It’s freezing cold today in London and I think we could all do with a little injection of sunshine and romance! Well we have just the real wedding to put a smile on everyone’s faces. Beautifully captured by photographer Alon Gruber of Studio AGS, Melisa and Mickey’s effortlessly chic, urban Tel Aviv W Day. is guaranteed to light up your Wednesday!
First of all, we’re blown away by the totally unique tale of how they met— on a niche Chinese messaging app of all things. Their engagement followed after just one year and the wedding was planned in two and a half months, Melisa and Mickey are a living example of the phrase ‘when you know, you know’.
While we absolutely adore getting carried away with the fun of planning a wedding, it is really telling that bride Melisa spoke with the most passion and in the most detail about her feelings during ceremony. The dress, the dà©cor and all of those little details paled into insignificance in comparison to the intense emotion felt by the couple.
These two brought their happy outlook to the dà©cor scheme, infusing the day and details, like the flowers and invitations, with accents of bright yellow, their favourite colour. And if that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, Mickey, the groom, walked down the aisle to Monty Python’s Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. We really do love these two…
How we met
Melisa, the bride: We met against all odds on a Chinese messaging app called WeChat we both used to communicate with colleagues and clients (even stranger when you think about where we come from – Mickey’s family is originally from the States, and I come from Argentina).
We fell in love right away, got engaged after a little over a year, and planned our wedding in two and a half months!
Choosing to get married at Socca, south Tel Aviv
Our dream wedding took place at Socca, a venue in south Tel Aviv. The hall offers an urban vibe and you feel like you are walking down the aisle in the prettiest location on earth. This was only the second venue we visited, and we both fell in love with it at once.
A chic, sleek, effortless wedding
Our guests were our supreme priority, so our venue and its settings were all that mattered. We were looking for a city location which would be full of life and easily accessible to our guests from abroad and within Israel. We wanted something chic, sleek, and effortless.
Our invitation
The invitation was a lot of fun to put together. While we designed it by ourselves, we had a freelancer tweak it and make a printable version of it. We also custom ordered the envelopes in bright yellow, our favourite! We just love the combination of yellow and grey (which is also the colour scheme in our living room).
Hair + Makeup
The theme I was dreaming for my look was spring like, fresh and playful. I believe the most elegant bridal hairstyle is an updo and I went for a structured braided bun with a few lose hair strands to frame my face, and made my natural flower accessory the main focus.
For makeup, I chose golden eye shadows, a black cat-eye liner, and peach lipstick perfect for a spring like look. Wearing fake eyelashes for the first time was really fun – until I removed them once we got home. I think it gave Mickey nightmares!
The wedding dress
Mickey and I were over the moon about our wedding. It was important to keep it uncomplicated and straightforward – we did have only two and a half months to plan it all out. At the same time, we wanted something gracefully designed which spoke our language and matched our style.
I set out on a mission to find a perfect dress that didn’t feel like a costume, would be affordable and I could walk and dance in. One of my friends recommended her sister’s designer, whose boutique is just a 15-minute walk from my home. It was perfect since I had no intention of going to a huge, intimidating wedding dress designer shop.
Ayelet makes the most beautiful, flowy dresses I’ve ever seen! I tried a few of them on, and actually ended up combining two designs into one. A few weeks before the wedding, I also decided to have a short lace train as well.
Accessories
Having fresh flowers in my hair matched my romantic dress, so I ordered a head piece from Lia, a local florist, with fresh white and yellow flowers. I wore a pair of beautiful diamond earrings that Mickey got me especially for our special day, and a beautiful pearl-shaped necklace my parents-in-law gave me as a personal wedding gift.
My dad surprised me with a bracelet, which he had made from a gold watch that belonged to my grandma. So my jewelry was the sum of perfect sentimental gifts given by my nearest and dearest.
Shoes
I went with leather white ballerina shoes with straps. Not only for that very princess-like feeling but also for 100% comfort on such an ecstatic night. Mickey wore a pair of gorgeous brown Steve Madden leather shoes, which matched the beautiful watch my father gave him before our wedding.
