Today’s very special wedding showcases Israel at its absolute best – its beauty, its diversity, its abundance of beautiful traditions, and, above all, the spirit of its people. Bride Ari, a freelance writer is a Sephardic Jew who made aliyah from the US, while groom Angelo, who’s in the process of becoming a detective with the Israeli Police, is Bedouin – and their wedding was all about blending their two cultures into a heartfelt (and stylish!) celebration of their love for each other, their friends and families, and Israel.
The merging of these two cultures was beautiful, but it wasn’t easy. While it was important to them to have Jewish ceremony, they weren’t able to have a Rabbinute wedding, so they turned to the organization Havaya to find an officiant who helped them craft an utra-personal ceremony. As for aesthetics, in Ari’s words, the couple’s theme was “trying to find ways to include both of our cultures in a way that didn’t look like the Ottoman Empire threw up all over the place.”
To quote the couple,
Absolutely none of this would have been possible (including the general maintaining of our sanity) without our amazing wedding planner, Yana from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Craspedia Events. I think a lot of people say that about their wedding planner but they can’t possibly mean it as much as we do. It’s not easy being a mixed couple and all the drama that dredges up while wedding planning. Yana truly helped us navigate every step of the way and we are endlessly grateful to her and now she’s stuck with us forever.
This wedding was so full of ultra-personal touches it’s hard to know where to start – but one thing we adore is Ari and Angelo’s choice to stand under their chuppah wrapped in a shmakh (Bedouin keffiyeh), to represent the bringing together of their two cultures – and instead of the traditional red or black color scheme, they went for blue to represent Judaism and their love of Israel. Don’t miss it in the incredible photos by Yarin Taranos.
Now over to Ari…
How We Met
Ari, the bride: We met in 2017 during just a random night out. Ari made plans to go out with a friend she bartended with and that friend brought his work friends, including Angelo. We both remember making a note of the date because it felt important.
The Perfect Venue
We got married at Bustan in Abu Ghosh, Israel. Originally, we wanted to get married in the woods at Ari’s parents’ place outside of Seattle but we didn’t want to wait for the visa process. We’re glad we made that choice too because it ended up really being our dream venue and the staff was a big part of why our wedding was as fun and special as it was. Picking it was very easy; we showed our wedding planner what Ari’s parents’ venue looks like and she immediately thought of Bustan. It was actually the only venue we even visited.
A Multicultural Wedding
Well, Ari is Sephardic and Angelo is Bedouin so we didn’t really have a theme beyond trying to find ways to include both of our cultures in a way that didn’t look like the Ottoman Empire threw up all over the place. Our venue was full of greenery and romantic lighting so we mostly focused on adding pops of color and personal details.
We had the idea early on to use traditional Bedouin embroidery fabrics for Angelo’s suit details and as table runners but finding said fabrics ended up being quite an undertaking. After many phone calls and a tailor going to Nablus for us, we managed to make it happen and we’re so glad we did because we love how everything looked together.
Absolutely none of this would have been possible (including the general maintaining of our sanity) without our amazing wedding planner, Yana from Craspedia Events. I think a lot of people say that about their wedding planner but they can’t possibly mean it as much as we do.
It’s not easy being a mixed couple and all the drama that dredges up while wedding planning. Yana truly helped us navigate every step of the way and we are endlessly grateful to her and now she’s stuck with us forever.
Invitation
Ari designed our invitations on Canva because she insisted we couldn’t just use English and Hebrew but needed to include Arabic and Ladino as well. We used Postable to send them out in the US and then made a separate video invite we sent out to friends and family in Israel.
Hair + Makeup
I knew I needed to be realistic about my hair. Curls never seem to hold, even when done by professionals and I didn’t want to end up sweaty with my hair in a messy bun by the end of the night. I tend to wear my hair in braids a lot so it just felt fitting for my stylist to start playing around from there. Makeup I knew I wanted more than a natural look without going completely glam and my wedding planner knew the right person to send me – Uzi Ellie.
I was really glad I opted to have my makeup artist, Marina Achari, stay until the reception so she was there to give me touchups before the chuppah and with the outfit change. Even without September being so sweaty, with all the pictures and hugs throughout the day, touch-ups were a necessity.
Dresses
I had two dresses. I knew I wanted a wedding dress that wasn’t just a white version of something I would wear somewhere else, but I also know I change my clothes 3-4 times a day and like to dance all night at weddings so I planned accordingly.
