We are totally and completely OBSESSED with the incredible paper flower chuppah featuring in today’s beautiful Jewish wedding. Taylor, a manager of implementation at a software company, and Ross, a manager for sales operations and business development at a finance technology company, wanted to make their big day fun, classy, and a little bit out of the ordinary – and did they ever succeed!
After spotting some chuppahs incorporating giant paper flowers on social media, Taylor knew it was just the thing for her own wedding, and she found the perfect creative partner to pull it off in The Crafty Sagittarius, who brought her vision to life. With giant pink, gold, and taupe paper flowers covering a lucite structure, this chuppah couldn’t possibly be any more delightful. Photographer and videographer Visi Productions captured the chuppah – not to mention the entire day – in all its glory.
We’re also in love with Taylor and Ross’s gorgeous laser cut ketubah, adorned with gold foil and some subtle rhinestones designed by artist Enya Keshet. Like so many STG couples, these two found the ketubah of their dreams via beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com.
There’s much more to say, but we’ll leave it to Taylor – who looked so elegant in Martina Liana– to share all the details…
How we Met
Taylor, the bride: Ross and I met at a Jewish event here in Atlanta, Havinagala. Both of us are originally from up north (Ross from Akron and I’m from Detroit). Ross had moved to Atlanta for work right after college and ended up moving back to Ohio for a few years to work for a new company. They let him move back to Atlanta and we met the same month he moved back!
A Synagogue Wedding
We got married at the synagogue in which I grew up – Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, MI. I have an absolutely wonderful relationship with my rabbi and could not imagine getting married anywhere else – especially since they had just undergone a HUGE, beautiful renovation!
Sparkle
We did not necessarily have a theme to our wedding but we definitely had a color scheme. I am a big sparkle girl so we had a lot of sparkle and all gold and pink. These, coincidentally enough, were also the colors of my bat mitzvah. We wanted something fun, but also classy, and a little out of the ordinary. My mom and I love to decorate and are extremely creative so we did not use a wedding planner, but we did have a day-of team, Party Assurance, that we used.
Invitations
Our invitations were designed at Modern Art Studio in West Bloomfield, MI. They were made by Arlene Segal Designs. We wanted something simple, easy to read, but also that would make a statement. Our favorite part about them was the very subtle sparkle we had in the ink!
Hair + Make-up
The one thing about me, that has always been true about me, is I always regret my hair after I have it done. I know I like myself best with my hair down, and nothing over the top. Because of this, after quite a few hair trials, I went with a simple look. I had my hair down with big barrel curls, tucked back on one side. It was absolutely perfect and done by Hair by Margaret of Mario Max Salon.
As for makeup, I wanted this to be simple as well, but I also wanted it to look like I was wearing makeup! We went simple and pink! My makeup was done by Amy Regal of Glamour Puss.
A Martina Liana Dress
I bought my dress at Bella Bridal and it was designed by Martina Liana. Well before I was ever even engaged I had come across a dress I knew I HAD to have and when it came time for picking out my dress, that one no longer existed. We found the exact shape of the dress at Bella Bridal and Wanda at Wanda’s Perfect Stitch turned it into my dream dress by adding more underskirt and designing the bow that went around my waist.
Accessories
I wanted to stay very understated with jewelry and accessories. The only pieces of jewelry I wore were a bracelet from my mom and my wedding gift from Ross. He bought me diamond earring jackets that went around my late grandma’s pearl earrings. Along with this, Wanda (from Wanda’s Perfect Stitch) designed me a beautiful cathedral length veil.
Shoes
My biggest concern on our wedding day was comfort! For the ceremony I wore wedged Badgley Mischka‘s and they were perfect. After the ceremony I changed into custom wedged Converse sneakers!
The handsome groom
Ross wore a fitted peak lapel tux from Suit Supply with a velvet bow tie and velvet slip on tux loafers. He was definitely looking like a stud!
