Planning a wedding during COVID isn’t easy. You’ve got to be prepared to roll with the punches, make last-minute changes, and generally have a wedding that might look pretty different than the one you’d had your heart set on.
But even with all that, some of the Jewish weddings we’ve seen that have been most affected by the pandemic have also been among the most stunning – ever. Take the fabulous Israeli nuptials of Tash, who works for an online glasses company doing customer service, and Nick, who does marketing and events for a healthcare software provider. These two made aliyah in 2021, and while they wanted to celebrate in their new home, travel restrictions made it uncertain as to whether overseas loved ones would be able to make it.
And even though plenty of things didn’t quite go to plan – the couple went through several changes of venue before settling on the fabulous Caesar Yam; their guest list went from 200 to 65, and some friends and family joined in via livestream rather than in person – this day was nothing short of magnificent.
We’re in love with the beachy, nautical décor – and how gorgeous is that stunning white floral chuppah? – and for all the challenges leading up to the day, there was clearly so much joy and love. Don’t miss the incredible photos from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Herschel Gutman, who the couple report was a delight to work with, as always.
Now over to Tash…
How we Met
Tash, the bride: We met on an app called J Crush in November 2014. Nick was on a year abroad in Paris as part of his degree with Aston University in Birmingham, and I was in my second year at University of Leeds. We spent the first year of our relationship meeting in either Paris, Leeds, Scotland (Nick’s hometown) and London (my hometown) so it was an adventure from the start.
Beach Wedding
We got married in Caesar Yam, in Caesarea (North Israel). We had changed venue twice and changed our date once due to restrictions with Coronavirus.
The reason we decided to have our final venue as Caesar Yam is because we simply fell in love with it. It is situated in the Roman ruins and our chuppah was right on the water and this was our main requirement, we were desperate to get married at sunset with the water behind us.
Caesar Yam was also very flexible with numbers, and this was very important to us as we really had no idea until the very last minute what the restrictions would be with Israel and tourism. It turned out to be a wedding of 65 people and it was truly incredible. Originally, we thought it would be a wedding of around 180 – 200 and of course we were so upset that some close friends and family could not be there, but we didn’t want to postpone again.
Our wedding was perfect for us and the venue was just beautiful. As we did have a small crowd, we were able to do everything outside from the chuppah, to dinner and dancing so this was amazing as this wouldn’t have been possible with more guests.
Fresh Vibes
We used an English wedding planner, Joan Summerfield from Anglo-Israel Events. Joan recommended the venue to us as well as our incredibly talented wedding designer – Yahav Green. She also recommended our photographer – Herschel Gutman.
Regarding the theme, I wanted a very fresh wedding and not too many colours, especially as the venue speaks for itself. We went with white flowers and a rustic chuppah and we got married under Nick’s late grandfathers talit which was very special. We also had some couches which people could sit on during the reception or the dancing and these had some dark blue cushions, this matched our napkins too. Yahav also provided us with a surfboard to hang our guests’ names and table numbers – this was one of the few requirements from Nick!
Invitations + stationery
Hazel Tenby, based in Glasgow designed our invitations. Shortly after we got engaged I found the design on Pinterest. It was in the design of a boarding pass and passport which of course, is very fitting for an overseas wedding. Hazel designed the invitations perfectly and madding them more ‘weddingy’ on a pearlized card with a satin bow. Hazel also made us benchers to match, which was super nice as it all kept to the same theme. Hazel was so easy to work with and really listened to everything we wanted.
Hair + Make-up
One of my close friends recommended my hair and makeup artist to me. I had the incredible Leah Neppe for my hair, and Jaquelyn Lawrence for my makeup. Leah was so helpful from the start as I had a vision for my hair. We met up in Jerusalem so she could match my hair colour to extensions, and she really was amazing and a pleasure to work with, she also did the hair for my sister in laws sheital.
Jaquelyn Lawrence came to my parents’ apartment in Netanya a couple of months before the wedding for a makeup trial. She is truly talented, and I trusted her with everything. Jaquelyn also did the makeup for my mother, grandmother, sister-in-law and did some braids and flowers in my nieces hair. Both Jaquelyn and Leah were amazing to be around on my special day and kept me calm. My hair and makeup stayed pretty much perfect the entire night!
Dress
My dress was from Morgan Davies, in London. Shortly after Nick and I got engaged my mum and me went dress shopping to a couple of boutiques. Morgan Davies was the second shop I went into. I had tried on a few dresses, and I saw my one out of the corner of my eye and told the helpful assistant, Sarah, that I wanted to try it on. The second I put it on, I just knew it was “the one.”
We then went back to the shop a couple of weeks later, just before the lockdown started in March 2021, to show my grandparents my dress. From their reaction alone, I was even more certain it was the perfect dress for me. Herschel managed to capture the faces of my immediate family when I was in my dress for the first time, and the picture really does speak a thousand words.
