To look at this gorgeous Jewish wedding, you’d never know it was planned in just two months! Boston couple Alisa, a product manager, and Evan, an architect, got engaged in August, and knew they were ready to move forward with building their future together – pandemic or not.
With just a few months to plan a COVID-safe outdoor celebration before the New England winter set in, Alisa and Evan knew it was time to call in the big guns. In this case, that meant Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Primavera Dreams, who helped them pull together the day of their (socially distanced) dreams, stat. Within three days of the couple’s engagement, founder Luba set the pair up on venue visits, and a couple weeks later they’d booked all their key vendors. Alisa and Evan say they couldn’t have done it without Luba’s expertise.
The couple’s number one goal was to plan a day where their friends and family would stay safe, and so they opted for a short guest list, socially distanced seating arrangements, table-side bar service, additional cleaning staff at the restrooms, and sanitization stations throughout, among other touches. They also opted to livestream the ceremony for those who weren’t able to attend in person. Because a dance floor wasn’t allowed due to COVID restrictions, Alisa and Evan went with a classical string duo for the ceremony and a jazz trio for the reception for their entertainment.
Photographer Kataram Studios did such a beautiful job capturing the day. Don’t miss all the gorgeous details, like the couple’s Enya Keshet ketubah, which they found online at Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor ketubah.com. With a multilayered cut paper design, gold leaf, and Swarovski crystals, it’s truly a work of art.
We’ll turn you over to the bride – who looks gorgeous in the Pronovias dress she found just days after getting engaged – for the rest…
How we Met
Alisa, the Bride and Evan, the groom: Despite living less than a mile from each other in Brookline, Alisa and Evan’s paths never crossed. Like many 21st century relationships, theirs started by “swiping right”. After a week or two of texting, Alisa and Evan finally met for a drink after work in Copley Square.
The date went well, and they scheduled another shortly after. After the second date, Evan wanted to let Alisa know how special she was – so he sent flowers to her apartment. Evan knew this was a bold move, but he also knew he needed to let her know how he felt. He proceeded to send flowers to the wrong apartment, that got course-corrected with a help from the security desk.
In early March of 2020, Evan cleared out a large portion of his closet and Alisa brought an entire car-load of her stuff over to his place. One week after moving in, the world changed, and they were quarantined together.
Alisa and Evan went from spending most of their time together – to spending ALL of their time together. Fortunately, the relationship thrived, and they became closer than ever. During quarantine, they could only see their parents, and spent most of the weekends in 2020 visiting each other’s families. In a span of 6 months, Alisa & Evan spent less then 24 hours apart.
Venue and wedding plans
We wanted to continue to build a future together and we weren’t going to let a pandemic stop us from living our lives. Evan proposed at the end of August, giving us 2 months to organize a wedding before the New England weather became too cold to hold an outdoor event.
Naturally we needed help and hired the best wedding planner we knew – Luba Gankin of Primavera Dreams. We couldn’t have done it without her. Three days after Evan proposed, Luba found several venues for us to visit. Out of all the options with outdoor arrangements available in October, we decided the Pierce House in Lincoln MA was perfect.
The 19th century mansion, owned by the town of Lincoln, has several acres of manicured lawns and beautiful gardens. It is perfect for an outdoor event, with a large permanent tent over solid flooring directly adjacent to the well-maintained house. The director of the Pierce House, Victoria Otis, is more than friendly and exceptionally easy to work with.
Theme
Within a couple weeks of working with our wedding planner, we selected a venue, caterer, photographer/videographer, rabbi, hair & makeup, musicians, florist and found a wedding dress. Planning a wedding during the pandemic would have been much more difficult without Luba’s expertise and confident recommendations.
We chose the general color palette for the flowers and table linens, but we didn’t specifically have a theme for our wedding. We were very flexible, leaving the fine details up to our vendors. Overall, we trusted Luba and she helped pull together a beautiful event.
Invitations / stationery
Because the guest list was limited due to a governmental mandate (50 people max, including vendors), and an expedited timeframe between our engagement and wedding, we opted for personalized emails in lieu of physical invitations.
We did however create a wedding pamphlet with the names of the bride’s and groom’s family, a list of the ceremonial procedures, and a thank you message to our parents. All paper goods, including the Welcome sign, Safety Information, and table seating arrangements, were created online using Zazzle.
Hair + Make-up
Luba recommended Vera Gordias and she was fantastic!
A Pronovias Dress
Since we planned our wedding in 8 weeks, there wasn’t time to ponder options. Alisa needed a dress that was readily available in stores. She went to 3 stores, and chose one within several days at Pronovias in Copley.
Accessories
Luba provided the veil and a warm fur shrug for Alisa in case she got chilly in the evening.
Shoes
Comfort is important. The fall wedding was outside on the grass, and Alisa chose a close-toed chunky heel for warmth and ease of walking.
The handsome groom
Evan wore a handsome blue custom tailored suit from Blank Label, a crisp white shirt and light blue tie from Charles Tyrwhitt, and classy brown shoes from Johnston & Murphy.
Bridesmaids
Unfortunately, we were unable to have a wedding party due to COVID restrictions. The guest list was limited to the maximum head count of 50 people, including vendors. We were only able to invite close family and friends.
