The couple met during freshman year as members of the Harvard Ballroom Dance Team. But it was not a passionate turn during a steamy tango number that brought the two together.

“We didn’t really notice each other, other than to say hello, until spring semester. Then we started to get to know each other better and began dating,” says VanLare.

They have been together since. VanLare proposed to Lynch at the airport in upstate New York before senior year began.

“We had talked extensively about plans for marriage before the proposal, the fact that there was a proposal was not a surprise, I wanted to come up with a way that was inventive,” says Van Lare.

So, on a romantic quest to surprise Lynch, VanLare distributed her picture to a dozen airport employees as well as a rose to hand to Lynch as she made her way from the jetway to the baggage claim. When the suspicious Lynch arrived at the baggage claim, VanLare was waiting with another dozen roses and a ring.

Sara W. Williamson ’04 and Steve Collins ’02

July 2, 2005

While decorating the Christmas tree at her home in Texas, Steve Collins ’02 proposed to Sara W. Williamson ’04.

“It was very cute,” says Williamson, who later learned that Collins—a Greenville, South Carolina native—had minded his Southern manners and had already asked Williamson’s father for her hand.  

At the May 2003 wedding of Williamson’s older sister, her father took Collins aside.

“He basically wanted to know what his intentions with me were,” says Williamson of the conversation, which she was only privy to after she had accepted Collins’ proposal.

Collins told Mr. Williamson of his intentions to marry his daughter.

Further complying with propriety, Collins checked with his bride-to-be’s older sisters in the month before he proposed.

All parties in agreement, the happy couple began to plan the wedding they had been alluding to since their first month dating, during Collins’ senior year.

“We started off right and convenient,” says Williamson. “We’d always talked about marriage.”