Ilana Blitzer

Ilana Michelle Blitzer, the daughter of Lynn Blitzer and Wolf Blitzer, the television news anchor, of Bethesda, Md., was married Saturday evening to Joseph Orrin Gendelman, a son of Lori and Bruce Gendelman of Palm Beach, Fla. Rabbi Jonathan Schnitzer officiated at the Mandarin Oriental in Washington, with Cantor Josh Perlman taking part.

The bride, 27, works in New York as the beauty editor of Family Circle. She graduated from Emory.

Her mother is a personal shopper at the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Chevy Chase, Md. Her father works from Washington as the anchor of two CNN shows, “The Situation Room” and “Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer.”

The bridegroom, 29, is the president of Bruce Gendelman Insurance Services, a property and casualty insurance agency based in Palm Beach and Milwaukee; his father is the chairman. The bridegroom also graduated from Emory.

The road that would eventually lead Ms. Blitzer to Mr. Gendelman began near a hotel hot tub in Aspen, Colo., in July 2001. While on vacation there, Ms. Blitzer and her mother met Mr. Gendelman’s father and Jordan, a younger brother of the bridegroom. After hanging out poolside, the Blitzers and Gendelmans decided to meet for dinner that evening. By the end of the night, the families had become friends.

Over the next few years, Mr. and Mrs. Blitzer and Mr. and Mrs. Gendelman continued to see one another on summer vacations in Aspen. In July 2004, while the parents dined, their conversation turned to Ilana Blitzer’s search for a New York apartment.

As it turned out, Jordan Gendelman was moving out of his Upper West Side apartment, so they suggested Ms. Blitzer take a look.

Jordan’s father, who was convinced that Joseph Gendelman, his eldest son, and Ms. Blitzer were meant for each other, jokingly told Ms. Blitzer’s mother, “I’ll put on a beautiful rehearsal dinner, if you put on the wedding.”

Although they had attended the same university, Joseph and Ilana had never met.

Ms. Blitzer liked the apartment well enough to take it, in September 2004. At that time, Mr. and Mrs. Gendelman were visiting New York, and took Ms. Blitzer out for lunch, where Mr. Gendelman snapped a few pictures of Ms. Blitzer, telling her, “These are for Joseph,” he recalled.

He immediately e-mailed them to Joseph, who then lived in Miami. Joseph eventually sent Ms. Blitzer a friendly text message on her phone.

“Did you see the pictures?” she wrote back.

He responded, “Why do you think I’m writing?”

The two stayed in touch by e-mail and phone until they agreed they should meet for a formal date.

When Mr. Gendelman arrived at Ms. Blitzer’s apartment, she opened the door — and fainted.

“I was just so nervous, I forgot to eat,” she explained.

In October 2007, Ms. Blitzer returned from work to that same apartment, only to find Mr. Gendelman and a strange-looking contraption on the counter.

“What is that thing?” she asked.

Mr. Gendelman warned, “It’s a breathing machine — you might need that.”

Then, in the exact spot where she had fainted, he handed her an engagement ring.