There’s nothing like a Chanukah Jewish wedding. The Festival of Lights is such a magical time to get married – which makes it a no brainer that Dvorit, who recently completed a master’s in genetics and now works in the charity sector, and Ollie, an urban planner, chose to wed on the holiday’s last night.
In honor of the holiday, Dvorit and Ollie lit candles, sang Chanukah songs, and even had a donut wall instead of a cake! We’re in love with the way Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Claudine Hartzel captured this joyous celebration in her luminous, natural photos – and videographer CCS Video brings the fab energy of the day to life!
And HOW stunning is the couple’s incredible London venue, Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Hackney Town Hall? These two wanted an ultra-memorable spot to tie the knot, and did they ever find one – the breathtaking atrium, where the chuppah took place, is nothing short of majestic, and Dvorit and Ollie took full advantage of the lift handily located in the atrium to make a dramatic entrance. The bride and her parents entered the chuppah space via the lift before disembarking and walking down the aisle, and at the end of the ceremony the couple exited via the lift as well – talk about a memorable exit!
We’ll let Dvorit fill you in on the rest…
HOW WE MET
Dvorit, the bride: Ollie and I met over 3 years ago when I was visiting my brother and his family here in London (I am from Montreal, Canada, and was studying in New York at the time). Ollie worked with my brother in Bnei Akiva and my sister-in- law suggested Ollie as a potential love interest. We started talking (with Ollie none the wiser what was going on), and started dating 3 months later.
We then did long distance for 2 years (thank god for Facetime!) until I moved to London in September 2018 to do my Masters at UCL. We got engaged in the summer of 2019 when my family was all together in Montreal for my grandfather’s 100th birthday. We then got married on December 29th 2019, on the last night of Chanukah.
Thinking Out of the Box
We got married at Hackney Town Hall. When our wedding planner, Michelle from MA Events, suggested the venue we instantly fell in love. We were looking for somewhere a bit different (rather than the usual synagogue or hotel that our friends had got married in) and this place ticked all our boxes!
We particularly loved the atria where we had the bedeken, chuppah and reception- we fell in love with the brick walls and the natural light coming from the high window ceilings. We also liked the large hall upstairs, and really liked that we could utilise the whole of the building. It was exactly what we were looking for!
A Fab Planner
We met our wedding planner Michelle Aminoff from MA Events while visiting a different wedding venue and hired her right away! She helped us every step of the way and together we planned the most perfect wedding! She was always at the end of the phone for any minor questions or concerns and stepped in during any crisis.
While we didn’t have a specific theme in mind, we both had ideas of what we wanted our wedding to look like, and Michelle helped us put them all together. We could not recommend her enough.
When planning our wedding, we wanted to incorporate both British and Canadian customs, while also doing things ‘our own way’. We tried not to think what the norm is and did what we felt most comfortable with instead.
Invitations
Our invitations were designed by the charity Kisharon Design. We love that they are a charity and that all proceeds went back into supporting those with disabilities in the Jewish community, They were also so helpful with creating the perfect invites (with all our edits!) as well as all our benchers and escort cards.
Hair + Make-up
I chose to get my hair and makeup done by Ayelet Garson. She had done a few of my friends previously and came highly recommended. On the day she brought a team and did mine and my family’s hair and makeup, which turned out amazingly!
I was not afraid to tell her what I did and didn’t like, and she really made sure that I ended up looking exactly how I wanted. She also came to the venue with me and did minor touch ups before and after the chuppah which was so helpful!
Dress
I bought my dress from Forever Bridal. I had tried on gowns with my mother when I was in Montreal, so I knew what style I wanted (lace on top, satin/silk straight on the bottom), so I just went in and found something similar.
They were really amazing and, since they do the alterations directly in the store, were able to make any changes needed. They were so kind throughout and really helped me design my dream dress.
Accessories
I got a veil from Forever Bridal – there were beads on the bottom which matched the embroidery on the belt on my dress, as well as the small touches of glitter that were found in the lace.
For jewellery, I wore my late grandmothers’ bracelet which helped me feel her presence through the whole evening. I also wore my mother’s earrings.
Shoes
Since I did not want to spend so much money on the shoes, I chose to order a pair from Amazon. I was a little sceptical at first but honestly they were so comfy and looked perfect with my dress! They were 4 inch Block Heel Two Piece D’Orsay Ankle Strap Pointed Toe Court Shoes Pumps. I then changed into platform white sneakers from Nasty Gal for the dancing. They were super comfortable and let me dance the whole night!
The handsome groom
Knowing that most of our guests would be wearing black tuxedos, Ollie chose to be a bit different and wear a dark navy tuxedo from Hawes & Curtis.
Bridesmaids
I did not have any bridesmaids, but I did have my sisters (2 sisters and 1 sister-in-law) as well as my 5 nieces as flowers girls and nephew as pageboy/ ring bearer.
My sisters (as well as my mother) wore black (I wanted them all to wear the same colour and really loved how black looked with the black tuxedos), my nieces wore matching white dresses from Monsoon, and my nephew wore a tuxedo.
