{"id":2957,"date":"2011-10-07T00:27:12","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T05:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=2957"},"modified":"2011-10-07T00:29:03","modified_gmt":"2011-10-07T05:29:03","slug":"morningsides-happily-ever-afters-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/2957","title":{"rendered":"Morningside’s happily ever afters- Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Claire De Roin–<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the second installment in a three-part series on college engagements and marriages.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>The majority of couples who are engaged in college wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. Whether engaged couples are living hours apart or just down the hall from each other, Morningside\u2019s engaged students are handling their wedding preparations for better or for worse. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Faith Dewey and Ken Balo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DOWN-TO-EARTH<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

While Faith Dewey\u2019s fianc\u00e9 put a lot of thought into his proposal, the couple is sharing a very down-to-earth engagement.<\/p>\n

Faith met her fianc\u00e9 Ken Balo while working at a waterpark in Storm Lake, and they started dating shortly after meeting. Eventually, Faith left home for Morningside while Ken moved to Sioux City. One night, he took Faith back to the waterpark where they met. Ken got down on one knee in the spot where they first met and proposed.<\/p>\n

Faith believes that her engagement hasn\u2019t kept her from anything. \u201cKen is my best friend. You always spend time with your best friend, right?\u201d\u00a0 She believes that students considering engagements during college should just do what feels right. \u201cBeing engaged does not mean you have to be married right away. It just shows your commitment and love toward each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHandling wedding planning with school work can be hard since I’m in classes all day,\u201d Faith says. \u201cIt’s hard to contact vendors and set up meeting times, but we work around it. E-mail is great for this reason!\u201d<\/p>\n

Faith and Ken will be married after her senior year in July of 2012.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"
Sarah Bartlett and Keanan Elmore<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LONG-DISTANCE PLANNING<\/span><\/p>\n

It only took a year for Sarah Bartlett and Keanan Elmore to know they were meant to be.<\/p>\n

December of last year brought a proposal. Keanan proposed where he and Sarah had their first date. According to Sarah, Keanan said, \u201cI love you, you make me so happy and I want to be with you for the rest of my life. That is why I am doing this.\u201d He then got down on one knee and proposed.<\/p>\n

Keanan is in Des Moines while Sarah is at Morningside. The wedding will take place after Sarah graduates. \u201cI promised myself and my mother that I would finish school before the wedding,\u201d she says. \u201cMy older sister needed a lot of warming up to the idea. My mom was the first to be okay with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Sarah realizes the stress that comes with wedding planning in addition to classes. The difficulty is intensified by the fact that Sarah is doing her planning from 150 miles away.<\/p>\n

When asked how the planning process was going, she answered, \u201cAwful. The wedding is in Des Moines and I\u2019m here in Sioux City. It\u2019s hard to find available locations, even more so when I\u2019m doing everything online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the planning process is stressful and difficult, Sarah doesn\u2019t feel that college engagements are problematic. \u201cIf it feels right and makes you happy, I don\u2019t see the need to wait. Some people think being engaged in college is dumb because there are so many experiences that might cause you to change your mind. If you truly know what you want and you love them, you have every right to be engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

LONG DISTANCE, LONG ENGAGEMENT<\/p>\n

Selena Miller is lucky to see her fianc\u00e9, Billy Meacham, twice a month. Selena\u2019s fianc\u00e9 lives three and a half hours away as she attends school at Morningside. Billy lives in Marshalltown, Iowa and is an assistant coach of the baseball team at the community college there.<\/p>\n

Selena is able to deal with Billy being so far away. \u201cIt\u2019s not really as bad as I thought it would be,\u201d she says. \u201cWe text a lot, and Skype occasionally. The hardest part is just not seeing each other every day like we used to, but it\u2019s working out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple became engaged when Billy took Selena golfing this past July. Billy had planned ahead for his brother and his brother\u2019s girlfriend to put a ring box in the seventh hole while the Billy and Selena played a round of golf. Once they reached the seventh hole, Selena putted her ball in, but didn\u2019t notice the ring box at first. Once she picked it up, Billy proposed.<\/p>\n

Since the wedding is so long away, Selena doesn\u2019t feel stressed out by planning. The couple doesn\u2019t have a certain date picked out yet, but they plan to be married after Selena graduates in 2013.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Becca Kent and Andrew Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

OVERSEAS ENGAGEMENT<\/p>\n

Becca Kent\u2019s engagement didn\u2019t come as a surprise to her friends and family. Her boyfriend, Andrew Johnson, a member of the Iowa National Guard, had been activated for active deployment. The question was not if there would be a proposal, but when.<\/p>\n

One afternoon in May of 2010, Andrew and a few of his fraternity showed up at Justice, where Becca was working as a manager. They serenaded her with Serenade to a Girl. After the song, Andrew proposed. He was sent overseas for duty in Afghanistan in August of that same year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are having a long engagement, but not by choice,\u201d Becca said of Andrew\u2019s deployment. \u201cWe will be getting married at the end of October.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did the relationship get started?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy fianc\u00e9 and I met at Morningside College when I was a freshman and he was a sophomore,\u201d Becca explains. \u201cWe were part of MOB and other music ensembles together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wedding planning hasn\u2019t stressed Becca out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky enough to have quite a bit of time to put together wedding plans. I definitely have to plan my days by hour as we get closer to the wedding. There are so many last minute details I need to take care of in such little time!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Claire De Roin– This is the second installment in a three-part series on college engagements and marriages. The majority of couples who are engaged in college wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. Whether engaged couples are living hours apart or just down the hall from each other, Morningside\u2019s engaged students are handling their wedding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":2960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4287],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2957"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2963,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions\/2963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}