Accessories
I never wear earrings, so I didn’t want to wear any on my big day. I didn’t wear any jewellery other than my ring which I really liked as it felt extra special. I ordered a few hair accessories on Amazon, on the day I decided which one to wear and gave the others to my nieces and they wore them in their hair. Mine was a simple bow made of little pearls. I always wore a bow as a young child so having a bow in my hair was special to me.
Shoes
I went to a shop in Jaffa for my shoes where on the shelves there are lots of samples and then they make them exactly for you, from the height of the heel, to the thickness of the heel, to the strap and design around your toes, as well as the colour. The shop was called Maystro and my shoes were SO comfortable, they were cushioned on the sole. They were quite a thick heel as I had to walk down concrete stairs before the aisle so I couldn’t have a thin heel.
I also bought some white patent trainers from Puma where the laces could be made into giant bows. I ordered these months before the wedding when I thought we were going to have an after party, but it turns out the whole thing was just one big party with a DJ the whole time due to the smaller venue (rather than a band and then a DJ later as we originally planned). I put my trainers on for the last hour of the wedding and they were amazing (and look great in the pictures)!
The handsome groom
Nick bought his suit in New York when we went a few months prior to the wedding. In true Tash and Nick style, we left suit shopping to the last day of our 5 day trip but he found a beautiful blue suit in Bloomingdales, a few hours before our flight. It was slightly too big, but he got it altered in Israel and it looked amazing. He also wore suede navy shoes which matched perfectly.
Bridesmaids
We were meant to have an army of bridesmaids and page boys, due to Nick having 9 nieces and nephews and I have 4. However, due to Covid restrictions, none of Nicks nieces and nephews were able to come to Israel which was really hard for us. We therefore had 4 as they live in Israel so were luckily able to come. Two bridesmaids aged 6 and 4, one page boy aged 2 and a baby bridesmaid who was 6 months. All the girls wore white puffy dresses and my nephew wore a navy blue suit which was super cute but I don’t think he loved it! My eldest nieces each had a basket with white petals which they threw as they walked down the aisle.
Ceremony
For me, the most important part of the wedding was the chuppah as I had imagined this in my head for so long. We found the most incredible chuppah singer – Tomer Raz, he truly had the most amazing voice. We gave Tomer all the songs we wanted for when people walked down the aisle. We didn’t tell our parents any of the songs as we wanted it to be a surprise.
An extra special touch was my Rabbi from England was able to come out last minute and address us under the chuppah. This was especially meaningful for me as he has known me since I was 6 years old! We got married under Nick’s late grandfathers Talit which was incredibly special for us both.
My favourite part of the ceremony had to be walking around Nick seven times – wow! However another huge highlight had to be walking down the aisle with both of my parents by my side towards Nick. Also, having my grandparents at the wedding was such a blessing that I did not take for granted, so having them walk down the aisle was extremely special.
Ketubah
We got married under the Rabbinical Court in Tel-Aviv and they provided us with our Ketuba. It is in the shape of a book and is beautiful.
Chuppah
We knew we wanted something rustic with white flowers and after seeing Yahav’s designs we knew exactly what we wanted. I also spent a lot of time looking at Pinterest and Instagram for some inspiration.
Our Music Choice
For our chuppah, we chose traditional music such as ‘Boi Kallah’, ‘Bereshit Olam’ and when I walked around Nick, the keyboard player was playing ‘Eishet Chayil’ I walked down the aisle to ‘Can you feel the love tonight?’ It was so beautiful and perfect; I had seen it on a chuppah on YouTube months before and fell in love with it. Our first dance was Ed Sheeran ‘Thinking out Loud’. Before Nick smashed the glass, Tomer Raz sang ‘Im Eshkachech Yerushalayim’ it was incredible, I don’t think there was a dry eye.
For our wedding party, we had a real mix of Israeli music to 60s music. We met with our DJ, Uri Bronfman, about 10 days before the big day to go through song genres and we gave him some songs we wanted, but for the majority of the event he read the crowd and played what he thought was right and it worked!
Flowers
I really wanted plain and simple white flowers with green stems to keep everything fresh and neat. Yahav Green listened to everything and provided such a simple, yet beautiful look throughout the whole venue. We had a walkway towards the aisle and he attached some small white fringe which just looked perfect. My bouquet was a big bouquet full of white hydrangeas. We did not have button holes as weddings in Israel are quite casual so we wanted to keep to a relaxed theme. We also had small and large jars of candles on each of the tables which was another vision of mine.
