We always love seeing all the cool DIYs couples incorporate into their Jewish weddings – but Audrey, a project manager at a media company, and Idan, an investment banker, really took it to another level!
Crafty bride Audrey DIY’d just about all the couple’s wedding details, from crafting escort cards (and a gorgeous escort card wall) to writing out the bar menus (on marble!) to monograming the bridesmaids’ pajamas customizing a white leather jacket with her wedding date – and that’s just for starters!
So it comes as no surprise that this is one couple with seriously good taste – as evidenced in their choice of a seriously stunning paper cut peacock ketubah from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Noa Attias. Even the couple’s Upper West Side framer back home in NYC – who we can only assume has seen plenty of ketubot in his time – said it’s the most beautiful he’d ever seen! And of course we’re totally unsurprised to hear that Audrey and Idan found Noa a complete pleasure to work with. Don’t miss this gorgeous work of art in Rachael Koscica Photography’s images and The Good Vibe Media’s trailer.
There are so many more cool details to share, but we’ll leave it to Audrey – who looked radiant in her Jenny Yoo dress from BHLDN – to tell you about all that…
How We Met
Audrey, the bride: We met at the Scottsdale, Arizona Moishe House back in 2016! Shortly after meeting, I moved to Chicago for work and Idan moved to Michigan for graduate school, and we did long distance for a few years until we moved to New York together in 2019.
A Hometown Wedding
We got married at Gainey Ranch Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona. We knew we wanted to have our ceremony outdoors, and the golf club had a beautiful view of the mountains behind the ceremony site. Both sets of our parents still live in the Phoenix area, so having our wedding in the city where we met, where our parents were close by, was a no brainer. Gainey Ranch hit all of our budget notes, and it ended up being the perfect space for us. Plus, the food was amazing.
Vintage Blue
I am an old soul, and love vintage, classic touches. Both Idan and I’s favorite color is blue, so I incorporated a French blue into almost every element of the wedding, to keep it classic looking. We also love to travel, so I designed our tables to reflect trips we’ve taken. Some of the cities were Tel Aviv, London, Paris, and Mexico City.
Another thing we did to personalize things was give out cocktail napkins with fun facts about us as a couple. Our guests had such fun trying to collect all of the napkins at cocktail hour!
Invitations / stationery
One of my best friends since childhood, Nicole Davis, designed our invitations. I wanted the invitations to be simple, clean, and elegant, while of course incorporating our French blue theme. Nicole also designed our menus and wedding programs so that the entire suite matched.
Once Nicole had designed our invitation suite, I took the “S” monogram she created and turned it into a wax seal to seal all of our invitations with. The monogram was used in other elements of the wedding décor as well, such as our “no cell phones” sign!
Hair + Make-up
I used Ashley Doran for makeup and Emily Hughes for hair. I found both of them through Instagram and immediately fell in love with their style! Emily actually ended up doing 2 hair trials for me, as I had trouble making up my mind which hair style I wanted to go with. She was very patient with me throughout this process.
A BHLDN Dress
My dress was from BHLDN, and was designed by Jenny Yoo. I spent a whole day trying on dresses, and this is the only one that I wanted to try on twice. I cried the second time I put it on, so that was that! I had a tailor take in the bottom to make it more fitted, because I wanted it to show off my curves a little bit more. I also added a crystal belt (also from BHLDN) to make it a little more sparkly!
Accessories
My wedding gown happened to be on sale, so I had some budget leftover to buy a nice hair piece. I went with a Twigs & Honey hair piece, and am so glad I did! I’m saving it in a safe place now and hopefully if I have a daughter one day she will want it.
Shoes
Idan is only a few inches taller than me, so I went with a beautiful pair of Badgley Mishka flats. I wore them around our apartment with socks on for a few weeks up to the wedding to try to break them in! I switched to Kate Spade sparkle sneakers for the reception.
The handsome groom
Idan looks amazing in blue, so we had a custom Enzo Custom navy blue tux made for him. I could not stop looking at him when he first put it on at the designer, and he felt really good in it too! For shoes, he wore Ted Baker tux shoes.
The groomsmen wore black tuxes, so Idan stood out a bit amongst them! He let them wear their own tux if they wanted to; otherwise they rented from Men’s Wearhouse.
