Ashley Romanowski, an English and education senior, stresses over the reading of the wedding vows at her wedding rehearsal Thursday night at the Alumni Memorial Chapel.
The MSU fight song isn’t the only music in the air this fall. Wedding bells are ringing for some MSU students as they plan their big days in the midst of classes, jobs and other college responsibilities. Some are high school sweethearts, with their MSU careers being only an extension of a pre-existing relationship.
Others haven’t known each other as long but are confident they’re ready to make the jump from significant others to husband and wife.
Whether it’s a 300-person ceremony or a more intimate celebration, the stresses of matrimony preparations along with skeptical friends and family members don’t seem to be a roadblock for those in college and ready to tie the knot.
Planning a big wedding while finishing college
Nick Monroe, 21, and Annie Malkowski, 21, never would have met had Malkowski not been dating one of Monroe’s Wonders Hall suitemates during sophomore year.
He talked to Malkowski a few times when she came to MSU to visit but nothing went beyond that — until a year later.
Around October 2006, the two got back in contact.
After messaging back and forth on Facebook.com, they decided to hang out, said Monroe, a telecommunication, information studies and media senior.
Five months later, Monroe proposed.
“We were both in serious relationships before, but being with each other was a totally different experience from anything we’ve been in,” he said.
They’re planning a July 2008 wedding, but they haven’t slid by without some skepticism from others, Monroe said.
“They were surprised because I’m the youngest and they didn’t think it was going to happen so soon,” Monroe said about his family.
He said he’s confident in his decision.
“If I wait to marry her until I get a job, I could say that or I could just keep saying, ‘I want to wait. I want to wait,’ and never get married,” he said.
The two haven’t done much planning, but Malkowski already has her dress picked out and they are planning on sending out invitations around December, he said.
For now, graduation and finding a place to live are the first two things on his mind.
Monroe plans to move in with Malkowski after he graduates and wait for her to finish school, he said.
The areas where he searches for a job will be limited, which might mean turning down offers, but Monroe is willing to deal with it.
“If I have to flip burgers after college I would do that,” he said.
High school sweethearts and just married
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A busy schedule didn’t keep Ashley Romanowski from planning a wedding.
With only a 10-month engagement, she had to start right away — buying a dress, booking the Alumni Memorial Chapel, choosing bridesmaids and their dresses and looking at reception halls.
On Friday, the work paid off as the English and education senior married her high school sweetheart, economics senior Brian Heckman.
The two met at Southgate Anderson High School in Southgate, Mich., when Romanowski, 21, was a sophomore and Heckman, 22, was a senior.
Heckman proposed last February after dating for six years, Romanowski said.
“Nobody was truly surprised about our engagement,” she said.
The place Heckman proposed — the Alumni Memorial Chapel — is the same place they got married.
“We both love the campus and the ambiance of the old buildings,” Romanowski said.
While planning the wedding, Romanowski had to juggle a full load of courses, tutoring at the Capital Area Literacy Coalition and three jobs.
“I had to miss more classes than I would have liked to in order to get things situated with the (reception) hall and get all the last-minute affairs in order,” she said.
Past aside, Romanowski said she doesn’t have worries for the future of their relationship.
“Brian and I have been married since I was 15,” she said. “I am mature for my age — sometimes a little too mature — so this was never a concern. We’ve always talked about being married. It was natural for us.”
Newly engaged and planning to elope
Friendship bloomed into romance for Sara Reed, 20, and Doug Morence, 29, while working on MSU’s campus.
“We started out as friends because we worked together,” she said.
“So we would just hang out sometimes after work. We spent so much time with each other, and we just kind of grew on one another.”
Morence popped the question Oct. 6 while they were camping.
“It was a total shock,” she said. “He planned a whole camping trip around it, but we do that kind of thing all the time.”
For the most part, Reed said, she’s received no negative reactions about being engaged and in college.
“Everybody knows him, and everybody loves him,” she said.
The difficulties come with telling their families that instead of a big wedding, they plan on eloping — going off together to get married in private.
“My mom even said, ‘I’ve been waiting for this day my whole life — I can’t wait to start planning your big, huge wedding,’” she said.
While Reed and Morence won’t have to deal with the typical hassles of reserving churches and reception areas, their days haven’t been research-free.
They still have to decide in advance where to go and what kind of place to stay afterward.
Friends have been supportive of their decision to elope, Reed said.
“You don’t have to follow tradition and everybody sees that,” she said.
“Getting married is not about a pretty ceremony and white flowers and doves stuffed in a cage in the corner. It’s not about the ceremony. It’s just about us, so that’s what we’re going to make it — just us.”
