Mazel Tov! Buddy & Lauren’s Wedding

We want to wish a warm congratulations to Kanik's cousin, Buddy and his new wife Lauren. Buddy stepped on a Mazel Tov Glass at his wedding to Lauren.

This interfaith Wedding embraced both Jewish and Sikh cultures.

Buddy about to step on the shards.

Buddy stepping on the glass shards. Stayed tuned to see what heirloom piece we create for Buddy and Lauren! Get your very own unique hand-blown heirloom here.

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Bye Kanik

On December 4th Kanik Chung passed peacefully after his struggle with cancer. He was surrounded by friends, family and members of the glass community. Kanik has been an amazing friend, teacher and incredibly talented glass artist. It will be difficult to adjust to his not being around. We will need some time to regroup, but Mazel Tov Glass will enter a new chapter. It's been an incredible journey creating, designing and developing our business together and we will continue to grow.

                                                          Bye Kanik, The ladies love you!

Mezuzah: The Jewish Security System

Mazel Tov Glass Mezuzah

On the doorpost of every Jewish home rests a mezuzah. Some may think it's a dainty decoration or a good luck charm. Put one up to keep the evil spirits away!

Actually, a mezuzah is a daily reminder ― and a public declaration ― of Jewish identity and faith.

What makes it important is the concept that the doorpost is the dividing line between the swirl of the outside world and the sanctity and safe haven of the home.

Hanging a mezuzah on the doorpost is an ancient custom. Archaeologists have discovered mezuzah parchments nearly 2 thousand years old.

The mezuzah is placed on an angle to the right of the door entrance about 5 feet above the floor. Every room may have a mezuzah with the exception the bathroom and closets. 

Prototype of Mezuzah designs

Get your very own unique hand-blown Mezuzah here:
http://smarturl.it/MTGMezuzah 

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MTG New Design: A Glass Mezuzah

Mazel Tov Glass Presents A New Design: A Glass Mezuzah

Designing and producing mezuzah cases has been elevated to an art form over the ages. 
Mazel Tov Glass has designed a mezuzah from the broken wedding shards of the glass stepped on at the ceremony. Every mezuzah we create has a Shin handwritten in glass. Each piece is mounted on sterling silver. Though the mezuzah cases are decorative, the important part of the mezuzah is the klaf, or parchment, and not the case itself. A kosher klaf can me purchased separately through Mazel Tov Glass.

Get your very own, unique hand-blown Mezuzah here:
http://smarturl.it/MTGMezuzah 

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Artist Spotlight: Swoon

Mazel Tov Glass Meets Street Artist Swoon

Susan, Swoon and Ira

Swoon is a street artist born in New London, Connecticut, and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida. She moved to New York City at age nineteen, and specializes in life-size wheat paste prints and paper cutouts of figures. 

     Thalassa

    Linoleum Block Print and Wheat paste Print

Swoon, real name Caledonia Dance Curry, studied painting at the Pratt institute in Brooklyn and started doing street art around 1999. She opened her studio for us to visit.

    Girl from Brazil on Tin and Wood canvases

For more examples of her work click here.

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Mazel Tov Glass Supports City Harvest

Mazel Tov Glass Supports City Harvest 

The Bid Against Hunger event was held on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 Metropolitan Pavilion (125 West 18th Street) 

Honoring Stacy and Joel Hock

The Giveaway

This year's Bid Against Hunger attracted nearly 1,000 people and raised $1.3 million for City Harvest. Guests bid on exclusive prizes in both the live and silent auctions, which included a dozen Cronuts that sold for $14,000, and a private wine class with Aldo Sohm and dinner for two prepared by Eric Ripert that sold for $42,000.


Salumeria Rosi Parmacotto

Other prizes included vacation packages, sports memorabilia and other once in a lifetime culinary experiences. VIP Room guests enjoyed an exclusive tasting of regional purveyors' foods, passed hors d'oeuvres and high-end wines.


Our friend: Cakes by Ron Ben-Israel

Click here to see pictures from Bid Against Hunger

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Witch's Balls

The Mazel Tov Glass team is bringing out the fright with this glass witch ball that was hand-blown at the Brooklyn Glass Studio in Brooklyn. Hung outdoors, a witch ball was a simple hollow glass sphere made in various colors. It was believed that witches were attracted to its beautiful colors.

Witch Ball created by Mazel Tov Glass in 2013

Once inside they became confused and unable to escape, lending protection and good energy to the household (like a mezuzah!). Sometimes the balls were filled with either herbs, to ward off evil, or string. In the English version, the visiting spirit would become entangled in the string preventing it from escaping or it would become too involved in pulling out the string thus keeping the household safe!

Check out the team creating this spooky hand-blown Witch Ball at Brooklyn Glass: 

Happy Halloween! And don't forget to check out our hand-blown glasses here.

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Wedding Vow Renewals: John & Jessica

Jazz guitarist and singer John Pizzarelli and singer Jessica Molaskey, a well known husband-wife duo, celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on July 30, 2013 by renewing their vows at the Crocker Estate in St. Helena, CA. Paul Frank of Gemstone Vineyards, officiated the ceremony.

