It’s the beautiful Jewish wedding of our wonderful blogging bride Rebecca! It’s always a special moment for us seeing our blogging brides get married after following along throughout their planning, and today is no exception. Rebecca, a fashion buyer, and David, a financial advisor, had the most stunning destination wedding in Israel, and we are totally in love with everything about their big day.
Rebecca adores flowers, so it was a given that they’d play a big part in her day. And we’re totally blown away by her exquisite ketubah and gorgeous table centers – focusing on greens and whites, everything meshes so well with the natural beauty of the venue.
It doesn’t hurt that the couple worked with some of our very favorite Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendors. From the amazing Ran Bergman on photography and videography – he and his team captured all the emotion and love, not to mention the gorgeous décor, so perfectly – to the pair’s gorgeous modern ketubah from Ketubata, with a green and white floral design that perfectly mirrored the décor for the day, Rebecca and David truly assembled a dream team.
We’re crazy about Rebecca’s long-sleeved fishtail lace gown by Pronovias, which she found at beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Mirror Mirror in London – in the bride’s own words, Mirror Mirror“want you to feel 100% and go above and beyond to make sure you are happy.” Rebecca’s Swarovski hair clip fromSmashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Emmy London was the perfect complement to her classically glam bridal style.
There’s so much more to say about this awesome wedding, but before we hand you off to the bride we’ll just leave you with this last little tidbit: the couple served their midnight snack in personalized Tupperware adorned with their wedding logo! If you’re looking for an unexpected favor idea that’s both fun and useful, we think this is a pretty excellent choice.
How we met
Rebecca, the bride: One night in March 2017 I was swiping on Jswipe and I came across David. We had lots of mutual friends, one being my best friend I had just booked my holiday with, so when we matched I instantly called her and said ‘who’s’ this?!’ to which she replied ‘OMG I love him he’s a really good friend you should definitely go on a date with him – I don’t think he’s THE ONE but I think you will fancy him and he is super tall’.
Being 5ft8 height is a REAL thing for me. I was like ‘how tall’ and she said ‘put it this way, you will be able to wear your highest heels’. The struggle is real for tall Jewish girls to find a tall Jewish man, I was so sick of wearing flats and worrying about how tall someone was — so knowing he was tall I already knew my outfit for the first date!
My friend messaged David saying you have matched with my friend and if he wanted my number — all he said was ‘oh she’s hot and he will have a look’. I wait 1 week and receive NO MESSAGE FROM HIM! I am obviously furious so decide to take matters in my own hand and message him first! #independentwoman (He still to this day said the app was “deleted” which is why he didn’t message me as he didn’t see it!)
We start messaging and we get on like a house on fire and start to arrange a first date. I am originally from Leeds and it was round Peseach in 2017 so was back home for the holiday, so we waited to meet up for a drink after.
A Wedding in Israel
We got married at Alexander in Emek Hefer, Israel. I had always dreamed of getting married in Israel and really wanted to get married in a secret garden style venue. Luckily it suited David as well as he has lots of family living in Israel.
We saw some fabulous venues but this place really had the WOW factor! It was stunning and had so many different areas meaning as our guests entered the venue the chuppah was completely hidden (ready for the big reveal!).
Food first
My family and I are real foodies – we are known for always having huge Friday night dinners and Yom Tov meals – you will never leave the Hirst house hungry! Alexander was a new venue and is an open kitchen style – meaning our guests had a choice of 6 mains to choose from for dinner and they could order as many as they wanted! So with all the food stations for the reception, the six salads for starters (also unlimited), the unlimited mains, a dessert buffet and then to top it off reuben sandwiches our guests could take home for a midnight snack on the coach in our personalised Tupperware – it seemed like the perfect choice for us!
A Fab Planner
We had the best wedding planner ever, I cannot recommend her enough! Planning the wedding from England was always going to be tricky, especially when you don’t speak the language but Debbie Nussbaum really understood what we wanted and only showed us vendors and venues who completely suited our taste. She was so organised, always at then end of phone or email if you needed her and took away the major stresses away you have when planning a wedding.