Ollie’s brother was his best man an walked him down the aisle alongside his mother who then stood under the chuppah with us.
Ceremony
There were so many special moments from our ceremony.
Firstly, there was a lift in the atrium where we performed the ceremony, and of course we had to use it! I came down the lift with my parents (who then walked me down the aisle and stood under the chuppah with us), and Ollie and I went up it together after the ceremony – I will never forget the huge ‘gasp’ from the crowd (we didn’t tell anyone besides our families that we were doing this) when they saw me come down.
Another extremely special thing about our ceremony was that my brother, who is a rabbi, officiated it. This made the entire ceremony so much more special and emotional to both of us since he knows us so well and was able to speak so personally.
Lastly, something so special about the ceremony was that 3 of our grandparents were able to watch the ceremony: my grandfather and Ollie’s grandmother (who unfortunately passed away recently due to COVID) were able to physically be there, and my 100 year old grandfather was able to watch via a live stream. Being surrounded by them and by the rest of our family truly made the ceremony (and the whole wedding) unforgettable.
Ketubah
Our ketubah was given to us by the United Synagogue and it is beautifully designed and something we will cherish.
Chuppah
Alina (our florist) really took the lead for this- we knew that we wanted a minimal amount of flowers so that we were as visible as possible during the ceremony, and, with her help, we chose a more rustic styled chuppah with pink, white and green flowers.
What was extremely special about our chuppah was that we used Ollie’s late fathers Tallit as the top of the chuppah. As he unfortunately was not able to be there on this special day, we wanted to honour him and it was such a great way to bring him in and remind us all that his spirit was there with us.
Music Choice
From the moment we started planning the wedding, we knew that, to us, the band was the most important, so we were so lucky to have found Simon and Creation. He really took charge of the music and, by speaking with us, was able to learn exactly the type of music we wanted. Our friends and family love to dance, so we knew that we would want lots of upbeat music, and Creation’s DJ live definitely brought that!
Our first 2 rounds were classic Jewish music, the 3rd was the ‘pop-Israeli’ music, and after dessert we had some English music. Creation knew exactly what songs fit the crowd, and their renditions of ‘Sweet Caroline’ and ‘Hey Jude’ had everyone up on their chairs!
For the chuppah, we had Rabbi Marc Levene, one of Ollie’s rabbis and close family friend, sing. Ollie and the flower girls/pageboy walked down to ‘Mi Adir’ by Mordechai Shapiro, and I walked down to Yaakov Shwekeys version of ‘Eishet Chayil’. When I was walking around Ollie, Rabbi Levene sang ‘Mi Bon Siach’ to the tune of ‘Can’t help falling in love with you’ by Elvis Presley, and the ceremony ended with him singing Yaakov Shwekeys ‘Im eshkachech’.
For our first dance, we chose an acoustic version of the song ‘Better Half of Me’ by Tom Walker. Ollie and I really loved the words to that song, and the way that Creation performed it was absolutely beautiful. At the end of the song, we had our families join us on the dancefloor which made the moment even more special.
Flowers
Due to loads of recommendations from our friends, we chose to go with Flowers by Alina as our florist. She was incredible! To tell you the truth, we really did not know what we wanted for the flowers (We knew we wanted minimal and to somehow incorporate the flowers ‘baby breath’, but besides that- nothing!)
Alina really helped us figure out what we wanted. We chose pink, white and green flowers for my bouquet (which mirrored the chuppah decorations and the centrepieces) and for the button holes we had baby breathe for the men of the family, and a white rose with baby breathe for the groom.
Photographer and videographer
We met Claudine Hartzel at a wedding fair a few months before our wedding, and after speaking with her and seeing her work, we knew right away that she was the perfect photographer for us. We were quickly able to see how well she captured a mood and a moment and how she used minimal photoshop and editing which gave her photos a really natural look that we really loved.
Claudine offers an engagement shoot prior to the wedding, which not only helped her find our best angles, but helped us to get used to having our picture taken, which really made the whole wedding more enjoyable. During the day she was calm and organized, and which made us relaxed knowing that she would get the best shots (even when we were asking her to take a million different shots at one time!
We received our wedding photos 3 weeks after the wedding and cannot begin to describe how much we love them! The hardest part: choosing which pictures to put in our album!
For our videographer we chose to go with CCS video. We had met Robert at a friend’s wedding and loved how he was able to capture every moment without being in the way. He was incredible on the day of our wedding, and even sent us a 1-minute teaser the day after our wedding, which is incredible. Robert was very enjoyable to work with, and the fact that he was able to capture all the key moments of the wedding is truly incredible!
Food and Cake
For our caterer we chose Itzik Caterers – he was helpful throughout the whole process and made some truly amazing dishes!
In Canada, we have what is called a ‘smorgasbord’, which is a reception that consists of food stations rather than people walking around with plates of food. In order to incorporate both Canada and London into our reception, we chose to have both people walking around with food and food stations- we were told by our guests that it was one of the best receptions they’d ever been to!
