Katherina Dimenstein and Michael Timothy Berman were married Oct. 20 at Succotash, a restaurant in Washington. Adam Reny, a Universal Life minister, officiated, with Kelsey Spooner assisting. Both are friends of the couple.
The bride, 30, is the chief of staff in Washington to Representative David Schweikert, Republican of Arizona. She graduated from Iowa State University. She is pursuing a master’s degree in defense and strategic studies at the United States Naval War College.
She is the daughter of Irina N. Dimenstein and Boris L. Dimenstein of Des Moines. Her father is a field engineer for Compressor Controls Corporation, an engineering firm in Des Moines. Her mother, who is retired, was a preschool teacher at the Academy, also in Des Moines.
The groom, 30, is the economic policy adviser in Washington to Senator Doug Jones, Democrat of Alabama. The groom graduated from the University of Chicago and received a master’s degree in national security and strategic decision making from the Naval War College.
He is the son of Karen A. Berman and Keith S. Berman of Sylvania, Ohio. His mother is the principal of Toledo Early College High School in Toledo, Ohio. His father is the deputy chief of staff for resource management at the United States Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command in Warren, Mich.
The couple met in June 2014 on a congressional staff delegation to Bahrain. At the time, the groom was the legislative assistant for Representative Mike Quigley, Democrat of Illinois, while the bride was a legislative assistant for Mr. Schweikert. Both were last-minute additions to the trip.
In Bahrain, they visited the Fifth Fleet and Bahraini government offices. On the first day of the trip, Ms. Dimenstein met Mr. Berman, who she thought was “incredibly handsome.” She texted a friend from home, “I want to marry this guy, he’s amazing,” but confessed she did not yet know his name.
“I knew immediately that I had to at least ask her out,” Mr. Berman said. “But it was a professional trip. I had to play it cool.”
“She has a certain spark to her,” he said of noticing her. “She’s outspoken and commands attention.”
On the last day, Ms. Dimenstein ordered a round of drinks for a group of colleagues at a bar. Mr. Berman took this as his chance to make a move. “I said, ‘I want to buy you a drink when we go back to D.C.’” Later, on the plane home, when they were unexpectedly placed in seats next to each other, enjoying glasses of Champagne in international business class, he asked her out again.
She said yes to Saturday, the day after they arrived back in Washington.
Both jet-lagged, they had their first date at the Dickson Wine Bar and, as the night progressed, they moved to El Rey, a Mexican restaurant, next door. Over tacos, they bonded over the importance of family, growing up in the Midwest and acceptance of other cultures.
“We share a lot of the same values and find a lot of the same things important,” Ms. Dimenstein said.
Ms. Dimenstein came to the United States from Belarus with her family as a refugee when she was 3; Mr. Berman’s mother emigrated from Jamaica when she was 10. The couple said they both see the United States as a “land of opportunity.”
“It was absolutely clear we were going to keep on dating,” Mr. Berman said.
As their relationship progressed, they dealt with the implications of being a bipartisan couple both working in government positions in Washington, which is “not very common” but also “not unheard-of,” Ms. Dimenstein said.
“He is the most stable and caring, steady person,” Ms. Dimenstein said. “Everyday that I’m with him, it feels like we’re going to get through everything.”
When Mr. Berman first introduced Ms. Dimenstein to his office, people were surprised, and gave her “the side eye,” she said. Similar looks happened when she introduced him to her colleagues.
But the bipartisan element causes more questions in the outside world than for them, Mr. Berman said. “While we disagree about political items, you learn how to disagree really early,” Mr. Berman said. “You have to agree to disagree. Neither one of us tries to convince the other person.”
