Mazel Tov! Origin Story

Kanik Chung, Andrea Osnow and Susan Schulman

We are three friends who have blown glass together for many years. Several years ago we were invited to a wedding and wanted to come up with a unique gift.

We made a colorful hand-blown wedding glass to be stepped on beneath the chuppah. Our idea was to take the shards from the broken wedding glass and develop a special technique for incorporating them in a vase.

This wasn’t as easy we thought it would be, and we had no idea how beautiful it would turn out! But word of mouth about our unique creation spread. Before long Mazel Tov Glass was born.

The Tradition

As part of the Jewish wedding ceremony, it is tradition for the groom to step on the wedding glass. The guests joyously shout “Mazel Tov” which means congratulations and good luck. There is much clapping and cheering as the couple celebrates their marriage moment. It is a hope that the couple’s happiness will be as plentiful as the shards of glass.

The breaking of the wedding glass has many interpretations. It is a reminder of the destruction of the Temples in Jerusalem; its fragility symbolizes that the couple’s love must be cared for. It is a metaphor for the vulnerability of human relationships. It is a reminder of sorrow and expression of hope for a future free of violence. It symbolizes the break between single and married life. Some say it is the last time the groom gets to “put his foot down.”

Mazel Tov Glass offers multi-color designs for interfaith and same-sex wedding couples. Each wedding party has its own different color wedding glass, and we combine the two colors of shards to create an unforgettable variation of our beautiful gift items.