Published: March 23, 2008 12:19 am         

Couple who has never met will marry on camera

“A love story between two strangers is unfolding...” the headline reads on the advertisement for a new reality show based on the real-life love of Bristol resident Sabrina Hale.

Hale, 25, and fiancee Jonathan Howard, 27, will be married on air at the Santa Monica pier in California this April as the climax of the show, titled “I Jump, You Jump.”

“(Jonathan and I) had a spark right from the very first conversation,” Hale said. “He saw a lot of things in me most people don’t see.”

What’s different about their story is that Hale and Howard have never met face to face. Their wedding will also be their first meeting.

“I did my first marriage by the book, and it didn’t really work out,” Hale said. “My ex is a great guy with an amazing family, and there were things I learned in that relationship that were really good for my relationship with Jonathan.”

Hale was married for three and a half years before first being put in touch with Jonathan through work about two months after the divorce. Both work for the Jerusalem Project, an initiative to spread Christianity through music and art.

“We talk a few hours every morning and every night. Sometimes he wakes me up just to talk,” Hale said.

Filming for the show, which took place at her parents’ house in Bristol, the Family Chiropractic Clinic in Goshen where she works and Living Faith Fellowship in Elkhart, has been completed with the exception of their wedding on April 20 and some wrap-up on the 21st.

According to Hale, the concept worried her initially.

“At first I was like, ‘no way,’ but after a while the idea grew on me. It’s kind a cool, a little awkward,” Hale said.

Now that it’s almost time, however, Hale is “getting a bit anxious” and said “just getting through the next five and a half weeks will be a little hard.”

“I think my friends and family are still kind of in shock,” Hale said, noting that “they’re waiting for the last minute to book their flights (to California).”

The show has already been picked up by a “major network” according to publicist Jonathan Hay. Hay also works for the Jerusalem Project as well as Ringz and Partners Entertainment.

“I think there’s a right person for everyone,” Hale said. “I just want (our story) to give people hope.”