Like so many couples over the past two years, Becca and Danny ended up with a wedding that looked a lot different than the one they’d originally planned – though no less fabulous!
The pair, who live in Israel, had hoped to wed in their adopted home, but once it became apparent that the country’s borders wouldn’t open in time for beloved family and friends to attend from abroad, Becca and Danny made the tough decision to move the wedding to Vancouver, Canada, where the bride grew up, and re-plan everything from scratch. And the wedding, at Science World Rooftop Gardenswith a stunning view of Vancouver’s celebrated ocean, mountains, and greenery – was nothing short of fabulous. We’re obsessed with the photos from Lumina Weddings.
Becca and Danny still wanted to celebrate with their friends back home in Israel, though, so instead of fully cancelling their plans for their Tel Aviv wedding, they opted to keep the date and shift to a smaller, less formal party at their original venue. From the beginning, they’d been working with beloved Israeli wedding planner and Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Craspedia Events, who was there for the couple through the entire rollercoaster of selecting the initial vendors, cancelling them, and then pivoting to replan what started as a formal wedding into a chill rooftop party.
Read on for the full story in Becca’s own words…
How we Met
Becca, the bride: After meeting Danny’s good friend at the UN in Geneva and receiving an invitation, I attended my first “Jerusalem Cooking Club” event on May 1, 2019. I knocked on the door where the cooking club was taking place and Danny was the one to open it. Upon opening the door, I asked whether or not I was in the right place, to which Danny responded “No.” To be funny. Ha. Ha. (This was literally my nervous reaction).
Following cooking club, Danny sneakily found me on Facebook via the Club’s group and started to message me about whether or not I enjoyed the event. Obviously I did, and the two of us got to talking and eventually exchanged numbers and set up a “date.”
Our first date took place in Shuk Machene Yehuda Market where we got smoothies and then bought all the necessary ingredients for ceviche. We then went to my apartment, which was above the Shuk, and made ceviche and talked for hours. The rest is history!
Venue and wedding plans
Danny and I got engaged in March 2020, right before Israel went into a full lockdown. We were hopeful that by the following June things would be back to normal and we could have the wedding of our dreams with all our loved ones in Israel. Unfortunately, as we got closer and closer to our June 2021 wedding date, it became clear that Israel would not be opening its borders and that it would be impossible to have our parents, siblings, and closest friends who all live outside of Israel at our wedding. For us, this was a red line and we decided to postpone our wedding until October 17, 2021 – thinking for sure by then things would improve.
Unfortunately, yet again, as the date approached Israel’s “4th wave” hit and the situation for travellers become more, not less, restrictive. Not willing to push our wedding off any longer, we made the decision the last week of August to move the wedding to Vancouver, Canada, where I grew up. We chose a new date, October 3, and re-planned everything from scratch. Given that we have so many friends in Israel, instead of cancelling everything we had planned for our original wedding, we decided to organize a smaller party with friends at the original venue.
In the end, we had everyone who needed to be at our wedding ceremony in Vancouver – my Babi who is a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor and my 91-year-old grandma – both of our parents, siblings, closet childhood friends, and so many cousins and loved ones. Two weeks later, back in Israel, we got to celebrate our new marriage with our dear friends and colleagues. Despite all the stress of planning and re-planning, it was meant to be and was the perfect wedding(s)!
In Vancouver, we got married at the Science World Rooftop Gardens. Given the COVID-19 restrictions in British Columbia, we knew that if we wanted to have any dancing (which we did) we had to have an outdoor venue and risk the potentially rainy Vancouver weather. The venue has one of the most stunning and classic views of Vancouver, with the ocean, mountains, and greenery and we fell in love at first Zoom. And we got extremely lucky with the weather – it was a perfect sunny day!
In Israel, we planned to get married similarly on a gorgeous rooftop venue overlooking Tel Aviv, called Bait Al-Hayam (House on the Sea). We ended up keeping this venue for our party.
Two Fab Planners
In Israel we had Yana from Craspedia Events with us from day one. She helped us choose all our vendors in Israel, then sadly cancelled most of them, and redid everything to convert it from a formal wedding to a rooftop party.
