An uber creative Jewish wedding, with a Needle & Thread bride, at Pearson Air Museum, Vancouver, Washington, USA

We absolutely love creative Jewish weddings on Smashing The Glass, and creativity OOZES from these two incredible souls.

This astounding power couple met while working at an ad agency. Between them, they have a desktop calendar sold around the world, a New York Times bestselling book and a portable talk show to their names, so it goes without saying that Brooke and Boaz’s big day was always going to be breathtaking. They absolutely did not disappoint. The pair brought all of their skills and inventiveness to their big day, peppering it with adorable, handmade details. 

The dà©cor scheme was abundant with illustrated animals, drawn by talented Brooke, including little raccoon pins as favours — we want one! And we’re obsessed with their choice of quirky venue, Pearson Air Museum, just across the border from the couple’s native Portland, Oregon.

“You’re never alone in a dress full of flies,” said beautiful bride, Brooke, of her stunning Needle & Thread dress, purchased at BHLDN. It turned out that even the flies can’t resist swarming to a dress that beautiful — and Brooke’s fantastic sense of humour turned a potential problem into a standout wedding moment.

Groom Boaz also looked every bit the part of the leading man in his fantastic green suit. We adore his wedding style.

Everything was captured with aplomb by phenomenal photographers Stark Photography, and before we hand over to Brooke and Boaz to tell us all about their big day, can we just take a moment to appreciate Brooke’s adorable kitty shoes? We can’t take our eyes off of them!

 
How we met

Brooke, the bride: We’re both advertising copywriters and we met at an ad agency in Portland. When we’re not at work we make the “It’s Different Every Day” calendar, a daily desk calendar with a new theme every day. We’ve been making a new edition together every year since 2015 and this is the first year it’s published by Workman Press and in stores around the world.

I also illustrate and run an Instagram account called @sadanimalfacts, where I illustrate sad facts about adorable animals, it’s pretty much just what it sounds like. Sad Animal Facts is now a New York Times bestselling book that is available in three languages.

Boaz is also the host of the Pedal Powered Talk Show, a portable talk show built into a cargo bike, that travels and interviews around Portland, the Pacific Northwest, and the rest of the world.

A historic airplane venue hangar in Vancouver, WA

Boaz: We got married at a historic airplane hangar in Vancouver, Washington, just over the border from Portland, Oregon (where we live) called Pearson Air Museum. Basically, we just wanted a big open simple space with convenient parking. We also liked that there was a lot of open green space around the hangar. They didn’t require us to use any specific vendors, which was nice since we were using a Kosher caterer.

Adorable illustrated animals

Brooke: We both love making books (I proposed to Boaz with a book I’d made) so we were really looking forward to making our own wedding benchers. We designed them with custom illustrations of animals singing together, lighting candles, drinking wine, and eating Bamba.

We also created an explanatory booklet that explained all the details of the wedding ceremony for guests who hadn’t been to a Jewish wedding, or who’d been to one but wanted a refresher.

Each table at dinner was named after a different animal and featured an illustration.

I’m an illustrator so I was excited to draw our invitations. I drew a group of animals celebrating our wedding and our friend Archie of Archie’s Press letterpressed them for us in blue ink.

Hair + Makeup

Brooke: I booked a makeup lesson at Sephora a few weeks before the wedding and took a lot of notes. Then I put it on the morning of our wedding while my three sisters provided moral support and colour commentary.  I got my hair blow dried at a local blow dry bar. I have really thick hair and the stylist complained the entire time about how much hair I have, but I sort of liked her honesty.

Boaz’s hair is cut by his barber, Todd Hammer, he’s the best in America.

An unexpectedly fly-filled Needle & Thread dress

Brooke: I got my dress online from BHLDN, it was by Needle & Thread. I knew the dress was “the one” when during our wedding photos, tiny flies began somehow getting in between the layers of netting and then crawling up to my waist and running around frantically at the top of the skirt. You’re never alone in a dress full of flies, and you’re never without a good conversation topic. I also loved the sequins.

Handmade friendship bracelets

Brooke: Our nephew Gavi made us friendship bracelets on the plane ride from Israel to Portland and presented them to us on our wedding weekend. Mine is in Gryffindor colours. Sometimes, when people see our photos, they ask if I’m wearing a special wedding bracelet.

