Earlier this month on Nov. 7, two University of New Hampshire (UNH) alumni from the class of 2019 got engaged at the same spot where they first met as students. Outside of Williamson Hall, Valorie Ehrich and Jason Vetpese were excited to announce their engagement and embark on a new journey together.  

The proposal setup was full of balloons, rose petals and smiles. Jason had gotten Val to revisit their old dorm under the explanation that they were giving a potential college tour to one of his family members. Williamson Hall represented a meaningful location and “full-circle” conclusion to their life as just friends.  

Jason chose Williamson Hall as the proposal spot because the two were both resident assistants (RA) there and had spent many nights getting to know each other as “duty buddies” or partners who did rounds together on the weekdays. After spending Tuesday nights together for a year, Val and Jason became really close. Val was studying finance and Jason was a computer science major.  

Val revealed that “if you ask anyone on the staff, we were best buddies the whole year,” and Jason agreed, “we started dating basically the day we met, if you ask everyone else.” After officially dating, the two became engaged two and a half years later. 

When asked what their favorite date spot during their time at UNH, the two agreed that spending quality time at the popular Philbrook dining hall was some of the “best dates we ever had.” They also had some fun times watching movies at the Memorial Union Building and occasionally heading to Portsmouth. At the end of college, Val confessed that her favorite memory of the two of them was at graduation. Val shared, “We didn’t get to sit together at graduation and after the ceremony was over, we had to go through the crowd and find each other and the UNH Photographer took a picture of when we saw each other for the first time and its one of my favorite memories from college.” 

As for the wedding plans, Val and Jason have just recently picked a date for their wedding, Oct. 29, 2022. The two are very excited for their future wedding and already begun the planning. They’ve recently toured venues and decided on one closer to Val’s hometown in New Jersey.  

The two are extremely grateful for their days at UNH and agreed that their best advice for any other college couples or students looking for love was to start out as friends. Val’s staple advice was “what will happen will happen” and “when you stop looking [for love] is when you’ll find it.” Jason agreed and advised other students “not to force anything” and “be friends first.”  

Though not all of students are lucky in love during their college years, there are some students that have made connections at UNH last a lifetime.  

Photos Courtesy of Valorie Ehrich