In Vancouver, we also hired a planner for a “one month take over” and were super thrilled to have Francesca from Smitten Events on the ground making sure everything was ready for our big day. We also were very fortunate to have my mom’s cousin, Carrie Zach, who is a top wedding planner in Florida, help us out with various things throughout the 1.5 year process of getting married!
We did a lot to make the wedding about us, and kept a lot of those special touches even when we changed the location to Vancouver. Our style was rustic but elegant and classy and our colour dusty blue, with white and green accents. We had a running theme of having olive branches included in the various details, from the invitations to printed materials. This was originally because we were getting married in Israel but fit in Vancouver as well to connect us to the Jewish homeland.
We are so thankful that our amazing designer Maurizio from Debut Event Design took our vision and made it real. We were at the point where we just wanted to get married already and Maurizio made sure that the venue was just perfect – he built the most stunning chuppah out of twigs from scratch and wove greenery through fairy lights to hang at the top of the tent. With the perfect sunny day, it looked like a fairy tale.
Invitations / stationery
I designed the invitations myself using Canva and we sent them out via Paperless Post. We also printed a few to send to our more senior relatives. We included the olive branches and they were a light cream colour. We used the same design and fonts throughout the wedding for the menus, wedding program, welcome sign, and now for the thank you notes.
Hair + Make-up
I knew from the beginning that I wanted my hair in a soft curly bun. My hair has a mind of its own so pinning it back a bit while keeping / accenting some of the natural curl seemed like a good choice. Also, since my dress had a beautiful low back with a bow I thought having my hair somewhat up would show that off a bit more. Stacy from Rush Salon did an incredible job with my hair, following the trial I did in Israel with my hair stylist Sara from Sara’s Hair Salon. Stacy also brought a team with her to help do the hair of my six bridesmaids and the moms.
For makeup, Vanessa Stern Beauty did an absolutely perfect job without us even having time for a trial! She accented my blue eyes just as I was hoping for while keeping everything looking very natural. The makeup stayed on perfectly throughout the entire night too! She also did the makeup for my mom and my husband’s mom and touched up the bridesmaids so everyone looked flawless.
A Tal Kedem Dress
One of the benefits that happened because of COVID-19 was how I got my dress… Eddie Fitzsimmons, who is involved in the bridal scene in Israel, was hosting a wedding dress sale of top Israeli designers who needed to clear stock in August 2020. We spoke in advance about what I was looking for – something fitted, with some but not too much sparkle and something special to it to it – and she put a few dresses aside for my appointment. The first dress I tried on fit like a glove and it was clear it was the one.
It was designed by Tal Kedem Bridal Couture, had a fitted body with a bit of flare at the bottom, a low cut, and this very special sparkly almost spider web like fabric. The back had the cutest bow too. The dress itself was sheer with a skin coloured underlay and I loved that it had a built-in bodysuit meaning I did not have to worry about what undergarments to wear! The only alterations I had to make to it was to hem it a few inches…that’s it!
I also bought a short dress, designed by Ran Zuriel by Yael, to wear to the Friday night Shabbat/rehearsal dinner with a little jacket on top. Turned out this dress had another use as I ended up wearing it to our wedding celebration party two weeks after the wedding in Tel Aviv! This dress also fit off the rack and I loved the little sequins and feathers that made it super fun and festive.
Accessories
For hair accessories, I went classic with a simple white sheer veil made by the seamstress that hemmed my dress. Since my dress did not have a train, I decided to make the veil a bit longer so that it would flow down the aisle.
For jewellery, I borrowed my mom’s gorgeous sapphire earrings, that previously belonged to my grandma, wore a necklace that my Great Aunty Tammy (z”l) who recently passed away gave me for my bat mitzvah, and a bracelet from each of my grandmas. We also used my Zaida’s (z”l) wedding band in the ceremony, which was extremely special.
Shoes
Something in the middle! They were white satin with a bow and some crystals that 100% matched the dress as if they were made to go together! The designer was Badgley Mischka. I also had sparkly sandals by the same designer that I changed into for dancing.
