Class of 2004 Ties the Knot

Each year, a small number of undergraduates make the commitment to spend the rest of their lives together upon giving and receiving wedding proposals. This year’s engaged few met and fell in love throughout their four years at Harvard, here they share their stories of dealing with theses, law school applications, and the entrance of the word “mortgage” to their vocabulary far sooner than they ever expected.

Hannah E. Kenser ’04 and Jeffery E. Heck ’03

July 3, 2004

This summer, Hannah E. Kenser ’04 and Jeffery E. Heck ’03 will realize their wedding plans—plans that have spanned a year and have included a change in wedding gowns.

“Finishing school and planning a wedding has been a lot to balance, it was frequently thesis on hold for wedding, wedding on hold for thesis,” says Kenser.

The balancing seems to have worked. Kenser received a Hoopes Prize for her senior thesis and the couple has invested in a condominium in Atlanta, where Heck is currently enrolled in the Business Leadership Program at the Home Depot corporate headquarters.

The couple has had support from both families and friends in their efforts.

“We both have large extended families, which helps,” says Kenser. “Friends have also been helpful in doing things like addressing envelopes for invitations.”

Heck proposed in his home in Cincinnati during spring break of 2003, when he brought Kenser a menu for breakfast in bed. When she lifted the plate cover, she found a ring and accepted his proposal.

The pair have been dating since her first year, after meeting on a cruise with the campus group Christian Impact.

Jane Lynch ’04 and Jordan M. VanLare ’04

August 1, 2004

“We’re knocking out drywall as we speak,” says Jordan M. VanLare ’04. He and Jane Lynch ’04 have set up house and are ready for their late summer nuptials in his hometown in the upstate New York Finger Lakes region.

In the meantime, the two seniors have purchased a home in Arlington to accommodate Lynch’s studies at Harvard Law School next year and VanLare’s job consulting for McKinsey & Co. before he goes on to medical school.

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.”

They anticipate being fairly busy during her first year of law school at the University of Texas. Collins will be away in Georgia continuing his job as a congressional aide.

Williamson says her father joked about having the wedding this summer, since they already have the ring, but all agreed it would be best to wait until Williamson gets through her first year of law school. Collins will move to Texas after the July 2005 wedding.

Thus far, the couple has booked a church, bought a dress, and decided to have thereception where the engagement began: her house.

Nilda M. Isidro ’04 and Eric M. Tulla ’03

July 25, 2004

What began as a high school crush will in late July become a commitment for a lifetime as Nilda I. Isidro ’04 marries her boyfriend of eight years, Eric M. Tulla ’03. Tulla decided to use Isidro’s suggestion of an evening out at the end of last year as an occasion to propose.

“I was not big on surprises, but I had already purchased the ring and had it hidden in my room and was deciding how to set up something nice and extravagant without setting off warning bells,” Tulla says.

While Tulla has been working at a video game design studio he and four fellow graduates from the Class of 2003 started, Isidro has been finishing her undergraduate career. Planning the wedding amid the “absolutely crazy” law school applications and writing a thesis has fortunately “all gone pretty smoothly,” according to Isidro, who credits both families’ involvement with the preparations.

The honeymoon has been Tulla’s responsibility (the couple will spend a week in the Caribbean), but Tulla says that he most looks forward to being able to make a home together with Isidro after the celebration.

Michelle C. Baca ’04 and David I. Monteiro ’04

August 14, 2004

Michelle C. Baca ’04 and David I. Monteiro ’04 met on their first day at Harvard, in their proctor group gathering. Three years later, on Cape Cod, Monteiro proposed to Baca.

The couple had gone to Cape Cod every year to celebrate Baca’s birthday. Proposing there was a way to remember where the two had shared memories from their years together, according to Monteiro.

Monteiro will be attending Georgetown Law School and Baca is looking for a job in the D.C. area.

In attendance will be an assortment of roommates from Pforzheimer and Currier Houses. The ceremony will take place in Fort Worth Texas, Baca’s hometown.

Baca says that the wedding plans have come together quickly.

“Planning a wedding is as intense as you want to make it,” she says. “We wanted to have most things taken care of before our senior spring so we could enjoy our time left and have the wedding to look forward to.”

Cheryl L. Mainland ’04 and Adam L. Hall

June 7, 2004

This week, visitors from Thailand, Mongolia, Kosovo, and Kyrgyzstan descended on Harvard. Their reasons for celebration however, were not just Commencement exercises, but the wedding of Cheryl L. Mainland ’04 and Adam L. Hall, a member of the Harvard Business School’s (HBS) graduating class.

The couple met in the late fall of 2002 at a panel on international business at HBS where Hall was speaking. Mainland asked him out for coffee and this Monday, the couple said “I do” at an intimate outdoor garden ceremony near Boston.

Their international bond goes beyond the panel where they met, they were both raised all over the globe—he primarily in Australia and she primarily in Asia. For their next step, the couple looked at complementing job offers in Shanghai and South Africa before deciding to live in Singapore, where she will work for Cambridge Associates and he will work in strategy for Bunge, an agribusiness firm.

Their international travels will not wait until Singapore, as their honeymoon itinerary reads like chapters from Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days.

The couple will spend a week in India in Dubai, followed by a week-long safari in Tanzania, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, and capping off their month-long sojourn with sailing off the coast of Zanzibar. As for the wedding proposal, Hall remained close to home and proposed to Mainland on the Weeks footbridge.

Melissa M. Borja ’04 and Gregory G. Westin ’04-’05

Summer 2005

While singing a solo for the song “You’d Be Surprised” with the Radcliffe Pitches over Harvard-Yale Weekend this year, Melissa Borja ’04 was herself surprised—by a marriage proposal from Greg Westin ’04-’05. The weekend of The Game has always held special significance for the couple: they met at their first Game their freshman year and began dating shortly after.

“We want to return to The Game each year because it holds significant meaning to us, because of our relationship, and what it meant to be here at Harvard for us,” says Borja.

This fall, Borja will begin a History Ph.D. program at the University of Chicago and Westin will finish the semester he has left of his undergraduate career. They will wed in June 2005 abroad and hold a reception in her hometown in Michigan.

They will then enter the Peace Corps as a married couple the following fall.

Matthew H. Eckhouse ’04 and Geanina I. Hent

To Be Announced

Fraternity parties at MIT rarely spell wedded bliss, but for Matthew H. Eckhouse ’04, one such get-together was the scene where he met his future wife, Geanina I. Hent. He and the 2004 Wellesley graduate Hent have been dating since their first undergraduate year and plan to marry in a few years.

For Eckhouse, the decision to become engaged was a natural progression after years of dating.

Over New Year’s 2004 at a bed and breakfast in Ocean City, N.J., Eckhouse popped open champagne and held out a ring. “She said yes before I finished asking,” he recalls.

Next year, Eckhouse and Hent plan on living in Boston, where he will be working for Parthenon consulting.

She plans on working for a non-profit organization.