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Our Wedding – Part Two

On the first wedding post I wrote about the wedding preparations and the photography on the morning of the wedding day & in this post I’ll write about the actual event

THE WEDDING VENUE

There’s no doubt that our choice to celebrate our wedding at “Hanachala” was one of the best decisions we made. The service was amazing, there was a pleasant atmosphere and the staff was willing to help with anything.

One of the main reasons we chose “Hanachala” venue, apart from the fact that it’s highly recommended and beautiful, was because it’s very big and is suitable for events of up to 600 people, so even though we invited more people than we originally wanted to, it still didn’t feel packed and crowded.

Not less important than the lovely garden – the hall’s caterer, “Alei Dafna”, was simply amazing and the level didn’t drop from the evening of tastings we had before the wedding {which happens in a lot of halls in the country} – we didn’t stop getting compliments about the variety and the quality, even much after the event.

DESIGN

I debated a lot regarding the event’s design – on the one hand, design is one of the most important things to me and I didn’t want to compromise, and on the other hand, the basic design offered by the venue is not so basic and the upgraded package makes the event a few thousand shekels more expensive.

Since the venue is beautiful and everything is blooming all around, we decided to stick with our favorite options from the venue’s basic package and upgrade the Chuppah’s design with a different vendor – R&S design events with flowers {they also made my bridal bouquet}.

I personally wasn’t very pleased with the Chuppah and the bouquet designs, because even though I went on and on about it and I sent her pictures for reference, I ended up getting a nice Chuppah, but not the kind I wanted… and I got a very small bouquet compared to the over-sized bouquet I wanted.

The only DIY we put effort in for the wedding was the amazing candy and sweets table which was designed by my sister, Sharon, and it was a real big hit! At the end of the event there was hardly anything left on the table

The amazing wedding cake by AB Cake was set in the center of the table – it wasn’t only beautiful and looked exactly how I wanted it to, but it was also delicious thanks to the coconut milk and oil instead of all of the lame regular Pareve substitutes.

Of course a few months before the wedding I did some shopping on Ebay and Aliexpress for little decorations that added a lot to the atmosphere, like a small carousel with horses and a cardboard sign that decorated the sweets table, paper straws and a sign for the bar, decorations and a sign for the car, a sign for the photography session {which we lost on the wedding day } and wedding ribbon wands for the Chuppah.

THE CEREMONY

The most significant thing we did during our wedding preparations was get our Domestic Union Cards.

I always knew that I didn’t want to get married with the Rabbinate.

I won’t go on about all of the reasons that led me to this decision, I’ll just sum it up and say that I really believe in everyone’s right to get married equally, without discrimination.

After looking into civil marriage abroad, finding out about its significance and the costs involved in the process, we started getting a bit confused.

The whole process seemed very complicated and expensive and we wondered if there really was an alternative, or if we have to go through with it despite the difficulties.

We ended up finding a suitable alternative called “New Family” that provides an alternative for marriage in Israel without the Rabbinate institution, but it’s defines couples as common-law spouses and is not considered a civil marriage since it’s not legal in Israel {yet}.

The registry to “New Family” is very simple and uncomplicated – you can find all of the details about the Domestic Union Cards, the benefits and issuance process on this site.

The ceremony was led by Nir Dagan from Havaya, who built the ceremony together with us, combining traditions along with modern twists and we got a lot of compliments from our guests.

We chose to walk down the aisle to Dudu Tasa and Roni Alter’s song “Ma’aliyot” and when Daniel broke the glass the song “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” by the Smiths played in the background

THE MUSIC

The DJ we had at our wedding was Yossi Halili {Zebra Music Company} and he was one of our favorite vendors at the wedding.

We met him twice before the wedding and we really enjoyed talking with him about the style we want for different parts of the wedding – we really felt like he understood us and knows what he’s doing. The whole process with him was very organized and we completely trusted him.

The music we chose for the reception was in the 50’s and the 60’s style, jazz and blues with a lot of oldies with songs by the Smiths, Chat Faker and more.

The cue that led everyone to the dance floor was our first slow dance to the sounds of the song “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” by the legendary Frank Sinatra accompanied by Bono, that was later mixed to hits, hip hop and of course Middle-Eastern music that really got the party started.