Happy Friday! We’re taking a trip to the sensational, swooping landscape of the gorgeous Galilee region of Israel to celebrate the secular Jewish wedding ceremony of Liron and Shlomi.
Renowned for its stunning views and ruggedly handsome visage (that really is the only way to describe it) the north of Israel is the perfect backdrop for a summer celebration, and Liron and Shlomi decided, wisely, to make a full weekend of it, and to make good use of the hotel’s pool. We definitely don’t blame them!
With a bright, summery color scheme of whites, yellows and purples, the gorgeous day was full of everything we adore about Israeli weddings.
Bride Liron looked incredible in her lacey, light and Avital Saporta gown, showcasing once again why we’re such big fans of Israeli designers and their bold, sexy and flattering looks.
The emotions and details of the day were captured by photographer, Lior Rotstein, and we’ll pass you over to bride, Liron for all of the behind-the-scenes info on how the wedding came together.
How we met
Liron, the bride: We are both industrial engineers. We met at university while studying for our first degrees. We have been together for seven years.
A rustic Galilee venue
After half a year of being engaged, we started thinking and planning the wedding, and we decided that we wanted it to be small, intimate, and enjoyable for all guests.
We decided to have a wedding that would last for a whole weekend, and would be a perfect vacation for us and our guests.
We rented the Halomot Naftali (Naftali’s dreams) boutique hotel in Sde Eliezer, in the Upper Galilee, north of Israel. Although we are from Tel Aviv area, and very urban people, for our wedding, we wanted to think outside of the box and celebrate in the most special and rustic way.
A full weekend outdoor wedding
The family and close friends were invited to arrive on Thursday afternoon. We opened the festivities with a meal and a toast, which continued with celebrations around the pool, and a barbecue in the evening.
On Friday morning we got ready and went to the Biriya Forest area for a photo shoot. At noon we returned to the hotel, and the rest of the guests arrived. The whole wedding took place outdoors.
At the end of the event, in the evening, we all jumped into the pool and jacuzzi. On Saturday morning, we got up for a country breakfast in the hotel, and we went on to a pool party with lots of music, alcohol and delicious food.
It the stuff of fairytales, and we and our relatives will never forget it.
A wonderful wedding planner
Our wedding planner was Sivan Yahav. She was amazing, took care of everything we could think of, and also the things we didn’t think of.
She made it a very easy and smoothly run event for us, and everything was amazing.
Summery invitations
We chose our invitation from Hamekashet, and made some changes of our own. We chose an invitation with drawings that reminded us of summer and vacations, to go with our wedding theme.
Subtle hair and makeup
An Avital Saporta dress
I bought my dress from the studio of Avital Saporta. I was looking for a special and light dress, not a fluffy one.
My dress was beautiful and special, with a lilac-colored lining, delicate lace and handmade decorations with Swarovski stones and pearl.
Fresh flower hair accessories
I put real flowers in my hair, which matched my bouquet and the chuppah flowers. I wore a bracelet and earrings with Swarovski crystals, which matched the pearls and Swarovski stones in my dress.
Pink dancing shoes
I wore pink dancing shoes from Ushoe.
The handsome groom
Shlomi wore blue pants and a white shirt by Tommy Hilfiger with a bow tie. It was very important to me that he did not look like all the other guests at the wedding,
He looked very nice, and I loved the bow tie.
Adorable flower girls
I had two beautiful flower girls — my cousin and my niece. They both wore white dresses, and dispersed flowers from their baskets.
A traditional, floral chuppah
We had a traditional chuppah, decorated with white flowers, and our family members held the rods.
A Jewish, secular ceremony
Our chuppah ceremony was not religious. We had a Jewish-secular ceremony, during which our family and close friends spoke, and we also read to each other from the ketubah that we wrote. It was exciting and meaningful.
Meaningful music choices
Our processional song was Yellow by Coldplay, the acoustic version. It’s my ringtone when Shlomi is calling me.
After Shlomi smashed the glass, we played We Go Together from Grease. We chose it because it’s such a happy and joyful song.
Our first slow dance was to Zahiti Leehov (I was fortunate to love) by Israeli singer Ivri Lider.
White, yellow and purple flowers
We chose to have a rustic aesthetic for the wedding, which complemented the atmosphere of the venue.
The floral arrangements on the tables were white and yellow (including sunflowers), and the flowers in my hair were white and purple.
The arrangements that were spread over the wedding area (on the bar etc.) were yellow, white and purple. The flowers that decorated the chuppah were white lisianthus. Our floristry was by Yana from Craspedia Design.
Our fabulous photographer
We were looking for our photographer online when we found Lior Rotstein’s photos and loved them. We liked their happiness and naturalness, and that you can feel the subjects’ emotions through the photos.
We met him, and we immediately clicked with him. We didn’t meet with any other photographers, as we knew we had found the right one.
Lior was with us for the whole weekend. Everybody loved him, and we felt like he was part of the family. We were concerned beforehand that we would feel uncomfortable during the photo shoots, because we are shy, but there was no problem, and we felt very natural.
Our pictures are amazing, and we found it so hard to choose only 200 pictures for our album, so we asked for more!
Kosher catering
The catering was done by Eat. The food was kosher for the religious guests, and included a special BBQ.
DIY touches
When the guests entered the wedding area, they found colorful paper birds with their names and table number, hanging on a tree.
The table numbers were decorated by us. We created frames with pictures of us at the age that matched the table number (for example table number two had pictures of us at the age of two years old).
As I mentioned, during the whole weekend, we were surrounded by our family and close friends. It was like a special family vacation to the north of Israel. It was very special and we will all remember the weekend forever.
Advice to couples currently planning their wedding
As clichéd as it sounds, it is very important to enjoy your day! We were waiting for it for such a long time, and it passed so fast!
Liron & Shlomi’s little white book
Photographer – Lior Rotstein
Videographer – Ronen Goldshtein
Venue – Halomot Naftali
Bride’s dress – Avital Saporta
Bride’s accessories – Swarovski
Bride’s shoes – purchased at Ushoe
Groom’s attire – Tommy Hilfiger, Massimo Dutti and Aldo
Hair + Makeup – Limor Markazy Raats
Flowers – Craspedia Design
DJ – Zohar Niv
Catering – Eat
Celebrant – Tkasim
