Today we’re so thrilled to be featuring Smashing The Glass’s first ever wedding in Turkey! And we couldn’t have asked for a better introduction than the fabulous Jewish wedding of Ezgi, an associate director of analytics, and Benjamin, a senior technical business development manager.
The couple, who live in NYC, are frequent visitors to Ezgi’s hometown of Istanbul – and for their big day, they wanted to showcase the city they love. And did they ever go all out! From their venue choice of the Four Seasons, where they were able to wed against the iconic backdrop of the Bosphorus, to the way they incorporated elements of Turkish culture into their décor (not to mention their epic wedding welcome bags), to their exquisite custom invitations featuring Turkish motifs and a map of Istanbul, Ezgi and Benjamin left no detail unattended.
And we are totally and completely obsessed with their fabulous mirrored chuppah! Swathed in blue and white floral arrangements, reflecting the turquoise waters of the Bosphorus at sunset in the background – chuppahs don’t get much better than this! Don’t miss Puci Wedding Story’s exquisite photos.
There’s so much more to say, but we’ll turn you over to Ezgi – who looked so glam in Pronovias – for the rest…
How we Met
Ezgi, the bride: We met on campus at the University of Pennsylvania, where we both went to college. One lucky weekday night, we were both pulled into planning a midnight birthday party for one of our mutual friends. Benjamin walked into Ezgi’s dorm room with his big radiant smile and introduced himself.
As we started decorating the room for the birthday girl’s arrival and started chatting, Ezgi was really taken by his confidence, intellectual curiosity, and positive energy; she asked their mutual friends to set them up on a date. Benjamin had a good feeling about Ezgi as well; he thought she was beautiful even in the old lounge clothes she wore on the day they met, and could tell she was a kind soul only after spending a few hours with her. So he said yes. The rest is history.
A Wedding in Istanbul
We got married at Four Seasons in Istanbul, Turkey, a lovely venue with views of the Bosphorus strait. Istanbul is a city near and dear to both of our hearts: Ezgi was born in, grew up in, and spent 19 years of her life in Istanbul. Benjamin visited the city 6 times before the wedding took place and had a wonderful experience each time. This wedding also presented a great opportunity to introduce Istanbul and Turkey to the groom’s family and friends, many of whom had never been to Turkey before.
The day before the wedding, the traditional Turkish Henna Night (the bride’s goodbye party to her family) took place on a yacht touring the Bosphorus, showing magnificent views of the city by sea. Additionally, in the two days following the wedding, we planned guided tours of Istanbul’s historical landmarks for our guests.
Theme & Wedding Planner
Our color theme was blue and white, as these are our favorite colors. In our wedding décor, we tried to strike the balance between classic / timeless and modern: we used classic elements like bleu et blanc vases and sousplats, but also modern elements like a mirrored chuppah, mirrored tables and centrepieces.
We also incorporated many elements into the wedding décor that reflected Turkish culture and traditions, including wedding favors embroidered with tulips (the symbol of late-era Ottoman Empire), an evil eye nestled in a Star of David in our kippahs, and blue floral motifs borrowed from Turkey’s Iznik mosaics in our stationary and wedding welcome bags.
Our wedding planners, Duet Wedding, did an amazing job bringing our vision to life. We hired all of our wedding vendors through them and relied on their expertise and network to navigate the wedding industry in Turkey. We can’t thank them enough for their efforts in making this event a success.
Invitations / stationery
Mazu Studio was kind enough to take the time to create a custom invitation set for us, complete with our own couple’s monogram, blue floral motifs borrowed from Turkish Iznik mosaics, red pomegranates (a simultaneously Jewish and Turkish touch), and a map of Istanbul for guests coming from abroad.
A Pronovias Dress
My dress was from Pronovias NYC. The style was “Cloe”, from 2020; being a pandemic bride, I waited 2 years to wear the dress of my dreams. I always wanted an off-the-shoulder neckline and ballgown silhouette. I was toying around with the idea of having lace details on my dress, but didn’t want these details to look too busy or intricate. The leaf-like embroidery on the Cloe gown struck the right balance, adding an interesting element without taking away from the classic and clean silhouette.
While I bought the dress in NYC, final tailoring was done by the wonderful Vakko Wedding Bridal Shop in Istanbul. I lost 20 pounds since the time I had bought the dress; Vakko Wedding was able to re-tailor the dress without compromising the embroidery design. They also provided a unique and elegant veil with vine-shaped lace designs that matched my dress perfectly.
Accessories & Shoes
The hair pieces were from Gulsah Aydin Accessories, and featured a design with vines and leaves, similar to the embroidery on the wedding dress.
The handsome groom
Whitcomb and Shaftesbury is a bespoke tailoring house, whose founders are close family friends of the groom and are near and dear to our hearts. They did an amazing job with Benjamin’s tuxedo. Seeing him standing there waiting for his bride, Ezgi fell in love with him all over again.
Ceremony and Chuppah
Our wedding decorator, Posh Décor, in collaboration with our wedding planners, Duet Wedding, provided the mirrored chuppah and the floral designs adorning it. We wanted to place our chuppah against the background of the Bosphorus strait; hence, we picked blue flowers to match the turquoise waters of the Bosphorus. The mirrored surfaces of the chuppah reflected the light of the sunset and gave the ceremony a modern and beachy feel during the cocktail hour, which is exactly what we were going for.
