Notre Dame students hold mock wedding for class

Caleb Kester is "happily engaged."

As part of his senior theology class at Notre Dame Regional High School, Kester will be among 80 couples tying the knot in a mock wedding in a couple of weeks in the school chapel.

The spring semester of the class, which is for seniors only, centers on Christian lifestyles -- single life, religious life and married life, said teacher and campus minister Sarah Strohmeyer.

"We believe there is something called a universal call to holiness. That's why it's part of our curriculum for senior theology," Strohmeyer said. She said the call looks different for a single person than a married person.

"It's the beginning of us talking about how you live a life of holiness as married person," she said.

As part of the exercise, boys draw girls' names and ask the girl to marry them in a unique fashion, Strohmeyer said. After the proposals, which are due today, the pair get a work sheet to figure out who's going to talk to the church, who's going to figure out state marriage laws, determine who is going to be in their wedding party and what kind of reception they want to have, she added.

The course uses a textbook called "Vocation: Our Response to God's Call." Pre-wedding counseling, where a couple meets with a priest to talk about issues that might come up in marriage, is covered, along with the religious life of nuns, brothers, priests and bishops as a lifestyle or vocation, she said.

In a couple of weeks, on a to-be-determined date, 80 couples will file into the school chapel and have a mock wedding ceremony, followed by cookies and punch.

"It can be pretty wild," Strohmeyer said of the proposals.

One student Thursday had a puppy bring an engagement ring to his intended. In years past, a boy rode up on a horse dressed as a knight and proposed. In another instance, a boy asked a girl to marry him on a horse-drawn carriage ride.

"It's kind of taken on a life of its own," Strohmeyer said, adding the girls look forward to it all through their time at Notre Dame.

Having learned from her friends his fiance "really, really" liked country music, Kester proposed to fellow student Tiffany Wood by having her follow a trail of tea candles and singing her a Keith Urban song, while playing a guitar.

"You're only a senior once. You might as well go all out for everything this year because it's your only shot at it," Kester said.

Other proposals:

* Caroline Smith, a 17-year-old senior, was called into the school office -- "which terrified me" -- to find Zach Smith had left a note for her to follow the arrows to her locker, where she found a jar of Jell-O that said "open me" on top. Inside, there was a note that said "turn around," and Smith was there.

* Eighteen-year-old senior Derek Dittlinger proposed to Madeline Rosenquist by putting a duck from a bargain store into her locker with a note, saying he'd be the luckiest duck if she'd marry him. He was behind her when she opened it and said her name.

* Cole Schreiner, an 18-year-old senior, said he left a poem for his "fiance" saying "Roses are red; violets are blue; today's the day I will propose to you." He left instructions on where she should go and had friends lead her up on stage in the school cafeteria, where Schreiner proposed to her in his National Guard uniform.

rcampbell@semissourian.com

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