Cat flats

Brooke: My shoes had cats on them! I’m really an expert at tripping, so I wanted shoes without heels. It’s probably not surprising that you can find shoes with any animal on them on the Internet. This particular pair was from ASOS.

The handsome groom in green

Boaz: I’ve wanted a green suit for most of my life and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to get one made. I got it custom made at an awesome Portland shop called Duchess Clothier. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that my outfit probably cost twice as much as Brooke’s dress.

A simple tallit Chuppah

Boaz: We wanted a simple Chuppah so we just attached my tallit to four birch poles. We were excited to invite four of our good friends to each hold a pole of our Chuppah. It was so nice having those friends nearby and sharing quick glances with them during the ceremony.

A custom Ketubah inspired by Oregon wildflowers

Boaz: My sister and brother-in-law got us a beautiful custom ketubah from Octavine Illustration. Brooke and I love being outdoors in Oregon, so Cara made us a Hebrew ketubah framed with paintings of Oregon wildflowers. It looks awesome!

Our music choice

Boaz: We really wanted to have a klezmer band and eventually found Sasson, who are based in Seattle, and were kind enough to drive down for the day. They had a wide repertoire in addition to klezmer music too. As my family was walking in they played the theme from Totoro, one of our favorite Miyazaki films. While Brooke’s family was walking in they played I’ll Be Your Mirror by The Velvet Underground. Once, we got to the hora music, they really rocked it. The music was so high energy and joyous. It truly inspired people to dance.

Wooden planter centerpieces 

Boaz: At first we thought we might make the centerpieces ourselves but as we saw our “to do” list keep growing, we figured it might be wiser to hand that task to a professional.

We decided to go with Solabee Flowers and Botanicals, who are brilliant plant experts. We showed them a photo of the space and then pretty much told them to do whatever they wanted within our budget. Half the centerpieces were arrangements in vases and the other half were little wooden planters with ferns and other greenery. They also made two huge arrangements to frame the chuppah as well as a simple flower crown for Brooke. 

Our fabulous photographers

Boaz: I’ve been friends with Daniel and Lindsay Stark from Stark Photography for over seven years so choosing a photographer was a pretty easy decision! They also happen to be incredibly talented wedding photographers! In addition to capturing the big moments perfectly, they’re somehow also able to catch all these small and surprising moments as well.

Let them eat macarons 

Brooke: I have Celiac disease and can’t eat gluten, so instead of force feeding a gluten-free cake to all our guests, we asked our favourite baker Ruth who worked at our favourite chocolate shop Alma Chocolate if she’d make macarons for everyone.

Our caterer was Century Catering, the best and only kosher caterer in the area. Our only request was fish tacos and they’d never made fish tacos before, but they were the best fish tacos we’d ever had in our lives. And we’ve had a lot of fish tacos.

A Jewish cartoon raccoon 

Brooke: We made little pins for every guest with a raccoon wearing a kippah on them. It was so sweet to see people wearing them all day and now we love spotting them in the wild on our friends backpacks, jackets, and sweaters.

Little sweepers

Brooke: After our flower girls walked down the aisle throwing confetti (they did a very sweet and professional job), my cousin’s sons came in with tiny push brooms to sweep up the aisle. They were rock stars and the whole room was surprised and laughing, which was exactly what we wanted the day to be.

Advice to brides and grooms currently planning their wedding

Boaz: We had about a year to plan and we tried to do as much as we could do as early as we could do it. Already, five months before, we had boxes of kippot and confetti and as many other things as we could arrange beforehand. We knew there would be a lot of last-minute jobs and surprises, so it was nice to have all those other tasks out of the way.

Brooke & Boaz’s little white book

Photographer – Stark Photography
Venue – Pearson Air Museum
Bride’s dress –  Needle & Thread purchased at BHLDN
Shoes — ASOS
Letterpress – Archie’s Press
Invitation illustration – Brooke Barker
Groom’s attire – Duchess Clothier
Flowers – Solabee Flowers and Botanicals
Band – Sasson
Macarons – Alma Chocolate
Ketubah – Octavine Illustration