An Arava Polak Bride for an Indoor/Outdoor Jewish Wedding at Bayaar, Hadera, Israel – Smashing the Glass

There’s nothing like an Israeli wedding. And Samantha and Tsach’s is Exhibit A as to why! The duo, who own their own gym in Haifa, called Fitbox, crafted the most magical Jewish wedding that brings out the best Israel has to offer with a little help from a fantastic planner, Yana Andreev from Smashing The Glass Recommended Vendor Craspedia Events.

In Samantha’s words, Yana “quickly became more like a best friend who helped me make my Pinterest dreams come to life!” She listened to the couple’s ideas, used her planning and design genius to bring their dreams to life, and soled problems right and left all through planning. Samantha and Tsach wanted an effortless, natural look to bring out their venue Bayaar’s beauty – and Yana did the best job bringing it all to life. She even went wedding dress shopping with Samantha, helping her find her dream gown from Arava Polak!

We’re in love with the indoor/outdoor vibes of this wedding, and we can’t get enough of the exquisite photos from Haim Afriat!

Read on for more details – plus Samantha’s great advice for all Jewish brides-to-be!

How we Met

Samantha, the bride: We actually met in the gym! I had showed up to Tsach’s gym 3 days after opening in 2019 and signed up for an annual membership and became his 2nd client. We began working out together and realized we both share the same passions and interests in life. Shortly after meeing, our friendship grew into the beautiful relationship we have today. It was love at first sight for lack of a better cliche and now we do what we love together.

An Indoor/Outdoor Venue

We got married at Bayaar in Hadera. Our original wedding date was set for October 10th, 2021 but due to Covid restriations, we ended up postponing until May 29th, 2022 and Bayaar and the owners were very understanding and flexibile with us as we needed to make this very difficult decision. We took the opportunity to tour venues during corona time in early 2021 as our business was closed and we had more time available to go through the process together. We spent a few weeks looking for venues with the basic requirement of being located somewhere between Haifa and TLV (all of Tsach’s family is in Haifa, and our friends/out of town guests were coming from TLV).

It was very important to us that the venue gave everyone a feeling of being somewhere unique. We wanted something with an indoor/outdoor feeling and Bayaar was absolutely perfect!! Their outdoor space for Kabbalat Panim/Chuppah ceremony is simply stunning, and their air conditioned indoor dinner/dancing venue space is lined with wall to wall giant glass windows with incredible tall trees within eyesight. It simply feels like you are outdoors while you are enoying all the benefits of being indoors! In addition to this, the lights and sound are unbeatable, with a hardwood dancefloor that doesn’t kill your knees in heels 🙂

An Amazing Wedding Planner

We absolutely had a wedding planner and we couldn’t have done it without her! Yana Andreev from Craspedia Events quickly became more like a best friend who helped me make my pinterest dreams come to life! We didn’t have a specific theme or style but we did go with a color scheme of greens, whites, pinks and golds. These colors best accented the season in which we got married, the garden venue we chose, and the flowers we wanted! 

We wanted everything to be very effortless looking, with a touch of nature and we couldn’t have been any happier with the way the chuppah and table designs came out. Yana listened to everything we wanted, suggested new ideas, and helped problem solve all at the same time. Baayar’s gorgeous garden provided enough of a scenic backdrop for our ceremony so we decided on a more delicate approach for the chuppah design and I absolutely loved it!

Hair + Make-up

Hair I went with Assaf Levi who was the absolute sweetest! I went to his studio in TLV for a trial and instantly connected with him. He understood exactly what I wanted and I felt totally comfortable with him. His assistants were also amazing and I had someone come to the venue with me for hair touch ups before and after the chuppah. This was a really great decision, and his assistant did a great job of fixing all the fly aways and pieces of hair that came out during our couples photo session/heat.

Make up I worked with Shiran Sheffler. Shiran is amazing! She worked so quick and effeciently and made me and all my bridesmaids look incredible. I went to her studio for a trial where she did my make up on 1/2 of my face and the difference I saw was unreal. I loved her style and her vibe and on the day of the wedding she knew exactly what I wanted and did a better job than I could have ever imagined!

An Arava Polak Dress

My dress is from Arava Polak. She has a studio right next to my house in Haifa which made fittings extremely convenient and fun! Going into dress shopping, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted. Yana sent me some websites of dress studios near me and based on the styles I saw online, I picked 4 to go and visit. After a long day of trying on over 16 dresses, I was very confused. I had heard that when you find your wedding dress, “you’ll just know”. I was shopping with only Yana and my Mother In Law since all my close friends and family are in America, and it was hard to know what I liked and what I didn’t like without the opinions of my girlfriends.

Today there is so much pressure on looking “perfect” that picking a dress seemed to be one of the decisions in wedding planning that simply consumed me. When I first met with Arava, she had me try and few different types of dresses and I felt so at more ease identifying what I absolutely didn’t like, and what caught my eye. She was so confident and comforting that I could really be myself and be honest about my opinions.

