המון זמן לא עידכנו פה את העניינים – למעשה ממתי שעוד היינו צעירים ורווקים, אבל למה להתעכב על מה שלא בסדר, כשאפשר לחגוג את מה שיש?

טוב, אז בשוונג אחד אנחנו הולכים לספר פחות או יותר (בעיקר יותר…) את כל מה שקרה בחודש שלפני החתונה. זה כל-כך ארוך שהחלטנו – בעיקר כדי שלא נשתגע – לוותר הפעם על התרגום. אנחנו מקווים שתסתדרו עם האנגלית, ואם לא – רק תגידו, ונשמח להיפגש אתכם פנים אל פנים ולספר את הכל. תאמינו לנו שזה יותר כיף בגרסה האנושית!

אוהבים,

רובין ודותן

Well, Hello there!

OK, our bad, we admit. The last time we wrote we were just a couple of single people, and man, did things change since that. We wanted to write so many times, but so many other things got in the way: All the wedding preparations, the wedding itself, coming back to Israel, the preparations for and celebrating at our Israeli party, moving to Haifa, Robin starting a new job at the University of Haifa, and Dotan starting a new school year – all are fine and good excuses, we know…

Anyway, we hope you can forgive us, and accept this VERY LONG update on pretty much everything that happened between our last update and our wedding. You really don’t have to read it all but if you are really bored and your boss is not looking, please lean back, and indulge with us (also, if you just want to see some pictures, skim through this long text, and just click on the links. We won’t mind!).

Here we go:

We last wrote when we  had just arrived to Atlanta, after our visit to New York. In Atlanta we hit the ground running with cake tasting appointments, dress fittings, and other errands related to the wedding.

But, after just 2 days in Atlanta we packed our bags and went with Mom and Bob to Rosemary Beach for Labor Day weekend.  The weather was great and it was nice to have a mini-vacation before the craziness of the wedding hit us.  Though, we do have to say it wasn’t such a crazy month; we had a lot of fun planning everything.  Anyways, back to Rosemary…

The drive down was fun.  We stopped along the way in Dothan, Alabama to take pictures of Dotan in Dothan.  After we arrived we spent the weekend taking pictures, walking around the  beautiful community, shopping, eating, swimming, enjoying the weather, and relaxing.  We had dinner two nights in a row with our friends Jim and Jane Buckle, utilized the workout facility at Watersound beach, saw a wedding on Rosemary beach that we later found out was the wedding of a girl I (Robin) went to high school with, and just had a great time all around.  On the way back from the beach we stopped for some disgustingly delicious fried food at Huggin’ Molly’s in Alabama. If you are ever on that road and are tempted to try it, make sure your cardiologist is on call. It’s that bad for you, but that good!

A week later, we took another trip, this time to North Carolina to see my (Robin) aunt, uncle, and cousins that live there.  We had a great time learning how to Wii bowl with them (Robin is not that good at it. Dotan is awesome), eating on their beautiful screened porch, hanging out with the boys, jumping on their trampoline, and just spending time with family.  Dotan and I also really enjoyed the road trip to and from NC though on the way there we hit some major rain storms (during our time in Atlanta and the Southeast in general, there was a major line of storms that hit and much of Marietta was flooded including my high school and some of my friends homes).

In Atlanta we had plenty of planning, buying, organizing, and whatnot to do in order to prepare for our wedding, but we also found enough spare time to see friends and family.  We visited with Dotan’s cousins who live nearby.  Gary and Michal have 3 beautiful girls that we love visiting with whenever we are in Marietta.  Noam, Dotan’s cousin from Israel happened to also be in town so we also spent time with her.  Gary took us to a Braves game which was a blast.  As a kid I (Robin) was a huge Braves fan, but I’m ashamed to admit that until now I had never been in the “new” Braves stadium.  The game was against the Mets.  The Braves won, which was cool, but caused a little conflict with our NY roots.  Coincidentally my high school marching band played the 7th inning stretch.

We had a lot of quality time with Stephanie, shopping, chatting, coffee dates, etc.  Sadly, GanGan her sweet grandmother, passed away while we were in town.  Her time was not up and it was so sad, but we were happy we could be there with Steph during this hard time and think we were able to cheer her and her family up a little bit.

We had a great Indian dinner with Kris, Brian, and Ashley and got to see Melissa for some shopping and trying on maternity clothes—she is so beautiful pregnant and we were so glad to have some quality, though short, time with her during our visit.  We went to Mike Judge’s house for breakfast and met his beautiful wife Courtney and their baby Jake.  I (Robin) feel like I have known them forever because Mike has told me so much and I have seen so many pictures, but we loved seeing them in person and spending time with them.  Courtney is now pregnant so Jake will be a big brother soon!

