How fabulous is today’s Jewish wedding?! We’re obsessed with everything the gorgeous big day of Hannah, an acute care nurse practitioner, and Elizabeth, a physician in interventional radiology, from the fantastic jewel-toned color scheme to the focus on highlighting their beloved shared hometown of Kansas City.
There are so many fantastic details to ogle over, but make sure you don’t miss the couple’s glorious floral chuppah, perfectly captured by Adri of Black Coffee Photo. We can’t get enough of the jewel-tone florals, or the combination of fresh blooms with dried flowers. And on top of all that, the chuppah structure was built on site by Hannah’s father – and the couple hope to share it with their unmarried siblings for their future weddings! What an incredibly special family heirloom.
We’re also seriously impressed with both brides’ fashion sense. Hannah looked so glam in her sparkly Tara Keely by Lazaro gown, while Elizabeth started off the day in a super cool white bridal jumpsuit by Emily Hart Bridal before switching into a tux from Little Black Tux for the reception!
Now we’ll hand you off to the brides themselves…
How we Met
Hannah: We first met while working in the same hospital department in Kansas city.
A Hometown Wedding
We got married in our mutual hometown of Kansas City. Our careers have us living out of state at this time so it was important for us to celebrate back home in the city where we met with our family and friends. We both have lived in numerous cities but have a soft spot for Kansas City and we wanted a venue that really showcased what KC has to offer. The Terrace on Grand’s rooftop view of the Kansas City skyline was the perfect location to feature a downtown backdrop of the city we love.
A Fab Vendor Team
We joked a lot during the wedding planning process because despite having two brides, neither of us had any idea what we wanted the day to look like ahead of time. The only thing we knew for sure was we did not want a “light, bright, and airy” wedding. We worked very closely with our wedding planner, also named Hannah from Weddings by Hannah, and our florist, Ferrell, at The Cottage Rose. They helped us envision what the day would look like and we really put a lot of trust in them not having any expectations.
We chose a jewel toned color pallet for the florals and kept everything else very classy and romantic with black velvet table clothes, gold napkins, and pops of color in the candles. We chose black for the bridal crew to really make all the amazing colors in the florals shine and we’re so glad we did.
We both work in healthcare and chose to put a fun spin on the normal table assignments by exchanging table numbers for hospital department names. Additionally, each escort card had the guest’s name, their “department” and a funny medical pun on the inside of the card. Guests were directed to the “Pharmacy” (the bar) for refreshments.
Invitations / stationery
We worked with both a dear friend of the bride, Amy McGillicuddy, and Little Yellow Leaf for our papery.
Little Yellow Leaf designed our Save The Date’s, which were magnets and turned out perfectly. It was extra fun to see up in our friend’s and family’s kitchens multiple times throughout the year before the wedding. They also designed our wedding invitations which turned our beautifully. We went with an art deco theme to add a small personal touch.
Amy McGillicuddy, one of Hannah’s dear friends, took care of all the escort cards, table display, programs, menus, and anything else we needed last minute. Everything was beyond incredible. Our favorite papery item at the wedding was the programs. We incorporated pictures of various elements at the wedding so all of the non-Jewish guests would understand the meaning behind different aspects of the ceremony!
Hair + Make-up
Hannah knew she wanted an updo to highlight the back of her dress. She chose a whimsical bun with loose curls and the stylists at POSH KC made it all happen. The incredible Silvia Duckworth of Bellisima did both of the bride’s make-up. She really nailed it too by choosing a romantic look for Hannah and paired it with sultry, dramatic eyes for Elizabeth.
Dresses
Elizabeth: I knew I wanted something different from the norm. I did a bunch of “research” online trying to find an idea that caught my eye. When I found my jumpsuit, I went to Emily Hart Bridal and showed them the picture of my jumpsuit dreams and they said they would come up with something very close. When they pitched the idea of making something with their own twist on it, I absolutely loved it. Additionally, I couldn’t decide on just one outfit so I went with the classic wardrobe change during the cocktail hour between the ceremony and reception. I adored my tuxedo by Little Black Tux who specializes in tuxedos for women. I loved how the jacket fit so much that I bought another one in blue and wore it to the rehearsal dinner!
Hannah: I knew absolutely nothing about wedding dresses and very little about what I wanted. I did know I wanted something different, nothing too big, and nothing which resembled my grandmother’s lace doilies. I put my trust in the extremely knowledgeable staff at La Jeune Mariee and tried on anything they brought me. As soon as I saw myself in the mirror in my dress, I knew I liked it more than anything else I had tried on so far. I knew it was “the one” when I walked around the store and saw how it sparkled in the sunlight. Our ceremony occurred at sunset and I knew the sparkles would be brilliant under the stars at night.
Dress is Sofia by Tara Keely by Lazaro and bought at La Jeune Mariee.