My dress for the ceremony was from Clair Bridal. I actually had a feeling it was the one as soon as I saw it on the rack which surprised me. I honestly went into that fitting thinking I was gathering ideas to take to a seamstress because I just hadn’t been excited about anything I saw and felt like everything kind of looked the same.
I knew I wanted a gold-lined veil and so many dresses had silver accents I was losing hope. So when I saw a dress in the silhouette I wanted that had more of a blush/beige color to it, I couldn’t wait to try it on. I think everyone in the room knew that was the one when I came out in it. Clair Bridal custom makes each dress so I also opted to add a layer of sparkle to the skirt which I loved because it made my dress feel more unique to me.
For my outfit change, I did go find that seamstress. I’d long known I wanted to include traditional Sephardic embroidery in my wedding somehow so decided to use a second dress as the way to make that dream come true. Eden Tayar was recommended to me and not only have I since befriended and grown to adore her, but she really made my vision come to life.
I went to her with a general idea that I wanted a long skirt and a crop top but make it Sephardi. We lucked out on a trip to Nachalat Binyamin and found the perfect embroidery fabric which Eden then cut into pieces, and flawlessly hand-sewed onto the bodice and part of the skirt pieces she made from scratch. I really can’t say enough what a great job she did. I love how it came out and it felt so special to be able to include that traditional element.
Accessories
Veil: I really wanted a gold-trimmed veil in honor of traditional Sephardic veils with their gold coins and other gold embellishments. I knew it might be a bit of a task but I was able to find a seller on Etsy who makes custom veils and I’m so happy with how it came out.
Jewelry: the only jewelry I wore for the chuppah was gold hamsa stud earrings. For my outfit change, I added my gold bracelets and of course, a small pile of gold Judaica necklaces because Sephardi. I also had a necklace made with my husband’s last name in Hebrew that had an evil eye.
Shoes
Shoes for the chuppah: Badgley Mishchka flats that we’re so comfortable I could have worn them all night Shoes for the reception: I took white vans to the seamstress who made my second outfit and had her add accents from the same Bedouin fabric we used for Angelo’s suit lapels.
Bridesmaids
No bridesmaids. I’m sorry but almost every time I’ve been a bridesmaid has been miserable. I didn’t want to subject my friends to it and I didn’t want to subject myself to the extra back and forth and decision making. I gave my immediate family and closest friends a large, 20-something color palette of rosy neutrals and told them they could wear a dress in any fabric, any style they wanted, just try to keep it in that general range of shades.
I thought I was making it easy for them but it ended up being a bit harder than expected finding the right colors. That being said, they did great in the end because I thought everyone looked really good together in the pictures.
Ceremony & Chuppah
As a mixed couple, we can’t have a Rabbinute wedding (but that doesn’t mean it’s not in our future.) A Jewish ceremony was important to us though so we used the organization Havaya to find our officiant, and we adored him. We met with him multiple times to go through the ceremony, discuss the historical and spiritual meanings of everything, and decide just how traditional or religious we wanted the ceremony to be.
For the chuppah, it was important for us to include our families but equally important was including our chosen family. When you make Aliyah or make life decisions that are different from what the rest of your family has done, building that chosen family is crucial. We wanted our wedding to be about us, but it was also a testament to our chosen family and thanking them for all of their love and support over the years.
To do so, we doubled up on who we asked to give the seven blessings. Ari’s family doesn’t speak Hebrew so we had people come up in pairs; one person to read the blessing in Hebrew and one in English. It was probably our favorite part of the ceremony. Having so many of our favorite people join us under the chuppah to give their blessing was so beautiful. You could feel everyone’s excitement and energy which really made the moment that much more special.
Ketubah
Admittedly, we procrastinated a bit longer than we should have on picking out a ketubah. Then we found one we were in love with….only to find out the artist was abroad until the day after our wedding. So our ketubah choice ended up being a bit rushed and everyone involved went into signing knowing this one was a temporary placeholder until the artist got back to town.