Dotan’s childhood friend Calanit  lives about 10 minutes from my mom’s house as well, so we spent much time with her and her wonderful kids.  She is smart, a great friend, an incredible mom, and her kids are a blast to hang out with.  Dotan and I always appreciate that we both have friends and family in Atlanta area—pretty funny for two people who come from different sides of the world.

We also got to spend lots (relatively speaking) of time with my cousins Michele, David, and Lesley, and with my Uncle Tom and Aunt Eileen.  Michele was my maid of honor in the wedding and David and Lesley were huge help as we planned things for the big day.  I got to meet Michele’s great boyfriend, Matt.  A week before the wedding, my (Dotan) brother, Arbel, arrived in Atlanta, and he joined us on a hike at Kennesaw Mountain with Michele, too.

During this month we also celebrated the Jewish High Holidays.  Jane Corby, one of Mom’s amazing friends, cooked up a delicious meal for Rosh HaShana.  By the time Yom Kippur was here Dotan’s parents had arrived which we’ll get to in a minute. All of this we managed to do between weekend travels and wedding prep (cake appointments, design team appointment, make up trial, hair trial, dress fittings and alterations, making programs, creating our ketubah, prepping for the rehearsal dinner, getting all final RSVPs, meeting with our DJ and trio, etc).

When Arbel got in he was very helpful with last minute preparations, and we also got some quality time with him before the rest of the family flew in.  Two days later (now just one week before the wedding), Dotan’s parents arrived.  His parents toured around Atlanta seeing the Coke Museum, the Aquarium, Stone Mountain, and the malls and restaurants we recommended, etc.  We were able to do much of the touring with them, and Bob was able to show them around as well. Some of the sites they visited on their own and loved it.  My (Dotan) parents and brother were all very helpful with any wedding preparations and it was a really amazing time for the families to bond. Though  they had met several times, this was their longest, most intense visit together. Mom and Bob loved hosting everyone!

On Thursday before the wedding, October 1st  Dotan’s sisters Shakked and Lotem, and Shakked’s then-fiance-now-husband, Liran, arrived.  They were exhausted, but the girls and Robin hit the ground running with shopping knowing they were really looking forward to the stores in the US and that their time was limited. After a successful shopping trip, everyone freshened up a bit and evening Mom cooked up an “all-American” meal for the families.  Andy, Dad, Kathy, Dotan’s immediate family, Mom and Bob were there and later my Aunt Nancy, Aunt Lee, and Grandma (GoGo) joined.  Delicious food and , again,  great family bonding.  Kathy made some killer mojitos, I made apple pie, and we just ate and talked the whole evening.

On Friday my incredible aunts, grandmother, Michele and Mary threw me a bridal shower and later that evening my girlfriends surprised me and threw me a bachelorette party.  Meanwhile Dotan was hanging out with his groomsmen who had arrived that afternoon, having a bachelor’s party of his own, which was, as Dotan says, the coolest night  ever to date.  The bridal shower was incredible.  My aunts thought through every detail. There were great pictures from my childhood on the tables, jelly bellies packaged up for the guests to take, incredible food prepared by the aunts and Mary, and challahs in the shapes of an R and a heart made by my Uncle Tom.  My aunts had the idea to have every woman bring a picture that reminded them of me and at the shower they put that picture onto a page and decorated it.  Each decorated page was then combined and put into an incredible scrapbook of memories.  The Bridal Shower was also the first time that I saw many of my friends and family for the wedding—some of whom I had not seen in over a year since moving to Israel.  Kelly, Aunt Carolyn, Karen Steiner, Nancy Rosen, Kathy Shaul, Donnee Petersen, Linda Newman, and so many more.  I loved having all “my girls” in one room.   I can’t thank my aunts, Michele, Mary, and GoGo enough for their thought, effort, and incredible planning.  I don’t have the words to describe how much fun I had and how humbling it was to sit in the room and see so many beautiful woman whom I admire so much and  who came there just for me.  We got great presents for our home, and memories to last a lifetime.

