A Monique Lhuillier Bride for a Neon Jungle Jewish Wedding at the Mandarin Oriental, New York, New York, USA

We are totally obsessed with the neon jungle theme Jessica and Brant chose for their Jewish wedding – it was just the most perfect way to bring the vibe of the tropical destination wedding the couple initially hoped for to their hometown of New York City, where they ended up marrying to keep the big day accessible to their friends and family.

Bride Jessica says she knew from the moment she got engaged she wanted her wedding to be unique, and did she ever pull it off! With bright colors galore, plenty of palms, a tequila bar, neon signs, and so many more Instagramable touches than we even have room to list here, it’s safe to say she achieved her goal of making her guests feel as if they were transported to the chicest jungle. Don’t miss the photos from The Day by Nathan Smith.

Obviously their stunning chuppah was the pinnacle of jungle chic, and we love that, wanting to get the maximum enjoyment out of it, Jessica and Brant opted to repurpose it for the party, displaying their gorgeous cake and a cool neon sign under it.

But don’t let the fab aesthetics make you think these two skimped on the ceremony – far from it. They made it a priority to honor their late grandparents – they used Brant’s grandfather’s tallit under the chuppah, and Jessica’s wedding band originally belonged to her great-great-grandmother (and has been used by all of the women in her family ever since!) – and even got their dog involved with a walk down the aisle. They made it a priority to find a beautiful ketubah that could serve as a cherished piece of art in their home, and opted for a totally stunning paper cut design from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Danny Azoulay.

We’ll let Jessica – who looked stunning in Monique Lhuillier – fill you in on the rest…

A New York Wedding

Jessica, the bride: We got married at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City. Brant and I always thought about having a warm climate destination wedding, and we looked almost everywhere. However, after a few months of looking, and keeping friends and family in mind, we thought Manhattan (our hometown) would be the best and easiest. Me being born and bred in Manhattan, and Brant growing up on Long Island, the city was our perfect destination. When we walked into the Mandarin ballroom for the first time and looked out those huge windows to see Central Park and the city skyline, it took our breath away.

 
Tropical Vibes

I knew I wanted to have a unique and different wedding from the moment I was engaged. My sister, a couple of years prior to my wedding, had the most beautiful wedding at Cipriani on 42nd Street. She had used a lot of roses, hydrangeas, and orchids in shades of white and green. I didn’t want my guests to feel like they were at the same wedding.

I wanted something very unique, tropical, and hopefully something my guests have never witnessed before at any wedding. I interviewed 3 florists, always knowing that I had wanted to work with the incredible duo of Putnum & Putnum. We had a beautiful color scheme picked out, but for some reason it never felt right to me. A couple months before the wedding I called Darroch and Mikey and said we need to change the color story!

Jungle Chic

I realized I wanted bright colors and lots of palms! I wanted our guests to feel they were transported to the chicest jungle. Mikey, Darroch, and their team totally understood my vision, contributed their own ideas to enhance it, and really knocked it out of the park! My mother and I planned every single detail of the wedding together. She has the most incredible taste. We had the best time planning everything together. I couldn’t have done it without her.

A Monique Lhuillier Dress

My dress was from Monique Lhuillier. I must have tried on over 100 dresses. My dress was from the Spring Summer 2019 collection, and my wedding being in November 2018 we had to rush to get it in. There were a lot of “this could be my dress” moments, but it wasn’t until I put on the dress I chose, that I had that “this is THE one”.

Glitter Sneakers

I love to dance and knew I wasn’t going to be able to dance in my gown the whole night, so I changed into a sparkly short dress, and hot pink glitter Golden Goose sneakers to dance the night away!

The handsome groom

Brant had a custom green velvet tuxedo made from Martin Greenfield and patterned Giuseppe Zanotti shoes, with a Turnbull and Asser bowtie. His mother had cuff links made for him out of a piece of jewelry that belonged to his grandmother, which was a wonderful homage to her.

