As Yolanda and Arel wind down their blogging (after all, they did get married in January!), I’m excited to let you all know that we have a new couple blogging for us as they prepare for their marriage!

Erik is originally from Wisconsin and has lived in DC for 9 years. He works on Capitol Hill as a Chief of Staff for a Member of Congress from his hometown. A lapsed Catholic, Erik found Buddhism while in college and has been practicing, including hosting meditation at his apartment, for over 12 years.

Jess, who is Jewish, hails from Montreal, but moved to south Florida when she was a young girl. She currently works as the Director of External Affairs at a federal government agency and previously had spent several years in the Public Relations field and running Congressional campaigns.

They originally met in Wisconsin during the fall of 2000 while working on a rally for Joe Lieberman. After the rally they didn’t see each other for 10 years and were reconnected via e-harmony in the fall of 2010. The rest, as people say, is history.

Give them a big welcome, and stay tuned for their own introductory post!

While Mia and Ethan are off enjoying their honeymoon (mazal tov again!), I’m excited to introduce a new couple to this blog:

Presenting, Yolanda and Arel! They’re eager to get going, blogging and vlogging (that’s video blogging) about their upcoming nuptials.

Don’t forget to update your RSS feeds, keep an eye on our tweets and Facebook posts and you won’t miss a single wedding blog post!

I’ll turn it over to them…

Welcome to all of our readers and thank you Benjamin for giving us this opportunity to share a little window into our lives with you.

So where to begin…well, if you read Mia’s post from last spring, you know that we established open and honest communication about our different religious/spiritual beliefs from Day 1. Mia continued to learn more about Ethan’s beliefs and attended more high holiday services with his family, and Ethan joined Mia at another Christmas celebration, this time fully prepared!

We are positive that such honesty helped bring us to where we are today: preparing to celebrate our decision to spend the rest of our lives together! (As Mia would say “forever and Ever and EVER!” in a children-of-the-corn type voice.)

Usually these conversations have been hopeful and thoughtful, but sometimes they have been somewhat emotional. For example, a few months into our relationship, there was a misunderstanding about Mia’s involvement in a family event that prompted her to ‘fess up to some ongoing concerns she had been harboring without realizing how deeply they were affecting her. This lead to a sudden outburst of “but what if…” questions on Mia’s part, accompanied by tears and sniffles. One such question was, “but what if we get married, (sniffle) and have kids, (sniffle) and our kids go to Jewish day school, (sniffle sniffle) and the other kids know our kids’ mother isn’t Jewish. (Deep breath leading into high pitched voice) Will our kids get beaten up in the playground?”

Ethan chuckled as he pulled Mia into a hug. “First of all,” he said, “we Jews are not known for our physical aggressiveness, Israelis not withstanding. Second, given how tall we both are (6′ and 5′ 11″), our children will be the local giants.” 

All joking aside, we both acknowledge that there are some communities that won’t accept us or our children.  This is quite sad, but we have been overwhelmed by the support and love of our friends, families, and communities.

It was clear early in our discussions of our wedding that the ceremony itself would be a blending of our traditions. 

On the Jew hand, it is important to Ethan to have the Seven Blessings, a huppah and ketubah, and of course the breaking of the glass (I mean really, how often do you get to smash things in public?).  On the more diverse hand, Mia wants influences from her myriad backgrounds, including Celtic and Native American blessings. 

To accommodate ourselves we’ve agreed to have co-officiants, the cantor from Ethan’s step-father’s shul and a longtime and well-spoken dear family friend of Mia’s.  We’re still working on a lot of the specifics of who will do which readings and if there will be songs, etc… But it’s a start.  And we look forward to sharing the process with all of you as we continue on this wild ride!

Most of the time, we plan to blog together, but occasionally you might get one of us who was suddenly caught up by the muse! Look out! Thank you for reading and helping us create another special community! Talk soon!