On a quiet, pre-Rosh Hashana Shabbat in September 2022, a Shabbat lunch was held in Washington, D.C. A boy walked into that lunch and saw a beautiful girl sitting at the table. The girl gave a very nerdy speech about the intricacies of trade and port infrastructure which she was dealing with at her job, and the boy was smitten. The boy engaged in some light flirting, complimenting her on davening an excellent Hallel. But because the girl, all five feet of her, was so intimidating, the boy did not ask her out for 18 months. Until a mutual friend held a birthday party in February 2024, and the boy convinced the girl to be his partner for a spirited round of Coke and Pepsi (in which they were unfairly eliminated in the first round). The next morning, the boy texted his friend saying he had achieved every 13 year old’s dream: getting a date with the cute girl he played Coke and Pespi with. A note from the girl: The girl was, admittedly, a little oblivious. But when the boy who complimented her Hallel, showed her pictures of cute dogs from his office, and spent an evening telling her about his family’s tradition of seeing Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat every year, asked her out on a date one very windy night, she happily accepted. She quickly realized that not only was the boy cute and funny and fun to talk to, but that they had a lot in common: in addition to shared interests in things like politics and musical theater, they aligned on their core values, worldviews, and dreams for the future. And most importantly, they shared a birthday! And so in a story spanning from D.C. to Philly to New Jersey to Chicago to Boston to California, they began their adventure. And now, you’re all invited as that boy and girl, Scott and Aliza, get married.