With missiles raining down across Israel and all public and private gatherings banned, one engaged couple decided not to cancel their wedding, but to relocate it to a bomb shelter four floors underground.
The couple — Lior Lasry and Michael (Misha) Marianof — had to call off their planned nuptials in Petah Tikva, but they decided to keep the date and relocate the proceedings instead to the parking lot of the Dizengoff Center mall in Tel Aviv.
Marianof’s family had flown in from Argentina to attend the wedding, and the couple didn’t want to delay wedded bliss any further. So on very short notice, they directed their friends and family to their new destination Tuesday night.
And they were joined by dozens of Israelis who had been using the parking lot/bomb shelter as a safe space throughout the week.
“About 30% [of the guests] were family and friends,” Marianof told Channel 13’s morning show on Wednesday, just a few hours after tying the knot. Everyone else, just “came to celebrate and make us happy… it was moving and it was really unique, it was a moment that we don’t have words for, we still don’t even understand.”
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With the outbreak of the war on Saturday, working out what to do with the wedding they had been planning for so long was “a rollercoaster of emotions,” he said.
Lior and Misha celebrate their wedding in an underground parking lot used as a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv, March 3, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Marianof said it was the first time some of his family members had experienced sirens and missiles, “and it was really hard to calm them down, to explain what was going on.”
While the newlyweds were celebrating on Tuesday, there were several sirens in the Tel Aviv area, but the couple and their loved ones continued to party, safe in the shelter deep underground.
Lior and Michael hold their wedding ceremony in an underground parking lot used as a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv, March 3, 2026. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
“It was crazy, it was incredible,” Lasry told the TV network. “We’re happy that despite everything, we did it, and we did it in this manner, and it was moving and fun — and we got to celebrate this event with Misha’s family from Argentina and our friends who managed to make it.”
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