As our wedding took place on the last night of Chanukah, we asked Itzik for a donut wall rather than a cake (which was an absolute hit!)
Along with that, Itzik surprised us with a huge tray of sweets which were brought onto the dance floor- a gift from him to say ‘Mazal tov!’. He was such a pleasure to work with.
Entertainment
The only entertainment we had was Creation‘s DJ live package, which came with a handful of band members and 3 live singers. They were really amazing and made the night!
Extra details
There were so many small details in the wedding that made it so special.
Firstly, rather than the traditional family table, we chose to have our own sweetheart table, where the 2 of us sat alone. This was really nice because we were able to take some time during the wedding for just the 2 of us, and it allowed our friends and family to come over and speak with us through the night!
Since it was the last night of Chanukah, we decided it would be nice to light Chanukah candles. After the first round of dancing when everyone sat down, we invited our family to the sweetheart table where Ollie lit the 8 Chanukah candles, and together we sang ‘Hanerot Halalu’ and ‘Maoz Tzur’. This was a truly incredible way to start the night and was something we will always remember.
As I am the youngest child of my family, and the last to get married, at the start of the 2nd round of dancing we decided to do the traditional Yiddush dance the ‘Mezinke’, a dance which celebrates the parents marrying off their last child. What happens is the parents of the ‘last child’ sit on a chair in the middle of the dance floor, and the children, children-in-laws (and in our case, the grandchildren) walk around them in a circle holding brooms, symbolizing the parents sweeping away all their children.
During the dance all the Canadian guests, who flew in specially to celebrate with us and my parents, joined us on the dancefloor, making the moment extremely special for my parents and us (and completely confusing the Brits!)
One of the biggest surprises of the evening was that to end my cousins toast, my family got up and sang their own version of ‘We’re all in This Together’ from High School Musical – or what they called it “D and Ollie’s wedding”. We had no idea it was coming and watching my whole family stand in front of everyone singing lyrics that they wrote themselves and doing the famous dance made us both so happy!
Honeymoon
We decided that we would need a break, so we decided to go to Prague for 5 days a few days after the wedding for a ‘mini-moon’. We stayed at the King David hotel, a kosher hotel near the old city, and spent the whole time just walking around, relaxing and going to the spa. We would highly recommend doing this since it did not require much planning, and it was just so nice to get away right after the craziness of the wedding.
We had planned on going on a honeymoon over the summer (location still not decided), but due to COVID-19 we have decided to postpone until it is safer.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Prior to the wedding, we got so much amazing advice from friends and family. These are the things that stuck with us most leading up to the wedding and on the wedding day itself…
When planning the wedding, there will be a lot of people that have opinions, many of them that will not coincide with what you want or what you had planned. What Ollie and I did before we even started planning the wedding was make a list of 3 things that are most important to you for the wedding.
And then we made sure that these 3 things were exactly how we wanted and didn’t compromise on them. By doing this we made sure that what was most important to us weren’t lost in all the ‘wedding politics’ and also helped us be more lenient and calm about other decisions.
Another really good piece of advice that we got was to take a minute during the wedding, stop, and just look around. Your wedding will probably be the only time in your life that you are surrounded by all the people you love, when everyone has come together to celebrate you.
The wedding day goes by so fast, and it is so important to take a second and just look around the room and take it all in. The whole wedding was such a blur, but we am so happy that we took that moment to feel everything that we were feeling and really focused at everything that was going on.
Lastly: Planning a wedding is so stressful. There is so much to do before the wedding and the lead up to the big day is full of planning, anxiety and stress. So, when the day arrives just ENJOY IT!! You have worked so hard planning the day of your dreams. You have chosen the dress, picked the band, the food and the flowers- everything is done.
On the day of the wedding there is nothing left for you to do, and nothing you can do, so just relax! When something goes wrong, don’t stress over it, because when you look back on the day the things that went wrong will not be what you remember: it will be how great it felt to be able to look at your husband for the first time, how it felt having everyone you love in the same room. This day only happens once, so just have fun!
What ‘Smashing the Glass’ did for us
I definitely spent a lot of time on the Facebook page. Just being able to look on the page and seeing other brides worrying about the same things I was and asking the same questions I had really helped calm me and helped me prepare for the big day.
DVORIT & OLLIE’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Claudine Hartzel {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – CCS video
Venue – Hackney Town Hall
Wedding planner –MA Events
Bride’s dress – Forever Bridal
Bride’s shoes – Amazon, Nasty Gal
Bride’s accessories – Forever Bridal
Groom’s attire – Hawes & Curtis
Bridesmaids (flower girls) – Monsoon
Hair + Makeup – Ayelet Garson
Flowers – Flowers by Alina
Band – Creation
Catering –Itzik Caterers
Ketubah – United Synagogue
Stationery/Invitation –: Kisharon Design
Rabbi – Rabbi Marc Levene and Rav Ari Faust
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