A Rani Weinstein Bride for a Destination Jewish Wedding Weekend on the Beach at Atlantis Gardens, Larnaca, Cyprus – Smashing the Glass

Given that they met working on a cruise ship, it’s only fitting that today’s couple chose the dreamiest of destinations for their Jewish wedding. Hailing from different continents, Angelina, an influencer marketing and partnerships manager, and Dor, a digital advertising account manager, now live in Tel Aviv, and their big day brought together loved ones from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and beyond.

The perfect spot for everyone to converge for a luxe wedding weekend? Atlantis Gardens, a dreamy seaside resort in Larnaca, Cyprus. The couple’s fabulous wedding planner, Noam of Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Kai Wedding Planners, guided them toward their dream venue – and so many of the other fabulous vendors they worked with on the big day!

In Angelina’s words, “If you want to tie the knot in a different, beautiful, surprisingly affordable, truly once-in-a-lifetime kind of way, Noam is your guy. He and his team go above and beyond for you to make your wedding dreams come true. There is NO ONE, absolutely no one, who does destination weddings like Kai Wedding Planners.”

Angelina and Dor worked to combine the bride’s German-Namibian-South African roots with the groom’s Israeli background, and they crafted a ceremony that was totally them – conducted by Dor’s older brother in Hebrew and English, and incorporating some beloved traditions like the 7 blessings and smashing the glass. And it all took place under the dreamiest chuppah right on the beach – don’t miss it in the luminous photos and video by Little Sparrow Stories.

There’s so much more to say about this awesome wedding – like how chic Angelina looked in her Rani Weinstein gown – but we’ll turn you over to the bride for the rest of the story…

How we Met

Angelina, the bride: We met over 10 years ago (June 2012), when we both worked on MSC Cruises. Dor worked as a security officer and I worked in the Kids Club onboard MSC Splendida. I was 18 and Dor was almost 22. Fast forward a few years of a long-distance relationship consisting of many flights, plans, holidays and love, and I finally moved to Israel in 2016. Since then we’ve both graduated from our Masters degrees, survived a pandemic and many other obstacles in between, and (finally) got engaged in July 2021.

A Fairytale Wedding

Our wedding was a fairytale, unique and beyond special. It was a destination wedding and so the venue needed to reflect that uniqueness too. We found Atlantis Gardens (an incredible resort in Larnaca, Cyprus) through our wedding producer and planner Noam, from Kai Wedding Planners. He planned every single detail of our dreamy destination wedding weekend, so I will be mentioning him quite a bit.

Atlantis Gardens was our chosen venue for a few reasons. As it was a destination wedding with over 70 guests attending from literally all over the world (Europe, Africa, Middle East), we wanted to make sure that everyone would be able to stay at the same resort, in luxurious apartments and villas that would make all our guests feel like they were on a really special holiday, not just attending our wedding.

The accommodation was perfect beyond everyone’s expectations, the vibe and amenities were spectacular and the staff made every minute so special. Dor and I also really wanted to have a beach wedding, and although it’s not something the resort/venue had ever done before our wedding, Noam and the Atlantis Gardens team really pulled it off seamlessly! We couldn’t have had a better venue!

Natural Elegance

We absolutely had a wedding producer (we call him that because our wedding weekend was much more than an event; it was an experience and it all happened because of Noam and his team).

Our wedding style was “simple & natural elegance”. Our colours were olive green, white, brown and gold. We used floating candles in various shapes and sizes as decor, we used flowers and leaves that are in season and local and we accentuated them with some fairy-lights. Our surroundings were so spectacular that we wanted to keep the attention focused on the natural beauty of nature, rather than overdoing it with over-the-top decoration.

Regarding Noam (Kai Wedding Planners), our wedding producer: It was like a dream! If you want to tie the knot in a different, beautiful, surprisingly affordable, truly once-in-a-lifetime kind of way, Noam is your guy. He and his team go above and beyond for you to make your wedding dreams come true. There is NO ONE, absolutely no one, who does destination weddings like Kai Wedding Planners. We are still dreaming about it and wish we could do it all again, exactly the same way it was.

Hair + Make-up

My hair and make-up was done by one of my very good friends, who is also one of the most talented hair and make-up artists I know. She was a guest at our wedding and as part of her wedding present, Rotem did my hair and make up for our special day. It was the best decision I could have made. Rotem’s energy is always calming, fun, loving and kind. I was extremely emotional on the big day and Rotem knew exactly how to help me not ruin all her hard work by making me laugh and showing me how to wipe my tears without smudging.

I looked like a billion dollars with the most natural make up look and wavy beach hair that lasted the entire day and night!

A Rani Weinstein Dress

I don’t know how much you know about Israeli wedding dress customs (I’m guessing a lot), but I was told that renting a dress for 16,000-20,000 Shekels was what everyone was doing, and I just couldn’t wrap my head around that. It was not what I wanted to do, so I started looking at sales of up-and-coming wedding dress designers and I found a Sample Sale of Rani Weinstein’s.

