This wedding is my everything. It’s the perfect amount of glitz mixed with some serious style thanks to Artisan Events Floral Decor, making my wedding-loving heart sing this morning. But I just have to say, this Bride’s Berta gown might just be my favorite to date – so it goes without saying this gallery beautifully captured by Mi Belle Photography will dance in my dreams all day.
Myself and my (new) husband, Baz, live in London. I am half Welsh, half American (with Jewish heritage) and Baz is half English, half Persian. My dad was born and raised in Palm Springs and I have always loved spending time there each Summer. Baz also fell in love with the place the first time he visited. The weather, cool vibe, laid-back atmosphere – what’s not to love?! When we got engaged in Charleston, South Carolina, we knew we didn’t want to risk the British weather and decided on an April wedding in the desert. It also coincided with my grandfather’s 100th birthday the day before!
We planned the wedding from London which involved a LOT of Skype dates with our vendors! In terms of style, I wanted classic and stylish with a hint of Palm Springs glitz and glamour. My grandmother on my dad’s side was an amazing and talented lady, and a lingerie / clothing designer in her day. Her sewing room is still as she left it and I used to love playing with all of her beautiful buttons. It was these that started my inspiration for the styling – beautiful golds, pinks and creams, with an injection of glitter and sparkle. I actually used her vintage buttons as part of the place settings to attach the name tags. I wanted vintage styling, but more opulent and French rather than shabby chic. Ornate gold mirrors and frames, chandeliers, velvet seating, candles – I wanted to bring the inside outside into the open space under the stars. For flowers, I wanted pink peonies, darker pink ranunculas and garden roses, as well as some beautiful hydrangeas to remind me of the UK. Parasols and fans were laid out for guests to protect themselves from the heat, and pashminas to keep them warm from the evening chill (as well as flip-flops to keep the guests dancing and palm tree sunglasses, inflatables and wild animal masks for the dance-floor party)!
We ordered a lot of bits to the UK, but dad had to deal with things being delivered every week to the Palm Springs address! We arrived in the states two weeks before the wedding to relax and get prepped – the evenings were spent rounding up family, drinking wine and making confetti bags, glitter signs etc., but it was great fun. We also had to get our wedding license which was a relief!!
I love fashion but was worried I would struggle finding the perfect dress. I didn’t think I would ever find ‘the one’. I visited a number of shops with family and my bridesmaids, and although I found potential options, none of them were perfect. It was after one full day of dress shopping that I came home and started investigating Israeli dress designers. The problem was that no shops in the UK sold the dresses!!I had just about convinced myself that I would have to make the trip to Tel Aviv when I discovered that there was ONE shop in the UK showing a designer called Berta for one weekend only. Problem was it was Sunday evening and they only had the dresses until Monday. I called up, and they said they were actually holding the dresses for another couple of days, so I booked a train and traveled to Birmingham (about an hour outside of London). I was on my own, so was worried about not having a second opinion, but I knew as soon as I tried on the first dress that it was the one for me. I text my bridesmaid a picture and was on the train home one hour later having ordered my dress. The veil was a full length Italian tulle, the shoes sparkly glitter Louboutins and I had a custom made clip made from vintage brooches and combs for my hair.
The bridesmaids were wearing blush pink Two Birds dresses which were perfect seeing as they could wear them in their own style. The flower girl was in a white tutu and glitter flat pumps, and the pageboys in white linen shorts and shirts, braces and bow ties.
We were staying in the Gene Autry residence at the Parker which was super cool (and ironically the place my grandpa used to dine with Gene back in the golden era). My chief bridesmaid stayed with me the night before – the next morning we had a chilled girly breakfast then cracked open the bubbly! We wanted to create a real house party atmosphere around the space. Guests sipped on lemonade from the lemonade stand before the ceremony on the backyard, we then had a mariachi for entertainment whilst we had pictures at the windmills in the desert, then we had the reception on the back lawn, under the stars with views of the surrounding mountains. Our first dance was a Frank Sinatra classic ‘fly me to the moon’ – fitting seeing as we were in Palm Springs and dancing under the moon, then we all headed back up to the house for the afterparty which wrapped up around 4am…We had the breaking of the glass to honour my Jewish family after which guests could say good luck in their language of choice – Mazel Tov, Pob Luc (Welsh) or Mo’afagh bashed (Farsi).
Photography: Mi Belle Photography | Event Styling: ARTISAN Event . Floral . Decor | Wedding Dress: Berta | Cake: Shermans Deli | Ceremony Venue: The Parker Palm Springs | Reception Venue: The Parker Palm Springs | Brides Shoes: Louboutin | Rings: Diamond House Antwerp | Bridesmaids' Dresses: Two Birds | DJ: Music Media Entertainment | Grooms Attire: Spencer Hart | Officiant: Reverend James Kefford | Brides Accessories: the wedding club | Grooms Shoes: Oliver Sweeney | Hair And Make-up: Kacee Geoffroy Hair and Makeup | Music: Mariachi Los Palmeros | Personal Training: Sonja Moses | Rehearsal Dinner Venue: Lyons English Grille