An Emotional More Is More Jewish Wedding at Beth Israel Beth Aaron Synagogue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada - Smashing the Glass

Talk about an emotional wedding. Lindsey, a third grade English and math teacher at a Jewish school, and Jonathan, a financial risk analyst, got engaged two weeks before the bride was scheduled to start chemotherapy after being diagnosed with breast cancer in her twenties.

After a grueling year and a half of treatment, this couple’s big day was truly something to celebrate. So Lindsey and Jonathan channeled all their joy into their“more is more” wedding, with gold, sequins, and glitter for days, and a fab floral chuppah. Despite initially dreading dress shopping, Lindsey looked totally smashing in her perfect princess gown, and with a little help from some clip-on extensions she was able to rock princess hair to match, even while still growing hers back after chemo.

Photographer Marlon Kuhnreich’s pictures capture all the love and joy in the room so wonderfully – they’re truly unmissable. We’ll let the bride fill you in on the rest…

How we met

Lindsey, the bride: John and I met almost six years ago and ever since, we’ve continued to grow closer and fall more in love each and every day. He proposed while vacationing in South America, two weeks before I was scheduled to start chemotherapy.

We were on a cruise ship, sitting at dinner and he got up to go to the bathroom. Out of nowhere, the maitre handed me an envelope and inside it read: “I believe that it’s time, dinner is over. Please take your mother and head to Topsider.” I arrived at Topsider, the eleventh-floor poolside bar, where an amaretto sour awaited me with another envelope. At this time a man had been waiting to escort me to John. John stood in a room, wearing a suit and looked so handsome. He was holding a bouquet of roses and the room was decorated with rose petals and a long red carpet. It was a magical night as he promised to love me till the end of time and continue to protect me especially during these upcoming struggles.

A Celebration of Love

The wedding was an anticipated event that everyone was looking forward to. Not only were we celebrating the love shared between our two souls, we were finally saying goodbye to our last year and a half of hardships.

I’m all about the saying “more is more” and made sure my wedding represented that. My bridesmaids were in either gold/rose gold/nude/champagne beading or sequins. My invites were gold, my decor was gold and pretty much anything and everything that could be gold, was.

Invitation

We even had a design made with our initials in the center and all around the circumference it said “ani ledodi ve dodi li” with the English translation “I am my beloved…”

Hair + Makeup

Due to chemo, my hair wasn’t as long as it normally was and I was researching many different things to do with my hair. I looked into sewed-in-extensions and perms, the whole nine yards. I finally decided to do a keratin treatment and I fell in love. My hair was longer than I could have imagined and I paired it with clip-on extensions and I was all set.

Dress

I really put off trying on wedding dresses for at least a year (we had almost a two year engagement because I was undergoing chemotherapy). I didn’t want to shop or even look around for wedding gowns because I had put on tons of weight from my medication. When I finally convinced myself to go, I had no idea what I was looking for – I always thought I’d end up with a mermaid style. Little did I know, it would be ball gown. When I tried on this dress for the first time, I felt beautiful in something I was dreading. I knew it was the one.

Bridesmaids

Fourteen of them! My sister (MOH) wore a beautiful ivory beaded dress from BHLDN. Ironically, she got engaged a month after my wedding and I wore that dress to her wedding. My bridesmaids were able to choose any dress they wanted, from any store, any designer, as long as it fit the beaded/sequin criteria.

Ceremony

Our chuppah singer truly made the ceremony special. He brought a young boy to sing along with him and it gave the whole room shivers.

Ketubah

The ketubah was designed by a local Montreal artist names Haim Sherrf. It is outstandingly gorgeous – of course there’s gold on it too.

Our music choice

– ‘Birkat Habanim’

– ‘Kolot’

– ‘Bereshit Olam’

– ‘Ata Hamech’ (groom)

– ‘Boi Kallah’, Andrea Bocelli version (bride)

– ‘Melech Malhe Hamelachim’ (when the arc opened)

Flowers

I wanted something very green and lively. My florist was awesome; I went to visit a few prior to meeting her. She was the only one that asked to see my dress as she wanted to make sure that my flowers wouldn’t overpower. I thought that was brilliant and such an important question.

Photographer

I’ve worked with Marlon Kuhnreich in the past and he is well known for his amazing work. His pictures are perfect and he captured all of the special moments. The party ended around 2:30 AM and he stuck around till then.