The handsome groom
Danny wore a classic black tux from Bamoss in Tel Aviv and shiny shoes to match. A total James Bond look. He also wore a white, silver, and grey kippa that my cousin Kalya knitted and a watch I got him from Switzerland as an engagement present.
Bridesmaids
Of course I had bridesmaids! All the girls – my five best friends and Danny’s sister – wore dusty blue floor length dresses from Birdy Grey, and they each chose their style. The groomsmen had matching ties, also from Birdy Grey. Our flower girl, Danny’s niece, had an adorable white lace dress with a blue bow to match the bridal party and our ring bearer, Danny’s nephew, had matching blue suspenders and a blue bow tie.
What was the most special was that regardless of the change of date and location, I had all my bridesmaids with me at the wedding in Vancouver, which meant that two of my friends flew all the way from Israel to be with me. My other girls included my best friends of literally my entire life and childhood in Vancouver.
For Danny, one of his groomsmen also came all the way from Israel which was extremely special.
Ceremony
We did! We incorporated my Zaida’s talis into the chuppah and used his ring as well for the ceremony wedding band. My Zaida and I were extremely close and he was and will always be a huge inspiration in my life so it was very special to have these elements included.
One of my favourite parts of the ceremony was walking around Danny seven times, because I completely lost count and kept having to look to the Rabbi who would motion with his finger to keep going – everyone was laughing! I also loved the sheva brachot as our family and friends came up and did a beautiful job on the blessings. Rabbi Rosenblatt also made the ceremony very personal and accessible to many guests who had never been to a more orthodox style ceremony.
Ketubah
The script was done in Israel by Dov Laimon, who actually grew up with my mom’s sister in Saskatoon, Canada, and now is a scribe in Jerusalem. The border was painted for us by Diana Zoe Coop – an incredible artist and mother of my best friend and bridesmaid Camille.
My mom’s cousin Diane Bloomfield, who we are very close to and lives in Jerusalem as well, read the Ketubah during the ceremony.
Chuppah
Due to the fact that we were doing the ceremony and reception at the same venue in the same location, we had to deal with a bit of logistics of “flipping” the venue. I suggested that our designer just create a simple chuppah with sticks that the groomsmen could hold so it could be easily moved aside for the dinner and dancing. Thankfully, our designer took the idea of sticks to a whole other level and created the most stunning chuppah we have ever seen out of birchwood twigs and greenery that actually stood on its own.
He then transformed it into a beautiful canopy over our sweetheart table for the reception. Since we had a beautiful city and ocean view behind us, the simple and clean lines of the chuppah were perfect as they accented and did not take away from the skyline. Maurizio from Debut 100% gets credit for the chuppah – it was all him!
Our Music Choice
We are both total 90s kids and love a lot of oldies as well as top 40s…just fun music. Plus we also live in Israel so love Israeli music. Thankfully, our original DJ, Guy Hajaj, meant to do our wedding in Israel actually now lives in Vancouver so he was able to DJ our wedding there and then had a friend of his, Eyal Diskel, DJ our party in Israel. Both of them were amazing!
For the ceremony, Danny walked down the aisle to Jason Mraz ‘I’m Yours’ and the wedding party and myself to music by the Israeli singer Idan Raichel, ‘Cacha Mi Yom Le Yom’ (Like this from day to day) and ‘Eem At Tavoyee Elay’ (If you will come to me) respectively. For the recessional we had Smash Mouth ‘I’m a Believer’ which seemed very fitting after what we went through to get married!
For the first dances, we went straight into the party because after everything, we just wanted to have fun and celebrate our marriage. We started off with an amazing hora and both my grandmothers danced too, which was so unbelievable. DJ Guy Hajaj did an incredible job throughout the night of keeping everyone on the dance floor and mixing in some of our favourite Israeli songs and also a lot of the fun songs that have dances to them (ex. Cha Cha Slide).
At our party in Israel, DJ Eyal Diskel put much more emphasis on the Israeli music mixing in a lot of classic 90s songs. It was great.
Flowers
To go with the dusty blue bridesmaid dresses and rustic but classy look, we went with white garden roses, eucalyptus, olive branches, and blue thistles…and my bouquet incorporated succulents too since I have a thing for succulents. The button holes matched the bouquets perfectly. Quince Fine Florals did an absolutely incredible job at the florals and I loved my bouquet to pieces!
