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By the time Caressa Gonzalez and Mordechai Miltz met in December 2016, 10 months had passed since they had a match on the dating app Bumble.
Although they quickly exchanged phone numbers and became Facebook friends after connecting to the app, Mr. Miltz, 37, then lived between his native Long Beach, NY, and Florida, where Ms. Gonzalez grew up and lived.
For Ms. Gonzalez, 32, their delayed in-person meeting was “just as well because I wasn’t ready for a relationship after a bad breakup,” she said.
Ms. Gonzalez, raised in West Palm Beach, is a graduate of Florida International University in Miami and runs Manhattan Trophy & Promotion, the family-owned Lake Worth family that sells trophies, medals, and other tokens of achievement. Mr. Miltz, who goes by Mordy, attended Nassau Community College and is a broker with United Yacht Sales in Stuart, Fla.
When the pair finally met for drinks and dinner in December 2016 at Park Tavern in Delray Beach, Florida, there was an instant chemistry. “We had a good chat,” said Mr. Miltz, as they talked about work and their different families: Mrs. Gonzalez was raised Catholic by parents who immigrated to this country from Cuba, and Mr. Miltz, whose parents are divorced, was Orthodox – raised Jewish.
“We laughed for two hours,” said Mrs. Gonzalez. “He was really good company.”
Over the next few weeks, they became inseparable, taking yachts for lunch (a perk of his job), going to car shows, and sharing meals together. Soon Christmas was upon them. Ms. Gonzalez, who was planning to spend the holiday with her family, said she was “stunned” when Mr. Miltz asked what time he could come by and what to bring.
“Who invites themselves to an intimate family gathering for a vacation they’re not even celebrating?” she said. That night he asked her to be his girlfriend and they officially became a couple.
But not for long: Just before Valentine’s Day in February 2017, Ms. Gonzalez broke up with Mr. Miltz. “I’d never dated anyone as generous or friendly as Mordy,” she said. “I felt smothered.” However, he was so understanding of her decision that Mrs. Gonzalez soon regretted it. Days later they were back together.
“I was skeptical, but turned it down because Caressa was a good person and so much fun,” said Mr. Miltz. As they continued dating, the couple learned “to discuss our issues,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “Our differences have helped us grow together and improve our relationship.”
In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Mr. Miltz moved to Florida permanently, and the couple later bought a house near Mrs. Gonzalez’s childhood home in West Palm Beach. While the two had talked about marriage over the years, Mr. Miltz that May surprised Mrs. Gonzalez. They had just returned from the beach and she was wearing pajamas.
“I don’t even remember his words, but I said yes,” she said.
On February 14, the couple married on the steps of St. Stanislaus Church in Altos de Chavon, a replica of a 16th-century Mediterranean village in the Casa de Campo resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic.
Father Brian King, Mrs. Gonzalez, performed a Catholic ceremony for 53 guests, all of whom had tested negative for Covid the day before the wedding. At the end of the ceremony, a huppah arranged by the couple was brought out. After two Jewish prayers were said for the newlyweds, they smashed the traditional glass.
The outdoor reception that followed started with a cocktail hour near the church in a square overlooking the River Chavon. It continued at La Piazzetta, a restaurant in the resort, where the couple and their guests enjoyed a flamboyant hora loca, an hour of dancing and performances by costumed performers.
About her new husband, Ms. Gonzalez said, “He puts everyone above himself. Over the past six years I have watched him grow into an extraordinary person.”
She added, “I couldn’t wait for this day to come.”