Luke and Melanie first met in August of 2012 when Melanie was selected to be in the same voice studio as Luke at the James Madison University School of Music. Their love story didn’t immediately kick off in college, but rather several years later when Luke had graduated and was teaching in Rockingham County, Virginia. While still living in Harrisonburg, Luke and Melanie reconnected, although neither probably would’ve thought they would end up married when they first “met again”. However, it became quickly apparent that they were a perfect couple united by their love of music, strong sense of social justice, and infectious ability to make each other laugh. Melanie wanted to be absolutely certain that Luke was ready for “her definition of dating” and he asked her to make it “officially official”.

There was really only once place for us to have our engagement in Luke’s mind: JMU. We have spent so much time in the intervening years and always love traveling back to our alma mater. We both agreed that we wanted our engagement to be personal and sentimental to us as a couple and on the most glorious of early fall days, Luke asked Melanie to be his wife. By pure chance, students at JMU were on fall break so the campus was pristine and quiet. The couple got to spend the day reminiscing on the Quad and walking their old paths before Luke popped the question under the big tree in front of the Music Building.