For the table centres, my brother is amazing with plants and helped us make them ourselves. We ordered different pots from Ikea and spent an afternoon at the greenhouse picking up 100 different kinds of succulents, herbs, and other funky plants. We then planted everything and added moss to make it look polished. The guests were able to take home the plants and have a lasting memory of our wedding.
In Israel, my amazing planner Yana surprised me with a bouquet including little blue flowers and succulents that she made herself. She of course also made Danny a button hole and brought some herbs for the cocktail tables that guests could take home.
Photographer and videographer
With just a month to plan the entire wedding, my bridesmaid Camille who used to be an event planner herself had heard good things about Lumina Weddings and helped us reach out and connect. Krista responded right away so we set up a call and not only loved the photography style, but also her vibe. After doing our due diligence, it was clear Lumina would be the right choice for us and we are thrilled with how the photos turned out! We wanted bright images that showcased the happiness of the day and from Lumina’s website and Instagram we were confident they would deliver.
We also loved that their package came with two photographers and Krista herself as a manager to make sure everyone stayed on schedule from the first look to the ceremony and that all the necessary shots were captured. Lumina also knew all the best spots at the hotel we got ready at and at the nearby downtown waterfront for the first look and portraits.
We did indeed use a videographer and went with a recommendation from my brother of Jack Coady, who is new to the wedding scene and is making his mark quickly! He is great with lighting, movement, and capturing the natural beauty of people and did a beyond outstanding job with our clip.
Food and Cake
As you might guess given that we met at a cooking club, Danny and I are total foodies so our family and friends had high expectations for what we would serve. We decided to do a dairy menu and a family style meal. The Perfect Bite created the menu that incorporated a West Coast fall vibe of salmon, maple, roasted veggies, and more. Everyone said they loved the food! My mom is the best baker so took care of the desserts, baking tons of cookies and squares.
For the cake, Bon Ton Pastry created a chocolate naked cake filled with chocolate and raspberry ganache. The cake was decorated with florals that Quince sent over and topped with a silver script cake topper of our names.
We also had Liquid Assets help us out on the bar and serve our custom labelled pink wine from Bat Shlomo Vineyards.
Entertainment
Beyond our DJ, DJ Guy, the entertainment included speeches! Facilitated by our MC, my bridesmaid Camille, Danny’s mom, my mom, my dad, Danny’s sister, and my two best friends from childhood Rachel and Aviva spoke. Of course, our parents would speak and we each chose one other speech that we wanted to have. For Danny, this was his big sister, and for me, this was Aviva and Rachel. Aviva, Rachel, and I all spoke in pairs at each other’s bat mitzvahs so it was only right that they again speak at my wedding.
Favors
This was possibly one of the crazier things we did when moving the wedding from Israel to Vancouver… we had already bought the favours and we schlepped them with us! Since we live across the street from Shuk Machene Yehuda in Jerusalem and since food is such a big part of our lives, we decided to buy tiny jam jars and print custom labels that read “Thanks for spicing up our day, Becca & Danny” on them and fill them with zaatar. We brought the jars and the zaatar from the shuk with us to Vancouver. For the party in Israel, we used the other half of the jars and only had to bring them to Tel Aviv that time…not on two flights and thousands and thousands of miles!
Our centrepieces were also potted plants so guests got to take those home as favours as well.
Extra details
What made our wedding truly special and unique was what it took to get there and the people we had surrounding us. After three date changes and re-planning everything with a month’s notice in a completely different country, we got married with 80 of our closest friends and family surrounding us. The fact that my Babi, who is a Holocaust survivor and 95 years old, was at my wedding and danced with us brought tears to everyone’s eyes and made the decision to move the wedding to Vancouver the absolute right one.
That my grandma Annie who is 91 was well enough to fly in and also dance was also beyond special. We had Danny’s entire family come in from the United States and many family and friends from Mexico as well, again with just one month’s notice. Many of my cousins came from the US as well and our three close friends from Israel. That is what made it the most special of all.
