Sophie is from Stoke Newington and was a pupil at Simon Marks and JFS before studying archaeology and anthropology at Oxford. A London Underground graduate trainee, her placements have included working as a station supervisor at Leicester Square Tube. Stephen was raised in Richmond and took social policy at Bristol University. He works part-time for Jewish Care as a supported housing development manager but is better known as clarinettist, singer and composer for the Oi Va Voy klezmer band
When they met
“A year-and-a-half ago, and we felt close from the first moment,” Stephen recalls. “The first date included a drink in Camden, a Mali gig at the Barbican, the Cable Street festival, a dance in an ex-public convenience and accidentally bumping into Sophie’s parents. It was an epic adventure.”
The proposal
“I had it all planned. We’d go and see sinister Pinter play on the South Bank. Then we had a romantic walk by the river in the darkness. I stopped and asked her as a busker played Ain’t No Sunshine. It was perfect timing.”