Which is good because we definitely spilled something on it somewhere along the way of post-wedding haze. Anyone reading this who knows us is probably nodding and laughing, thinking, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”
Our music choice
We had a DJ who we thought was surely going to think we were crazy once she saw the playlist we sent her to give an idea of our vibe. Which is…chaotic because we have wildly different music tastes. Angelo walked down the aisle to ‘Habib Galbi’ by A-WA and Ari walked down the aisle to a cover of Hillary Duff’s ‘This is What Dream’s Are Made of.’ The music ranged from old ladino songs to Mizrahi music to Arabic music to 2000’s hip hop and somehow (magically) DJ Ariella made it all flow perfectly.
Flowers
I told Yana and the design team I wanted the florals colorful and showed them a few pictures from Pinterest. They sent me an example picture to confirm and I said “look’s great!” Couldn’t even tell you which flowers were there lol. They did make me a bouquet to send home with me and the next day I realized how much I loved them and frantically started trying to dry them. Now I just need to decide what to do with them so if you have any pressed flower artists in Israel, I’m looking for ideas and artist recommendations!
Photographer and videographer
Our wedding planner gave us a list of photographers she trusts and thought we’d like. We immediately loved one, and only one, from the list and that was Yarin Taranos. Thankfully, he’s as wonderful as his work is and we felt so comfortable with him. He knew pictures we wanted that we didn’t know we wanted so we definitely made the right choice. Yarin also has a videographer that he works with, Andrew Pevzner, so it was all a very easy choice for us.
We also had a livestreamer so our loved ones who couldn’t make it in-person could still join us. We got rave reviews from everyone about it because they got to see things you wouldn’t usually see as a regular wedding guest like signing the ketubah, etc. and now it’s there for us to watch whenever we want!
Food
Food was the only thing Angelo really cared about. In Israel, the only thing people remember about your wedding is the food. Our venue includes catering which made us a little nervous at first because what if we didn’t like the food after being so in love with our venue? Thankfully, their chef is as amazing as the rest of the venue staff and we’ve had multiple people tell us it’s the best food they’ve ever had at a wedding.
Extra Details
We did a few things to put a unique touch on our wedding. In place of a tallit under the chuppah, we wrapped ourselves in a shmakh (Bedouin keffiyeh) to represent the bringing together of our two cultures. Instead of the traditional red or black, we chose a blue one to represent Judaism and our love of Israel. I was determined to come up with a wedding favor that people would actually want, even though Yana repeatedly told me most people won’t take them.
On top of custom kippot (embossed, suede), we had custom lighters (for both the stoners and the shabbat candles!) and gold-trimmed evil eye ornaments. Our design team displayed the evil eyes so beautifully that I would have been fine if it was just part of the decor and no one took any of them. That being said, I’m proud to say we had no leftovers of any of these items. We are big enough dog people that we were repeatedly asked if the dogs would be there.
Our venue actually encouraged us to bring them but that was more chaos than we wanted to deal. So I found an artist on Etsy to draw the dogs and we used the drawing for our table numbers. Angelo also did a bit of an outfit change where he switched into a t-shirt, which we also had detailed with Bedouin embroidery fabrics.
Another tidbit is that we got traditional Bedouin marriage tattoos, which are the three dots you see on each of our right hand and had a small henna with Angelo’s family up north which was a lot of fun. A bit of a culture shock for the Americans, but that just makes it extra fun, right?
Honeymoon
Sadly, it looks like we are not getting a honeymoon. Initially, we were going to go to Morocco and then the week we were going to book it, Morocco had a huge earthquake and it didn’t feel right to go. Then as we were making new plans, October 7th happened and well, pretty much our entire world changed. Now there’s a travel warning for Israelis abroad and honestly, we can’t imagine being anywhere else right now and being away from Am Israel when so much is happening.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Wow. It is as stressful and dredging up of any childhood trauma as people warn you about; take it on as a team and not out on each other. Choose vendors you’d enjoy hanging out with after the wedding. When hemming your dress, don’t let the seamstress ask you to hold any of the layers up and out of her way. It’s your wedding, don’t do anything you don’t want to do. If you usually hate sitting through speeches at weddings, don’t have any!
ARI & ANGELO’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Yarin Taranos
Planner – Craspedia Events {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Videogarphy – Andrew Pevzner
Venue – Bustan
Bride’s dress – Clair Bridal
Bride’s shoes – Badgley Mishchka
Bride’s accessories – Etsy
Reception dress – Eden Tayar
Hair + Makeup – Uzi Ellie, Marina Achari
DJ – DJ Ariella
Floral design – Rachel Rosenbach
Catering – Bustan
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.
