We love it when a couple gets creative about blending their backgrounds to add character to their big day. So naturally we’re pretty psyched to be sharing the American-British wedding of Rose and Joel (#joelpickedarose). Their choice to marry on the beach in sunny Spain was a nod to Rose’s Southern California upbringing, and the couple’s sweets table paired UK sweets with their American counterparts — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
We also love how hands-on these two got in crafting their big day–even from afar. Joel, the director of production for a bespoke kitchen and furniture company, put his design skills to full use, designing the lovely floral chuppah (while Rose decided on the peonies and eucalyptus), hand-building a donut wall (and shipping it off to Marbella from the couple’s home in London!), and even worked with Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Bigday Designs to design the beautiful rose gold-embossed invitation.
Rose, the London territory manager for haircare brands Moroccanoil and Olaplex, got in on the action too: when she couldn’t find the dress of her dreams in the shops, she got creative, pairing a reworked lace top from Martina Liana with a custom silk skirt to make it happen. The results were truly stunning, as you can see from Kellianne Photo’s beautiful pictures and the wonderful videography by Your Wedding Moments (edited by Rebecca Louise).
We’ll let the bride fill you in on the rest — including that wild shot glass table plan!
How we met
Rose, the bride: Joel and I met just over 4 years ago when I was living in Orange County. He was on a trip with my cousin to Las Vegas, and I went to visit my cousin. Joel and my cousin have been friends for over 20 years, and it turns out Joel and I had actually met multiple times but just didn’t remember! We did long distance for a little while until I moved to London in 2015.
Venue with a View
We got married at the Gran Melia Don Pepe in Marbella, Spain. I’m from Southern California originally, so I always wanted an outdoor wedding near the beach. When I moved to London 4 years ago, Joel took me to Marbella soon after I moved, and I knew immediately that Marbella felt like home and I wanted to get married there. After we got engaged and I started looking at venues, I knew I wanted to get married at the Don Pepe the minute I walked in! The view of the ocean alone had me sold!
Rose Gold and Eucalyptus
Joel and I really wanted our wedding to be very personal and we wanted to make sure that it felt “like us.” Our color was rose gold, and we had lots of eucalyptus and branches everywhere. We also had a shot table seating plan which was very us!
What ‘Smashing The Glass’ Did for Us
I love the blog and I have followed it since the beginning! I love that it includes all different types of Jewish weddings and I really found so much inspiration on the blog!
Cream and Rose Gold Invitations
Our invitations were made by Bigday Designs, but Joel actually designed the invitation himself! I originally wanted the entire invitation to be rose-colored, but that was VERY quickly shot down by Joel so we instead had cream-colored invites with rose-colored font and our names in embossed rose gold as well as our monogram (which Joel also designed) in embossed rose gold.
Hair + Makeup
I wanted the makeup to be overall natural with a focus on the eyes and lots of gold/bronze tones. I also wanted the look to be very dewey. For my hair I wanted a very 60s, Brigitte Bardot-inspired look. I work in the hair industry myself for a hair care brand, so the hairstyle was very important!
My makeup artist was Nicola McGeorge and she genuinely is the BEST in Marbella hands down. She was so professional and helpful throughout the entire experience and knew exactly what I wanted. Her team of two other makeup artists that did my bridesmaids were also incredible.
My hairdresser was Louise Hill and she was an absolute lifesaver – my original hairdresser quit three days before the wedding and Louise stepped in immediately, had a trial two days before the wedding. and brought a fantastic team to do the bridesmaids hair as well!
A Custom Dress
So it is highly possible that I tried on over 50 dresses. I definitely thought I wanted something very fitted, but soon changed my mind – but when I started trying on dresses, I couldn’t find what I was looking for!
I knew that I wanted a silk skirt that came in at my waist and flared out, and I knew I wanted a top that was very fitted with lace appliquà© over a nude underlay, but I couldn’t find that combination anywhere!
I found a top in the Martina Liana separates line that I ordered in. I then had a dressmaker completely take apart the top, bone in, basque it, and make the skirt from scratch. It took 15 fittings to get it perfect! My mother-in-law and I designed the shape/fit of the dress, but the material on the top was made by the EXTREMELY talented Martina Liana and the basquing just made it come to life!
Something Old, Something New
My “something borrowed” was my mother-in-law’s diamond earrings. They were simple solitaire diamonds, and I didn’t want to wear any other jewelry as I wanted the dress to speak for itself.
My veil was from Martina Liana and was a very simple cathedral veil that was about 2 inches longer than my train. My garter was my “something old” and it was my godmother’s that she wore on her wedding day. I also had my paternal grandmother’s handkerchief that she had on her wedding day, and my maternal grandmother’s broach was pinned onto my bouquet. My something blue was very sentimental – my sister actually hand-sewed tiny blue ribbons onto my lingerie. She taught herself to sew specifically for it!
YSL Shoes
I wore nude Yves Saint Laurent‘s tribute platform heels. I wear heels every day so definitely had to stay true to myself and wear skyscrapers! The nude color of the shoes matched the nude underlay of the top of my dress.
The handsome groom
Joel was very particular when it came to what he was wearing, so he had his suit custom made and he even designed the waistcoat himself! His shoes were Giuseppe Zanotti, and his brother wore matching shoes. It was very sweet to see them wearing matching shoes.
Bridesmaids in Rose
I had seven bridesmaids and two maids of honor. The bridesmaids all wore the same dress – it was a silk rose color with a cowl neck – and the two maids of honor wore a slightly darker dress in the same material but a different shape. I always knew I wanted the girls in silk to match the silk in my dress, and the dresses fit them all beautifully.