Photographer and videographer
Our photographer, Herschel Gutman, was amazing. He is South African and super easy and fun to work with. Herschel also recommended the videographer – Yossi Shaked. We also wanted a magnet board for our photos so our guests had memories of our wedding and Herschel recommended someone he worked with for this. Something else which was very important to us was a livestream for our chuppah so our friends and family could tune in and celebrate with us virtually.
Herschel recommended a company to us and we had SO many compliments on how clear the livestream was, our friends and family really felt part of our chuppah by watching it. We are so happy with our photos, they really capture the electric atmosphere from our wedding! We have received our highlights video, not the full video yet. The highlights video is 5 minutes long and I think we have probably watched it about 50 times so far – it is just so amazing!
Food and Cake
Our venue, Caesar Yam, catered for our wedding. We had a food and drink tasting a couple of months prior to the wedding where we got to choose our salads for starters, meats for the main as well as desserts. We had loads of compliments on the food. I did manage to eat something, but not enough! We didn’t get a cake as we didn’t feel it was necessary.
Entertainment
Our extremely talented DJ, Uri Bronfman, recommended us to have a saxophone player. We didn’t ever consider this, but we are so grateful that we listened to Uri’s advice. We had Guy Wittenberg and he was incredible! He played the saxophone and violin throughout the night and it really added to the atmosphere. Our wedding planner, Joan, provided us with fun things throughout the night such as flip flops and novelties on the dance floor. A friend of ours brought with bubble guns which were super fun and a cute extra! The bar at Caesar Yam also provided us with shots and sweets on the bar which was a really nice touch.
Extra details
Before the wedding I spent a lot of time on Etsy and Ali Express. I bought rustic fans that were on each seat for the chuppah, they looked great and most of our guests took them home with them. We also had personalised mints and water bottles on each seat at the chuppah with our names and wedding date. I bought a personalised hanger for my dress and one for Nick’s suit- this looks great in the photos from Herschel and is also such a special keepsake.
I also ordered dressing gowns for all the ladies I was getting ready with (mum, grandmother, sister-in-law). This was fun and special to be getting ready together wearing our gowns. I also bought some personalised gifts on Ali Express and Etsy for close family members, such as personalised cufflinks for my dad, a personalised handkerchief for my mum and mother-in-law, personalised socks for my brother etc.
Something special that we did is we gave each family member a bracha to make under the chuppah for the Sheva Brachot, this was very special for us as we really didn’t know till the last minute whether we would have any family from overseas, so having them there meant we wanted to honour them.
We had a few speeches, not too many. One of Nick’s brothers (he has 3) was the master of ceremony, and he introduced all the speeches and gave guests instructions to sit down etc. This was a really great job. Nick’s other two brothers made a Best Men speech. My dad made a speech and then Nick also made a speech. I was happy we didn’t have too many speeches, and the ones that were made were not too long, but still very funny. I said a few words at the end of the night, mainly thanking our parents for such an incredible day and of course thanking our guests for making it so special.
Honeymoon
Nick and I went to Beresheet two days after the wedding for a night. It is a stunning hotel in Mitzpe Ramon, southern Israel. We went for one night and it was so amazing to just switch off and enjoy time together.
We went on a mini-European honeymoon 10 days after the wedding. We went to Paris, Venice, and Rome. Paris is really meaningful for us as it is the place we spent so much time in at the beginning of our relationship. We really loved our city honeymoon, especially as we live right by the beach. We were also very lucky with the weather and only had to take cover a few times when there was rain.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Honestly, our build up to the wedding was not fun. It was not due to the usual wedding stress, it was purely due to Coronavirus and restrictions with travel. So many decisions had to be last minute as we really had no idea about numbers of guests till very close to the date, so it was very unsettling. Thank goodness we both are positive people and we tried to make the best out of the entire situation.
My advice to future brides would be to not get wrapped up in stuff that isn’t important. The bottom line is, you are marrying your best friend & soulmate and that should be all that matters. For me, that was all that mattered at the end, I didn’t mind about things such as the order of who walked down the aisle and tiny details like that as my end goal was to just get married and have the best day of our lives, which we both can whole heartedly say we did!
TASH & NICK’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Herschel Gutman {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videography – Yossi Shaked
Wedding planner – Joan Summerfield
Venue & Catering – Caesar Yam
Bride’s dress – Morgan Davies
Bride’s shoes – Maystro
Bride’s accessories – Amazon
Groom’s attire – Bloomingdales
Hair – Leah Neppe
Makeup – Jaquelyn Lawrence
Flowers / Design – Yahav Green
DJ – Uri Bronfman
Chuppah Singer – Tomer Raz
Saxaphone – Guy Wittenberg
Invitation – Hazel Tenby
Livestream – Donny at VideoEden
Magnets – Hen Bohadana
Rabbi – Rabbi Andrew Shaw (United Kingdom) & Rabbi Yehuda Salah (Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court)
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.
