I’m deeming this the ultimate cool girl wedding. Set at the Bel-Air Bay Club with portraits among the palm trees, it’s no surprise when the Bride works as a buyer for Urban Outfitters. She and her beau pulled off a celebration starting with a traditional Jewish ceremony and ending with a lush, greenery-covered reception designed by The Little Branch, plus The Butter End Cakery behind their pretty on-theme dessert. Head to the gallery from lots more captured by Paige Jones.
From The Bride… Joseph and I have known each other since high school running in the same Jewish kids from LA circle. Years later we reconnected while at a party in NY. A friend of ours suggested us to chat and well before you knew it were we dating long distance! I was living in LA and he was in Philly at med school. He was the nerdy doctor I had always been waiting for!
After three years of dating long distance, I decided to move to Philadelphia as a buyer for Urban Outfitters and finally live in the same city as my boyfriend! On a visit home in L.A. for my birthday, Joseph decided to take me on a picnic at one of my favorite spots, Will Rogers State Park. It was quite the picnic, he went all out and to me I was thinking this it was my birthday present. He got food from Huckleberry, was playing Ella Fitzgerald, got chocolates from my favorite Edelweiss and cookies from Tates the cutest picnic basket, you name it he did it! While enjoying the picnic he starts retelling our love story, and I was like what is going on and before I could blink he was on one knee! I didn’t even look at the ring I went straight in for the “YES YES YES” and big kiss. He right away said, “Aren’t you going to look at the ring?” Next, he surprised me with both of our families at the other side of the park, it was the best day ever. Since he proposed to me on my birthday we thought it would only be fitting to get married on Joseph’s birthday.
We both love being around our families and one of my favorite days of the week is Sunday family dinners at home. We wanted our big day to feel like that, but with 150 of our closest friends and family! The Bel-Air Bay Club in Pacific Palisades where my parents live was the perfect setting. On our walk through of the property we fell in love with the grand living room fitted with gorgeous exposed wood beams and decided that’s where we needed to have our party. So, we ditched the traditional ballroom route and opted for a cozy Sunday dinner party type of wedding! We said our “I do’s” at magic hour and well you guessed it, it was absolute magic! Who knew we would get a 78 degree day in November!
We wanted a traditional Jewish wedding under a simple Chuppah adorned with greens that looked as if they were naturally grown. We wanted our ceremony to feel like you were in someones backyard, with a killer view of the ocean, so we kept the aisle simple with lush ferns. I walked down the aisle with a very modest bouquet of astilbe, because I really wanted our loved ones to look at the huge smile on my face rather than the crazy bouquet I was holding!
Joseph and I are self proclaimed foodies, the majority of our best dates involve eating and cooking at home. We thought this should be the tone for our wedding, farm to table! Our theme was a touch of laid back elegance, Provencal garden details, and timeless touches with personality. I did not want to be a bride who selects everything from a book, we had our “stamp” on pretty much every detail of the day! We thought the whole point of having a wedding is to showcase our personalities with the people who mean the most to us! We wanted to make sure that we had a seasonal touch to every detail. Being that our wedding was in late fall, we played on squash, lots of earthy green herbs like mint, thyme and rosemary, and kept the whole look very natural and warm feeling. There were no high pedestal arrangements and chiavari chairs at this party!
Keeping with that theme, our color palette was ivory, vintage brass hints that you would find in the vessels that held our gorgeous florals, and well our star…emerald! We might have gone overboard with greens throughout the wedding, but we didn’t care! I guess we were green with envy over how chic and timeless emerald is! We featured this stunning shade through out our invitation suite, our custom cocktail napkins, and well my jewelry of course!
We wanted the flowers to look lush and overgrown and have a perfectly imperfect look to them. When we met with our florist Meg from The Little Branch, I said to her, “I am obsessed with Ina Garten from Barefoot Contessa and she always says that flowers should look like they were picked straight from the garden” and well that’s what they looked like! I especially loved how she incorporated all of the herbs which was so farm to table! The rosemary in our olive oil dishes was such a great touch! Our tables were set with beautiful vintage sterling silver flatware, vintage pressed glass stemware, Russell Wright granite dinnerware, and La Tavola grey linens.
I wanted to get ready at home with my mom and sister, it just felt more chill. It was pretty cute catching my dad sneaking a glance at us getting our make up done, he seemed to light up when he saw all of his girls together! Getting ready in some of my favorite rooms of our house just made the whole experience so much more intimate for me. I wanted to feel like me on the big day and not look like I was wearing tons of makeup and wearing an up do, its so not me! I am such a jeans and tee type of person, I would just look weird! I enlisted Patrick Ta to do my makeup, he is a wizard at natural glam.
My makeup was me but with the volume turned up and a few lashes of course. We kept my hair soft and feminine. I wanted to have a side part so I could show of the beautiful emerald earrings I was wearing. My dress was from a designer I actually had never heard of, Austin Scarlett. It was as if the dress chose me, no joke the first dress I tried on at Saks in Beverly Hills. I had a clear vision of wearing a crepe silk dress with no frills, I always referred to Caroline Bessette Kennedy!
You hear of “something borrowed” as one of the musts for a bride, I think I took that to the extreme. So much of what I wore was borrowed. The most special of which was my mom’s Jimmy Choo snake skin heels that she wore when she married my dad. I got to walk in the shoes she did when she decided to spend the rest of her life with the man of her dreams. Every time we talk about how I did, she starts balling…it’s kinda funny! My veil was my best friends and my jewelry was my matron of honor’s who is also my aunt! She ended up gifting me one of the tennis bracelets who originally belonged to my grandmother.
Advice for other brides is borrowing is better! Don’t limit yourself to borrowing one thing just to stick to tradition. There is no need to go out and buy everything new, if someone in your circle has something you need and it fits your style go for it. Don’t sweat the small stuff, I could have easily drove myself crazy worrying about every little detail being that both Joseph and I are OCD, but we just let our fabulous planner Samantha Scott take the reigns and it was perfection!
Photography: Paige Jones | Cinematography: Sharkpig | Event Planning: Samantha Scott Events | Event Planning: Urban Outfitters | Floral Design: THE LITTLE BRANCH | Wedding Dress: Saks Fifth Avenue | Cake: The Butter End Cakery | Invitations: The Romance Between | Bride's Shoes: Jimmy Choo | Bride's Shoes: Celine | Hair: Chad Wood | Hair + Makeup: Bridal Room | Lighting: The Lighter Side | DJ: Dart DJ | Band: Django Foxtrot | Groom's Attire: Lanvin | Venue: Bel Air Bay Club | Bridal Boutique: Saks Fifth Avenue | Doughnuts: Blue Star Donuts | Rentals: Town And Country | Rentals: borrowed BLU