Bridesmaids
I had 12 bridesmaids that all, except for my sister, the Maid of Honor, wore floor length gowns from Brideside. I gave them the color and allowed them to choose any style. My sister wore a complementary gown by Elie Tahari. The gowns were all a taupey color, to go with the gold of the wedding. I also had matching custom Converse sneakers for them all to change into after the ceremony (this is how I asked them to be my bridesmaids)!
Paper Flower Chuppah
We had quite a few special touches within our ceremony. First, and most certainly our favorite, was our chuppah. I had a vision of giant paper flowers for our chuppah and Anne of The Crafty Sagittarius made this vision totally come to life. We had giant pink, gold, and taupe paper flowers covering a lucite chuppah structure. Covering the structure, we stood under my late grandma’s table cloth.
Along with this, we used talits from both mine and Ross’ late grandfathers during the ceremony. Another fun touch during our ceremony was the song that the cantor sang as we did the 7 circles. He sang ‘All of Me’ in Hebrew, and I also had some of these lyrics engraved into Ross’ wedding band!
Ketubah
Our ketubah was laser cut and adorned with gold foil and some (very subtle) rhinestones. It was designed by Enya Keshet and we found it on ketubah.com.
Chuppah
I had seen a few weddings on social media throughout the years that had incorporated paper flowers into the chuppah. I knew for a while that it was something I wanted to do. Once we found The Crafty Sagittarius and her amazing work, I knew that I had to have it!
Music Choice
For our processional, because we had a larger bridal party, we had a few songs we used. We had a cellist and organist playing at the ceremony. Ross walked down the aisle to ‘Feel my Love’ by Adele, the bridal party walked down to ‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love’ by Elvis Presley, and I walked down the aisle to ‘Wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong (my grandparents’ anniversary song). We wanted our recessional to be something fun so we used ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by The Beatles.
For mine and Ross’ first dance, we danced to ‘Amazed’ by Lonestar. I knew for years this was the song I had to have- I just love it! My dance with my dad was to ‘One Call Away’ by Charlie Puth and Ross’ dance with his mom was to ‘Music of My Heart’ by Gloria Estefan and N’Sync.
Flowers
Our absolutely amazing florist was Bruce from Breath of Spring. Not only did he help our chuppah vision come to life, but he also did a beautiful job on all of our table arrangements, bouquets, etc. For Ross and his groomsmen we took a bit of a different route and did fabric flower buttons that I found on Amazon.
Everything else was all pink roses! My favorite of all were our hanging flower arrangements throughout the reception. We did these over 1/3 of the tables. The rest of the tables alternated between 2 different types of centerpiece arrangements. Along with the flowers, our florist created an awesome array of hanging ribbons above our dance floor.
Another somewhat floral aspect that we absolutely loved was the giant “W” that Anne with The Crafty Sagittarius made out of small paper flowers for the centerpiece of our place card table.
Photographer and videographer
Our photographer and videographer were both with Visi Productions. I cannot say enough great things about them. They captured our day better than I could have ever imagined. I had found them through a friend who had used them at their wedding as well. I loved how natural their photos were and just how fun they seemed to be when capturing both photo and video.
They also took us on a photoshoot through Somerset Mall and it was a BLAST!
Food and Cake
Our food was catered by Epicurean, who is the caterer for Temple Israel. The food was delicious, and our appetizers and dessert were AMAZING! We are big “comfort food” people, and also currently residing in Atlanta, so our favorite appetizer was the mini chicken and waffles. For dessert, along with our cake, we had root beer floats made with Faygo root beer (Detroit staple) and Boston Coolers made with Vernors (another Detroit staple). We also had a candy apple station – it was a big hit!
Our cake was a 3 tier cake of vanilla, banana, and carrot (Ross’ favorite) cake. We decided we did not want people to leave the dance floor to sit and eat the cake so we had the caterer cut the cake into smaller, bite size pieces and pass them around the dance floor. Our cake was made by Patisserie Parmentier.
