Josh's Bar Mitzvah

A few weeks ago I had the honor of photographing Josh's Bar Mitzvah at Shearith Israel and the Perot Museum. It was a fabulous weekend filled with fun for the family and all of their guests. The Rubel family just moved to Texas and wanted to show all of their out of town guests some Texas hospitality and they did a fabulous job. Laura of L'Events kept everything organized and moving on time and DJ Haze kept the Perot Museum rocking Saturday night. Here's a peek.

The Rubels had me come to their home to take a few photos before the big weekend. We incorporated a little Texas into their session with a Cowboy hat and D magazine.

 The week of Josh's Bar Mitzvah, I was able to attend and photograph the rehearsal at Shearith Israel. I love getting the opportunity to get a few candid moments by photographing the rehearsal.

 Josh is left handed and had a left-handed yod. I've never seen one and being a lefty myself I thought it was really neat to have one.

 After the rehearsal we had about an hour for portraits. First Josh with the Torah.

 Josh with mom and dad.

A few more of Josh alone

 sSo handsome.

And then his older brother's surprised me. They are both away at college and I had been told that they wouldn't be in town for the rehearsal and would be able to make any family portraits. I was honestly sad that they family wouldn't have any photos all together on the Bimah. But his brothers had other plans and came straight from the airport with their luggage in tow and walked into the sanctuary about halfway through our portrait time and I just about jumped for joy. I was so happy to see them walk in that door and we got the whole family in a few shots.

 Their timing was perfect and we even had a little light left to walk outside in the courtyard and take a few more. Perfect!

 Friday evening the family hosted a Shabbat dinner at their home catered by Chef Kent Rathburn cooking on a smoker in the backyard. There were lots of fun Texas touched from BBQ to margaritas with jalapenos in them.

 Saturday evening the party was at the Perot Museum in Dallas and it was spectacular. THe Main level was decorated in blue lights and had lots of fun activities including a selfie mirror from Plush Photo Booth.

 Josh's Logo was on the screens and there were lots of fun light up party favors.

 The adults had their cocktail hour on the top floor under the dinosaur skeleton.

 Then the adults had dinner on the 3rd floor in the Gem Room. Gorgeous.

 Before the party started we took a few family photos.

 Then Josh's friends arrived and the kids went to the second floor and basement for some fun in the interactive part or the museum. They played trivia, raced dinosaurs in the Sports Hall and did experiments in the Engineering and Innovation Hall.

 On the main floor they had casino games, a giant Battleship game and ping pong.

 Of course the selfie mirror was big fun. Anthony and his staff always make sure the guests have the best time with their photo booths.

They also had a mirmir photo booth.

Once everyone was on the same floor after dinner the party really started. The kids had a frozen t-shirt contest.

Each t-shirt had a dance written on it and once they got the t-shirt open they had to perform the dance correctly to win. One group had the Macarena, one had Gangnem Style, another had the Hoedown Showdown and Josh's group ended up with the Hokey Pokey.

 Finally Josh had his grand entrance through some light-up foam sticks.

 His parents welcomed their guests.

 And his brothers put on a great skit called "Let's Nosh with Josh." So much fun.

 Then is was time for the Hora. First up was Josh with his rice krispy treat in hand.

Then the brothers had some fun in the chair.

 and even Mom and Dad went up laughing and smiling.

 Josh ended up in the center of circle.

 and of course there wa some do-si-do.

 Roger then kept the dance floor rocking for the rest of the night.

 There was a moment...a very quick moment of mother son slow dance before everyone jumped back in to party.

 I think they all had a fun time.

 and dessert...there were fun science themed desserts. I'm not going to lie...I had a cupcake. you know I did and it was bananas foster cupcake with a caramel pipette. so clever and so good. The geode cake pops were yummy too. I should have tried them all because the raspberry lemon mini trifles, the truffles and the beaker cookies all looked delicious.

There was also a second dessert station set up that had frozen dessert made by Frost 321. They made the ice cream right in front of the guests using liquid nitrogen.

 As the guests were leaving they stopped and a red and blue candy bar to fill a takeout box with treats.

Mazel Tov Josh! Your Texas Bar Mitzvah was amazing.