A Monique Lhuillier Bride for an Outdoor SoCal Jewish Wedding at Hummingbird Nest Ranch, California, USA

Jewish Wedding Hummingbird Nest Ranch, CA, USA_0049
You know who sometimes doesn’t get enough love around here? Child wedding attendants. Flower girls, ring bearers, and the like bring so much joy (not to mention just plain cuteness) to so many of the Jewish weddings we feature here on STG.

So today we’re putting them front and center where they belong. I mean, it’s hard not to when Jessica and Matthew’s sweet little ring boys drove a mini purple Porsche(!) with strings of tin cans down the aisle!!! So adorable, right?

But not so adorable as to overshadow Jessica’s stunning two-piece gown from Monique Lhuillier. Featuring a silk Chantilly lace beaded corset top (with a beaded shrug the bride wore for the chuppah) and a gorgeous trumpet skirt, it’s an absolute stunner. And Jessica’s made the most of it, saving the bolero to wear on her one-year anniversary and the top for the big ten-year! Such a cool idea, especially if you’re going with separates that can easily be dressed down.

There’s so much more to say about this fab wedding – we haven’t even gotten to how fantastically Armen Asadorian and Eric Film captured the day, or the gorgeous SoCal surroundings, or the fabulous Harutyunyan Events planning the whole thing to perfection!

Let’s hand over to beautiful Jessica to tell you about all the rest…

A Ranch Wedding

Jessica, the bride: We got married at Hummingbird Nest Ranch, CA. We wanted to get married somewhere different and pretty low key – kind of like us.

A Fab Planner

To keep our wedding really about us, we didn’t include any family in the planning process, which is not typical for a Persian Jewish wedding! Both of us are extremely close to our parents and siblings so it was tough. Instead, we worked really closely with our wedding planner, Harutyunyan Events, who worked his magic. He let us get creative and steered us in the right direction when we went off track… There’s no way we could have pulled it off without him and his incredible team.

A Monique Lhuillier dress

My dress was Monique Lhuillier. When my older sister was looking for her wedding dress, one of the stores we visited was Monique Lhuillier. I saw this beautiful silk Chantilly lace beaded corset top with tiny flowers all over. The skirt was a simple trumpet skirt with the same design as part of the train. I told her she should get it and if I ever got married, that’s what I would wear.

Eight years later, my sister and I went to a Monique Lhuillier sample sale a few weeks after I got engaged and that corset top and skirt were there. As soon as I saw the outfit, I had to have it.

After the wedding, I donated the veil and skirt but kept the top and matching bolero. I wore the bolero over the dress last month when we celebrated our one year anniversary. I’m saving the top for our 10 year anniversary…

The handsome groom

I had lots of fabric taken out from my dress to have it fit properly. I asked the tailor to make Matt (my husband) a matching bow-tie from the extra silk from my skirt and flowers from my top. He wore it the entire day and never took it off.

An intimate bridal party

The four witnesses we used for our ketubah were our best friends – two of mine and two of Matt’s. They came earlier in the day so we could all get ready together. It felt really good to have our close friends and family there with us.

A Simple Chuppah

Initially we weren’t going to have any flowers or drapes around our chuppah – we had both of Matt’s grandfathers’ tallit and that’s all we were going to use. Our ceremony was during the day, so we had a beautiful view overlooking the greenery of the ranch.

My bridal suite overlooked the reception and ceremony sites. In the afternoon, as I was watching the vendors set up I noticed they added white drapes around the canopy. They must have thought we wanted them and when our wedding coordinator asked them to take it down, I asked if they could leave it. I liked how it looked when the wind blew through the sheerness of the white fabric. It was simple – I think our chuppah was cheaper than our wedding cake!

Ring Bearers in a Mini Porsche

Matt and I each had three of our closest friends in our wedding party. They walked down the aisle along with our parents and siblings. We kept the ceremony short so it was really nice to have them there with us as we were under the chuppah. The two ring boys drove a purple Porsche with strings of tin cans down the aisle, which was really cute.

An Etsy Ketubah

I love our ketubah. We custom ordered it from Etsy. It has laser cut white orchids on a plum backdrop. We had it framed in all acrylic so it really does look like a piece of art.

Our fabulous photographer

This was hard… we wanted a team who could really capture the night and also our personalities. We tend to be goofy and couldn’t work with a photographer or videographer who would direct us the whole day. Armen Asadorian, the photographer we decided to go with, let us be ourselves and captured some of the most exceptional photos.

…and videographer

We went with Eric Film for our video. The video is so great, except my deodorant kept rubbing on Matt’s tux, so it looks like I’m trying to push him away!