasted phenomenal. All the food on the day was exquisite and all of our guests commented on how delicious it all was. 



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK





Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




Extra details

One of our unique touches to our day was that we hired a petting farm but unfortunately the weather was too hot for them to come. I did do a bride’s speech because I wanted to also personally thank everyone but most importantly I wanted to say some words to my new husband about why I love him so much. One extra touch we had were heart shaped paper fans for everyone, this was a godsend in the heat and would recommend to all summer weddings!!



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Honeymoon

We haven’t gone on our honeymoon yet but we have booked to go to Borneo, Bali, and Kuala Lumpur in May 2023.



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Danielle-and-Jake-Luton-Hoo-Walled-Garden-UK




Advice to other couples planning their wedding

It is very easy to give other brides advice about how to stress less but I think stress is just a natural part of the process. I know that no matter how many times I was told not to stress I still did stress a lot – until the morning of the wedding as I knew it was out of my control at that point. The biggest piece of advice I could give is take every moment in as it goes so quick! And make sure you spend enough time with your husband!



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DANIELLE & JAKE’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK

Photography – Chloe Delmonte
Videography – Michael Pearl {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Bridal Boutique – Mirror Mirror {Offers £200.00 for accessory purchases over £400 to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Luton Hoo Walled Gardens
Bride’s dress – Inbal Dror
Bride’s shoes – Etsy 
Bride’s accessories – Dolecka Bridal
Groom’s attire – Moss Bros
Bridesmaids – Asos
Hair + Makeup – Hair by Sarrah, Lielle MUA
Flowers – Isabella florist
Band – OJ Soul Band
Catering – Itzik Catering
Stationery/Invitation – Paperless Post
Toastmaster – Simon Green
Smash The Glass Pouch –  Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}


If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, you’ll want to join Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club. 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 removes wedstress and indecision and gives you what you need to plan with confidence during these uncertain times. Join our Brides Club here.