When we found the “one” everyone agreed it looked the best and suited me the most. Arava made me a new dress from scratch with a few additions (removable sleeves, a belt, changed the color to be whiter, and added buttons to the back) and after 4 fittings it was everything I never knew I wanted! Not to mention that it was extremely comfortable and I felt beautiful all night long!

The handsome groom

Tsach got an amazing suit from Salina in Bnei Brak! His suit was the exact color he wanted it to be, and was light and airy. He was super reluctant about wearing a suit in the first place as he worried about over-heating (which is a valid concern haha) but the minute he tried on this suit he fell in love. The store had a great deal for 2 complete suits including additional white button down shirts for switching, shoes, belt, bowtie, and tailoring. I highly recommend as we are now mixing and matching the 2 suits we bought for other events!

Bridesmaids

Yes, I had 6 gorgeous bridesmaids and 2 junior bridesmaids (my 12 year old sister and 16 year old cousin)! Since 7 out of the 8 girls came from the US, we decided to go with a US website, Azazie, that specializes in bridal dresses and bridesmaids dresses! I picked a color (Dusty Rose) and a material (Chiffon) and a length (Floor length for the older girls, above the knee for my 12 year old sister), and then let the girls pick their own styles!

They were even able to order custom sizing. This worked out perfectly, and my mom even ordered a dress from their “Mother of the bride” section. I also ordered ties in the same Dusty Rose color for my brother, Tsachs brother, and other male members of the bridal party.

Ceremony and Chuppah

We decided to get married through the Rabbanut and use a service called Tzohar to help us find our Rabbi. We asked for a Rabbi who spoke both English and Hebrew and this worked out wonderfully. We had an amazing service that was not too long, but not too short, with explanations of the Ketubah, the prayers, and even the meaning behind smashing the cup.

We found this extremely special because a lot of our guests came from abroad and didn’t understand the meaning behind certain aspects of the ceremony. Even Israelis came up to us and said it was so interesting to learn the reason behind the smashing of the cup, and other traditions under the chuppah. Most of all, we loved saying our own vows.

We got to speak to each other in front of all our friends and family, and the Rabbi even let me place the ring on Tsach’s finger as well! Everything felt extremely personalized and unique and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect ceremony.

Ketubah

Our Ketubah was not specially designed. We worked with Tzohar to help us get married through the Rabbanut so we decided to leave the Ketubah as it came from them… and it actually looked really nice!

Our Music Choice / Entertainment

We absolutely LOVED our DJ. When picking a DJ I already knew we had to work with Tom from Yanshoof Music as I had been to 4 weddings where he was the DJ and they were my favorite events to date! He is not only the sweetest person, but he really has a passion for music that is obvious to see and feel when meeting with him. He helped us pick all our music and the night flowed perfectly from song to song, keeping everyone on the dancefloor all night long!

In addition to the DJ we also had a team of drummers, from Jamaica Pro come and join us on the dance floor for a few hours. This was an incredible addition to the night… our guests loved playing on the bongo drums, and they added an amazing atmosphere. I also highly recommend a father daughter dance! This was super special and only took up 2 minutes of the night. Immediately following my dads speech, he invited me up to dance and it was wonderful. The pictures were amazing also!

Our brothers and sisters walked down the aisle to ‘We Are Family’ by Sister Sledge. Tsach and his parents and then me and my parents walked down the aisle to ‘Love At First Sight’ by Arik Einstien. Our post smashing the cup song was ‘I Feel Good’ by James Brown. Our first dance song was ‘You Send Me’ by Sam Cooke. My father daughter dance song was ‘Three Little Birds’ by Bob Marley

Flowers

We wanted a focus on green, white, pink and gold in our wedding so most of our flowers were greens and whites.  Rachel from Yana’s team handled all of our design and made everything exactly as we had imagined! We had candles and long greens on our tables, and the aisle was lined with the same style of flowers. I wanted my bouquet to be more round and tighter with some baby’s breath and my bridesmaids had a more wild style of bouquet.

Photographer and videographer

As a woman in Israel, it’s hard not to open your Instagram and see wedding photos all the time. For years I had seen Haim Afriat’s work on a lot of my friends pages, and friends of friends’ pages, and I was always in love with his style and professionalism. My friend used him for her wedding and when I got the chance to meet him, I knew I wanted to have him photograph my wedding someday as well! (Who picks their photographer before they have their fiancee? haha) When we finally met with him, he gave us such a great comforting vibe that we knew we could trust him with our special day. He helped to pose us in the right ways, and was a pleasure to have around all day!

Our videographer, Avichai, happens to be a close friend of Haim’s so during our meeting he was highly recommended to us. Avichai is truly one of a kind! His personality and professionalism is amazing and we had the best time hanging out with him all day! It’s always a bonus when your photographer and videographer already have a realtionship and know how the other works. Avichahi has such a unique eye and really knows how to capture the best moments, and even create great moments to capture!

