Jewish Newlywed Spotlight: Jennifer Dozark

ABOUT JENNIFER

Where are you from? I grew up in New Jersey, my husband grew up in Houston. We met and fell in love in New York where we had our wedding and plan to stay!

What do you do for a living? I am a personal trainer, I own my own business called Small But Mighty Training. My husband works in finance for a private equity firm called Raine.

How did you meet your partner?We met at a corporate gym in midtown Manhattan. His personal trainer quit or got fired from the gym and he wound up training with me! Before long, we realized we had more in common besides a love of weightlifting!

When did you first know you were in love? I think it was when he taught me a game called Shoe Golf in a park in the East Village. It was such a simple, silly game, but it was so much fun because we were together. We could always have the longest conversations at night (and we’re both earlybirds!). And he didn’t give me too hard of a time when we were out at a bar in Newport, Rhode Island and he left to go to the bathroom and when he came back I was asleep!

When and where did you get married? We got married at Current, one of the venues in the Chelsea Piers complex in Manhattan.

What was your wedding song for walking down the aisle? I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of “Your Song” by Elton John. He walked down to an instrumental version of the song “Happy” by Pharrell.

How many guests did you invite to your wedding? We invited over 200, and had about 175 attend.

What was your favorite part of/thing about your wedding day? Our wedding dance! It was epic. We do amateur acrobatics as a hobby, so it was not your typical first dance. There were lifts, splits, flips and much more. I also loved our ceremony which we crafted with our wonderful Cantor. In particular, we had seven friends recite “Seven Blessings” they wrote to us while we stood under the chuppah. That was unbelievably special.

Best wedding planning tip? We made all the decisions ourselves – and designed a day that we knew we would love and felt like us.

Wedding vendors you would recommend? All of them! We loved our wedding DJ (Dash of Class Entertainment), our florist (Superior Florist), our Ketubah artist (Navah Shoham), my makeup artist (Nancy Caroline Beauty), and our beautiful venue and wedding coordinator (Current at Chelsea Piers).

Where did you go on honeymoon? We spent a week in the Greek isles (Santorini and Mykonos) and a week in France (Annecy and Antibes).

What does marriage mean to you? Marriage means thinking about the needs and wants of your partner, not just your own. Factoring them into your daily and longterm decisions. It also means having someone who will be there for you when you want to laugh, cry, scream, cuddle or take in a sunrise. It means having someone to share all of life’s beauty, challenges and lessons with.

Has your relationship with your partner changed since you got married? We wear our rings when we go out to dinner! We love being able to call each other husband and wife. We tackle things as a team – that is something we got really good at during our wedding planning process.

Secret to a happy relationship? Just think about what makes your partner happy, and do that as much as you can. The smallest things will make them smile so why not keep them smiling all the time?

Fave meal to eat together on Friday night? We love Israeli food! There is a great restaurant called Shukette which does lots of small plates, all Mediterranean style cuisine. It feels like our honeymoon!

Fave Jewish festival We love Chanukah – lighting the menorah, making latkes (sweet potato!) and giving each other presents. This will be our first year having our puppy so we can include him in the fun!

Fave piece of Judaica in your home Our Dachshund menorah. It was one of the first items to go on our registry!

Fave Jewish food Such a hard question! Our Israeli place makes a halvah soft serve ice cream that Is exquisite.

Fave Jewish tradition I am a huge animal lover, so one of my favorite traditions is tossing bread crumbs to the ducks on Yom Kippur as part of tashlich. I like the imagery of tossing your sins away but also giving something to God’s other creatures at the same time.

Fave wedding gift you received for your home My husband had a painting commissioned for me as a wedding present. It is of us doing acrobatics in the park. He gave it to me the day before our wedding with a love letter that our Cantor had suggested we write for each other. It is the best gift I’ve ever received.

Top of your Bucket List: Go surfing! We head to Florida for a couple months and we both want to try it!

Perfect weekend is… Seeing sunrise, doing something active (could be Crossfit, a bike ride, acrobatics or a hike), having delicious vegetarian food, shopping at thrift stores, and dancing to music we know under the stars, not too late!

Happiness is… Being able to be yourself because you’re with your favorite person.