Accessories
Both of our earrings, as well as Hannah’s bracelet and hair pieces, are all from Olive and Piper. We are huge fans of supporting small businesses and Olive and Piper offered the perfect pieces to complement both of our unique attire. Hannah also surprised me by engraving our gold rings we used for the ceremony with “Ani Ledodi V’Dodi Le.” During the ceremony, our best man thought it was the safest to hold the rings on his pinky finger. It was hilarious when the Rabbi asked for the rings and they almost got stuck on our best man’s finger!
Shoes
Elizabeth: Funny enough, Hannah actually bought the beautiful blue suede pumps for herself first from Vince Camuto. We realized though you’d never see them under her dress and they were too gorgeous to hide. So, being the wonderful wife that she is, she gave them to me to wear with my jumpsuit. The shoes served as both a bold pop of color (which matched our jewel-toned theme) and served as Elizabeth’s “something blue.” My black tuxedo shoes are handmade by Guana Sandals. I found the company on Etsy and had no idea they were located in Athens, Greece! Luckily, they arrived on time and fit like a dream.
Hannah: You can find me in Birkenstocks year round so for the reception I made it a lot more personal by changing into a pair of white Arizona Birkenstocks. All my bridesmaids surprised me too by joining me and changing into their Birkenstocks for the reception!
Bridesmaids
We had a bridal crew composed of our siblings, a few cousins and some of our closest friends. The wedding was black tie so it only seemed fitting to have our best man wear a tuxedo and all the ladies wear long, satin dresses to match. We chose the color black because it allowed the bold colors in the flowers to really pop and also contrast against the two of us in white. Our bridesmaids loved us for choosing beautiful bridesmaid dresses and the added bonus of pockets!
Ceremony
Our ceremony took place at sundown on a rooftop with the entire Kansas City skyline behind our chuppah. The lighting was positively perfect with the sun going down as the ceremony started and it was dark right as it ended with all the city lights shining. We wrote our own vows to each other for the ceremony and it made for an extremely personal ceremony. We both smashed a glass at the end of the ceremony and that was exhilarating as the first thing we did together as married women!
Ketubah
We searched for a long time to find one we felt captured us and our promises to one another. We were so happy when we found Nava Shoham who designed our Ketubah. We also decided to write our own ketubah rather than going with the standard wording found in many of them. Nava was absolutely wonderful and even helped us translate our custom writing into Hebrew. I would recommend her to everyone!
Chuppah
Hannah: Our chuppah was designed and built on site by my father, Chuck. He is a brilliant engineer and of all the things he has built for me over the years our chuppah is by far the most special. Elizabeth and I are also the first of our siblings to get married and we hope to share our chuppah with our siblings in their future weddings as well. The florals were all by the incredibly talented team at The Cottage Rose. We gave them creative freedom to do whatever they thought best and we’re so glad we did!
Our Music Choice
Our bridal crew proceeded down the aisle to ‘Everyone’s Got Something’ by Perrin Lamb. The lyrics and soft tone were so perfect for a rooftop ceremony at sunset. We walked down the aisle to a cover of ‘Stand By Me’ by Andrew Allen. Andrew turned this all-time classic song into a heartfelt, delicate masterpiece. It matched perfectly with our moody, romantic tone of a sunset ceremony.
Our first dance was to ‘Wonderful Tonight’ by Boyce Avenue (original by Eric Clapton). It’s one of Elizabeth’s favorite songs. Elizabeth told Hannah it was the perfect song because she looked so unbelievably wonderful on their wedding night.
Flowers
We owe everything to the incredibly talented people at The Cottage Rose. Ferrell and her crew far exceeded any expectations we had. As for color, the full wedding color palette was used in all the florals: magenta, gold, lilac, plum, and teal. Pops of ivory was used for contrast. The chuppah was decorated with a combination of dried textures and fresh blooms which matched the head table in the reception. Our bridal bouquets and table center pieces (a mixture of both tall and short center pieces) were more free form in shape, letting the blooms and greens pop out of the pieces.
The natural bouquets were composed of larger, lush blooms like ivory garden roses and deep purple ranunculus. Smaller textural pieces were added like lavender scabiosa, dusty pink sedum, blue thistle, caramel carnations, magenta coxcomb and yarrow. Graphic blooms like purple anemones added even more interest and dyed pink and blue plumosa added a natural touch and broke up the flowers. Teal tapper candles atop gold candlesticks were effortlessly scattered throughout the reception tables and seamlessly coupled with amber votives for a more romantic vibe.
Photographer and videographer
We absolutely love our photographer and videographer teams. We fell in love with Adri at Black Coffee Photo while shooting our engagement phots. In this session, we were quite literally frolicking in 6 inches of fresh snow in downtown Kansas City. Big fluffy snowflakes were falling and what she captured was pure magic. We knew then our wedding photos were going to be unbelievable and she did not disappoint.