Entertainment
For our band we used Your Generation in Concert and they absolutely MADE our party. They were truly like watching a band in concert. They were so fun, dressed in fun outfits, and I truly fan-girled over them all night (I think the rest of the party did, too)!
Favours
We wanted to keep our favors to a minimum, since we did not want it to take away from the party or feel too much like a Bar/Bat Mitzvah. On the dance floor the only favors we had were hats that we had made with our hashtag on them- “Ross and Tay’s Big Day”.
For the end of the night favors for all of our guests we had individual boxes of pink frosted “X” and “O” Krispy Kreme donuts. For all of our friends heading back to the hotel we had McDonalds cheeseburgers and fries (my favorite guilty pleasure)!
Special Touches
We had quite a few special touches that we added to our day that I think really tied it all together and spoke to who Ross and I are! The special touches all started with our Save the Dates. We had these designed by Vivian of NoFussPrintable. They were a picture drawn of me, Ross, and our cutie dog Gus. We loved it so much we had it blown up and framed!
For our guest bags at the hotel we used Faygo (a Detroit staple) soda can boxes and filled them with all sorts of Detroit goodies – Better Made potato chips, Faygo pop, Vernors, Saunders Hot Fudge candies, Michigan-shaped cookies, etc.
During cocktail hour, we had a signature cocktail that we called “Apple of my Eye”. Since we had a fall wedding we wanted to make it something that fit the season. These were just Appletinis but we had the bartenders put them in apple cups from the Franklin Cider Mill (which is a must-do if you are ever in Detroit)!
My absolute favorite special touch was the napkin we had designed for the Horah. While we wished our dog, Gus, could be there on the big day, he was sadly not invited! However, we knew we wanted him to be incorporated some way so we had his face blown up and put onto a napkin for us to use during the Horah.
Another special aspect we had was a painter during our reception. We used Melanie Swords Wedding Painting who painted a live picture during our reception. It was so fun and such a special keepsake to have afterwards!
Lastly, the MOST special of all of our special touches was when Ross played ‘What I Like About You’ on the drums with the band. I always knew he was a big drum player but he would never play for me! It was the first time he let me hear him play. Talk about fan-girling!
Honeymoon
After our wedding we first went on a mini-moon on a Caribbean cruise. I was just getting ready to start a new job (talk about timing) and we were not up for planning anything yet!
A few months later, in March, we ended up going to Nevis for our big honeymoon. We are not big touristy and adventure people so we wanted somewhere relaxing, beachy, and where neither of us had been before. It was beautiful- we cannot wait to get back there!
Advice
At the end of the day, your wedding is all about you and your husband, nobody else! Do what YOU love and what makes YOU happy – not what you think everybody else wants!
TAYLOR & ROSS’ LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Visi Productions
Videography – Visi Productions
Ketubah – ketubah.com {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Day-of Planner – Party Assurance
Venue – Temple Israel
Bride’s dress – Martina Liana found at Bella Bridal
Bride’s shoes – Badgley Mischka, Converse
Bride’s accessories – Emery’s Creative Jewelers
Groom’s attire – Suit Supply
Bridesmaids – Brideside, Elie Tahari
Hair + Makeup – Hair by Margaret at Mario Max Salon, Amy Regal at Glamour Puss
Flowers – Breath of Spring, The Crafty Sagittarius
Band – Your Generation in Concert
Catering – Epicurean
Cake – Patisserie Parmentier
Stationery/Invitation – Arlene Segal Designs at Modern Art Studio
Rabbi – Joshua Bennett
Cantor- Neil Michaels
Painter – Melanie Swords Wedding Painting
Table Design – Luxe Linens
Dress Design & Alterations – Wanda’s Perfect Stitch
Save the Dates – NoFussPrintable
Groomsmen Tuxes – The Black Tux by Nordstrom
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