Danny & Aaron | Extraordinary Gay Jewish Wedding, with the Couple Arriving on a Unicorn, at Paramount Studios, Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA

OK guys, we are starting the week at TRULY EPIC on the wedding spectrum. Are you ready for what I have in store for you?

The truth is, I actually don’t know where to start with all the love that I have for Danny and Aaron’s immense Jewish wedding. And by the time you lot are through you won’t know what to do with yourselves either.

To begin with these two rode down the aisle to their chuppah atop a tallit-wearing horse dressed as a unicorn (or Jew-nicorn, as they dubbed it!) to the tune of Madonna’s Like a Virgin. What’s more Joss Stone (yes, the Joss Stone) undertook the role of cantor, singing Circle of Life as Danny and Aaron circled each other under the chuppah, and a 16 person gospel choir was on hand for a few of the ceremony songs as well.

When I asked Danny and Aaron what advice they’d give to brides and grooms currently planning their Jewish wedding, they told me, “be unique to your personalities. You can create new Jewish traditions by adding a personal flare to more traditional Jewish rituals, making your wedding unique to you as individuals and as a couple”, and boy did they live up to their own advice!

Danny and Aaron certainly know how to throw a phenomenal party. And throw a party they did. At their reception, John Legend, Ciara, Joss Stone, and Korean rapper, Psy (aka Mr. Gangnam Style!) performed live  keeping guests entertained till well into the small hours. But as much as there was world-class entertainment and flamboyant gestures, Danny and Aaron’s W Day was absolutely all about sharing, loving and being together. An ethos that the pair stood from the very start as they decided not to uphold the traditions of being apart until the ceremony, instead opting to get ready together — sharing every single moment of their wedding day.

Thank you to Danny, Aaron and Maya Myers Photography for letting me give you the most incredible start to your Smashing The Glass week!

Choosing Paramount Studios in Hollywood as our wedding venue

Danny and Aaron, the Grooms: We both work in the music and television industries. We wanted to have our guests experience a Hollywood studio and wanted to create a grand overlaying look of our wedding and so Paramount Studios was a perfect fit for us. We wanted to design the whole room.

Attention to detail, design and branding

We both love the sophisticated style of Tom Ford and so that was our starting point when it came to design. We had a colour palette of gold and black with accents of brown that was incorporated everywhere from the overall decor to details like our invitations, the kippot (yarmulke’s) for the ceremony and our wedding logo. Rembrandt from EFGPR and Brad from B. Levine Productions collaborated in designing and producing our visions to life.

Brad and Rembrandt chose the best teams of vendors for our wedding, including our florist, photographer and caterer. They are leading experts in the industry, we trusted their decisions and were (not surprisingly) impressed with all the artists involved in our wedding.

An elegant monogram… stamped throughout the day

Our last names both start with ‘R’ so we wanted to use the two letters in a clean and modern design that worked well with our wedding theme. The invitation itself was made of wood and was sent in a wood envelope.

Tom Ford tuxedos

Attire was an easy decision for us… naturally, Tom Ford! For our ceremony we dressed more on the formal side with matching black tuxes and for our reception we wore tuxes with a white coat, which felt perfect for festive celebration.

Chuppah design

Our Chuppah was designed to look like the front of our home in Hollywood.

a film we made ourselves that was played just before the ceremony

As people sat in the chairs at the start of the ceremony, the film below played on a large screen to the left. We love The Muppets and shot and edited the film ourselves. It’s of us getting ready to the tune of Somebody’s Getting Married by The Muppets!

The ceremony… like no other jewish wedding ceremony you’ve ever seen!

Our rabbi, Naomi Levy, introduced our families, and our good friend Joss Stone sang her way into the ceremony, serving as our cantor. She introduced us, and we rode on in to Madonna’s Like a Virgin.

Benny Medina was our master of ceremonies and a 16 person gospel choir was on hand for a few songs as well. Though our ceremony was filled with grand gestures, our favourite part however were the emotional vows that we wrote personally to each other and read aloud in front of our family and friends.

Music for the ceremony

As we broke the glass, we ended the ceremony with Michael Jackson’s Don’t stop ’til you get enough because is was a perfect segue to get our guests up and moving and ready to celebrate. Ten for our grand entrance to the reception after a cocktail hour, we performed a choreographed dance battle to Beyonce’s Get me bodied, complete with back up dancers.

live entertainment from John Legend, Ciara, Joss Stone and Psy

Our professional lives enabled us to host the grand celebration and unique experience that we wanted our guests to have. Our lives are centred around family, friends, music and comedy and those were the elements we wanted to incorporate into a night where our guests would have the time of their lives. Everyone danced past 3am!

Performances during our special night came from John Legend, Ciara, Joss Stone, and it just so happened that that week Gangnam Style became number one, and Psy surprised everyone by performing it! We joined him on stage to sing and dance. There was also a video tribute from Jennifer Lopez from her concert in Dublin that was also a huge surprise to us.

Unusual ‘Photobooth Experience’ favours

Fitting with our overall theme, we had Scenario Photography set up their photo booth experience. They built a set with our wedding logo for our guests to enjoy posing in and they received prints to take home.

The most significant moments of the day

The most special moments of our wedding were the intimate moments, like the speeches and toasts our brothers gave us, the dances we shared with our mothers and our private ketubah signing. Our parents were actively involved in planning, and our niece and nephew served as our flower girl and ring bearer, and we shared our ketubah signing with our immediate family members.

Advice to other brides and grooms

Our advice for future brides and grooms is to be unique to your personalities. You can create new traditions by adding a personal flare to more traditional Jewish traditions, making your wedding unique to you as individuals and as a couple.

Throughout your wedding day don’t sweat the small stuff, at the end of the day you will be married and all the little things that happened leading to and throughout are just part of that story.

Lastly, remember to breathe and take moments to soak it all in. It goes by in a flash…

The film of Danny and Aaron’s wedding by Buckley Videography

Danny + Aaron’s LITTLE WHITE BOOK

Photography — Maya Myers Photography
Videography — Buckley Videography
Venue — Paramount Studios
Wedding planning, design & production — EFGPR and B. Levine Productions
Catering — Tres LA
Danny and Aaron’s suits — Tom Ford
Master of Ceremonies — Benny Medina
Cantor / Chazan — Joss Stone
Entertainement — John Legend, Ciara and Psy
Photobooth Experience — Scenario Photography by John Ganun
Invitations — Bliss & Bone
Flowers — Flaming Flower Productions
Sound + Video — No Static
Linens — Wildflower Linens
Rentals — Classic Party Rentals
Rabbi — Naomi Levy