We wanted a timeless vibe that also complemented the venue. I love flowers (David took NO interest in them!) and wherever I could add flowers, we did! We went with a green and white theme full of roses and lillies.
Our designer was Olla Designs. She came up with the most amazing thorough design and really went above and beyond to show us the plan for our big day. The brides chair, reception room, chuppah and main hall all flowed so beautifully. The flowers completely beat our expectations and as we walked in we were blown away and couldn’t believe that this was our wedding!
Wedding Logo
We didn’t want something too over the top. We also didn’t want to give away too much of the theme so that our guests would be surprised! What we did reveal was our wedding logo which David designed edged in silver, this featured throughout our venue – even on to the dance floor to the personalised Tupperware the guests could take home with them!
Hair + Makeup
I was delighted with my hair and makeup. My hair literally didn’t move the whole night, not one strand was out of place! My hair was by Yehonatan Yaeish and my makeup was by Neta Sharoni.
A Pronovias Dress
My dress was from Mirror Mirror and was a fishtail all over lace gown with sleeves from Pronovias. Tash helped me choose the dress at Mirror Mirror and she was great – she was so fun and gave me some great ideas how to personalise my dress. I had tried on about 35 dresses and it was one of the last ones, what really attracted to me was the shape of the dress and I loved the sleeves.
Meb was my dress fitter, and she was brilliant – I actually ended up picking up my dress the day we were flying to Israel due to a few last minute tweaks which Mirror Mirror totally gets, they want you to feel 100% and go above and beyond to make sure you are happy.
Accessories
I had picked an beautiful double layer veil that complemented the dress and was always going to wear my hair up so wanted something to put in it. From being a Blogging Bride and Brides Club member Karen gave me a heads up for a sample sale happening at Emmy London and I chose a Swarovski clip for a bargain price! Other then that I kept the jewellery very simple – just some diamond earrings lent from my mum!
Rainbow Club Shoes
My shoes were the comfiest things EVER! I didn’t take them off all night – they were a mid heel court shoe from Rainbow Club. I actually love them so much I am going to get them dyed to another colour so I can carry on wearing them. seriously if you want comfy dancing shoes – these are the ones!
The handsome groom
David wore a suit from Ted Baker.
We didn’t see each other for the week before the wedding (we wanted to keep it very traditional). We got ready at an AMAZING Penthouse villa as a lot of our guests were staying at the Dan Panorama where we were also staying, so we wanted TOTAL privacy. The setting was perfect, and when David came in to see me for the first time it was really quite an emotional and special reveal! From that moment on I relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the day!
Bridesmaids
My sister was my maid of honour and I wanted her to really stand out and look AMAZING! She wore a custom made rose gold gown from Suzanne Harrington. She did a great job, I would highly recommend her – she can do anything you want and really listens to you. I then had 3 bridesmaids who all wore a white dress from David’s Bridal, who just looked so lovely they were beautiful dresses.
A Musical Ceremony
The most special and favourite part of my whole day was that my husband sang me down the aisle! It was truly magical, he did such an amazing job to keep his nerves and sing in tune! It was so special walking towards him as he was singing to me, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face!
Ketubah
Our ketubah was from Ketubata. They had lovely modern versions and we went for a green and white floral ketubah to go with the rest of the theme.
A Round Chuppah
I had been drawn to round chuppahs when looking through Pinterest! And it just so happened that the venue’s chuppah was also round, so all we had to do was enhance it with Olla’s amazing design and flowers! The venue also had an INCREDIBLE brides chair (it actually looked like another chuppah!) and Olla did a great job to ensure both looked fabulous, I just felt like a total princess sitting there!
Our music choice
David’s mum unfortunately couldn’t be at the wedding due to illness, so David chose her favourite song, ‘Annie’s Song’ for him and his family to walk down the aisle to, it was lovely so we could all think of her at this time.
