On The Cover: Can I Come Along?
Their story really couldn’t be much sweeter.
Erin and Stuart Pettijohn, who are pictured on the cover of this issue of the Wedding Guide, first met in biology class while students at Alma College. Stuart had lab with Erin’s roommate, and he inquired more than a couple times whether Erin was single.
Eventually, he asked her out on a date.
“I told him, ‘I’m going to chapel tonight.’ And he said, ‘Can I come?’” Erin recalled. “So we went to chapel on Sunday night for our first date.”
Both bio majors, she was a freshman, he was a sophomore, and for the remainder of their college years they stayed together. Four years later, and after Stuart had graduated, he returned to campus to take Erin out to dinner one evening.
As they walked across campus that evening, they neared the chapel. Stuart dropped to bended knee. “He proposed outside the chapel where we had our first date,” Erin said.
When they arrived at the restaurant for their planned dinner, Stuart had arranged for all of their family to be present to help them celebrate their engagement.
They were married June 28, 2008, at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Beulah, with a reception for their 250 guests held at Frog Pond Village in Interlochen.
“We love Northern Michigan and we wanted our wedding to be outdoors and near Lake Michigan, to give people a mini-vacation for a weekend,” Erin said. Both are from downstate communities.
Their photographer, Coreene Smith of Tavla Studio, provided their wedding photos for use in this Wedding Guide. She is a Northern Michigan photographer who shoots weddings regionwide, including around the Petoskey and Charlevoix areas.
Today, Erin, 23, and Stuart, 25, live in Plymouth and they are both pursuing careers in medical fields; Erin is a second-year med student at Wayne State University with plans to become a physician, and Stuart is in his third year of dental school at the University of Michigan.
For their first anniversary, approaching in June, Erin is certain they’ll be doing something where they can unwind. “I take my first board exams four days before our anniversary,” she said with a laugh. “I don’t know what we’ll do yet, but it will definitely be relaxing.”
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