A Classic Elegant Wedding At Avenue in Tel Aviv, Israel

While serving in the Israeli army, Hila Balilti and Nir Moscovich were both part of a team sent for the Israeli disengagement mission from the Gaza Strip. Perhaps not the most obvious time for sparks to fly, but as the two spent time together, love blossomed. “I was already willing to marry her after two months of dating,” Nir recalls.

“She was all I’ve ever looked for in a woman.” Hila, too, knew from the beginning that she’d found the one: “I always had butterflies when I was around him and couldn’t stop missing him when I wasn’t with him.”

Deciding to get a little more settled into life before tying the knot, Nir waited five years before proposing. With the help of Hila’s mom, on April 5, 2010—Hila’s 25th birthday—Nir asked for her hand during a trip to Rome. “That was unforgettable,” says Hila. “He surprised me with a ring in an amazing restaurant in the Spanish Steps.”

With a wedding set for March of the following year, Hila began creating the event with the assistance of her mother/fashion designer Berta, wedding planner Ilan Asher, and event designer Eitan Toledo.

Managing her mom’s eponymous bridal salon, Hila says she knew that her nuptials could be no ordinary affair. In the end, Berta designed not one, but three dresses for the day—one for the ceremony and two for the reception. “Each was prettier than the other,” Hila says, adding that the two made a shopping trip to Paris just to purchase special fabric.

While mother and daughter relaxed in a hotel suite prior to the 8 p.m. wedding, it was a bit of mission impossible at Avenue. Unbeknownst to Hila, decorations were built from scratch and workers had only four hours that day to ready the hall space. 

But the 50 construction workers pulled it off fashionably, including a runway that the bride and groom walked down on their way to the chuppah. All 600 guests were seated on the sides, facing the walkway; “It was a very sacred moment,” Nir adds. “Everybody was very quiet trying to listen to the Rabbi blessing us.”

Afterwards dancing began and the festivities lasted until the wee hours of the morning. At about 4 a.m., finally back in their room, the newlyweds say they couldn’t believe how fast the day had gone. “It was just the two of us,” says Nir, “alone at last. It feels very natural to be married, as if we were meant to be together.”