This Is My Forever

Sunday afternoon, February 12, 2023, I officiated Shoshanna and Christian’s wedding ceremony at the Dreams Tulum Resort and Spa in Tulum, Mexico. Here are the remarks I shared with them and their guests:

The very beginning of Shoshanna and Christian’s relationship is so easily understandable today and, at the same time, would be utterly incomprehensible just a few years back. Shoshanna says. “I saw that Facebook had a widget for dating and didn’t want to go on the traditional apps people used.” Facebook? Widget? Apps? These words, in their current meaning, didn’t even exist a short few years ago. 

Indeed, our brains are still catching up with this very fact, as evidenced in what Christian says about what happened next, “She called me the next day on my way home from work and said she wanted to make sure I’m a real person.” Low bar, but again understandable. 

To say these two were mutually smitten would be an understatement. Christian says, “The first sight of her with her beautiful eyes, smile, and dimples, I knew I was not going to be single for long, LOL. We video-chatted for hours and realized that although we had very different upbringings, we are also so similar in what we were looking to get out of life. This was very eye-opening for me because I have never fully related to anyone as much as Shoshana. We scheduled a date, and I would argue we fell in love that night. Our date seemed to last for 5-6 hours, and we were just making each other laugh constantly and still do to this day.”

And Shoshanna says, “I was nervous but very excited to meet someone new and handsome… Christian showed up with a bouquet of flowers when he picked me up. No man has ever done that on a first date. He was the utmost gentleman in every way and kept me laughing all evening. Between our lives and our values, we were both shocked as we got to know each other because it was scary how much we had in common. I knew from that first date I was in trouble, this man is a unicorn, and I met my person. I had no need to go out with anyone else because I knew this is it, and it doesn’t matter who else is out there, this is my forever.”

Reflecting on these quotes and on Shoshanna and Christian’s lives, you can definitely sense that part of the reason they so well connect with each other is because to paraphrase Farmers Insurance, they know a thing or two because they have seen a thing or two. Not only does this not detract from their relationship, it strengthens it. That may be the most important lesson they teach us. 

Though the bride and groom hail from the coasts, they chose to have a Texas rabbi marry them. Naturally, I found that the special sauce of their relationship is best conveyed through a country song. You can’t beat Rascal Flatts:

“I set out on a narrow way many years ago, hoping I would find true love along the broken road, but I got lost a time or two, wiped my brow, and kept pushing through, I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you, that every long lost dream led me to where you are. 

Others who broke my heart, they were like Northern stars, pointing me on my way into your loving arms. This much I know is true, that God blessed the broken road that led me straight to you.”