It’s always fun seeing the choices wedding pros make when it comes to planning their own big day. So naturally we were pleased when the Jewish wedding of Ashleigh, who works in finance by day and is a wedding coordinator by night, and Brett, a lawyer, crossed our path!
Floridians Ashleigh and Brett decided to make it official across the country in Palm Springs – partly because, well, it’s gorgeous, and partly as a tribute to the bride’s beloved late grandmother, who adored the desert.
The couple decided to go all in and embrace the vibe of Palm Springs in crafting their day, and we are here for it! Ashleigh says she wanted her day to feel like “an upbeat Lana Del Rey music video,” and does it ever! With touches of Old Hollywood glamour and pops of bright color, this was one stylish day – don’t miss it in the wonderful photos by Anchored Photographs and video from Lady Mouse Productions!
There’s so much more to say – like, how fun is it that Ashleigh and Brett served mini latkes as one of their appetizers during cocktail hour?! – but we’ll let the bride fill you in on the rest…
How we Met
Ashleigh, the bride: We met at the University of Central Florida in 2016. Brett had recently returned back to Orlando after serving as a lone soldier in the IDF, and I had just finished a summer abroad program in Tel Aviv. Our mutual love for Israel was an immediate part of our connection. We met a few times but didn’t have each other’s phone numbers–so I downloaded J-Swipe so that I could easily find him and chat! The rest is history!
A Palm Springs Wedding
We chose to get married at Spencer’s Restaurant in Palm Springs, California. While the restaurant is a well known favourite, their on site wedding venue feels like a hidden gem, tucked in the San Jacinto Mountains.
As Floridians, many people were surprised that we chose to get married on the opposite coast. The location was a special tribute to my grandmother, Sandy who passed away just after I graduated from high school. Growing up, she was my absolute best friend. My grandmother always had a love for the desert—Arizona, Nevada, Utah, etc. That was her happy place. So when it came down to choosing a location for our wedding, the California desert was the perfect place.
California Cool
We didn’t have a theme, but I really wanted to embrace the look and feel of Palm Springs as a whole. With a mix of “California cool,” a hint of Old Hollywood glamour and vibrant pops of colour, I wanted my wedding to feel like it was in an upbeat Lana Del Rey music video.
As a wedding coordinator myself, I knew how important it was to have someone in my corner to help me bring all of my hard work to life. I was so incredibly thankful to work with Shannon and Veronica from Citrus City Events for month of coordination. They really understood my vision, and quite literally saved the day. As I was about to walk down the aisle, my dress and veil got caught and I couldn’t move. Veronica quite literally jumped out of the bushes to free me!
A Grace Loves Lace Dress
My dress was Bonita from Grace Loves Lace. I fell in love with the big, rose print lace, but what really sold me was the comfortability. As my stylist Mackenzie in Denver described it—the dress felt like I was wearing a pair of buttery soft Lululemon leggings. It was breathable, lightweight, easy to bustle, and didn’t have any buttons or zippers to mess with. Truly it was a dream to wear!
Hair + Make-up
Since Palm Springs is in the desert, many artists specialized in a really natural look for weddings. I am so thankful I found Kelsey and Sierra who were more than happy to embrace my wish for a full glam look with large lashes, hair extensions and all! My inspiration was Lana Del Rey and they absolutely perfected my vision!
Bridesmaids
I never in a million years imagined myself having a dozen bridesmaids, but can firmly say it was one of the best decisions I could have made. Since there were so many of them, I knew that choosing one solid colour would most likely look really monotonous, so I created a unique color palette to add depth to the look.
It was a labor of love choosing shades with the exact right undertones–I think it’s one of the wedding decisions that I am most proud of! I chose both warm and cool tones and let each bridesmaid pick the colour that they felt matched their skin tone best!
Ceremony and Chuppah
Our florist designed our beautiful chuppah. I wanted something relatively small and simple because I didn’t want to take away from the breathtaking view of the mountains in the background.
We didn’t have a special family tallit to use, so Gregory went out and picked a beautiful one to hang on the top of our chuppah as a gift to Brett and me. It was so kind and meaningful and I am so thankful that we now have one to cherish for generations to come.
Our ceremony was incredibly important to us because it was the very first Jewish wedding that many of our guests had ever attended. We felt like we had this beautiful responsibility to introduce Jewish traditions to our guests in an approachable and palatable way. That started with working with Rabbi Lindy Reznick. She did an amazing job at really connecting with our guests and explaining the meaning behind each custom.
My favourite part about our ceremony was the fact that so many of our family members got to play a role. Our parents each read a blessing from the Sheva Brachot, our mums wrapped us in the tallit–even Brett’s Aunt Sharon got to be “Vanna White” and presented our ketubah during the ceremony.
Ketubah
Since Israel was a big part of our relationship, we chose a beautiful hand-painted ketubah that featured the skyline of Jerusalem by KetubaHome. There are so many gorgeous ketubahs out there to choose from, but I love that the design felt super personal.
Our Music Choice
Our venue recommended Crowd Control Entertainment who was amazing! They offered lots of great packages to really customize our reception exactly how we wanted it. Brett walked down the aisle with his mom to the instrumental version of ‘In My Life’ by the Beatles.
Our bridal party walked down the aisle to ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love With You’ from the Crazy Rich Asians soundtrack. After watching the movie, one of my bridesmaids and I actually visited Singapore together–so the song was a nice tie in.
Keeping true to my love for Lana Del Rey, I walked down the aisle to the instrumental version of ‘Young and Beautiful’. As huge fans of The Office, it felt only right to have our recessional song be ‘Forever’ by Chris Brown. It was incredibly fun to dance back down the aisle and let loose after such an emotional ceremony!