Saturday was the day of the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  Bob and GoGo were the hosts of the rehearsal dinner and mom helped them plan it, coming up with a Mexican theme and having it catered by Willy’s.  Mary made all the desserts.  All of our out of town guests (which were basically about 95% of our guests), were there and, again, it was just so fun to have everyone in one room.  Family, college roommates, camp friends, friends from Israel, friends from swimming, school, childhood, OTZMA,  New York…touching to know that people flew in to celebrate with us and simply wonderful to visit with everyone even though it was a short time. JC, our camp director and rebbetzin, made a very cute toast. There was love and happiness in the room and we were on cloud 9. One of the coolest things were the videos people prepared for us. The first one is from Robin’s mom to her, the second one is from my (Dotan) family, and the third one, which is about us and our lives together, was prepared by my siblings and Liran. Since they are so very cool, we put them all here. Go get some popcorn or something, it might take a while…:

And the one for the both of us:

Believe it or not, that’s the end of this post! If you’ve actually read all of this then wow… you must be a really good friend!  Thanks!

Robin and Dotan

Us standing where the Chuppah will be standing!

that we’ve accomplished a lot! According to our non-scientific, unexperienced calculations we think that we’re done with planning about 60%-70% of the American leg of the wedding, and are now working on the essentials of the Israeli one.
During our visit we got a place, a menu, a marriage license (did you know you can marry your cousin in the state of Georgia!?), a DJ, a photographer (and even took our engagement photos!), a dress, hotels for our guests, did some research on tuxedos and invitations, had a very good talk with our Rabbi, and some other stuff. in between we went to two weddings, hung out with family, and ate all the Mexican food we didn’t get to eat since September. Not bad for a week and a half long visit, ha?
So, now we’re basically working on getting some things planned in Israel, and then we can send out the “official” information and dates.
Other than the wedding stuff, life is good. Lucy was very happy to re-unite with us, we’ve been seeing a lot of friends, and have been busy with work and with the beginning of our second semester at school.
Stay tuned for more info shortly!

אהלן!
בשבוע שעבר חזרנו מהביקור הקצר בארה”ב , ואנחנו שמחים לבשר לכם שהספקנו לתכנן שם המון. לפי החישובים

הלא-מדעיים והלא-מנוסים שלנו, סיימנו עם בערך 60%-70% מהתכנון של הדברים בצד האמריקאי של החתונה, ועכשיו אנחנו מתרכזים בעיקר בדברים הראשוניים שבצד הישראלי של החתונה.
במהלך הביקור סגרנו על מקום, תפריט, רשיון נישואים של מדינת ג’ורג’יה (שבה, מסתבר, מותר לך לשאת את בן/בת דודך…), די.ג’יי, צלמת (ואפילו הצטלמנו קצת למה שבארה”ב נקרא “תמונות אירוסין”), שמלה, מלונות בשביל האורחים בחתונה, התחלנו לחקור על חליפות בשבילי ובשביל השושבינים ועל הזמנות, הייתה לנו פגישה מאוד מוצלחת עם הרבה שלנו, ועוד כל מיני דברים. בין לבין הלכנו גם לשתי חתונות, בילינו עם המשפחה, ואכלנו את כל האוכל המקסיקני שלא אכלנו מאז ספטמבר. לא רע בשביל ביקור של שבוע וחצי, אה?
אז עכשיו אנחנו בעיקר עובדים על לסגור כמה דברים בארץ, ואז נוכל לשלוח את את המידע ה”רשמי” עם התאריכים והכל.
חוץ מענייני החתונה, החיים אחלה. לוסי מאוד שמחה לפגוש אותנו שוב, אנחנו מבלים הרבה עם חברים, ועסוקים מאוד בעבודה ועם תחילתו של הסמסטר השני באוניברסיטה.
שמרו על קשר, ונספק עוד מידע בקרוב!

רובין ודותן Robin and Dotan

שלום חברים,
היום, בדיוק היום, לפני חודש, החלטנו להתחתן!
לרגל חגיגות החודש, החלטנו שיהיה ראוי לספר קצת מה עשינו בחודש האחרון, ובעיקר לעדכן, עד כמה שניתן, בכל מה שקשור לחתונה. מראש אנחנו מתנצלים על השיבושים באליינמנט של העמוד. טרם הצלחנו להתגבר על הקושי הזה… נו מה לעשות, כנראה שהעניין הזה של לעבוד בשתי שפות ימשיך ללוות אותנו כל החיים שלנו. 

