Today’s gorgeous Jewish wedding has made us realize we don’t see nearly enough desert celebrations. But we’re hoping to see a lot more after today, because who could see the stunning nuptials of Simone, the co-founder of an educational services company that brings wellbeing programs to college students, and Isaac, who works in real estate development, and not want to get married amidst the mountains and saguaros?!
Although mountain lovers Simone and Isaac live in Tucson, home to plentiful dramatic scenery, it wasn’t so easy for them to find a chuppah spot that met their specs: it needed breathtaking mountain views that could be enjoyed by both guests AND the couple themselves while standing under the chuppah. We’re glad they didn’t give up, though, because they totally hit the jackpot when they found The Westin La Paloma.
And how amazing is their chuppah, which, in keeping with the theme of celebrating Tucson’s natural beauty, incorporates not only flowers but also cactus pads?!
We’re obsessed with their gorgeous artistic ketubah from STG Recommended Vendor ketubah.com too. Truly a work of art!
OK – time to ogle over the stunning pics from Ben & Kelly Photography and video by Black Sheep Filmworks. And let’s hand over to the bride, who looked radiant in Tony Ward…
Mountain Views
Simone, the bride: We got married at The Westin La Paloma in Tucson, Arizona. I had two main criteria when it came to selecting a venue. The first, and most important, was to have mountain views from the ceremony site and the second was to select a hotel venue since a lot of our guests would be coming from out of town.
I visited every hotel venue in Tucson and while all were beautiful, none had the dramatic mountain views that I had wanted from the ceremony site and if they did, only the guests would be able to see them, not me or my husband from under the chuppah. I actually started to scope out venues in Scottsdale because this was one area I was not willing to compromise.
As a Jersey girl, my favorite thing about living in Tucson are the mountains and I am just as enamored with their beauty today as I was when I first moved here 6 years ago. My husband, who is a native Tucsonan, shares my love of the mountains and I couldn’t imagine them not being a part of our big day.
Anyways, La Paloma was the last stop on our Tucson hotel tour and I didn’t want to get my hopes up. As we were going around the property everything else checked the boxes in terms of what we were looking for and I was eager to see the ceremony site, which was the last stop on our tour.
The minute we pulled up I knew with 100% certainty that we had found our venue. The ceremony site was beyond perfect. It was quiet, secluded, and had unbelievable views of the mountains for both us and our guests.
Desert Glam
The vibe we were going for was “desert glam”. I wanted to marry my East Coast flare with my love for the desert. Our color scheme was blush, peach, coral, succulent green, cactus green with hints of tangerine. Our planner, Meagan Crain from Crain & Co Events, really helped bring my vision to life.
Invitation
We wanted our invitations to set the stage for our “desert glam” theme. We had the Catalina mountain range as well as some cacti on our envelopes and return envelopes, which were green, and the envelope liner had pink flowers, green succulents, and cacti on them. They were gorgeous!
Hair + Makeup
My hair stylist, Elle Tualla, and makeup artist, Mandi Dao, along with their helpers, Stacey, and Jazmin Sykes, were out of this world amazing. I knew I wanted to be more of a glam bride as opposed to natural one and this is definitely their area of expertise.
I didn’t want to wear my hair fully down, since this is how I always wear it, but I also didn’t want to wear my hair completely up, so we settled on pining one side of my hair back with a braid to add a little something extra. We wove a hair vine into the braid, which was the perfect touch. Not only did my hair and makeup come out amazing, but so did all of my bridesmaids, mom, and grandma. Everyone looked so incredible!
A Tony Ward Dress
Initially I thought that my mom and sister would fly out to Arizona from New Jersey and we would go dress shopping in Tucson and Scottsdale, but then I realized I had an upcoming trip to NYC for my master’s degree graduation ceremony from Columbia University and I thought if I can’t find a dress in NYC, then I won’t be able to find a dress anywhere!
Since this trip was not planned to incorporate dress shopping, I only had one afternoon that I’d be able to go. When I told my friends I was going to try to find my dress in NYC they all suggested I go to Kleinfeld Bridal, which to be honest, I hadn’t even heard about. I looked online to make an appointment and coincidentally they only had one opening that week and it was the afternoon that I had free so I took it as a sign and made an appointment.
I was fortunate to have my mom, sister (who was also my MOH), grandma, and aunt there, which is something I’ll never forget! I was not one of those brides who has had a vision of what her wedding dress would look like since she was a little girl. I hadn’t given it much thought, but I thought I’d choose a form fitting dress, since that was my style. But as I kept trying on dresses, none of them felt right, or stuck out to me.
I am a very decisive person so I was waiting for that feeling that I always get. But then, I was walking back to the fitting room and a dress caught my eye, but it wasn’t white so I proceeded into the fitting room. Still intrigued, I backpedalled out of the room and walked up to take a closer look and it was gorgeous. The beadwork and lace was impeccable.