A Peony and Eucalyptus Chuppah
Joel designed the chuppah! I knew I wanted peonies and eucalyptus, but Joel designed the layout and the shape. We also had a big branch arch at the beginning of the aisle and branches down the sides lining the aisle.
American Traditions
For the ceremony I wanted to incorporate some American traditions. In the UK the bridesmaids and groomsmen sit down in the front rows, and they don’t walk down the aisle together in pairs, so I made sure we did it the American way and had them walk down in pairs and had them stand on either side of the chuppah.
We also used the same kiddush cup my godparents used at their wedding 55 years ago. (It is even engraved with their names and wedding date.) My godfather wasn’t well enough to travel to Spain for the wedding from LA, so using his kiddush cup really made me feel like he was there with us. We also flew out our rabbi from London along with our chazzan.
As the chuppah ceremony was very emotional, I wanted to start the reception off with a real party atmosphere, so when the ceremony was over we had confetti cannons.
Cinema
The groom and all the bridesmaids/ushers walked down to Hallelujah with Hebrew wording. My dad and I walked down to Boi Kallah to the tune of Time to Say Goodbye.
Our first dance was VERY untraditional. We danced to our song which is Cinema by Skrillex, however our song/our first dance is the acoustic version by Jason Evignan. When Joel proposed, the ring box actually played that song when opened.
Peonies Galore
Virginia Florista was our florist and they were fantastic. I chose lots of eucalyptus, peonies, and astilbe, which is my favorite. My bouquet was eucalyptus and peonies, and the bridesmaids’ bouquets were pink and white astilbe. The buttonholes were peonies as well.
We had two different centerpieces, one with peonies, hydrangeas, and a lot of eucalyptus and candles at the bottom. The other was lots of tall and short vases filled with branches, eucalyptus, peonies, and hydrangeas, and lots of candles. The head table had large garlands of hydrangeas and eucalyptus with candles.
Photographer and videographer
We had two photographers. Our primary photographer was Kellianne Photo who we flew out from the UK. When I saw Kellianne’s work I knew I had to have her – she is so my style! Our second photographer was part of our videography team, Your Wedding Moments (edited by Rebecca Louise), and they are based in Marbella.
Donut Wall
We wanted something different than a traditional wedding cake so we instead had a donut wall with a donut/sweets table. Joel designed and built the wall himself and then shipped it to Marbella. He even put our wedding hashtag on the bottom!
Dancing All Night
For the ceremony we had a chazzan, a violinist, and a pianist. For the cocktail reception we had two singers, a pianist, and a saxophonist. For the remainder of the evening we had a 9-piece live band.
The band we chose was The Legal Aliens, a band based in Marbella with members from London and Italy as well. They were absolutely fanatstic and played a mixture of traditional and modern songs. Everyone was dancing the entire evening! We started the dinner/dance with traditional Israeli dancing and it was INSANE. The band was dancing on the dancefloor with us and it was just fabulous!
Shot Glass Seating Plan
We provided personalized fans through the ceremony to keep the guests cool and we had flip flops on everyone’s chairs when they sat down for dinner. We also had slippers available for some of the “older” guests who did not want to wear flip flops.
One of my favorite ideas from our wedding was our seating plan. We wanted everyone to know that this was going to be a party from the minute they arrived, so our seating plan was actually shot glasses filled with vodka cranberry with the table numbers attached to the name card on the glass. We also had a sweets table with both American and UK sweets to represent both of us. (I’m American, Joel is British.)
Emotional Speeches
We had five speeches throughout the evening. My dad, Joel’s dad, Joel, Joel’s best man (who he has been friends with since birth), and my maid of honor. They were all both hilarious and incredibly sentimental. Joel is PAINFULLY shy so he was dreading his speech – but it was without question the most memorable part of the evening!
Our toastmaster was my best friend Jacob, and we really wanted to find a special way to incorporate him into the wedding, so as toastmaster he made little speeches in between the other speeches.
Our head table was comprised of our bridal party rather than our parents, so slightly untraditional. At the end of the evening after the band had packed up, all of our friends surrounded us and sang us Wonderwall by Oasis, it was incredibly emotional and a moment I will never forget. The boys and the girls then had a sing – off for about 30 minutes, and it was hilarious to watch.
A Minimoon and a Honeymoon
Joel and I were both in Marbella for an entire week leading up to the wedding (although we kept tradition and didn’t see each other for the entire week!) and then stayed in Marbella a further 3 days after the wedding, so we wanted to do a mini moon first and do the honeymoon later. We went to the Canary Islands for a week and really got to relax! We are going to Punta Cana and Miami for our honeymoon just after our one-year anniversary.
Civil ceremony
We had our legal/civil ceremony at The Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire. Joel and I got engaged there so it holds a lot of emotional and sentimental significance to us. We had a very intimate ceremony with just 20 people (immediate family), followed by an afternoon tea. It was a really wonderful way to start the wedding celebrations!
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
My best piece of advice for brides is try not to control everything. I spent MONTHS stressing over tiny details. It sounds cliche but I really stress taking it all in – the lead up, the entire experience, everything!
Rose & Joel’s little white book
Photography – Kellianne Photo
Videography – Your Wedding Moments (edited by Rebecca Louise)
Invitation – Bigday Designs {offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club}
Venue – Gran Melia Don Pepe
Bride’s dress and veil – Martina Liana
Bride’s shoes – Yves Saint Laurent
Groom’s attire – Giuseppe Zanotti
Hair + Makeup – Louise Hill and Nicola McGeorge
Flowers – Virginia Florista
Band – The Legal Aliens
Civil ceremony – The Grove Hotel