Every single photo she took is simply spectacular! She even caught the moon through the chuppah at the end of our ceremony. Plus, there is the added bonus of Adri being such an incredible, fun, and cool person to be around. People are still telling us how enjoyable it was to hang out with our photographer at the wedding!
The wife and husband duo, Cameron and Dani Philgreen of The Philgreens, are also just as amazing to work with. We looked at many videographers and the examples they showed us were so unique for each individual couple and felt more personal than any others we had seen. That’s when we knew we wanted them to capture our wedding video.
Food and Cake
Taste, who works through our venue, catered the food at our wedding reception. Everyone still complements us saying how delicious the meal was! When it came to desserts, both Hannah and I were adamant about not having a wedding cake. We both love cake, but neither of us had ever had really good wedding cake and we didn’t want to do that to our wedding guests. Instead, our idea was to serve a variety of different desserts so everyone could have exactly what they wanted. We took our wedding planner’s advice and did a dessert tasting at Dolce Bakery.
They snuck in a piece of their wedding cake and we were blown away. We ended up serving both a table of mini desserts and a two-tier wedding cake by Dolce Bakery of white cake with salted caramel frosting and the top tier had raspberry filling. Multiple people have told us since the wedding it was the best wedding cake they had ever had. Our wedding planner even put a box in our hotel suit for us with multiple mini desserts and a piece of cake so we could eat some after the wedding since she knew we would be to distracted to get any AT the wedding.
Entertainment
DJ Fernando from Fernando Productions took care of the music for our ceremony and our reception. He was absolutely incredible. We’re not sure there is any other way to describe him and his team. The reception flowed so smoothly and the dancing literally never stopped. He also supplied us with a “magic mirror” which is a full-length mirror that doubles as a photo booth. The best part was we also used our copies of all the photos taken at the photobooth as our guest book and people were able to sign next to their photo. We knew it would be a nice extra touch but we didn’t expect it to be as popular as it turned out to be! We would recommend Fernando and his team to anyone and everyone.
Extra details
Hannah’s brother is out of the country and unfortunately was not able to attend the wedding. He surprised the brides by pre-recording a speech at the actual venue months before the wedding took place. The speech was shown on a tv at the reception and by the end there wasn’t a dry eye left in the room.
Open seat at the ceremony and Letter to Elizabeth’s Father:
Elizabeth’s father passed away in May 2017 and he was such an incredible father we both really wanted to incorporate him into the wedding. We decided to reserve a front row seat during the ceremony for him with a sign with his name. Although he couldn’t physically attend, he was with us in spirit. Additionally, Elizabeth really wanted to pay tribute to him in her speech at the wedding. She wrote a letter to him with everything she would have said to him on her wedding day, framed it, and placed it on a memorial table at the reception for everyone to read. Let’s just say there weren’t many dry eyes after reading her letter.
Honeymoon
We went to Paris, France the day after the wedding! As healthcare workers, it is pretty hard to get extended amounts of time off work and we had been itching to go out of the country again since the start of Covid. Although we are both seasoned world travellers, neither of us had been to France and our honeymoon seemed like the perfect time to explore such a romantic city as Paris! A week in Paris was the perfect amount of time to see everything we wanted to see, eat wonderful French cuisine, and dive into Parisian history. Plus, our travel agent Mike found us direct flights to save us time!
Mike Karstens at Blissful Honeymoons travel agency was incredible. We would recommend him to everyone and definitely plan to use him for future trips abroad. He found us the incredible Hotel Raphael and secured private transportation for us to and from the airport. The hotel was an absolute dream. Our only suggestion would be to find out what part of the city you anticipate spending most of your time in ahead of time. The only downfall of Hotel Raphael is its’ location was a little far from many of the neighbourhoods we wanted to explore. Otherwise, it was absolutely perfect.
HANNAH & ELIZABETH’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK
Photography – Black Coffee Photo
Videography – The Philgreens
Wedding planner – Weddings by Hannah
Venue – The Terrace on Grand
Bride’s dresses – Hannah – Tara Keely by Lazaro found at La Jeune Mariee
Elizabeth – Jumpsuit by Emily Hart , Tuxedo – Little Black Tux
Bride’s shoes – Blue Suede Pumps – Vince Camuto, Black patent leather tuxedo shoes – Guana Sandals, Yaro Block sandal – Sam Edelman
Bride’s accessories – Olive and Piper
Bridesmaids – David’s Bridal
Hair – POSH KC
Makeup – Silvia Duckworth at Bellisima
Flowers – The Cottage Rose
DJ – Fernando Productions
Catering – Taste by The Terrace on Grand
Cake – Dolce Bakery
Ketubah – Nava Shoham – 1800-ketubah
Stationery/Invitation – Little Yellow Leaf
Rabbi – Rabbi Javier Cattapan of Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kansas
Reception Rentals – Ultrapom
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such a fun wedding!! Love the pops of colour from the flowers.