I went with one of my best friends (and my mom and sister on FaceTime). I had a very specific style in mind that I thought would be the style I wanted and tried on about 4 different dresses in that style. None of them felt like “me”. That’s when my best friend pulls out a princess style wedding dress, with sparkly thin straps, which was heavier than all the other dresses and says “why don’t you just try this on? I know it’s not the “style” but maybe it will surprise you”.

Boy, was she right. I put it on and it fit like a glove. I felt like a queen and we both instantly knew it was the one. I wanted to make a small change to the position of the straps and once I did that, it was even more perfect than when I first bought it.

The handsome groom

Dor wore an incredible beige/cream suit with a white Japanese collared shirt from NAMES, a stunning boutique store for men in Tel Aviv. His shoes were fancy sneakers from Replay. I didn’t see him until our first look, so I had no idea what he was going to look like. It was really special and he was gorgeous!

Bridesmaids

My maid of honour and bridesmaids were allowed to choose their own dresses and styles. The only thing I asked was that the dresses be some kind of green – and as you can see in the pictures, no one wore the same kind of green and it looked AMAZING! I love my girls.

Ceremony and Chuppah

Our Chuppah was right on the beach, and like the rest of the decor, we kept it really simple. The chuppah was made out of dark wood, draped with white chiffon, and decorated with olive branch leaves, eucalyptus and various white flowers.

Our ceremony was not very traditional, and it was perfect. It was conducted by Dor’s older brother, very personalised to our story, and was both in Hebrew and English. We did keep traditions like the 7 blessings and the breaking of the glass, which I loved. It was the Chuppah of our dreams.

Our Music Choice

We had a mix of Israeli Mizrachi, pop and international hits playing at our wedding, as well as some dance, house and trance in between. It was AWESOME and our DJ was the best EVER! We again found him through Noam from Kai Wedding Planners 🙂

For our walk down the aisle we had: Idan Amedi & Malu ‘A Place For Both Of Us’ (Hebrew and Greek). For the smashing of the glass we had: ‘Ach Sheli Mitchaten’ – Doli & Penn, Moshe Ben Ari. For the first dance: ‘Mirrors’ – Justin Timberlake

Flowers

I already mentioned it a bit above, but we chose olive branches, eucalyptus, gypsophila and lisianthus flowers for everything. We wanted it to be sustainable, simple and beautiful (and it was cost effective, which is always a win!)

Photographer and videographer

Noam from Kai Wedding Planners introduced us to Little Sparrow Stories and the moment we saw their pictures and videos, we knew they were the ones we wanted. Because it was a destination wedding, we didn’t meet the photographer in person, so all we had to go off of was George’s vibe on the phone when we spoke to him. He made us feel so calm and clearly knew what he was talking about, and quite honestly, their photos just spoke for themselves. The team worked so hard, took the most incredible pictures and videos AND they captured everyone and everything at our wedding. Missed nothing! We could not have asked for a better team of creatives to capture our fairytale day!

Food and Cake

Our food was once again organised through Noam from Kai Wedding Planners, but the company who did our catering is called Holy Cow and it was PHENOMENAL! We had all different kinds of food because our guests all eat different things. Some vegetarian, some pescetarian, some eat everything, some vegan, and some just a bit fussy. 🙂 It was a buffet style and everyone raved about it!

Around 11pm we also handed out burgers and ice lollies to soak up the insane amount of gin and ouzo we’d all been drinking and towards the end of the party, they brought out our THREE wedding cakes. Yes THREE> We had a vegan chocolate cake, a red velvet berry cake and a caramel cheesecake instead of a traditional wedding cake – which was again one of our best decisions. If you’re in Larnaca, Cyprus, I’d suggest you go give Holy Cow restaurant a visit, so you can see what we mean!

Extra details

I think our entire wedding was unusual, unique and special, so there’s not one specific thing that stands out. We had a weekend of celebrations with our nearest and dearest friends who flew from all over the world to celebrate our special love. We connected Jewish and Israeli culture with German-Namibian-South African roots, while communicating love and joy through vibes rather than language (because many didn’t speak Hebrew or English) and it was the most special melting pot of incredible human beings we could have asked for.

Honeymoon

We are doing a mini-moon in Africa this December and will do something tropical next year, but it’s not planned yet.

Advice to other couples planning their wedding

I think the most important thing I got right was not to let the things that go wrong stress me out. When the leaves I wanted weren’t available, we made another plan and it was perfect; when on the day of the wedding the glasses were not the ones we chose, we let it go and it was actually more perfect than what we had planned.

My advice is really just that – have a vision board and make it your dream, but don’t be dead-set in your idea. Sometimes the last minute changes are better than the original idea.

Oh, and one last thing to remember: it is YOUR wedding. The only people’s opinions that matter on ANYTHING wedding related, are your opinion and your future spouse’s opinion. Everyone else does not matter and whatever decisions you and future spouse make about the, everyone will learn to live with.

ANGELINA & DOR’S LITTLE WHITE BOOK

Photography + Videography – Little Sparrow Stories
Wedding planner – Kai Wedding Planners
Venue – Atlantis Gardens
Bride’s dress – Rani Weinstein
Groom’s attire – NAMES
Flowers – Ravita from Fly2Love
DJ – Wedding DJ Cyprus
Catering – Holy Cow
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