Ceremony
Because there were so many people we were unable to invite, we provided a virtual live stream of the ceremony. Several hundred invitations to log-in were sent out to all our friends and extended family. This allowed us to share our special day with everyone who was unable to join in person.
Ketubah
Our ketubah is an elegant piece of art created by Enya Keshet. It has a multilayered and intricately cut paper design, 23 carat gold leaf, and is studded with Swarovski crystals. The 20” x 20” document includes texts that was specifically selected by the bride and groom to convey their love and promises to each other.
The ketubah was selected online at ketubah.com and then later framed in a sleek gold-colored metal frame at Michaels.
Chuppah
We trusted our florist! Ksneiya from Floristika Studio has a beautiful, modern eye. We shared our color palette with her and sample flowers that we liked, and then watched her work her magic. She delivered beautiful décor without significant direction and it turned out better than we could have imagined.
Our Music Choice
Unfortunately, a dance floor was not allowed due to COVID restrictions. It would have been impossible to maintain social distancing while doing the hora. Instead, we had a classical string duo for the ceremony and a jazz trio for the reception. We also decided to skip the first dance tradition.
Flowers
Kseniya from Floristika Studio is an artist. Her unique arrangements are unparallel and she brings her beautiful vision to life with minimal direction. We trusted the experts and she knocked it out of the park!
Photographer and videographer
Our photographer was Kataram Studios. This husband and wife duo was recommended to us by our wedding planner. We used them for our engagement photos, which also came out beautifully. Kat and Aram were extremely easy to work with. They were friendly and professional. Our photos are more beautiful than we could have hoped for.
Additionally, they recommended our videographer, Mike Grimmett of Video New England, who was also a pleasure to work with and who provided spectacular footage of our special day.
Food and Cake
We chose William Ferrence Catering. He also came highly recommended by our wedding planner. The food was not a specific style, but it was elegantly presented and very tasty. Some of the guests expressed that the hors-d’oeuvres were the best they’ve ever had at a wedding.
The cake was created by Natalia Barbashov of Natalie Cakeee. It was a beautiful two-tiered cake with lemon-blueberry base inside and a white fondant exterior decorated with pearls and meticulously detailed piping.
Entertainment
We hired Emily Chen of La Bella Musica from Rhode Island to provide classical music for the ceremony and cocktail hour. They came highly recommended by the parents of the groom, who are involved in various musical organizations in Rhode Island.
Because of COVID, the reception was unable to have a dance floor and dancing. We felt the best alternative was to have a jazz trio play easy-listening background music. We contacted Dennis Hughes through mutual contacts via the groom’s parents again. Dennis, who plays the keyboard, assembled the two other musicians, a percussionist and bass player.
In lieu of dancing, the main entertainment involved numerous speeches, slideshow presentations, skits, and songs performed by close family and friends.
New England Audio Rental provided the audio system during the reception, along with a couple of large flat screen TVs to display slideshows of the bride and groom as they grew up and throughout their relationship. Slideshow presentations were compiled by the bride’s father and the groom.
Favors
The favors were limited due to safety concerns, however custom monogrammed face masks were provided at the Welcome station at the entrance of the venue. Additionally, the bride’s mother, Irina Gorbman, is an artist with her own fashion line IG Moda; she provided neck gaiters as party favors from her collection.
Extra details
Again, due to COVID, the most important aspect of our day was to ensure the safety of our family and friends. Every aspect of the wedding planning, from the limited number of guests, socially distanced seating arrangements, table-side bar service, additional cleaning staff at the restrooms, and sanitization stations throughout, were designed to keep everyone safe and worry-free during the event.
Guests commented that, despite these safety measures, the wedding didn’t seem too different from any other wedding – with the exception of the lack of dance floor and hugging between attendees.
Honeymoon
We are planning a week long honeymoon in St. Lucia over Thanksgiving. Our direct flights from Boston will bring us to the all-inclusive beachside resort, Ti Kaye. We will be staying in a private ocean-view cottage at the edge of a cliff above crystal blue waters. We originally wanted a much more worldly excursion to the Maldives, but with travel concerns, we decided to stay more local, relatively speaking.
Advice
– Find a good wedding planner and trust them when there are too many decisions to make.
-Don’t drag out the planning process – we got engaged in late August and were married 7 weeks later in October. The limited time certainly forced us to make decisions quickly, but in the end, it allowed us to avoid dwelling on insignificant details for too long.
ALISA & EVAN’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Kataram Studios
Videography – Video New England
Wedding planner – Primavera Dreams {offers $350 discount on any package + a bottle of Champagne to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Ketubah – Ketubah.com {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Pierce House
Bride’s dress – Pronovias
Bride’s shoes – Anne Klein
Bride’s accessories – Mink jacket by Michael Kors
Groom’s attire – Blank Label
Hair + Makeup – Vera Gordias
Flowers – Floristika Studio
Wedding Ceremony Classical Duo – Emily Chen of La Bella Musica from Rhode Island
Reception Jazz-trio – Brass Force
Catering – William Ferrence Catering
Cake – Natalie Cakeee
Stationery/Invitation – Zazzle
Favours – IG Moda and Irina Gorbman
Rabbi – Avi Teken
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.
