A Willowby by Watters Bride for a Double Feature Interfaith Jewish Wedding Anassa Hotel in Latchi, Cyprus and Westlake Village Inn Los Angeles, CA, USA

Some couples get to have one wedding in a totally, jawdroppingly breathtaking setting. Stephanie and Raphael got to have TWO! Combining an intimate ceremony in Cyprus (at the same hotel where the pair’s love story began to unfold) with a bigger party for family and friends near their home in LA, they these two maintained continuity between the two events by putting Mediterranean style at the center of both events – and by booking beloved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor LUZ Photography for both the Cyprus and LA festivities, who not only provided totally stunning pics from each event but also brought photographic continuity between the ceremony and reception.

We also love how this interfaith couple worked to craft a personal ceremony that was meaningful to both of them. This meant a contemporary take on mikveh with a dip in the Mediterranean Sea the evening before the ceremony, a ketubah, circling (each circled the other three times, and then the two did one last circle together in unison), exchanging personal vows, choosing a close friend to officiate, and, of course, smashing the glass!

There’s so much more we could say, but we’ll hand you over to Stephanie – who looked gorgeous in Willowby by Watters – for the rest…

Two Weddings

Stephanie, the bride: On July 3rd, 2019 we were married in a small, intimate ceremony with only a few friends at the Anassa Hotel in Latchi, Cyprus. The location plays a significant role in our love story. The two of us were friends for many years until we travelled together in Tel Aviv and then Cyprus. It was there, at the Anassa hotel, that we realized we both had strong feelings for one another, beyond just friends.

On September 1, 2019, we celebrated our marriage with our family and friends at the Westlake Village Inn near Los Angeles, CA. Both of us have roots in Los Angeles, and the Westlake Village Inn provide us with a convenient, beautiful reception location that captured the Mediterranean vibes of our wedding.

Mediterranean Vibes

We wanted to capture the warm, vibrant colours of the Mediterranean. We love bougainvillea and have a fuchsia coloured vine growing on our balcony, so we decided to build our colour scheme around that deep fuchsia you see everywhere in Cyprus. Lemon yellow and olive green pulled everything together beautifully.

On the planning side, we did it all ourselves which was a lot since our ceremony and reception were separate and partially overseas. Still, it was fun to work together, as partners on everything. We found wedding planning to be a great exercise in marital teamwork. We divided tasks, she took care of the venue, he was responsible for photography, we both tasted cake together. Trello was our wedding planning tool 🙂

Invitation

We took a stock design we found on Minted that contained the colours and feel of our wedding and made it our own through their customisation options.

Shoes

I wore kitten heels, my husband is only slightly taller than me and I didn’t want to tower over him. 🙂

The handsome groom

Finding the right suit was almost a laborious as finding the right dress! It was hard deciding between a Ted Baker and a Hugo Boss suit, but he ended up going with a blue Hugo Boss suite. Still gave some love to Ted Baker though. He wore brown TB shoes with blue laces. In line with the colour theme, he wore a fuchsia tie and socks to match.

A special touch to his outfit were his cufflinks. They were made my his brother in law who using heirloom Limoges china from my husband’s grandmothers collection. When my husbands grandmother passed, her vintage china was destroyed in a shipping accident. Out of the shattered pieces came the very special cufflinks.

Ceremony

Being an interfaith couple (the groom is Jewish and bride was raised in the Church of Religious Science – a non-denominational, monotheistic New Age spirituality), we really wanted to make the ceremony our own, one that had meaning to the both of us. With this in mind, we brought in several Jewish components into the ceremony such as the Ketubah, circling each other (we went for 3 times each and one in unison), and the breaking of the glass. We also did our own version of a mikveh the evening before in the Mediterranean Sea.

At the same time, it was important to celebrate Stephanie’s spiritual heritage. She grew up saying the lord’s prayer with her great grandmother, so we incorporated that prayer into the ceremony. We also pulled in traditional American components into the ceremony such as the exchanging of the vows which we wrote ourselves. One of our best friends, Shelly Yehuda was our officiant/guide through a ceremony that felt incredibly meaningful.

Ketubah

We wanted a Ketubah that spoke to us. We are an inter-faith couple so it was important that the Ketubah contained inclusive language that we could relate to. We found the perfect Ketubah that we could customize through Etsy (Meirav Ong Ketubah). During the wedding planning process, we sat down one night and wrote our Ketubah together. It is essentially our joint vows to one another.

Our Ketubah is very special. It travelled with us from to US to Europe and across the Mediterranean during our honeymoon. Travelling with it was a bit tricky logistically, but well worth it. It now hangs on our wall and is the first thing we see when we open our bedroom door every morning.

Our music choice

For our ceremony, she walked down to ‘Pachelbel’s Canon’ played by a live harpist. We had a impromptu first dance in Cyprus to the song ‘Blowers Daughter’ that the hotel pianist played for us during our balcony dinner party. For our reception we danced to ‘La Vie En Rose’ sung live by Stephanie’s sister who is an operatic singer. We had a near miss dip dropping, but no one noticed. 🙂

Photographer

LUZ Photography. Can’t say enough about this team of incredibly talented photographers. They shot a friends wedding in Mexico City and came recommended to us. We used LUZ for both our Cyprus ceremony and LA reception which provided us with photographic continuity which we didn’t think we’d be able to do. We absolutely LOVE our photos and recommend LUZ.

Food

We catered our food through both the Anassa Hotel in Cyprus and the Westlake Village Inn in California. Both venues executed the food perfectly. For our reception, we went with a Vikto Benes strawberry and lemon crème white cake with butter crème frosting. It was perfect.

We also did Mediterranean themed cocktails. One was a take on the Lemon Drop and the other was a gin fizz with grenadine.

Entertainment

We went with a DJ for the reception. On our RSVP cards we asked our guests to select 3 songs they’d like to boogey to. This basically built our song list and meant that everyone got to hear songs they love.

Honeymoon

We kicked off our honeymoon by staying for a couple of extra days at the Anassa Hotel. We can’t say enough about how incredible this place is. It is luxurious but not ostentatious. As we were already in the neighbourhood, we then hoped over to the Greek Islands (Crete and Santorini). The highlights of our honeymoon was our time spent at the Milia Mountain Retreat in Crete as well as our time in Santorini. We were there at the height of tourist season, but it didn’t really matter. Santorini is incredible, especially at night when the crowds dissipate.

Advice to couples currently planning their wedding

Unapologetically make the time and space for yourself to soak it all in. Perhaps write a journal the night before your wedding. Take a long bath and relax. Go for a long leisurely walk. Whatever it is you do to clear your mind… this is a big day and a big deal! This advice goes to both brides and grooms. We both remember every detail of our wedding day. We made a very conscious effort to soak it all in.

Stephanie & Raphael’s little white book

Photography – Luz Weddings {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club (discount only applies to weddings outside Israel)}
Venues – Anassa Hotel and Westlake Village Inn
Bride’s dress – Willowby by Watters
Groom’s attire – Ted Baker and aHugo Boss
Ketubah – Meirav Ong Ketubah
Invitation – Minted
Honeymoon – at Milia Mountain Retreat

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