As I was waiting for my stylist, Morgan, to return with some more dresses, I found myself standing there hovering over this dress getting territorial. The minute I put the dress on, I felt like a million bucks. I absolutely loved it, but I didn’t have that “this is the one feeling” because I really wanted a white dress and this dress was more taupe.
So, I disappointedly took the dress off and continued the search. But, I couldn’t get that dress out of my mind and every other dress I tried on after it I compared to it and none stood a chance. After being there for nearly 4 hours, I was starting to accept the fact that today was probably not the day I was going to find my dress.
I decided to try my favorite dress on one more time because I was feeling so torn. This time, Morgan put the veil on and I began to tear-up. At that point I knew I had found my dress. Morgan told me that she would inquire with the designer, Tony Ward, if he would be willing to make the dress in all white.
However, I still purchased the dress knowing that this might not be a possibility. The following day Morgan called me with good news that they’d be able to make my dress in all white. But now, I had to make a difficult decision. This is the exact thing that I wanted, but I fell in love with the dress the way that it was and I had fears about not liking it as much in the all-white version. My gut said to just trust that I’ll love it in white, so that’s what I did.
When I got the call 9 months later that my dress was in, I was excited, but also nervous because I did purchase it basically sight unseen! But, when I tried it on it was amazing and everything I had hoped for. I took my dress to couture designer Zaza from Zaza Couturier in Englewood, New Jersey, to get it altered. She had designed dresses for me and my family in the past and she was the only person I felt comfortable touching it.
Zaza made the straps thinner since I wanted to show more of my shoulders and also took out some of the structured tulle to allow the dress to move more freely. Now, my dress was perfect!
Accessories
Since I didn’t have a long train on my dress, I wanted to have a dramatic, long veil. I purchased it at the time of purchasing my dress at Kleinfeld Bridal and it matched perfectly. I had a hair vine that I got from Etsy that was such a nice touch.
I’m unable to wear heavy/chandelier earrings because of a micro-tear in one of my earlobes, which always kind of bums me out. Knowing this, my mom and dad had custom earrings made as a wedding gift that “crawl” up the ear to help take some of the burden off of the earlobe.
I was completely blown away and so excited as I thought I’d just wear my normal, everyday earrings. This was such a special and thoughtful wedding gift and now anytime that I go to other formal events I’ll have a piece of my wedding day with me!
Badgley Mischka Shoes
Since our ceremony was on grass, I opted for gold Badgley Mischka block heels. They were so comfortable and the last thing I wanted to be thinking about under the chuppah was how much my feet were hurting!
The handsome groom
Isaac is a Leo and let’s just say his style definitely reflects that: bold! He had his tux custom made at Enzo Custom in New York City. He wanted to get something that had a little pizzazz, but also something that he could wear to other formal events so he settled on a navy tux jacket with a subtle paisley design, black tux pants, and Versace shoes that were also a little something extra, but not too much.
Isaac is always known for wearing really snazzy jackets to events, something he adopted from my dad. So, as a wedding gift, my parents got Isaac a custom silver and black jacket for him to change into for the reception. I think Isaac might set a trend for groom outfit changes!
Bridesmaids
We had a large bridal party. Since so many of our closest friends were coming from out of town and we don’t get to see them often, we wanted to spend as much time as possible with them. It was really important to me that my bridesmaids felt beautiful and confident in their dresses and that they got something that they liked enough to wear again.
I was also cost conscious and wanted to find something that didn’t break the bank, but still looked nice and not cheap. While I wanted to give them autonomy, I also wanted to have a little control so I directed them to Lulus and told them to select a blush dress.
Ceremony
I got married in my grandmother’s gold ring, so it was like she got to be there on my big day. My favorite part of the ceremony by far was looking out at the sun setting over the mountains as well as the creative vows that Isaac and I shared with each other.
We also had gorgeous twinkle lights over the guest seating and ombre pink petals down the aisle. Lastly, we had an “in memory of table” to honor our loved ones who have passed and were unable to be there in person to celebrate our big day. Isaac picked out our Ketubah from Ketubah.com which we love!
Chuppah
Second to finding a venue that had mountain views, my chuppah was the next most important thing to me. I knew I wanted to do something different and incorporate cactus pads in addition to flowers, which is exactly what we did! My florist, Elaine Taylor, from Elaine Taylor Fine Flowers, was an absolute DREAM! Not only did the chuppah look exactly how I had envisioned it, but she also surprised me by uplighting it, which looked immaculate once the sun set.
Our music choice
Throughout our relationship Isaac and I have had two songs that are “ours”, so it was a no brainer when it came time to select our processional and first dance songs. We had our wedding party walk down the aisle to Canon in D, and then I walked down the aisle to one of our songs, ‘River Flows in You’ by Yiruma.