Bridesmaids
I had 10 bridesmaids, and they wore lovely Jenny Yoo velvet dresses in French blue. I let all of them choose which silhouette they wanted to wear because I wanted them to feel comfortable! And they could wear whatever jewelry and shoes they wanted, as long as it made them feel good.
Ceremony
Our ceremony was a pretty standard Conservative Jewish ceremony, but one thing I will never forget is that there were geese along the course that day and they were honking throughout the whole ceremony! It was hilarious and brought some lightheartedness. We loved it.
We also had vellum paper bags made and stuffed them with rose petals for guests to toss as we walked back down the aisle as husband and wife. That was really fun and made for some great pictures!
Ketubah
We searched for months and months to find the perfect ketubah. My 101-year-old grandmother bought it for us as our wedding gift, so it was going to be even more significant than a ketubah already is! I had all but given up and settled on a ketubah that I thought was okay, until I found ours on Etsy.
Noa Attias was the designer, and she was so lovely to work with. The ketubah came out absolutely stunning, and even our framer in NYC said it’s the most beautiful ketubah he’s ever seen (and that is saying something for an Upper West Side framer!). We display it so proudly in our home now.
Chuppah
Our chuppah was easy; I trusted my florist and told her what I was envisioning and she delivered! It took very little direction on my end.
Music Choice
For the ceremony, we had my cousin Noah play acoustic guitar. For the bridal party, he played ‘God Only Knows’ by The Beach Boys. For me walking down the aisle, he played ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ by Elvis. It was really special to have him play guitar for us since he’s family!
For our first dance, we chose ‘Bloom’ by The Paper Kites. I’ve always loved that song, but when Idan heard it for the first time and looked at me with tears in his eyes, we both knew it was perfect for us. We took ballroom dance lessons in NYC and that was one of the most fun parts of wedding planning!
Flowers
We chose the fabulous Sarah’s Garden, and absolutely loved working with her. She understood my vision from day 1, and was very communicative and thoughtful. I can’t recommend her enough!
Photographer and videographer
For our photographer, we chose Rachael Koscica Photography. I’ve known Rachael since high school, and have been following her career ever since. I always knew I wanted her to photograph my wedding one day! She actually flew out to NYC for a day to take our engagement photos, which was pure magic. Rachael perfectly captured our day and we will cherish the photos for the rest of our lives.
Our videographer was The Good Vibe Media. They had done one of our friend’s weddings and did a wonderful job, so we chose them as well and are very happy that we did!
Food and Cake
Our venue did our catering, and we did have a cake by Honeymoon Sweets! We added on a Viennese table with New York-themed desserts like black & white cookies and cannoli’s. We didn’t even get to try them because they went so quickly!
Entertainment
We chose a DJ. We wanted certain Jewish and Israeli songs to be played, and a band just couldn’t have done that! We also had been to so many weddings in the last year that had a band, and wanted to be a little different. We were very happy with our choice! We used 602 Weddings.
DIY details
I DIY’d almost every single thing for the wedding, which was a huge undertaking that ended up completely paying off! I created all of our escort cards as well as an escort card wall, I wrote out our bar menus on marble using pen and ink, I made door hangers for our hotel guests, I monogrammed all the bridesmaids’ pajamas, I printed and cut out all of our flip flop tags, and even customized a white leather jacket with our wedding date in roman numerals. You can see all the details of these projects here!
Honeymoon
We were supposed to go to Italy but unfortunately had to cancel due to COVID-19. We’ll go one day!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Just do what YOU want! Every single person will have an opinion on every detail of your wedding. Do what feels right to you and your fiancé, and it will all be okay! Trust your gut, and you’ll have the best wedding ever.
AUDREY & IDAN’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Rachael Koscica Photography
Videography – The Good Vibe Media
Ketubah – Noa Attias {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Month-of Coordinator: Coco Collective
Venue – Gainey Ranch Golf Club
Bride’s dress – Jenny Yoo found at BHLDN
Bride’s dress alterations – Hallak Cleaners (NYC)
Bride’s shoes – Badgley Mishka
Bride’s accessories – Twigs & Honey
Groom’s attire – Enzo Custom, Ted Baker
Bridesmaids – Jenny Yoo
Hair + Makeup – Ashley Doran, Emily Hughes
Flowers – Sarah’s Garden
DJ – 602 Weddings
Catering – Gainey Ranch Golf Club
Cake and Dessert Table – Honeymoon Sweets
Stationery/Invitation – Nicole Davis
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.