Beyond that, we took a huge risk to have dancing by doing an outdoor, albeit covered, venue to abide by the COVID-19 restrictions. It was honestly the most gorgeous sunny day and we could not have asked or hoped for better weather in Canada in October! This defined the day as we were able to do the first look photos in the Fairmont Waterfront Vancouver’s gorgeous rooftop garden and then by the water for portraits. The hilarious thing too was that it rained for a few moments at our party in Israel which we would have never thought would happen! Everyone said this was a blessing.
Danny and I both spoke, saying a few words about each other and thanking everyone for coming. Traveling is not easy in today’s world and everyone made such an immense effort to be there and it truly meant the world to us.
We had some very fun and special additional details created by my bridesmaid Aviva’s mom Ellen for when us girls were getting ready. Ellen made each of the bridesmaids, moms, and myself custom water mugs, hand sanitizers, slippers, and even banana breads to snack on! We also created custom labelled rose wine from Bat Shlomo Vineyards in Israel…yes that we brought with us to Vancouver!
Additionally, Danny and I wrote notes to each other in our shared journal. We read these during the first look.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that anything surprising happened. The surprise was more that after a 1.5year engagement and all the changes, we had the wedding of our dreams with our families and friends safely by our sides.
Honeymoon
We honeymooned in Italy! Since we both love food, we wanted to go somewhere where we could relax and enjoy the “dolce vita” as they say in Italy. We spent just over a week in Tuscany, five nights in Cinque Terre, and two nights in Rome. In Tuscany we spent 7 nights just outside of Cortona at Villa Loggio, a winery and beautiful setting that I would highly recommend to any couple. It is the perfect base for a honeymoon of exploring good wineries, restaurants, and cute Tuscan hillside towns. In Cinque Terre we also stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast called Il Giardino in Monterrosso that we would highly recommend.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Regardless of what the world, or this pandemic, throws at you – don’t give up and get creative! We so badly wanted to have everyone with us in Israel, where we live, but in the end getting married in Vancouver with our family and close friends and they celebrating with our friends in Israel was made for the perfect wedding.
I would definitely recommend that brides hire a wedding planner in order to help them enjoy their day – it is the most worthwhile expense! I was also very thankful that my planner in Vancouver, Francesca, insisted that we do a rehearsal. It really helped me and the entire wedding party understand the layout and logistics much better.
I also recommend that regardless of how religious you might be, that you consider doing a bedeken and a tisch. The bedeken was honestly one of my favourite moments of the entire day. I loved sitting with my mom, Danny’s mom, and my best friends and that the other guests came up to say hi or for blessings. It was also so special to see Danny being brought to me by my Dad and his dad and when he put the veil on me.
The other thing that helped me enjoy the day was that I have the most incredible friends and family that I knew I could trust and count on to take care of anything that arose. And they did and I am forever grateful to all the effort they put in – whether it was bringing things to the venue, being responsible for the rings, sewing the bow on my dress into place, and so much more.
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did For Us
I found the explanations of the various Jewish wedding traditions available on Smashing the Glass an extremely helpful resource in creating our own program. I also checked out Yana, our Israeli planner, on Smashing the Glass as well. Throughout our pandemic engagement, I would also regularly read the blogs to see how other brides were coping with our world being upside down and to get advise.
BECCA & DANNY’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Lumina Weddings
Videography – Jack Coady
Vancouver Wedding planner – Smitten Events
Israel Wedding Planner – Craspedia Events {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Science World Rooftop Gardens
Bride’s dress – Tal Kedem Bridal Couture / Ran Zuriel by Yael
Bride’s shoes – Badgley Mischka
Groom’s attire – Bamoss
Bridesmaids – Birdy Grey
Hair + Makeup – Rush Salon, Sara’s Hair Salon, Vanessa Stern Beauty
Flowers – Quince Fine Florals
DJ – DJ Guy
Catering – The Perfect Bite
Cake – Bon Ton Pastry
Ketubah – Diana Zoe Coop Artist, Dov Laimon
Rabbi – Schara Tzedeck
Custom Pink Wine – Bat Shlomo
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.
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