The handsome groom
Mickey wore the first suit he tried (when you know, you know!) in a medium blue with a brown tie with a pattern. We decided to go for our favourite colours in our accessories so his beautiful boutonniere matched both my bouquet and my hair accessory.
Our chuppah
The chuppah at the wedding hall was made of wooden pillars, and with an elegant white fabric well decorated on top. We decided to leave it as was, effortless and classy.
Our ceremony
The ceremony was simply perfect. Our rabbi was originally from Argentina, like me, and in fact, he used to live literally round the corner of my house for many years. The ceremony was both in Hebrew and Spanish.
The most exhilarating feeling I have ever had was seeing Mickey coming down to meet me on the way to the chuppah, and having him kiss my forehead and put down my veil. We were about to make a promise to be together for the rest of our lives! This feeling was so immense; I can’t find words to describe it…
What surprised us both was how emotional and personal our rabbi’s words were. I particularly loved it when he said our mission from now on is to bring “Simcha Yehudit” (Mickey’s and my middle name, which translates to “Jewish happiness” in English) to this world.
We had many funny and spontaneous moments, but my favorite was when Mickey, instead of placing his talit over us while the Sheva Brachot (Seven Blessings) were recited as the custom dictates, completely covered our faces. It had the whole hall laughing!
Our ketubah has the most colourful and cheerful design, and for now we keep it on our bookcase (and I take a peek at it every now and then).
Our music choices
Our very sweet nephews and nieces were the first ones to walk down to the chuppah to the romantic beat of How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) by James Taylor. As with everything else, we wanted it to have a fun and romantic touch, and our little ones completely nailed it.
Mickey made his entrance with his parents to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life from Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”. Mickey is a huge fan of Monty Python and, leaving aside the irony of the song, the chorus matches Mickey’s attitude of always looking at the half full glass and cheerful character perfectly.
I chose Fly Me to The Moon by Frank Sinatra to play as I walked down to the chuppah on my dad’s arm. This was my mum’s favorite song and I’ve always loved it, so I decided on my tune in the blink of an eye.
Once Mickey smashed the glass, James Brown screamed to I Feel Good – and we truly felt in heaven and ready to celebrate. I was so thrilled that I jumped up and down, pulled back my veil by myself, and kissed my husband.
White and Yellow Flowers
Galit, the amazing florist that prepared my bouquet, followed the colour theme of white and yellow. She used fresh white English roses, chamomiles and snapdragons, and yellow chamomile buttons and lisianthus flowers, and grey eucalyptus leaves. The bouquet was so natural and capricious.
The hall was so beautifully decorated already that we didn’t need to invest too much in decorations. We decided to go with bare tables and to place vases we made ourselves recycling glass bottles with sunflowers and leaves in them.
A wedding photo sharing app
To be sure to have all the pictures our guests took, and for us to share some of the behind-the-scenes shots, we had a photo-sharing app with a designated hashtag. We just had to have a special social touch.
Favours
It’s very fashionable to give away magnets with the guests’ photos taken at the event, so we decided to go for this. I designed the frame myself and went for a classy chalkboard look for it.
We also prepared some fun photo 2D props like masks and hats. But the crowd’s favourite was definitely the beer goggles we bought!
Advice to brides and grooms currently planning their wedding
My best advice would be not to take yourselves too seriously. Every wedding is a fairytale wedding as long as you let happiness rule rather than being worried about everything. A perfect day won’t result from everything going the way you planned, and actually, most of the best moments of our wedding day were completely spontaneous.
Special thanks to our loved ones for making our special day better than we could have ever dreamed!
Melisa & Mickey’s little white book
Photographer – Alon Gruber of Studio AGS
Venue – Socca
Bride’s dress – Ayelet
Groom’s shoes – Steve Madden
Flower hair accessory and flowers for venue decoration – Lia
Bouquet – Galit
Magnet photographer – Lior
