Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

The Couple That Served Their Wedding Meal To Hurricane Harvey Victims Have Fairy-tale Ceremony

Remember the ridiculously photogenic Houston couple who, with the help of Aishel House co-director Rochel Lazaroff, served the food intended for their wedding welcome meal to victims of Hurricane Harvey?

Well, they finally got married this weekend. And no natural disasters intervened.

This photo is somehow from real life, not a television show! Image by Instagram (Brooke Singer)

When a hurricane spread destruction across Houston, Josh Tillis and Dayna Skolkin (now Tillis!) were forced to postpone their wedding celebration. With food for a three-course meal intended for their guests already waiting at the Aishel House, a Chabad organization that provides hospitality to families of patients at the nearby Texas Medical Center, the couple was not willing to let their food go to waste. Along with Lazaroff, they rolled up their sleeves and prepared their own wedding meal, from mashed potatoes to breaded chicken, and served it to hungry hurricane victims. The couple earned a spot in the top 5of our annual Forward 50 for their selfless act of service. Their wedding date, set for September 3, was pushed to December. And last weekend, it finally happened.

The couple was married at Houston’s Marriott Marquis on Sunday night. The bridesmaids wore black evening gowns in varying styles and groomsmen wore sharp black bow ties. The bride carried a bouquet of white calla lilies and orchids, and flowers cascaded down the chuppah and served as boutonnières. Guests showered the couple in ivory petals as they walked back down the aisle together, and the couple not only performed a first dance but also led a group of friends and family in a choreographed dance.

Amidst the bride’s diaphanous train, the groom’s sky-blue kippah and an endless parade of floor-length gowns, the couple managed to keep their vows down-to-earth. Their wedding cake? A frosted Denver Broncos field with an edible football on top.

A thousand mazel tovs to the happy couple!

Jenny Singer is a writer for the Forward. You can reach her at Singer@forward.com or on Twitter @jeanvaljenny

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version