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Tikva Gavrin and Tal Lev's wedding was just like any other Israeli wedding — the bride and groom were nervous and excited and their friends were beaming with pleasure.

But it wasn't really the same as any other Israeli wedding. Though Gavrin lights candles and Lev recites the Kiddush every Shabbat, there wasn't a rabbi present at the ceremony.

The couple was married in a civil ceremony performed by New Family chairwoman Irit Rosenblum.

First the couple signed a marriage contract that Rosenblum had drafted in accordance with Israeli contract law.

Then, along with several dozen friends who had gathered at a restaurant in Arad, they sang "Hatikva."

The couple then exchanged rings and read a heskem zugiut (partnership agreement), which they had written together and in which they pledged to build a home together in Israel.

While the Interior Ministry will not recognize the couple as married under current law, Rosenblum said she hopes that it will in the future.

Recognition of the wedding is part of the secular revolution the prime minister outlined last August, she said. Meanwhile, it was important to the couple to have a wedding ceremony that would have meaning to them and their community, since they cannot legally be married here — Gavrin is not Jewish.

Rosenblum said she and the couple designed a ceremony that utilized secular symbols of love and dedication because, "Our goal isn't to secularize a religious ceremony, but to create a secular one."

One of the highlights of the evening was the announcement that Acting Interior Minister Haim Ramon had decided that a committee would examine the status of Gavrin's uncle, Aslaka Assafa, who came here after helping many Jews emigrate from Ethiopia and has been trying to receive permanent-resident status.

Arad Mayor Bezalel Tabibe summed up the wedding, saying, "What matters here isn't that this is the first civil wedding, but that two people from different worlds are coming together to build a family."