Morganne & Hilly's worlds intertwined years before they met on Rosh Hashanah, September 10th, 2018.

Kathy, Hilly's mom, was the cantor at Morganne's brother, Jacob's, Bar Mitzvah. Morganne and Hilly were in Israel at the same time in 2016 during their trips with Birthright. Morganne's aunt, Barbara, visited Camp Tawonga, a Jewish summer camp, every year and sat on their board while Hilly was a song leader there for multiple summers in a row. Morganne's doctor sent her kids to Camp Simcha, a summer camp that Hilly worked at for multiple summers, and her kids loved Hilly. And many other mutual friend connections.

Sometimes Morganne and Hilly wonder why they hadn't met when they were younger. The fact of the matter is, they met at the most perfect time, right when they were ready for and needed each other.

Back to 2018:

Morganne was one year out of college, back in San Diego, working towards a career focused on environmental conservation. She was invested in her passions and community, working at The Natural History Museum running summer camps, teaching yoga classes locally, and spending quality time with her community.

Hilly's story

Unfortunately, Morganne's community lost Randi Hosking, her mom, Cathy's, best friend, and one of Morganne's favorite people passed on September 2nd, not too long after Morganne watched her fall asleep to her strumming her ukulele. After Randi's funeral service, Morganne felt Randi's presence guiding her to go back to synagogue to be a good Jew. It had been a couple of years since she had gone to synagogue for the high holidays, so she decided Randi was right. She should go to synagogue, reconnect with her judaism, and grief.

On Rosh Hashanah eve, Morganne walked in to synagogue with her family and turned to Jacob, blurting out, "Randi is telling me I'm going to meet the love of my life!" Jacob responded, "You're crazy." Morganne shrugged Jacob off, she was ready to meet whoever Randi sent to her. Randi had tried to set Morganne up with a couple of guys in her teenage years, but none of them worked out. This time, Morganne wondered if Randi was finally right.

The next day, Morganne met Cathy at synagogue to help run the Rosh Hashanah family service. Cathy greeted Morganne there, telling her all about this boy, named Hilly, that she just met and how he was the synagogue's new song leader. "He's cute! and I heard he's single!"

Although Morganne and Hilly disagree on who introduced themself to who first, today we will just say that Cathy introduced Hilly and Morganne to each other before synagogue began. Morganne and Hilly did, in fact, think each other were cute throughout their introduction and the entire Rosh Hashanah service. Morganne admired Hilly's beautiful singing voice, masterful guitar playing, and silly personality that all shined during the 1.5 hour performance.

After the synagogue service, Morganne and Hilly met in the courtyard and could not stop talking. Cathy had to pry her away from him to go get ready for the evening festivities. Morganne invited Hilly to join them, Hilly took Morganne's phone number. And the rest is history. They went on their first, non synagogue related, date the very next week. And, yes, they did get thai food.

Today, Mo & Hilly continue to evolve, explore, and learn together and their love has truly grown to a level neither of them thought was even possible. They are excited to celebrate their love story with you!