One of the guests, Joe Cosgriff, author of “World on a String,” a book about John Pizzarelli, presented the couple with a Mazel Tov Glass for John to step on at the ceremony.

John and Jessica about to step on the glass

Stepping on the glass!

The shards were returned to the Mazel Tov Glass team to be made into a hand blown bouquet vase for the couple to have and use as a memory of their special day.

Mazel Tov Glass shards

Here is the finished heirloom piece! Visit MazelTovGlass.com for information on how to get your special heirloom.


Photo credit: Steven Freeman 2013

John and Jessica's heirloom piece 

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MTG Celebrates NJ Marriage Equality

Peter and Bob's Ceremony

Congratulations; at last, Marriage Equality arrives in New Jersey! Many couples in New Jersey are rushing to make their wedding plans. 

Why not incorporate a unique Mazel Tov Glass ritual into your wedding ceremony?

Choose two contrasting hand-blown glasses for you each to step on. We combine the colored glass shards and create a keepsake of your marriage moment for you to use and enjoy.

Happy couple Florrie and Barbara prepping to step

The Jewish tradition of stepping on a glass at the wedding ceremony represents the fragility of relationships. This tradition has been incorporated into all types of marriage ceremonies of various denominations and genders.

Holly and Nancy's Turquoise & White Ginger Jar

The Mazel Tov Glass ceremony includes two different colored glasses that brides or grooms step on at the ceremony. The combing of two different colored glasses into one vessel represents intertwining of the lives of two loving people.

In support of NJ we are offering a Mazel Tov Glass Special:

When you buy one glass get one free FREE when you purchase a Something Special package! 

Click here for more information and call us at 212-219-2092 to purchase this special package!

Mazel Tov Glass Memories

MTG Memories: Kelsey and Tommy's Wedding

There's nothing like capturing that special moment as the groom steps on the wedding glass. We shared that moment with friends Kelsey and Tommy at their wedding.

 As the couple made their way out of the church, they paused at the doorway. Tommy  stepped on the green Mazel Tov Glass as the guests joyously shouted "Mazel Tov!"

To top off the celebrations, the bride and her bridesmaids performed a soft shoe dance number for us all to enjoy at the reception!

Photo credits to Max Flatow Photography

The couple’s green wedding shards will be used to create hand-blown wine glasses. Check out more information about our hand-blown wine glasses here.

Beach Weddings!

It's pretty hot out there, especially if you're in the northeast like we are!  Perfect time for a beach wedding, so we thought we'd share some of our favorite examples of really beautiful beach weddings. There are so many ways to create the perfect beach wedding, from classic to exotic…what are some examples you've seen and loved?

Beautiful blue/green theme in Australia:

Little chapel by the Sea…Nautical Themed wedding in Southern California:

Beautiful beach chuppah idea:

This is from a wedding shoot, but we couldn't help including it…why not pose with a surfboard for the photos of your beach wedding? 

The Breaking of the Glass

The "stepping on" or "breaking of" the glass is a well-known and long-standing tradition in Jewish weddings, and the wedding tradition around which the concept for Mazel Tov Glass is built. But, how did the tradition begin and what is the significance behind it?  There are many different answers, and most of them coincide with one another and complement each other.

One of our most favorite explanations can be found on Chabad.com which links the together the remembrance of the destruction of the Holy Temple with the concept that you and your soulmate were connected as one soul before separating into two halves, which found each other and and came back together, never to be apart again.  

What we like best is that the two elements of this explanation both contain the fundamental, and beautiful, concept of unity, and the idea that no matter what you believe in, a wedding is a ceremony of two separate people (and families) coming together to fuse their lives into one.

What are your favorite explanations of the breaking of the glass?

Great Gatsby-Themed Weddings

Have you seen Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby remake yet?  We're huge fans of the book, and the gorgeous 1920s style that absolutely saturates the film.  So it wasn't a surprise to see some Gatsby-themed weddings cropping up…jazz bands, vintage champagne towers, flapper-style hair and dress…we just had to share some of these:

Check out more Gatsby-style weddings here, and check out TheKnot.com for more Gatsby-themed ideas that you can incorporate into your wedding!

A Diamond Is Forever...But Why?

People are sporting all sorts of different gems these days (check out these no-stone ring ideas over at OffBeatBride) , but diamonds remain the most popular and traditional stone for the ring.  How did that come about? 

Well, according to Abazias Diamonds' research, the tradition started in 1477, when Archduke Maximillian of Austria proposed to Mary of Burgundy with…you guessed it: a diamond ring. After that, it became a pretty popular thing to do among upper classes around the world.

Once a bunch of diamond mines were discovered in South Africa in the 1870s, supply increased and diamonds become more affordable and therefore even more popular.

Read more about diamonds, and why we wear them on the left ring finger on Abazias' site here.  And even more from one of our favorite sites, MentalFloss.com, who explain why maybe you "shoulda put a thimble on it" instead.