Garden of Eden

My original idea for the chuppah was going to be shades of plum, blushes, and whites a more romantic and soft look. When I made the decision to change my color story, I wanted it to feel like our guests were in the most romantic and lush garden of Eden. I wanted the chuppah to have all our immediate family standing under it, so it had to be large enough to fit our families. I had to have tons of dahlias, which is tough in November, but they were able to find the most beautiful and interesting colored dahlias. 

A Meaningful Ceremony

We were married by the rabbi from my family’s synagogue. It was important to Brant and I that we had a traditional Jewish wedding. We wanted to make sure the ceremony was romantic, intimate, unique to us, and that it honored our grandparents who are no longer with us.

The tallit that was wrapped around us belonged to Brant’s grandfather, the wedding band I was married in belonged to my great, great, grandmother. It is over 100 years old and all the women in my family have been married in it. My bouquet had my grandmothers blue and white embroidered handkerchief wrapped around it, that was given to her on her wedding day.

We wanted our dog Willy to be with us, so he walked down the aisle in his bowtie. He looked so adorable! We also wrote our own vows, they were funny, personal, and heartfelt. Even though we had two hundred people, it felt like we were the only two people in the room.

A Danny Azoulay Ketubah

We looked at so many different ketubahs. We wanted it to be a beautiful piece of art we could display in our home. We purchased our Danny Azoulay Chantilly Lace ketubah from The Jewish Museum.

Our music choice

Brant and I love music so much, we wanted to make sure the ceremony music represented us. A 4-piece orchestra played a mix of classical, classic rock, 90s alternative, and our band leader  Marianne came up with the idea of me walking down the aisle to a singer singing I Can’t Help Falling in Love. There was not a dry eye. There was a funny moment during the Hakafot when Brant stepped on my veil, it was cathedral length, and he just got wrapped up in it. 

Photographer and videographer

I knew from day we got engaged that I wanted to use The Day by Nathan Smith. He was the only person we interviewed. We just clicked with him right away, he is laid back, and so incredibly talented. It felt like we had known him for years. 

The videographer was Nilu Amin from Ritual Films. 

A big party

The number one thing we wanted for our wedding was for it to feel like the most incredible party anyone had ever been too. We wanted to make sure everyone was on the dance floor the whole night. We had a 16ft statement bar at the back of the dancefloor. Nobody had to go far to get a cocktail, or if anyone needed a break they could still feel like they were a part of the party. The music was the other most important component. We knew right away we wanted to use Marianne Bennet from Element Music. We had a massive 18-piece band that kept everyone dancing the whole night. Nobody sat down!

Tequila Bar

Brant is a lover of tequila, so we had a specialty tequila bar with 10 kinds of specialty tequila. We didn’t really have a theme. I guess you could say it was neon jungle!

Instagramable Moments

We had three neon signs by Name-Glo throughout the room. I wanted to have instagramable moments, so we created a 10ft jungle floral and palm wall with a neon sign as a backdrop to the photobooth. We had a photo booth scrapbook, where our guests could put their photo and a little note. We have this displayed in our home. We had confetti cannons, neon cat ears (my nickname has always been J-Cat), and light up boom sticks with our hashtag. Our guests loved it and went wild for them!

Cake

We had the most gorgeous cake designed by Ron Ben Israel, with the sugar flowers inspired by the flowers Putnum & Putnum designed. We decided to keep the gorgeous chuppah up in the room during the party. We added a neon sign and displayed the cake under it.

We choose to not have a formal cake cutting, so Brant and I did a private one with just the photographer under the chuppah since that can take the energy of the party down. We had passed mini desserts on the dance floor of our favorite sweets. Which was the perfect sweet bite during a dance set. 

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Remind yourself that they day is about you and your groom. It is impossible to please everyone, but the most important people to please are yourselves. You want to make sure you leave your wedding day knowing you had the time of your life and want to do it all over again!

Jessica & Brant’s little white book