Romantic Persian Jewish Wedding at Jonathan Club

Wedding in Los Angeles

David & Ramona

A Message from the Bride

Describe your experience with finding your wedding gown: After going to the top design houses I could think of, including Saks Fifth Avenue Bridal, Monique Lhullier, Vera Wang and Lovella Bridal with entire entourages - I found a dress that I loved but something didn't feel right, I didn't have that "ah ha!" moment!

I decided before purchasing the dress I found, to look one last time at the smaller shops I didn't pay much attention to before, so the day before my deadline.

I was referred to The White Dress quickly made an appointment and after searching through the boutique, I found my dream dress!

The one I found was a ballgown by Pronovias, which was elegant and timeless yet sexy and playful as well.

I couldn't believe it — and I got got walk down the aisle in my dream wedding gown. 

We were lucky to plan our wedding pre-pandemic. We were the last couple we know to get away with having a large wedding before our world as we knew it changed.

We enjoyed the wedding planning process and both played a very hands on role in planning for our big day.

How did you meet? David and I met through two dating apps. It was my first time on the dating apps after being in different relationships and he was getting restless on the apps as well. I downloaded JSwipe and then Hinge and we matched on both!

We got to talking on Hinge after our initial JSwipe match and David did a little research and found out that both his twin sister and cousin knew me and spoke highly of me.

He then had his cousin nudge me to answer him on Hinge, so his cousin messaged me on Instagram asking me to go talk to David. I was excited and started talking to him again, until we finally met in person on our first date in May 2018!

On our first date we luckily took a photo to send to his cousin who helped set things in motion for us. We still have that picture and look at it fondly.

Interesting facts about the couple: Both of our parents are from Iran and Jews from Iran have a special gold-sewn fabric called a "naghdeh" to wrap the bride during the ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) signing which happens before the ceremony. It is traditionally passed down through families from one generation to another, but my family did not have one as they fled Iran during the Islamic Revolution, so my mother had one made for us and sent from Iran in time for our wedding.

With this naghdeh that we used for the first time at our wedding, my mom wanted to start using this new naghdeh and make it “old”, starting with us and followed by my sister who got married right after me and as the years go by, and every bride in the family that gets married with it will have the couples name and date sewn on the inside of the special fabric.

We began dating a few months later and were both going to Greece at separate times. I decided to take one of the corks from one of our dates where we blended wine together and hide it in a secret spot in Mykonos in hopes that two weeks later when David was there he'd find it — a global scavenger hunt!

Two weeks later, not even knowing what he was looking for but with the help of a map I brought back for him, David found the wine cork, which is remarkable.

The following summer, we went to Greece together this time after we were engaged and went back to where I originally hid the cork and placed one there together for future lovers to find.

What are your favorite moments of your wedding day? I think everyone's favorite moment was David's vows. There were no dry eyes in the audience or under the chuppa, even our Rabbi cried!

David really loved our grand entrance as well, being surrounded by our friends and family as they welcomed us in for the first time as Mr. & Mrs. Moussighi!

Describe the moment he proposed: David told me that we were going to brunch for his mom's birthday which was three days away. He said he made reservations at the 1 Hotel in West Hollywood but later that day he changed it to an early dinner, it still didn't phase me as I had no idea what was going on!

Everything happened so quickly that I did not put two and two together or think that it was all very suspicious. We went up to the room down a long hallway and when he opened the door I saw candles and rose petals lining the floor and realized then that he was about to propose! I was in total shock. He walked me to a heart shape made our of red rose petals where he got down on one knee and proposed.

Wedding Reception Design Theme: Our wedding was romantic and classic, we wanted to play up the old historic and regal building of the Jonathan Club.

Wedding Reception Design Inspiration: White roses everywhere, lots of candle light, a little greenery and pure romance. We had gold touches to also play up the antiquity of the room.

Any advice you have about wedding planning in 2020? Enjoy every minute of it, get everything done as soon as you possibly can and remember to walk slowing down the aisle!

Your wedding day will come and go, it goes by so quickly, so take it in and have fun doing so!

Anything else you would like to mention the wedding day? We wanted to customize our wedding to have our favorite foods and included chicken tenders and fries at nighttime, sushi as part of the hors d'oeuvres and chocolate chip cookies (Ramona's favorite) as take parting gifts.

We wanted to customize our wedding to have our favorite foods and fries at nighttime, sushi as part of the hors d'oeuvres and chocolate chip cookies (Ramona's favorite) as take parting gifts.

Vendors

Floral Designer: Butterfly Floral

Bridal Dress Designer: Pronovias

Bridal Dress Store: The White Dress in Newport Beach

Makeup Artist: Berly Rodriguez

Hair Stylist: Jacqueline Marie Hair

Groom's Tux: Saint Laurent

Cake Baker: The Jonanthan Club

DJ/Entertainment: DJ Sepi

Wedding Planner: Neda Davari from Mizbaan Events

Invitation/Stationery: Neda Lalezary from Signature Imprints

Reception Rentals/Lighting: Harry's Party Rentals

Late Night Snack: Cookies from Diddy Riese

“David & Ramona had a wedding we can all dream of, their love and everything about the two of them is so special. What an honor to be part of their journey and capture such an important day in their lives!”