During a particularly boring Super Bowl halftime show in 2020, Justin and Alyssa separately pulled out their phones and instantly connected on Hinge, making plans to meet up later. After a rainy first date, Justin walked Alyssa home through the Pittsburgh cold. Feeling bad that Justin had trudged several miles in the opposite direction to ensure her safety, Alyssa reciprocated by driving Justin back to his apartment. They snuck in four more pre-pandemic dates before the Covid shutdown. In fact, Alyssa rescued Justin from the airport barely hours before the shutdown, while catching the very last flight out of Montana upon returning from a ski trip.

Justin and Alyssa agree the pandemic drew them closer together, cementing their relationship. In between his graduate studies (online of course) and her service fellowship, Justin and Alyssa safely and -socially-distancedly- wandered the eclectic Pittsburgh neighborhoods hand-in-hand. On Friday nights, Alyssa cooked Shabbat dinner at Justin's apartment, and on Saturday’s they explored hiking trails in the Appalachian mountains. Justin even convinced Alyssa to venture on a 10-mile hike where they did not get lost…at least that time. On those nostalgic drives, they would blast their favorite music for each other in the car, especially the song Better Together by Jack Johnson; what was to become the anthem of their relationship. Basically, Alyssa and Justin are better when they are together.

Their relationship truly felt beshert just a few months into the shutdown on one particularly sunny morning strolling the tree-lined Beachwood Boulevard. While noshing on caprese sandwiches on the return walk from a socially-distanced bakery, they divulged their innermost Jewish moments from their childhoods and shared their heartfelt aspirations for the future, mutually agreeing to raise a family in the Jewish tradition. Even more fortuitously, Justin and Alyssa discovered they had both grown up visiting Margate “down the shore” each summer, their beach houses only a few blocks apart. To this day, the Margate Dairy Bar still occupies a special place in their hearts and taste buds.

The following year, Alyssa and Justin moved to the Upper West Side of New York City. They splurged on Broadway theater, reveled in late-night jazz clubs, savored the legendary restaurant scene, and successfully found the best pizza in New York - Joe's Pizza in Williamsburg (please hold all comments for later). They were engaged on September 17th, 2022 beneath a picturesque gazebo in Central Park. After a two-year stint in NYC, they moved to their forever home in Philadelphia where Alyssa was quickly baptized into Eagles fandom - Go Birds! One can still find them hiking, jamming to music on long drives, rejoicing over Shabbat dinners, and hunting for the best restaurants in Philly.

Justin and Alyssa can’t wait to celebrate their love under the chuppah with the people who matter most - their friends and family!