After my husband and I got engaged in January of last year, I called Rabbi Stephen Pearce of San Francisco’s Congregation Emanu-El to get a recommendation for a rabbi in San Diego for our Aug. 22 wedding.
I grew up in La Jolla and wanted to get married nearby.
Unfortunately, the rabbi he recommended, Rabbi Jonathan Stein, was not available until very late in the evening due to a previously scheduled bar mitzvah.
Rabbi Stein’s office recommended another rabbi in the congregation who we asked to officiate at our wedding.
My husband and I flew to San Diego every month for six months to meet with Rabbi Dana Magat so we could build a relationship with him and iron out all the wedding details. We really enjoyed working with Rabbi Magat and felt he was the perfect person to unite us in marriage.
On the day of the wedding, everything went smoothly and we were down to the final half hour before the wedding was to begin. After taking the last of what seemed like a million pictures, my mother told me that every wedding has a little glitch and she had discovered ours.
My mom thought it would be best to share the little glitch with me before the wedding. Our “little” glitch was that Rabbi Magat’s wife just had a baby and he would not make it to the wedding!
Fortunately, he talked to Rabbi Stein, who was on his way. We ended up meeting our highly recommended rabbi — who was fabulous — at the wedding, which began over an hour late!
So much for my mom’s theory that Jewish weddings always start on time!