Above the chuppah, we hung the groom’s family heirloom tallit, adding a personal and sentimental touch to the final design. Our ceremony was a secular Turkish ceremony. However, we also had a Jewish marriage ceremony previously, at our New York congregation’s synagogue, Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ), officiated by our congregational rabbi, Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann.
Rabbi Lauren was kind enough to attend our wedding celebration in Istanbul as well, and gave a wonderful speech blessing our marriage once again, while the bride’s sister translated her speech to Turkish for all of our guests to understand and appreciate her words.
Ketubah
Our ketubah designer was Shiri Lanzer Calligraphy in Israel. Benjamin’s father is Israeli. We met Shiri through his connections. We wanted to have a modern ketubah and marriage contract; hence, we wrote our vows to each other in English, sent to Israeli family members for a Hebrew translation, and finally Shiri put our vows to paper through her elegant calligraphy.
The ketubah wasn’t a part of our celebrations in Istanbul unfortunately, as the marriage ceremony in this celebration was secular. However, in our previous marriage ceremony to each other at our New York congregation’s synagogue, Society for the Advancement of Judaism (SAJ), we signed this ketubah and had a Jewish marriage ceremony.
Our Music Choice / Entertainment
Our processional song was the ‘Wildest Dreams’ String Quartet Cover by Duomo (for the Bridgerton fans among us). It added a flair of royalty to the event while still sticking with a contemporary song. Our husband and wife entrance song was ‘Sky Full of Stars’, which complemented the light show that accompanied our entrance.
Our first dance song was ‘Baş Harfi Ben’ by Kenan Doğulu, a soulful Turkish song about love and devotion; Ezgi chose this one, because the ‘Ben’ in the song can be thought of as a pun (“Ben” means “me” in Turkish and is also the groom’s name).
Flowers
Our wedding decorator, Posh Décor, in collaboration with our wedding planners, Duet Wedding, provided the flowers. We chose beautiful voluminous white roses, blue hydrangeas, and blue wisteria for the table centrepieces and the chuppah. For the button holes, we chose smaller white roses. For the bride’s and bridesmaid’s bouquets, we chose white peonies, blue hydrangeas, and lavender, creating gorgeous bouquets that also smelled heavenly.
Photographer
Puci Wedding Story is one of the only wedding photography studios in Turkey that specialize in projects with a candid and warm feel; their photos always convey joy, cheer, and a subtle “cool” factor, without being overly retouched. Therefore, we chose them over other prominent studios, and we are so happy with the results.
Extra details
Our family members and friends were enthusiastically involved in the wedding celebrations throughout the night: Bride’s sister Deniz and groom’s brother Daniel MC’d the night, making announcements, cracking jokes and hyping up the crowd for hours. Our parents gave speeches during the dinner, sharing in our happiness and welcoming us to each other’s families.
Our talented friend Claire (Siyi) Wang, who is currently a technology professional in the U.S. but was a professional singer in her home country of China, sang ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ by Alicia Keys for us.
The father-daughter dance turned very emotional as Ezgi and her father danced to the nostalgic Turkish song, ‘Super Baba’. Overwhelmed with emotion, they both started crying, which in turn led to a few happy tears from the guests as well.
At the end of the night, Ezgi sang a cheerful Turkish song about a boy with blue eyes (‘Mavi Boncuk’ by Emel Sayin) at Benjamin in front of all of our guests.
Finally, at the end of the night, we checked under the bride’s shoe for an important reason: Turkish tradition dictates that the bride should write her single friends’ names under her shoe to give them good luck in marriage. Legend has it that the people whose names have faded the most will be the next to marry. Luckily, all of the names under Ezgi’s shoe had faded after dancing the night away for hours.
Honeymoon
We went to Santorini and stayed at the Katikies Hotel in Oia. It was a relaxing and romantic vacation against the serene backdrop of the Aegean sea. We highly recommend it!
Advice to other couples planning their wedding
Take a moment to stop and reflect, and realize how lucky you are to have your friends and family, as well as your wedding vendors (if you have any) put together a wonderful celebration for you. Make time to show your appreciation to your loved ones when you get a chance. And take lots of pictures with all of your loved ones, not just a few! Make beautiful memories.
What ‘Smashing The Glass Brides Club’ Did For Us
I love that you are one of the few wedding websites that specialize in Jewish weddings; I actually browsed your website for Jewish wedding traditions and chuppah designs many many times in the process of planning my wedding.
I recently converted to Judaism, in August 2020, right before our Jewish religious marriage ceremony. I still have a lot to learn about Judaism of course, but the journey of discovery and dedication has been very rewarding so far.
Benjamin and I strive to build a Jewish household and family together. To that end, Smashing the Glass has been a wonderful resource for me to learn more about Judaism and create a wedding celebration that marries Jewish traditions with my own background and values. Thank you so much for everything that you do.
EZGI & BENJAMIN’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Puci Wedding Story
Wedding planner – Duet Wedding
Venue – Four Seasons
Bride’s dress – Pronovias NYC
Bride’s shoes – Desa
Bride’s accessories – Gulsah Aydin Accessories
Groom’s attire – Whitcomb and Shaftesbury
Hair + Makeup – Jonats Couture
DJ – David Şaboy
Orchestra – Murat Kaynak Orkestra
Catering – Four Seasons
Cake – Four Seasons
Ketubah – Shiri Lanzer
Stationery/Invitation – Mazu Studio
Wedding Registry – The Knot
Wedding Dress alterations – Vakko Wedding Bridal Shop
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.
