Unions
Elijah Zarlin didn’t make the best first impression on his future wife, Katelyn Simons. Due to their age difference, they didn’t meet until 2009 even though both were longtime campers and then staffers at Tawonga, the Jewish summer camp near Yosemite. But on Memorial Day weekend 2009, there was a family camp retreat and both had signed up to staff it.
Simons was on shmirah (guard) duty for the sleeping campers while parents were given time to shmooze and nosh, and knew she was waiting for someone named Elijah to relieve her.
Meanwhile, late-night snacks are well-known and beloved at Tawonga, and Zarlin was waiting for the chicken wings to come out. They never came and, needless to say, he was late.
Simons admits, “I was mad.”
But the next night at a staff dance, Zarlin got a second chance. Not only did the two connect on the dance floor, but once they began talking, Simons found herself “saying some really weird, quirky things, like a laundry list of things I’m allergic to.
“I thought to myself, this is ridiculous, why am I telling him these things? There was an openness I had with him right off the bat.”
After the dance concluded, they went to the stone couch — a popular star-gazing spot — and talked into the wee hours.
They discussed hanging out soon at home, but there was one hitch: Simons was working at Tawonga that summer, and Zarlin was not. They exchanged phone numbers, and while driving home from camp, Zarlin called to make a date.
They saw a lot of each other before she left for Tawonga, and Zarlin visited her at camp several times. Then, as summer was winding down and they thought they’d get to spend more time together, Zarlin got a job he couldn’t refuse — in Washington D.C. It was supposed to last three months but turned into five.
During that time, mutual Tawonga friends invited them to Hawaii to go in on a timeshare. “We were newly a couple and it was both crazy and exciting,” said Simons.
They went, and during the trip Zarlin officially asked her to be his girlfriend.
Zarlin said he felt a certain happiness in Hawaii with Simons; he had felt it on one of their first dates after Tawonga, as well. “I had this feeling that this could be serious,” he said.
The first time Zarlin met Simons’ parents was when they picked them up at the airport, bringing sushi for the tired travelers.
“It was an awkward way to meet the parents — they were really sweet,” Zarlin said. “The fact that we were both really comfortable with each other’s families made it an easy thing to build off of — it makes such a difference.”
Simons, 29, from Oakland, is working toward her doctorate in psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley. Zarlin, 34, from Mendocino, is the senior campaign manager for CREDO Action, the political arm of the progressive cellphone company.
Simons said that while she didn’t know from the beginning that she’d marry Zarlin, she did know that she wanted to “hang onto this person and see what happens. The first night when we were talking for so long, I remember saying that I didn’t ever want to end this conversation. As soon as we connected, I wanted to be with him constantly, and that surprised me.”
Said Zarlin: “Katelyn is so thoughtful and compassionate and really tuned into other people and what they’re feeling, and really good at making people feel comfortable. She also has such a way with children, which is really sweet to see.”
While Simons was hoping for a proposal during their trip to Costa Rica in August 2013, Zarlin felt that would be too predictable. Instead, he waited until they came home and were headed to Mendocino to visit his parents. (He had already asked for her parents’ blessing.)
Pulling over to the side of the road, supposedly to show her a favorite view, Zarlin set up his camera on top of the car to take photos at 15-second intervals. In the first few photos they posed, but then he got down on one knee.
They were married Aug. 31 at Deer Park Villa in Fairfax by Deborah Newbrun, a former Tawonga director who moonlights as an officiant for “Tawonga” weddings. Their cake-toppers were two pinecones from camp, crafted by Simons to look like a bride and groom.
They were the 17th couple to get married beneath chuppah poles carved from Tawonga cedar trees (see story below).
The couple burned their names into the poles a few days before the wedding (rather than afterward, which is the norm), since another couple were taking them for their wedding the following weekend.
Zarlin said he told Simons: “Once we’ve done the wood burning, we’re essentially married.”