Tel Aviv – Brown TLV Boutique Hotel

Finally I get to share my trip to Israel; Tel Aviv with you. The purpose of my trip was to come home with a wedding dress as I was invited by two brands to try some bridal wear. I love the bridal gowns from Israel, they seem to have a look I like and the prices are more competitive compared to London.  I had to cancel my trip twice because of warnings not to travel to Israel but I decided to ignore them and finally get to visit a place I have always wanted to go to. I felt safe in Tel Aviv and was blown away by how friendly everyone is, if we were lost in the street everyone was so helpful and wanted to help us.

I only had time to squeeze in three days so I did not do as much as I wanted to do but I was surprised by how much I managed to fit in. I tried on a few dresses, went fabric shopping, visited Jerusalem and the beach all in three days.

I researched lots of hotels and decided on Brown TLV Boutique Hotel. We were greeted by champagne at reception and I had chocolates and wine in my room. Our room was a standard and on the small size but seeing as we were on a city break and wasn’t going to be spending much time in the room so it was fine. The rooftop is amazing with lounge beds, a bar and a hot tub. The bar down stairs was half outdoors and half indoors, my mum and I sat here each night and ordered pizza which were the best flat bread pizza’s ever. We managed to squeeze in an hour at the hotel spa which was really nice and relaxing. The only thing I found slightly odd was there was no breakfast at the hotel and I was not too excited about walking to the restaurant down the road. This turned out to be a really good thing as it got me out walking in the morning and there are six different restaurants locally where you can eat breakfast and its all part of your hotel booking. All of the restaurants were really nice and it was hard to choose each morning.

Day 1: We walked to the market to have a look around before my first dress fitting. I was pleasantly surprised by how many fabric shops there were and majority of them were bridal fabrics. A passion of mine is to make things when I have the time and visit fabric and haberdashery stores so this was a dangerous situation for me. I was extremely over excited looking at all the couture fabrics and got really excited when I found the most breath taking fabric I have ever seen but surely I can’t make my own so off I went to my first fitting.

Finding a dress is harder than I ever imagined because I want it to be so right and there is so much to choose cheap generic viagra from. I loved all the dresses I tried but could not stop thinking about the fabric I saw earlier. After talking to my mum for hours and being so confused I decided to take a massive risk and buy the fabric!! I spent £1200 on fabric in a half market half shack fabric wholesale place! That night and pretty much every night since I have been laying awake wondering if this is the right choice. I am currently looking for a really talented seamstress in London or Essex based to put my dress together. What I want is very simple but the fabric is so delicate, its going to be a tough job. Let’s wait and see how it turns out on the day and see if this risk pays off! If anyone can recommend a seamstress please get in touch with me.

Day 2: We bought my fabric and then spent an afternoon on the beach. I text Paris saying I had found my dress and bought it which then progressed to tell him I bought only fabric that cost over £1000 and it was from a shack haha he was and still is very worried about what I am doing.

Day 3: After I bought my wedding dress  fabric I had a day to kill so we chose to visit Jerusalem, a place my mum and I have always wanted to visit. We visited Yad Vashem which is a Holocast museum, we visited Jerusalem town and Oskar Shindler’s grave. It felt so surreal for me to see Oskar Shindlers grave because I have watched Shindlers List  the movie so many times and seen the grave yard on TV and in books. It was an honour to pay my respects to such an incredible human being. Many of you wrote me emails and commented that you didn’t know I was jewish; the answer to this is I am not Jewish but just because I am not Jewish doesn’t mean I can notrespect other religions, other people and pay an interest. Oskar Shindler was in fact a non Jew. Before we made our way to the airport we stopped by the Western Wall and said a prey, which was a great experience to be there in such a holy place.

If you ever visit Israel I recommend staying at the Brown TLV Hotel and be sure to visit Jerusalem and I highly recommend visiting here for bridal gowns or fabric. I went in November and the weather was hot enough to wear dresses and lay on the beach sunbathing so it is a great place for a winter get away. Later on I will reveal all the photos and brands of the dresses I tried on so stay tuned for more wedding posts.

 

Tom Ford Sunglasses

Free People Dress

Chanel Espadrilles 

Chanel WOC