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A BHLDN and Mordechai Avraham Bride for a Magical Forest Egalitarian Jewish Wedding at Tzel Hadumim, Neot Kdumim, Israel

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We are totally in love with Esther and Yoni’s magical forest wedding venue, Neot Kdumim, which we’ve featured before on STG. Saying “I do” under the stars just sounds too dreamy and romantic — we can’t even!

Beautiful bride, Esther, couldn’t decide between a beautiful BHLDN number and a vintage lace boho gown by Mordechai Avraham – so she chose both! We are very much on board with this decision, and it perfectly tied together their laid-back-meets-formal vibe. 

Esther accented the bohemian vibe with natural-look makeup and fresh flowers in her hair, making her the walking centerpiece of the whimsical forest wonderland. Guests were also adorned with flower crowns, which doubled up as favors, making everyone who attended a living part of the dà©cor. Divine!

Surrounded by natural beauty, Esther and Yoni kept things simple, with sweet floral accents adorning the chuppah and a much bigger focus on their egalitarian, highly personalized Jewish ceremony. We love these priorities, and it’s no secret that we’re always huge fans of consciously gender-equal weddings. 

Phenomenal photographer, and much-loved Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor, Ben Kelmer, captured the story of the day, and was met with absolutely glowing praise by the happy couple and their families. Looking over the stunning spread of images below, it’s easy to see why.

The vibe was also beautifully captured in the spine-tingling wedding video below, provided by Studio Polly.

It’s Esther’s turn to take over the blog to tell us all about her and Yoni’s unbelievably beautiful big day. Take it away, Esther! 

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Getting married under the stars

Esther, the bride: We got married in Tzel Hadumim; the wedding venue in Neot Kdumim. We wanted a place that was relaxed and fun, but also worked with the more formal direction our families were into, and this place perfectly combined the best of both worlds.

I also really wanted to get married outside and not in a hall. Tzel Hadumim has all the amenities of a hall, but it’s in the middle of a forest, under the stars. We also live in Jerusalem and it was only 40 minutes away, so it was pretty convenient.
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A magical Israeli-Australian forest Jewish wedding at Tsel Hadumim, Ben Shemen forest, Israel

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People – prepare yourselves: there is an abundance of pretty in this real wedding, and even we’re struggling to handle it – and we do this all the time!

We’re always in awe of Israeli weddings – the natural beauty of the place never fails to make for a stunning backdrop, and Israeli venues just know how to do magic like nobody else. Abigail and Roei’s last-minute celebration looked anything but hasty, in fact, it was absolutely packed with Israeli charm.

The day was captured by our oft-featured and much-loved STG Recommended Vendor, Herschel Gutman, who did an incredible job of translating the heart and thought that went into each choice into stunning, timeless images.

Gorgeous Abigail’s Australian-cool vibe brought an added factor of effortless chic, and her choice of dress, a unique, lacy number by Israeli designer, Adi Groman, was just perfect – a bohemian fairytale. 

We adore the significance of the path to the chuppah, which was lined with the Shiv’at HaMinim (the Seven Species from the Bible), making the journey to the ceremony even more poignant. 

On the wedding morning, Roei had a minor medical emergency – and not everything ran smoothly. But, once these two lovebirds locked eyes at the chuppah, none of that mattered. We can all learn from that. 

Over to Abigail for the full story on her and Roei’s stunning wedding day:

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How we met

Abigail, the bride: in March 2014 I arrived in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica – my last stop after a year of travelling, which included four months in Israel. Roei, who’s Israeli, was there on a surfing trip. We met on the beach and spent a week travelling together (I now know that he had already decided I’d one day be his wife!). I then returned to Australia with the intention of moving to Tel Aviv later in the year to study.

We messaged each other sporadically for six weeks, until Roei finally asked if he could Skype me. From that first conversation, we both pretty much knew. We spent four months Skyping every single day, often for five to six hours at a time (yes, we were both extremely sleep deprived, but we didn’t care!).

At the two-month mark, we decided to meet halfway in Thailand to make sure that we weren’t completely crazy prior to my arrival in Israel. The meeting at the airport was one of the best moments of my life, which I think is now only on par with Roei’s proposal on ‘Roy’s Peak’ in New Zealand and our wedding day.

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