Jenna will be marrying Mat on 13th June 2021 at The Lodge at Ventana Canyon in Tucson, Arizona. Click here to read all Jenna’s planning posts to date.

THREE FACTS: (1) Jenna + Mat have known each other all their lives – they met when they were both one-year-old at a baby class! (2) Their relationship began at the University of Arizona in March 2012 (3) Mat proposed at Jenna’s parents house in December 2018

Judaism is a huge part of our identity – both for my fiancé, Mat, and for me. We not only grew up at the same synagogue, where we were bar and bat mitzvahed, but also attended Jewish summer camps (and worked as counselors), were members of our Jewish youth group USY, went to the Jewish day school or the synagogue’s Hebrew school, and so much more (I taught b’nai mitzvah class for 5 years!).

Growing up for me, I always remembered going to Shabbat dinner at my Bubbie and Grandpa’s house – I even learned how to bake challah from my Grandpa, who would bake two fresh loaves every other week. We always celebrated all the Jewish holidays as well, with the entire family getting together to eat good food and celebrate. For Mat, going to Hebrew school 3 times a week at the synagogue kept him connected in his daily life to Judaism – it is where he learned about our history, culture, religion, and it taught him the importance of his Jewish identity. 

In college, I began going to our Chabad on Campus for Shabbat, holidays, and just to hang out.  At the beginning of my sophomore year, I was helping introduce Chabad to new students walking by their tent on the mall, the central stretch of grass on our campus.  Mat was a freshman, and happened to walk by while I was there – I enticed him to come by later than night for their Welcome Back BBQ (who can resist kosher food…and a cute Jewish girl?).  A large portion of our good friends from college is from our time at Chabad – we still get together with these friends, from weddings to Shabbat dinners to New Year’s Eve ice cream bars.

Now that we live in NYC, we are members of a synagogue, I sing in the synagogue choir and read Torah and Haftarah, we have lead our own Passover seders, have Shabbat dinners, and I still bake a lot of challah (check me out on Instagram @thesabrabaker)!

When it comes down to planning our Jewish wedding, one thing is for certain – we will make sure it represents us and our Jewish identities.  All aspects, from the aufruf, rehearsal dinner, ceremony, and reception, we have made sure are reflection of us as a Jewish couple.

Continue Reading