David Finstein knew Hillary Levine was a keeper when, early in their relationship, he told her that he was in the middle of a custody battle for his cat, Waffles. Hillary wasn’t a cat person, but she supported him.

Hillary knew David was a keeper the first time he met her parents, Todd and Simone, the gregarious Levines of Larry Levine’s Kosher Meats and Deli fame. “He wasn’t scared of them,” she said. She saw how well he got along with her family and how much he understood what that family meant to her.

The couple were acquainted with each other as high schoolers through United Synagogue Youth. David, a senior, lived in Framingham and attended Temple Israel of Natick; Hillary, a freshman, lived in Peabody and attended Temple Ner Tamid there.

“We were more acquaintances back then than anything else,” said David, who served on USY’s New England regional board. “More just like, ‘Oh, I know that name. I know who that person is.’”

“We knew of each other, had similar friends, but never really associated,” Hillary said.

Twenty years later, David came across Hillary on Instagram and reached out. They had their first of many dates in June 2023 at a restaurant in Newton. That fateful first meeting with Hillary’s parents came when she and her sister, Allie, were moving into a new apartment. David showed up with his tools, ready to hang things and put furniture together.

Hillary recalled her father’s best friend since childhood, “Uncle” Eric Richman, joking at the time that he’d finally been replaced as the family handyman.

Flash forward to Mother’s Day 2025. David was planning to propose, but it was complicated. Hillary had rules: He had to ask her father’s permission, get down on one knee, use her full name and make sure her nails were done. It was further complicated by David secretly getting the engagement ring from Hillary’s place of employment, Long’s Jewelers.

Hillary recalls David being so nervous that morning that he was pacing around the house. He kept pushing her to get a manicure, and he even got her sister and her boss to push, too. They went for a walk with Bailey, David’s rescued pit-lab mix. When they got back, Hillary saw a bouquet of roses sitting in the yard. Then she heard a noise from the bushes; out popped her sister, her sister’s husband Jeff, and Eric and Susan Richman. David got down on one knee.

“I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is actually happening,’” Hillary said.

Afterward, all the Finsteins and Levines went out for a Mother’s Day dinner, and the couple broke the news to the rest of the family. “It was a surprise for everybody, or almost everybody, who was out to dinner when we showed up and we were engaged,” David said.

“He followed all my rules, except, you know, Mother’s Day is a holiday,” Hillary said. “But it was a good Mother’s Day gift.”

The couple married on June 7 at the Crowne Plaza Boston in Woburn, with just over 200 guests and a wedding party of six bridesmaids and six groomsmen, three junior bridesmaids and a junior groomsman, two ring bearers, a flower girl and Bailey, who walked down the aisle in a crown of flowers.

“That’s kind of what we both wanted, honestly,” David said. “I wanted to do this once and only once, so it better be awesome. And it definitely was.”

A pair of recently retired rabbis, Rick Perlman of Ner Tamid and Dan Liben of Temple Israel, co-officiated. Hillary said she’ll especially remember several moments. One is when the rabbis wrapped them in tallits that had belonged to their grandfathers. Another is when the flowers on the chuppah moved after the rabbis mentioned her father’s departed parents – her bubbe and zayde. “Everyone got the chills,” she said.

She also said many of her coworkers had never been to a Jewish wedding and that a lot of them cried because the ceremony was so beautiful and spiritual.

Just as at her sister and matron of honor Allie’s October 2025 wedding, Hillary’s father, of Catering by Tevya, provided the food. “The food was pretty epic, needless to say,” David said.

The couple had already seen what he could do at Allie’s wedding, which helped them decide how ambitious to be with the menu. They had short ribs, like Allie did, but with a different sauce. They also had a carving station, burgers, ahi tuna tartare and ahi tuna on wonton crisps. There was a candy bar and a full dessert table, because they both love sweets. Hillary’s signature drink was an Aperol spritz, and David’s was an espresso martini.

Hillary’s hair was done by her bridesmaid Olivia DeSimone and Hair by Rebecca, and her makeup was done by Lisa Roche. The florist was Flowers by Darlene. The wedding jewelry came from Longs. Victoria George Photography took the photos and Shawn Pacheco shot the video.

The music was by Beantown from Wilson Stevens, the same band that played Hillary’s bat mitzvah, and for the second time, Hillary and her dad danced to “My Girl.” As she had dreamed since she was young, Hillary and David danced their first dance to “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from “Dirty Dancing.” Later, Todd Levine and Uncle Eric joined the band onstage for their signature “Brick House.”

What David will remember most is the crowd: preschool friends, USY and college friends, bosses he has known for 20 years, cousins, his mechanic, former neighbors, a friend he has known since he was 3. “Worlds colliding in every sort of direction that you could possibly think of,” he said. “That’s something I’ll definitely never forget.”

Today, David, 40, is a telecom engineer at Insulet Corporation, where he runs the telecom and call center infrastructure. Hillary, 37, works at Long’s Jewelers. They live in Framingham, about a mile from Allie and Jeff. They plan to join Temple Israel of Natick, build a Jewish home, and have a couple of kids someday.

“I don’t think USY is quite as big as it was when I was growing up,” David said, “but yeah, I would definitely like my kids to join if it’s still around.” Θ