A Galia Lahav Bride for a Multicultural Korean Jewish Wedding at Villa Nona, Caesarea, Israel

 
How We Met

Diana, the bride: Jonathan was born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel but moved to Vegas over a decade ago. We met while he was living there and I was living in Seattle. We dated long distance for several years then I made the move to Vegas in late 2019, right before COVID hit. We got engaged on my birthday in 2021, and decided to move back to Washington together.

A Wedding in Israel

We decided early on that we wanted to have the wedding in Israel, as that’s where all of Jonathan’s family lives. He has a very large immediate family and it was really important that both of our families be able to attend.

We started looking at venues right away, but had a difficult time finding something we liked. Design and aesthetics are so important to us- in all aspects of life. I knew exactly what I wanted, but it took quite some time to find the right venue. We looked at dozens of venues throughout Israel, and were honestly starting to lose hope that we would find something that was a good fit for us. I stumbled upon Villa Nona on Instagram.

After just a few photos, I knew right away that it was what we had been waiting for. It is a more intimate space than many of the other venues available in Israel, and Jonathan and I knew that we wanted our wedding to be mostly immediate family and close friends. We FaceTimed with our planner Yael, saw photos and videos, but didn’t see the venue in real life until the week before the wedding. Even after looking at every single photo I could find online, when we saw it in person we were blown away. The venue is so incredibly special, and Eli and his team do such an amazing job with everything.

A Fab Planner

I am very much a planner by nature and felt very confident we could handle all of the planning on our own. We started reaching out to venues and event designers right away. I quickly realized that with the time difference, the language barrier at times, and overall cultural differences in the way that things are done made the process much more complicated than I originally anticipated. To add to that – due to the pandemic, Israel’s borders were still closed to non citizens so we were unable to plan a trip together to see anything or meet with any potential vendors.

In May 2021 Jonathan was finally planning a trip back home to visit his family when, due to unforeseen circumstances, he had to postpone his trip. We were devastated, as we had already planned out some venue tours, meetings with potential vendors, etc. Ultimately, he was able to go just a few weeks later and during his time there was able to tour a few venues – with me on FaceTime. Planning a destination wedding in the middle of a pandemic was certainly one of the hardest things we have ever done.

We were introduced to Yael Kfir Frumkes through someone we knew, and knew we needed her. Even though we had already met and had been in discussions with several potential vendors, once we met Yael we realized how little progress we had actually made. Once we started working with Yael, she fully understood my inspiration and helped us navigate our way through finding the perfect vendors to execute our vision. Our overall style and aesthetic was neutral colors and very mediterranean.

I wanted it to look very romantic with tons of neutral florals and greenery. Villa Nona has incredible olive trees and grape vines all throughout the property, the building itself is so gorgeous with the overall neutral colors and brick.

Invitations + Stationery

The two design aspects that were most important to me were flowers and graphics. Jonathan’s dad and his wife are both in advertising and have backgrounds in graphic design – they graciously offered to help us with all the graphics for the wedding. We drove them crazy with hundreds of rounds of edits, but in the end everything turned out so perfectly. We worked very closely with him to design the welcome sign, seating chart, food and drink menus, place cards, etc. This was very special to us, and he was excited to take part in the wedding planning process from so far away.

Hair + Makeup

I am so beyond grateful for Ariel Drimer, my hair stylist, and Limor Kabir, my makeup artist. As we were planning the entire wedding from Seattle, I had my initial meeting with both of them via Zoom. was particularly nervous about makeup as doing makeup on an Asian face is so different and likely not something that most Israeli artists have experience in. I am so happy with my choice in both my hair and makeup artists. They both fully understood what I wanted and went above and beyond throughout the day to make sure I always looked and felt my best. They also did my mom and sisters’ hair and makeup.

A Galia Lahav Dress

I had no idea where to start when it came to shopping for a wedding dress – I was oblivious about the process as far as the dress being made, alterations, etc. I made appointments at a few different shops that I had heard of in Seattle, and am so glad I listened to the stylists who recommended trying on a variety of dresses. What I thought I would like when I first started shopping just did not suit me when I tried them on. Prior to my first appointment at Nyanza Bridal, I had browsed their website to see the designers and styles available there. A few dresses by Galia Lahav, surprisingly, caught my eye and I decided to try them on at the appointment.

My usual style is very minimalist, modern, simple, and monochromatic. I know it is so cliche but as soon as I put on the “Maya” I really felt different – it was so unlike anything I had ever worn before. It was the exact opposite of my style – it was embellished, very feminine, and form fitting. I decided I wanted to keep looking at other options, but that dress was always in the back of my mind. A few weeks later I made my second appointment at Nyanza to try a few of my favorites on again. Once I put the “Maya” back on, I knew right away that it was THE dress. Coincidentally, Galia Lahav is an Israeli designer so my dress was made in Israel.

Ashley at Nyanza was so incredible throughout the entire process – she is so knowledgeable and guided me through every step. As the dress was being handmade in Israel, it took about six months from the day I ordered to the day it arrived in Seattle. After that, there were a few changes I wanted to make to the dress so we did three rounds of alterations with the seamstress Julia to get it just right. One piece of advice I have for brides – start shopping early!

Even if you think you have a lot of time and think it will be easy to find your dress, it can be a very long process depending on what type of dress and where your designer is based. Julia also custom made my veil for me. My second dress was a silk wrap dress by Zimmermann.

