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
