About Us
Copyright Morning
Call Feb 13, 1995
He ate red meat. She
didn't.
He smoked. She
didn't.
He knew fine wine.
Her favorite was sangria.
He was a "California
cool" sophisticate. She embraced hippie-era ideals.
He invited her to lie
down on his couch on their first date. She wouldn't.
He's a prominent
divorce lawyer. She owns a bridal shop.
Is this any recipe
for a successful marriage?
You bet it is!
Meet Robin and Jon
Saltzman, opposites in the externals but soul mates in the values
that really count.
At the same time
they're laughing about their differences, they're describing
(simultaneously, to a reporter's chagrin) the glue that holds them
together.
Robin: "We have the
same energy. We're go-getters and not afraid (of life). We're good
parents together."
Jon: "We just jump
right into things. We go by our gut feelings. We work very well
together."
They also play very
well together. Both advanced scuba divers, they agree their idea of
paradise is an exotic getaway spot like Cabo San Lucas in Baja
California where, said Robin, "We have the desert behind us and the
sea in front of us."
Clearly, they're not
"the odd couple."
But in light of Jon's
career as head of Saltzman, DiBernardino & Diehl, an Allentown law
firm that specializes in divorce cases, everyone who knows them had
a good laugh when Robin opened the Bridal Factory Wearhouse near
Trexlertown in late December.
"One of the deputy
sheriffs suggested we have a double-sided business card printed up,"
Jon grinned. "If the marriage doesn't work out, my phone number is
on the other side."
However, he observed,
it could work the other way: "I refer my clients who are re-marrying
to Robin."
Jon admits his is not
always the happiest of professions, but denies it has in any way
jaundiced him about marriage. "I probably couldn't do as good a job
as I do if I weren't so happily married myself," he noted,
delightedly noticing Robin's pleased smile.
Unlike her husband,
Robin doesn't see sad faces in her work. Jon experienced first hand
the excitement of brides-to-be when he filled in for a sick employee
as cashier on a recent busy Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed his
vicarious participation in the gown-selection process.
While Jon's stint as
an employee of Robin was a novelty, she had spent the previous eight
years working full-time for Jon as his office manager. "She knows as
much about the firm as I do," he confided. "She's the one who
computerized the whole operation."
Said Robin: "Now
we've kind of turned the tables. Jon is providing all kinds of help
for me with my new business."
They met in 1985 when
Robin visited him to have legal work done for the fledgling dating
service she had established earlier that year. "It was a hot June
day and she waltzed in wearing shorts. She looked great," Jon
remembered. "I asked her for a date for the following Friday."
It was less than a
fireworks-producing event.
"I was put off by his
California ways," Robin said, "and when he wanted me to lie down on
his couch I said, `Take me home.' "
As a former resident
of the Napa Valley and a collector of distinguished wines, Jon was
aghast when he wanted to choose a bottle for the evening and Robin
selected as her favorite the ever-so-plebian sangria.
They agreed there was
no point in seeing each other again -- until the next lawyer Robin
consulted proved less than satisfactory and she ended up back in
Jon's office. This time she brought her then 4-year-old daughter,
Kira, along to "protect" her. Jon was immediately taken with Kira,
but agreed with Robin that there was absolutely "no chemistry"
between him and her. Double-dating with others, however, might be
fun.
He set up a date for
her with a friend, who backed out at the last minute. "So Jon and I
went alone -- as `buddies' -- that Friday night and had a good
time," Robin said. "The next morning we met for breakfast so Jon
could return my driver's license. I had brought it in case I needed
it as ID and he held it in his pocket for me."
When she mentioned
during breakfast that she and Kira were planning to see a movie the
following day, Jon indicated he'd like to see it too. So it was a
threesome "date."
By Wednesday, Jon was
having dinner with Robin and her mother at a local restaurant. When
Jon briefly left the table, Robin's mother told her, "He loves you."
When Robin was absent from the table, she told Jon he was "too
worldly" for Robin and she feared Robin would "get hurt."
Jon's background is
as varied as Robin's is insular. She's Allentown born-and-raised, a
Salisbury High School graduate who dropped out of business school in
her impatience to get on with her life.
He's the son of an
Israeli mother and a Philadelphia-born father. He grew up in the
Panama Canal Zone, where his father worked as an engineer. He went
to Pennsylvania State University and received a law degree from the
California Western School of Law in San Diego. He was a successful
lawyer in Los Angeles until January 1985 when he packed up his cat
and headed east in search of a location to establish his own firm.
Allentown was selected.
Six months later,
Robin entered his life. His cat hated her.
The cat's and her
mother's mild objections notwithstanding, they stood before Judge
James Diefenderfer in June 1986 and exchanged marriage vows -- for
the first time. Only Robin's mother and Kira were present.
The encore, at the
behest of Jon's mother who insisted they weren't "really" married,
was five months later at Temple Beth El followed by a traditional
reception at Holiday Inn Bethlehem. It was as hoopla-filled as the
first wedding was quiet.
Jon adopted Kira, now
14, and the couple has since had two sons, Aaron, 6, and Joshua, 3.
They built a -- what else? -- California-style home in suburban
Allentown where the family lives with an assortment of animals
including a 110-pound dog and a cat (not the Robin-hating feline,
now deceased). And until he was moved into a 70-gallon aquarium in
Jon's office, it was also the home of Wally, a 1-1/2-year-old
alligator.
At the same time that
Jon's firm was rapidly expanding, Robin's dating service was at the
stage where "you either invest more cash into it or give it up." Jon
had two secretaries but needed an office manager. They decided it
was time to join forces professionally, too. She sold her business
and became overseer of Jon's office.
Robin was definitely
not a tyro businesswoman. Her entrepreneurial bent was evident as
early as age 21, when with her first husband she headed Future
Energy Systems, an Allentown store that featured wood stoves during
the height of the 1970s energy crunch.
When they sold the
business and moved to Texas a few years later, she set up "Fruits to
Nuts," a catalog business selling organic foods that she said
"appealed to the hippie in me."
After her divorce,
Robin sold real estate, did financial planning and finally set up
the dating service -- for three reasons, she laughed: "To work at
home, to support my daughter and to meet men."
It worked in a most
unexpected way.
After one of their
early dates, she and Jon filled out one of her dating questionnaires
and uncovered their common intrinsic values.
Robin started looking
around for a new venture when Jon's office was running so smoothly
that no challenge remained. Perhaps because of her own happiness in
marriage, the idea of dealing with brides held enormous appeal for
her. As it turned out, Jon has two cousins who operate bridal shops
in Florida, so last Labor Day they hopped a plane to learn the ins
and outs of bridalwear.
They settled on
becoming part of a loose conglomerate of stores that pools its
orders to get good wholesale prices and handles only bridal gowns
and headpieces. Different from the usual bridal shop in that it
carries and sells a full line of gowns from stock rather than a few
sample gowns and many catalogs, the store has been a hit with brides
from as far away as Washington, D.C., and Virginia since it opened
along Route 100 in the former site of The Old Mill clothing outlet.
The success of the
shop is only one more piece of evidence proving that, despite their
"mismatched" surface traits, the Saltzmans can and do pull together
as a perfectly paired team to handle the important stuff.
As the French say,
"Vive le difference!"
Jon and Robin
have now expanded their horizons and moved, not to California, but
to South Tampa Florida. This is where they embarked on their
new venture named, what else, Jon's Bridal.