Accessories + Shoes

I wanted to have shoes that didn’t overpower the dress, as the dress itself was very intricate and special. I knew that I wanted to wear Amina Muaddi shoes – she is one of my favorite footwear designers and her heels are such statement pieces but also incredibly comfortable. Many of her pieces are produced in such limited quantities, and can be very difficult to purchase in my size. I patiently searched everywhere, and finally found a pair of her AWGE collab Flacko white leather heels in my size that worked well with both of my dresses. My veil was handmade for me by Julia , the seamstress at Nyanza Bridal.

Bridesmaids

We decided early on not to have bridesmaids or groomsmen. With our wedding being in Israel, and the wedding guests being such a mix of people from all over the world we wanted to make sure that our friends could enjoy their time with their friends or significant others at the wedding. Our wedding was not only to celebrate us but also an opportunity for my family and many of our friends to enjoy a place that is so special to us.

Ceremony & Chuppah

It was so important from the very beginning that we incorporate traditions from both of our cultures into the wedding festivities. We knew for sure that we would have an Israeli Jewish chuppah ceremony. This was quite easy to plan, as we had all the resources we could possibly need and more with the wedding being in Israel. We wanted to keep the ceremony somewhat traditional, while making sure it felt like “us”. We had an incredible officiant named Doron who understood this would be somewhat of a unique wedding by Israeli standards, and was able to tailor the ceremony to fit our style.

Jonathan’s father and one of his closest friends, Magon, gave speeches during the ceremony. We had both of our families with us under the Chuppah, which was very special and important to us.

When it came to incorporating Korean cultures into the wedding ceremony we had a harder time deciding exactly what to do and how to do it. Trying to plan a traditional Korean Pyebaek ceremony in Israel proved to be a challenge. It was incredibly difficult trying to find the right traditional props (table, dishes, tea set), the right foods, or even people to help facilitate. We faced several setbacks, but in the end my incredible friends Erica, Julie, and Christy stepped in to help.

With the help of our incredible design team at Ido Frid, our amazing event producer Yael, and my friends, we were able to pull it all together in the end. It meant so much to me to be able to incorporate these traditions into our ceremony, and share this moment with my family as well as Jonathan’s. We had our Ketubah right before the ceremony, with both of our parents as well as Jonathan’s best friend Tal and my best friend James.

Our music choice

We both love Frank Sinatra and decided we wanted to walk down the aisle to ‘Fly Me to the Moon’. However we wanted to do something a little different and Jonathan came up with the idea to ask his younger sister to sing it live. Jonathan’s friend Magon happens to be a music producer and musician, and he agreed to help us produce the music. We kept this all a secret from everyone except our DJ and Yael until the wedding. Our DJ Shahar Ronen was amazing. Like all of our vendors, we were only able to meet via Zoom until we arrived in Israel the week before the wedding. He understood our vibe, and we had a mix of Israeli, Korean, and American music.

Flowers

I wanted a lot of florals at our wedding, and had a very specific style in mind. We had white and off white flowers with greenery in neutral vases covering the tables. Ido Frid and his team did an incredible job designing the tables with beautiful arrangements throughout, complemented by candles. We rented all of our tableware from Tres Tableware – they have a beautiful selection of neutral ceramics that really worked well with our design. Ido Frid and his team also created the most incredible floral arrangements for the front entrance, bar, for our welcome signs, and designed our entire Chuppah.

Photographer and videographer

Shai Ashkenazi is so incredibly talented and has such a great eye. We loved his work right away. He is very passionate about his work and it really shows in the photographs. We were absolutely blown away when we received our wedding photos back. We could not be any happier with our choice. As far as a videographer, Nir Tenenbaum – we had not thought about hiring one, but after talking to Yael about it we decided to and are so glad we did. We will forever cherish these videos.

Food and cake

We wanted to keep our wedding food menu as authentic to Israel as possible. Eli at Villa Nona really went out of his way to create a special menu for us to highlight the very unique flavors and different cultures found in Israel. So many of our guests were raving about how amazing the food was. Shira of Sweet Shira was so accommodating and incredible to work with – we can’t recommend her enough. In Israel, the cake is not a staple of every wedding like it is in the U.S. She went above and beyond to make create a very unique and beautiful cake for us – we had one tier of olive oil cake with lemon, and one Malabi with pistachios.

Honeymoon

We are going on a belated honeymoon. We are traveling around the Puglia region of Italy – Cisternino, Ostuni, Salento and ending the trip in Naples.

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Start planning early and stay organized. Don’t try to do it all yourself, especially if you are having a destination wedding like we did. Hire a planner – it is so worth it. Details are important, but don’t get too carried away with the small things. The wedding itself will go by so fast so make sure to really spend time with your friends and family and let your vendors and planner take care of the rest.

DIANA & JONATHAN’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK

Photography – Shai Ashkenazi
Videography – Nir Tenenbaum
Wedding planner – Yael Kfir Frumkes
Venue – Villa Nona
Bride’s dress –  Galia Lahav found at Nyanza Bridal
Second Dress – Zimmermann
Bride’s shoes – Amina Muaddi
Bride’s accessories – Nyanza Bridal
Hair + Makeup – Ariel Drimer, Limor Kabir
Flowers – Ido Frid
DJ – DJ Shahar Ronen
Catering – Villa Nona
Cake – Sweet Shira
Bridal alterations – Julia
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