One of the best highlights from our wedding day was our flower girl–or should I say, flower boy! Just before I walked down the aisle, the song ‘Never Going to Give You Up’ started playing, essentially Rick Rolling the entire crowd. Out popped my younger brother with a fanny pack filled with rose petals. It left everyone in hysterics!
Our first dance was ‘Grow as We Go’ by Ben Platt. I get so anxious doing choreographed dances, but Brett convinced me to take dance classes with him! Needless to say, he’s a much better dancer than I, but the end result was worth it!
Flowers
We worked with Gregory from My Little Flower Shop: Palm Springs, who was incredible! I wanted to use lots of local blooms and colours that played off of the natural beauty of my venue. We chose a mix of bright peonies, roses, and proteas amongst other blooms. The proteas were especially important because they are also native to South Africa where Brett grew up.
To supplement with our floral order, I also ordered two strands of silk bougainvillaea from Something Borrowed Blooms. They’re some of my favourite flowers, but are incredibly finicky to keep alive once cut. The garlands were high quality and allowed me to have the look I was aiming for, without risking wilting flowers!
Photographer and videographer
You know you chose the right vendors when you find yourself standing in a hotel bathroom while your photographer and videographer are on their hands and knees scrubbing the dirt out of the bottom of your wedding dress! That’s true love right there.
When it came to hiring a photographer, the most important consideration was hiring someone who was going to make both Brett and I feel really comfortable in front of the camera. If you think about it, your photographer is the person that you spend the most time with on your wedding day! We chose Shelby from Anchored Photographs who is a college friend of mine.
I knew that she would have the most uplifting and supportive personality on what can be a very overwhelming day. She truly goes above and beyond and makes everyone feel like they are the most important person in the world. We are so grateful that Shelby and her partner Larry captured so many wonderful moments.
Jen & Tom from Lady Mouse Productions were the absolute dream team! They truly took the time to really understand exactly what was important to Brett and I and captured our most important moments with such ease. They were amazing at communication and really let me be a part of the process with our videos.
From the stunning drone footage to the social media “sneak peek” video that they sent not even 24 hours after the wedding—everything about their work made me smile. I loved working with this pair so much that I convinced this L.A. duo to come work a destination wedding in South Florida with me this Spring!
Food and Cake
One of the perks of your wedding venue also being a restaurant was the level of flexibility and choice that we had when designing our menu. One of our favourite small touches of our Jewish wedding was having mini latkes as one of our appetizers during cocktail hour! …But the mini cheese soufflé bites were the crowd pleaser that we are still getting complimented on!
Our cake was from Exquisite Desserts and was delicious! We had two different flavors–one of which was Carrot cake, a family favourite!
Extra details
I decided to put intention into choosing my “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue, for the wedding. And while I had plenty of new components for my wedding, I struggled finding an heirloom. My mum surprised me by giving my florist a few small, dried willow branches from my great grandmother’s tree that I loved so much as a child. He delicately incorporated the branches into my bouquet!
It was really important to have my mum and Brett’s mom involved in the process of wedding planning. They were both super supportive and made the whole process a ton of fun, I don’t know what I would have done without them! I asked both of them to be my “Something Blue” for the wedding. My mum wore a beautiful Dusty Blue lace gown from Azazie, and my mother in law wore a light blue off the shoulder gown by the designer Safiyaa.
A super special moment of the day was having a first look with my dad. He’s always been my biggest fan and I was just so thankful to have a quiet moment amidst the chaos to finally show him my wedding dress!
As a unique detail, I decided to have a first look not only with my dad, but with Brett’s parents as well! I hand wrote them both cards about how much they meant to me and how excited I was to join their family. They opened them right before the first look so you can only imagine how priceless their reactions were!
As my “something borrowed,” my Maid of Honor loaned me her “lucky owl.” This little figurine brought back so many memories. In high school, we would pass this little owl back and forth to one another on days when we had an important test, in the hopes that lucky owl would help us get a good grade!
Instead of having traditional table numbers, we named all of our tables after cities instead! Each one corresponded to an important place in our lives–from where we were born, to where we met, and even where we got engaged!
Before my first look with Brett, I had to add a bit of humor! I convinced one of Brett’s groomsmen, Martin, to take my place and surprise Brett in a wedding gown! We had a longtime running joke while Brett and Martin were in law school together that they were actually the ones in a relationship, so this prank was a full circle moment!
My getting ready location was the beautiful Kimpton Rowan in Downtown Palm Springs. The staff was so accommodating and kind and made sure that I had the most spacious and beautiful room with a balcony! As a unique touch, I decided to take my getting ready photos with my bridesmaids poolside instead of in the room. The photos are candid, playful and some of my very favourite shots!
Advice to other couples planning their wedding
My biggest advice to other couples is to over communicate! Nobody can read your mind, so the more you can explain your thoughts and feelings, the better! One of my biggest fears with both makeup/hair and photo/video is that I am super insecure about my jawline.
It’s random, but unless I made that clear, nobody would know that I don’t like profile style photos or when my hair is behind my ears. I made so many powerpoints and mood boards to communicate my ideas with my vendors and it proved to be very helpful! The more they knew, the better!
ASHLEIGH & BRETT’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Anchored Photographs
Videography – Lady Mouse Productions
Month of coordination – Citrus City Events
Venue – Spencer’s Restaurant
Bride’s dress – Grace Loves Lace
Bridesmaids – Show Me Your Mumu, Birdy Grey, Revelry
Hair + Makeup – Kelsey, Sierra
Flowers – My Little Flower Shop: Palm Springs
Entertainment – Crowd Control Entertainment
Catering – Spencer’s Restaurant
Cake – Exquisite Desserts
Ketubah – KetubaHome
Rabbi – Rabbi Lindy Reznick
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.