קצת רקע

החלטנו להתחתן ביום שישי בערב, כי אני (אני זה דותן. רובין עסוקה כרגע בלהסתכל על אתרים של חתונות… מי ידע שהיא תהפוך לאחת מאלו כל-כך בקלות?) תיכננתי לעשות את זה דווקא אז, כמה שעות לפני שאמה של רובין ואביה החורג מגיעים לביקור בארץ. את סוף השבוע עצמו בילינו בצימר באמירים שהיינו בו בחופשה לפני כמה שנים ומאוד אהבנו את המקום. יש שם אחלה אוכל הודי אם אתם באזור. אנחנו ממליצים בחום.
בכל אופן, בערב שתינו קצת יין ורקדנו קצת. ברגע שתוכנן היטב מראש, שאלתי את רובין אם היא מוכנה (אמרתי אפילו “בבקשה”, בכל זאת, חינכו אותי טוב ההורים שלי) להתחתן איתי. כנראה שהיין עשה את מה שהוא היה אמור לעשות, כי הנה, אתם פה.

ביקור ההורים

Right to Left: Cyndy, Bob, Gitit and Tzvika at the Bahai gardens in Haifa.

היה אחלה. סינדי, אמא של רובין, כבר ביקרה פה פעם, בזמן שרובין השתתפה ב”עוצמה”. בוב, בעלה, ביקר פה לראשונה. משדה התעופה הבאנו אותם אל דירתנו הצנועה בבאר-שבע, ומפה הם המשיכו לאילת (וקפצו לפטרה), לים-המלח ולמצדה. אחרי עוד יום בבירת הנגב, עלינו לירושלים, ומשם המשכנו לבית הוריי בזכרון. ביום שישי התכנסנו עם כל המשפחה המצומצמת שלי, וחגגנו באופן רשמי. במהלך סוף השבוע המשכנו לבלות עם הוריי באזור שלנו. היינו, בין השאר, בזכרון, בחיפה, בדלית אל-כרמל ובקיסריה. היה אחלה, ההורים התגבשו, ואפילו אנחנו לא סבלנו יותר מדי

…
בהמשך השבוע המשכנו להסתובב בארץ. היינו בגולן ובגליל, הם חזרו לירושלים, ואפילו הספקנו להכניס איזה ביקור נימוסין בתל-אביב. על הדרך הספקנו גם לחגוג את השתתפותה של רובין לראשונה בחגיגת הדמוקרטיה הישראלית, מה שבסופו של דבר, לא עזר הרבה… אחרי שבוע וחצי של הביקור יצאנו מפוצצים מכמויות של אוכל, אבל מאוד נהננו, וגם הספקנו להתחיל ולתכנן כמה דברים לחתונה.

כמה דברים שהחלטנו בינתיים ואפשר להתחיל ולחלוק איתכם
את החתונה עצמה נעשה בשני חלקים. החלק הראשון, זה שיהיה בו את החופה וכל הטקסיות הזו, ייערך באטלנטה. החלק השני, שבו יהיה חומוס יותר טוב, יהיה בערך שבועיים מאוחר יותר בארץ. הכוונה לעשות שתי מסיבות, אחת בכל אחת מהארצות שלנו, הייתה די ברורה לנו מההתחלה, ונובעת בעיקר מהעובדה שבכל אחד מהמקומות האלה יש לנו חברים טובים ומשפחה שלא יוכלו להגיע לאירוע מעבר לאוקינוס. ההחלטה לעשות את החופה עצמה באטלנטה הייתה גם כן די פשוטה, כי היה ברור לנו שבכל מקרה לא נוכל לעשות חופה כפי שאנחנו רוצים לעשות פה בארץ.
באופן לא רשמי אנחנו יכולים גם לספר לכם שהחתונה באטלנטה תיערך, אי”ה, ברביעי באוקטובר, א’ חוהמ”ס

Robin and Dotan's parents checking for possible wedding dates.

. אנחנו התחלנו גם לחפש מקומות, ואפילו מתכננים להיות באטלנטה בפסח לרגל חתונות של שני זוגות חברים שלנו, אז נוכל גם לבדוק את המקומות בעצמנו, ואם לא יהיו תקלות, זה כנראה יהיה התאריך שנתחתן בו!

ועוד כמה דברים ברקע
חוץ מתכנון שתי החתונות, אנחנו גם מנסים ללמוד. השבוע שנינו סיימנו את סמסטר א’, מה שאומר שרובין בחצי הדרך אל סיום התואר, ואני ברבע. יש לנו עכשיו חודש של מבחנים ועבודות, ואינשאללה הכל יילך טוב.