The day went by flawlessly and both Haim and Avichai acted as stand in wedding planners running the sequence of photos and events as they needed to happen. We are extremely happy with our choice to work with them and we would HIGHLY recommend them to anyone looking for a photographer/videogapher team or each on their own!

Food and Cake

Our caterer is the new ‘in house’ chef at Bayaar, and they are called Avsha. The food was unreal. Our guests are still talking about the food over 2 months later!! We couldn’t believe how fresh and special every dish tasted, and how professional their staff worked. They were simply amazing.

We ordered a kosher cake from Ella and she was the best! The cake was 2 layers with a fake 3rd layer to add the effect of height, with vanilla cake on the inside, vanilla cream, and dark chocolate ganache! In addition, she made us these stunning cookies that we used for photography in the morning, and our families ate as a late night snack on the way home from the wedding! She was a pleasure to work with, and even stayed at the event after delivering the cake to cut it! I ordered a custom cake topper from Etsy which was the “cherry on top” for lack of a better metaphor.

WEDDING REGISTRY

We didn’t have a traditional registry, but we did open a digital registry for a honeymoon fund on The Knot and this was super helpful! We had a lot of family and friends who couldn’t make the trip but were logged in though our Live Zoom who wanted to give us gifts and this was an easy way for them to do so.

Extra details

Due to the wedding being in Israel and all my family being abroad, we used Live Giving to Live Stream the wedding! What was amazing was we were able to see them and speak to them all live, and we were able to pin the screen to my grandmother watching from Brooklyn, NY so I could see her and she could see me during the entire Chuppah Ceremony. This was incredibly special and made me truly feel like she was there with us.

Honeymoon

Being independent business owners, we couldn’t jet off immediately to a honeymoon like we would have wanted to, but that’s ok! We are saving our honeymoon for Passover 2023 (jus about our 1 year wedding anniversary) and are currently in the process of planning to visit Belize & Mexico!

Advice to other couples planning their wedding

Definitely take time for just you and your partner post chuppah! We loved having a few minutes to ourselves to gather our thoughts and be alone together before entering the main hall for our first dance.

We did our wedding buffet style and everyone loved the fact that they could taste everything and didn’t have to wait for a waiter to come and take their dinner order. It’s less traditional, but we found it was highly effective!

Make a timeline with your photographer, not just your planner. The photographer knows what you have time for, and don’t have time for, and if you want any specific photos make sure you let them know in advance.

Have a small drink or a bite of something yummy before your couples photoshoot to loosen up a little! The best pics are the ones you’re truly being yourselves in and sometimes remembering this through all the stress of the day is hard.

Find a friend or family member you trust to have some spare headache pills, hair clips, lipstick, or whatever you might need in their bag. Remember you can always take a breather and re-set if needed!

Decide how much you and your partner want to drink ahead of time. My husband and I said around 5-6 shots throughout the night and no more. We have seen lots of couples get blackout drunk and then regret not remembering everything. It sounds crazy but this really helped us! We felt amazing and had so much fun (we took lots of shots of water pretending they were Arak or Tequila) and we remembered everything, and had the best buzz.

We wrote little notes to each other to read on the wedding morning. It was really sweet to read something light from him during all the excitement, and have our reactions photographed as well.

Say your own vows! It’s so special to be able to speak to each other in that moment under the Chuppah in front of your friends and family. Even if it’s something small.

Plan for imperfection and you will be set! Oh, and hire a wedding planner/event manager.

If your schedule allows, do a first look with your dad too! My dad absolutely loved it and his reaction was priceless. A memory I’ll treasure forever!

Get ready in the morning with your girls! Play some music, drink some champagne and EAT something. This will set the mood for the rest of the day and it’s so much fun

If there is anything specific you want to happen during the night, tell your planner and make sure they find a way to include it during the night so you don’t have to worry about being in charge of anything other than having the night of your life

Bring a change of clothes. Maybe a second dress, or a second outfit, and sneakers! Just in case you are hot and feel like switching things up.

Samantha & Tsach’s LITTLE WHITE BOOK

Photography – Haim Afriat Photography
Videography – Avichai
Wedding planner – Craspedia Events offers 10% discount to all members of Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club
Venue – Bayaar
Bride’s dress – Arava Polak
Groom’s attire – Salina
Bridesmaids – Azazie
Hair + Makeup – Assaf Levi, Shiran Sheffler
Flowers – Rachel
DJ – Yanshoof Music
Drummers – Jamaica Pro
Catering – Avsha
Cake – Ella Goldman Patisserie
Ketubah – Tzohar
Live Stream – Live Giving
Wedding Registry – The Knot
Smash The Glass Pouch –  Smashing The Glass Etsy Shop or join Smashing The Glass’s Brides Club and get one for free!

If you’re a Jewish or Jew-ish bride-to-be, you’ll want to join Smashing The Glass’ Brides Club. Guided by the world’s number 1 Jewish wedding expert, Karen Cinnamon, Brides Club is the private community for Jewish and Jew-ish brides that removes wedstress and indecision and gives you what you need to plan with confidence during these uncertain times. Join our Brides Club here.