Today’s Australian bride, Emma, is breathtakingly beautiful and thoroughly rocks her two piece ready-to-wear wedding outift and bridal accessories to match. I mean you just can’t help but gawp at her stunning good looks, super chic wedding separates and gold heeled Prada sandals.
The whole day is simplicity done perfectly. If you don’t want anything fussy on your day you can’t go wrong with following their raw, minimal style. It’s all so simple, elegant, pretty, and relaxed, and perfectly executed in every way.
Emma is from Australia and Yoni comes from Israel, and the couple chose to get married at Caliph in the Ancient city of Jaffa, near Tel Aviv in Israel. The stunning but uncomplicated venue provided a jaw-dropping coastal back drop for their neutral colour scheme and minimal decor.
If you’re a contemporary bride who wants to push the envelope on your wedding day, take a cue from Emma’s chic bridal style and consider ready-to-wear trends like bridal separates. The best part? Unlike a traditional wedding dress, you can wear bridal separates again and again!
The gorgeous set of images, as crisp and cool as the big day itself, are by Ben Kelmer.
Without further ado, I give you the über cool Emma and Yoni.
how we met
Emma, the Bride: Yoni used to own a cafe that was my local coffee shop. He asked me out numerous times and eventually I said yes! After our first date, we basically saw each other every single day right up until this day…
A venue by the sea in Tel Aviv-Jaffa
When Yoni and I started planning our wedding, I was desperate to have an open air venue with one long table and a dance floor under a sea of fairy lights. Unfortunately, due to it being in July and also with the amount of guests we had from overseas (about 110) we couldn’t find the right place and changed to having an outdoor ceremony and then indoor dinner and dancing. We still managed to have long table, but there were three instead of one.
We chose to get married at the Caliph in Jaffa. After seeing about eight or nine other venues, this one caught our attention and whilst it wasn’t an open air venue as we had originally hoped, we fell in love with the building, garden and view of the coast.
A minimalist , neutral feel to the day
Our colour scheme was very neutral and minimal. Mainly we used natural linen, raw wood and cream.
invitation design
I looked at a lot of invitation designs online and then selected a sort of style I wanted, chose the font and anchor symbol and then our digital art director at work whipped them up in a couple of days!
hair + make up
Inbal Masas did my hair and makeup and we decided to go for quite a minimal, paired back look with a centre part low pony tail and dewy ‘natural’ looking skin.
A two piece wedding outfit
My dress was The Row and I bought it online via Farfetch.com. I was adamant I didn’t want a traditional wedding dress and instead chose this from their ready-to-wear collection. It was the second thing I tried on, and the process was super easy other than a few alterations after the purchase.
A special dress detail to honour both my grandmothers
My mum sewed both my grandmother’s wedding rings in to the seam of my dress as they passed away and couldn’t be there on the day. It was very special!
Wedding jewellery and accessories
I opted last minute to get a veil and my lovely friend Nerida Winter whipped me one up in a matter of days. I also wore diamond stud earrings that were a gift from Yoni’s family, and a Cartier fine diamond necklace that was a gift from my mother.
Gold heeled Prada sandals
I wore a simple gold heeled Prada sandal. Shoes were much tougher to find than the dress.
Getting ready with both of our mums
Both of our mums got ready with the bridesmaids and me on the day, and we tried to involve them as much as possible all along the way. I was very concerned that they stay in touch with all of the ideas and not feel like we were abandoning them. I’m pretty sure it worked!
The handsome groom
Yoni wore a navy Acne slimline suit, Acne linen shirt and Hugo Boss derbys. It was the only suit he tried and it fit him perfectly!
bridesmaids in black
Initially I wasn’t going to have bridesmaid, however my sister convinced me as the day got closer, as more of a fun thing to do leading up to the event. I gave them a bit of a brief (black spaghetti strap dress) and they all nailed it!
chuppah design
We wanted the simplest/most raw-looking chuppah we could get.
Wedding music
Our music really made the night! Everyone danced like no one was watching. It really truly blew me away… For our aisle song we had Wonderwall (the Ryan Adams acapella version), and our first dance was My Girl by the Temptations. The rest of the night was a mix of old and new, dances floor classics such as Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and RnB, soul and a touch of jazz.
Flowers
Flowers were difficult. I work with some amazing florists in Australia and couldn’t get quite what i wanted on the ground in Israel. It was also the wrong season for a lot of the flowers I would have liked, but in the end I went for long stemmed David Austin cream roses and they were divine…. At the end of the day, a flower is a flower and they all make people happy.
Our fabulous photographer
Our photographer pulled out two months before the wedding, and so we managed to find Ben Kelmer. He has a great eye, and shoots everything from interesting perspectives. I was out-of-this-world impressed and really treasure some of the moments he managed to capture.
the most amazing (looking and tasting) kosher wedding cake
Yoni’s cousin makes incredible desserts, so I asked her to take control of arranging the cake and gave her a pic of the kinds of things I liked. She managed to get a friend, Dalit Kaplan, to whip up the most amazing (looking and tasting) kosher cake and I wish I could go back in time and have a bigger slice. It was delicious!
Entertainment
We chose to you a DJ Bagus after meeting with him earlier in the year. He was all-time and the dance floor was epic!
Calling on friends and family to help with our big day
I had been told by other brides to delegate as much as possible to reduce stress and I definitely called in a few favours!
Yoni’s father basically arranged everything and finalised all of the nitty gritty stuff with the venue. He was a Godsend and we could not have managed without him! Also, Yoni’s sister got married in January, so I asked for a lot of advice from her and she passed on the details on Inbal (my hair and make up artist) and also of the photo magnet company, Memagnetos.
Advice to other brides and grooms
This is a hard one as I never really loved or fully immersed myself fully in the planning of the wedding… It was never my dream to get married, however I think as long as you are organised there will be no need to stress (much!).
You will definitely have A LOT of moments where you feel overwhelmed, but work out what means most to you and then focus less on the rest.
Delegate; that was a great pieces of advice I had. Do not try and do everything yourself!
Remember that at the end of the day, you are going to get married, and that is all that matters regardless of if the food tasted good or the vases weren’t right.
Also, constantly stop and breathe and look around as you will never experience this again!
Emma & Yoni’s little white book
Photography – Ben Kelmer
Venue – Caliph
Brides’s two piece outfit – The Row from Farfetch.com
Bride’s veil – Nerida Winter
Bride’s shoes – Prada
Groom’s attire – Acne
Hair + Make Up – Inbal Masas
Cake –Dalit Kaplan
Photo magnets – Memagnetos