ותוך כדי כל השיחות והתיכנונים וכל המשפחתיות הזו, הלכנו בשבת האחרונה אל “צער בעלי חיים” כאן בבאר-שבע ואימצנו כלבה! לגביי השם עוד לא החלטנו באופן סופי (אם כי, “לוסי” – מלשון “דמיין את עצמך בסירה על נהר” וגו’ – הוא כרגע השם המועדף), אבל אנחנו יכולים לספר בגאווה שהיא ממש מתוקה, שקטה, חמודה ועוד כל מיני מחמאות שנותנים לכלבים טובים. כל מי שרוצה לבוא לבקר אותה, או אותנו, מוזמן!

Howdy Friends!
Today, exactly today, we’ve been engaged for a month!
In honor of the one month celebrations we figured it would be a good chance for us to share a little of what we’ve been up to this past month, and to update y’all, as much as we can, on the wedding planning.

Some background
We got engaged on a Friday night, as I (I being Dotan. Robin is busy right now looking at wedding and

Inigo Montoya

bridal websites… Who knew she would become one of those so easily?) planned on doing it specifically then, just  a few hours before Robin’s mom and step Dad were scheduled to land in Israel for a visit. The weekend itself we spent in Amirim, which is a lovely all-vegetarian town not far from Tsfat. There’s some great Indian food there, if you’re ever in the area. Though we did decided that Indian food is not a good idea for the actual wedding day, or for the one before it…
In any case, that evening we had some wine, and danced a little. In the moment that was planned carefully in advance, I got down on one knee, and asked Robin if she will (I even said “please”, after all, my parents did give me good education…) marry me. It seems like the wine did it’s job well enough, cause here you are, in a website carrying our names!

The Parents’ visit
Was great. Cyndy, Robin’s mom had already been here once, while Robin was on Otzma. For Bob, her husband, this was a first visit. From the airport we went straight to our apartment in Be’er-Sheva, and from here they continued to Eilat, went on a quick visit to Petra, Jordan, to the Dead sea and to Masada. After spending some more time at the capital of the Negev, we went up to Jerusalem, and from there we continued to my parents’ house in Zichron Ya’akov. On Friday evening my sisters Lotem and Shakked (with Liran her boyfriend), and brother Arbel joined us for a first official celebration of the engagement. During the weekend we continued to spend some time with my parents in our area. Amongst the places we visited were Zichron, Haifa, Daliat Al-Carmel, and Caesaria. It was great, and the parents had a good time bonding.

Eating. Left to right: (parts of Tzvika), (parts of Liran), Shakked, Arbel, Lotem, Gitit, Dotan, Robin and (parts of Cyndy).

After the weekend we went to the Golan Heights, to the Galil, they went back to Jerusalem, and we even managed to pay a courtesy visit to Tel-Aviv. In between all of that, Robin got to participate for the first time in her life in the Israeli democratic celebration, as she voted here for the first time. Too bad that didn’t turn out very well… After 10 days of their visit we ended up bloated by the amount of food we ate, but we also had a great time, and we managed to start planning a few things for the wedding.

A few things we already know, and we can already share
The wedding itself will have two parts. The first, the one which will have the chuppah and all that, will be in Atlanta. The second part, which will have better hummus, will be about two weeks later in Israel. The reasoning to have two parties, one in each of our countries, was clear to us from the beginning, and is mostly due to the fact that in each of these places we have close friends and family that won’t be able to make it to an event across the ocean. The decision to have the chuppah in Atlanta was also pretty simple, as it was clear to us that anyway we won’t be able to have a chuppah ceremony which we’ll both be happy with here in Israel.

I look like a Lucy, right?

Unofficially, we can also let you know that the Atlanta wedding will probably take place on October 4th, 2009. We also started looking into different venues, and we plan on using our time in Atlanta when we’re there in April for a couple of friends’ weddings to make a final decision. So… unless, something big comes up, that’s our date!

And a few other things
Other than planning two weddings, we’re also trying to study. This week we both finished our first

semester, which means Robin is half way through grad school, and I’m at quarter of the way. Now we have about a month of exams and papers, and we’re hoping it all goes well.
And… in the midst of all these talks and planning, and all this “family-ness”, we went to the dog shelter and adopted a puppy last weekend! We have yet to decide on a name for her (“Lucy” -as in “picture yourself in a boat on a river”, etc. - is in the lead now for a while, it’s probably going to win…), but we can proudly let you know that she’s really sweet, quiet, cute, and all of those other compliments you give good dogs.

So, if you ever wanna visit her, or us, you’re more than invited!