I know that seeing me walk down the aisle to this song was Isaac’s favorite part of the ceremony. We danced our first dance to our other song, which is ‘Looking Through Your Eyes’ by LeAnn Rimes. Isaac played this song in the car when we first started dating and even though the relationship was new, it just instantaneously became ours.
Flowers
I really wanted to have succulents in my bouquet. My bouqet consisted of open garden roses, ranunculas, astilbe, in shades of blush, peach, pink soft coral and just a touch of tangerine accented with scabiosa pods, and 2-3 succulents. These were the primary blooms used on the chuppah and centerpieces as well.
Photographer and videographer
I know that beautiful, overexposed photos are “in” right now, but it was important for me to find a photographer that also took a lot of colorful, vibrant photos. One of my favorite things about living in Arizona is the clear, blue skies we have most days and I wanted my photos to reflect that!
Thus, when I stumbled upon Ben & Kelly Photography‘s work in Arizona Weddings magazine and they were listed as two of Arizona’s top wedding photographers I knew they were the ones!
Our videographer, Stepheny Keith, owner of Black Sheep Filmworks, came recommended by a friend and she was incredible. She took all my suggestions, while still infusing her own creative talents and even got Isaac’s stamp of approval (he was adamant about not having a “corny” wedding video) and it most certainly was anything but that!
Food and cake
Our food was catered by The Westin La Paloma. We wanted to have a little southwestern flare so we had tacos as part of our cocktail hour. Isaac and I are both gluten and dairy free and we wanted to be able to eat the cake at our own wedding, but also didn’t want to subject our guests to this.
Our amazing baker, Annie, with Ambrosia Cakes, was able to give us the best of both worlds by making the top layer of our cake gluten and dairy free and then the rest of the layers were “normal” for our guests.
Entertainment
We went the band route and our band, The Lucky Devils Band, did not disappoint. I feel like the music can make or break an event and our definitely made it!
SPECIAL TOUCHES
It was very important to us that our 12-year-old Pitbull, Diesel, was a part of our special day. We didn’t have him walk down the aisle, but he came for our family and bridal party photos dressed in a tux looking quite dapper. The first look we had with Diesel is something I will never forget.
We also had “his and hers” signature cocktails. We tried to incorporate our names into their titles and called them “Simone tequila, two tequila” and “Getting Figgy With It”. Since our last name is Figueroa, Isaac’s drink had figs in it. After our “normal” first dance, we broke into a choreographed Latin/Hip-Hop first dance. This was Isaac’s idea to do this and we had a lot of fun with it, although Isaac was definitely relieved once it was over!
Honeymoon
We went to the Amalfi Coast in Italy and Greece. These were two places that were at the top of both our lists so it was an easy decision. We ended up waiting 3 months after the wedding to be able to go when the weather was nice in both those places and it was one of the best decisions!
Not only could I have not imagined getting on a plane immediately after our wedding (it took a few days to recoup from the emotional high!), but it also gave us something else to look forward to and prolong the celebration.
We had fantastic travel agents, Allison and Josh Kobasky, who are the founders of Over the Moon vacations. They took care of every single detail planned the most luxurious trip of a lifetime! To top it all off, they didn’t cost us a penny.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
Don’t sweat the small stuff (or big stuff if it happens!). Things will go wrong, they always do, and most of the time no one will know but you! And more importantly, be present. The day really does go by so fast, but I felt like I was able to savor every moment leading up to and through the ceremony by taking mental pictures throughout the day.
As silly as it sounds, each time I was doing something I either said it in my head, or said it out loud. For example, “wow, now I’m putting on my shoes, or now I’m on my way to my first look”. This helped me acknowledge every aspect of the whole day as I was going through it so it didn’t fly by.
SIMONE & ISAAC’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Ben & Kelly Photography
Videography – Stepheny Keith, Black Sheep Filmworks
Ketubah – Ketubah.com {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Wedding planner – Meagan Crain, Crain & Co Events
Venue – The Westin La Paloma
Bride’s dress – Tony Ward found and fitted at Kleinfeld Bridal
Bride’s shoes – Badgley Mischka
Bride’s accessories – Kleinfeld Bridal, Etsy
Groom’s attire – Enzo Custom
Bridesmaids – Lulus
Groomsmen – The Black Tux
Hair + Makeup – Elle Tualla, Mandi Dao , Jazmin Sykes
Flowers – Elaine Taylor Fine Flowers
Band – The Lucky Devils Band
Catering – The Westin La Paloma
Cake – Ambrosia Cakes
Stationery/Invitation – Brie Dumais Designs
Lighting – Total Lighting Support
Party Rentals – Frostings Event Design and Party Rentals , Red Diamond Rentals
Photobooth – Bashbox Photobooth
Smash The Glass Pouch – Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop {or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!}
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What a great feature. Thank you so much for sharing!