My dad is a HUGE Elvis fan so we chose Elvis’ version of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love With You’ for my family to walk down, and then of course David sang me down the aisle to ‘Boi Kallah’ in his own version of Ed Sheeran ‘Perfect’.
As we are both from traditional backgrounds we had a mechitza for the Israeli dancing and then we had a second set of dancing with all the cheesy Israeli songs to get the party going!
Our band was Caliente Pop Up Band and they really were PARTY PEOPLE!! They really got everyone up and dancing in between courses. We then had a DJ for the after party DJ Roi Tochner who didn’t stop the party until we said so!
Something that was a TOTAL surprise: during our main courses one of the waiters started to sing, then another one picked up the microphone, and then one went on stage – we were super confused and I thought ‘wow, super talented staff working tonight!’ (bit of a blonde moment!) and it turns out they were KippaLive, an a cappella group who had recently been on Israeli X Factor! They did a little set for us which everyone really loved – we all ended up dancing on the chairs at our tables – it was really special.
Flowers
Our florist Olla was great, she did a huge proposal on every part of the wedding so I felt totally reassured that our vision was going to come to life!
The flowers were mainly roses, lilies and other local flowers in green and white playing on the natural green beauty of the venue. No table or space was left unturned, there were pretty much fabulous flower displays everywhere you went!
We also had a flower stand at the entrance of the venue which moved in the dance floor later on so the women and me could get hair bands/bracelets made of flowers which everyone really enjoyed.
Photography and videography
We went with Ran Bergman as our photographer and he recommend Roma Tytelman as our videographer. I am totally OBSESSED with my photos and video. I still catch myself looking at my photos on the tube home from work, and our wedding video is pretty much on constantly in our flat, anyone that dares to enter can’t leave without seeing it! They captured everything so perfectly and also were so fun to be around on the day, having a laugh with us meaning the photos are really natural and just show us having a good time!
Custom Tupperware
We did a welcome bag for our guests before the wedding – this was a tote bag (with our logo on it!) filled with bits and bobs: a fan, sweets, tissues – the usual! Lots of my friends still use the bag.
The personalised Tupperware was a great surprise for our guests which came out at the end of the night for the ‘midnight snack!’ I also still use mine regulary!
Minimoon and honeymoon
Straight after the wedding we had a little mini moon in the Beresheet Spa in Mitzpe Ramon. TOTAL luxury and bliss. We then ended up for our last night in the Ritz Carlton in Herzliah for some nice relaxation. In February we went to South Africa and Mauritius.
Advice to couples currently planning your wedding
The biggest bit of advice I would say is TRUST your vendors – you have chosen them for their experience and they do this all the time! I chose all my vendors carefully because I loved their visions and ideas, and I was open to hearing how they would do it better in their experience. I think this is why I was super chilled on the day as I knew everything was being taken care of and there was nothing to worry about but enjoying the day.
Also have an early nights sleep and watch something cheesy like Father Of The Bride to get you in the mood!
Rebecca & David’s little white book
Photography and videography – Ran Bergman {gives an extra gift to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Bride’s dress – Pronovias found and fitted at Mirror Mirror {offers £200.00 for accessory purchases over £400 to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Ketubah – Ketubata.com {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Bride’s hair clip – Emmy London
Wedding planner – Debbie Nussbaum
Venue – Alexander
Groom’s attire – Ted Baker
Flower girls – Davids Charles
Bridesmaid – Suzanne Harrington
Ushers – Moss Bros and Ties R Us
Hair + Makeup – Yehonatan Yaeish and Neta Sharoni
Shoes – Rainbow Club
Flowers – Olla Designs
Entertainment – Pop Up Band and DJ Roi Tochner of Caliente and KippaLive
Invitations – Purple Piranha
Mikvah – Neve Tzedek Mivkvah
Smash glass pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
Honeymoon – Beresheet Spa and Ritz Carlton