That's amore: Ravioli plays role in alumni wedding ceremony on Monmouth campus
Bride came to Monmouth from Clinton, Illinois
Monmouth, Ill. (08/12/2024) — The "spaghetti kiss" in Lady and the Tramp is an iconic moment from a love story on the big screen.
For 2021 Monmouth College classmates Julia Sterr and Seth King, their memorable pasta was ravioli.
Julia explained how the Italian dish fits into their love story, which they celebrated June 8 with a wedding on the campus where they met.
"After we graduated, I started medical school at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Rockford," she said. "Seth moved there with me, and he found a job selling insurance."
As Julia was making her way through her first two years of med school, Seth earned a master's degree in education, and he found a job teaching middle school social studies in the Stark County school district in Toulon, Illinois, about 100 miles south of Rockford.
"I got sad that he was moving out," said Julia. "I got a bowl of ravioli and sat down and cried. He walked up to me and proposed."
The moment was everything Julia had imagined - well, almost everything - as she'd always hoped for a small, personal, private proposal.
After she said an emphatic "Yes!," Seth countered with, "You smell like ravioli."
Back to the beginning
Before there was Italian, there was Spanish, which was the class that Julia and Seth both took the spring semester of their freshman year. That's where they met, and they were nudged forward in their relationship by classmate Emma Johanns.
Johanns was already in a relationship at the time with another member of the Class of 2021, Alex Houseal. For the rest of their time at Monmouth, the couples enjoyed regular get-togethers and playing board games. They grew so close that Johanns was one of Julia's bridesmaids and Houseal was the officiant of the wedding, even wearing a kilt for the occasion.
"That was a little goofy, but very us," said Julia.
Julia and Seth were then in the Johanns-Houseal wedding, which came three weeks later on June 29 in Ames, Iowa.
Highlights from the day
Before Houseal officiated the ceremony in Dahl Chapel and Auditorium, Julia and Seth did a "first look" photo op in front of Wallace Hall.
"I hid out in a classroom in Wallace, and then I went outside and came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder," said Julia. "He jumped and did a full 180, and we were laughing. Those are some of my favorite pictures, and Wallace Hall is just gorgeous."
In addition to Houseal's kilt, the Fighting Scots influence was felt as retired professor Tim Tibbetts played the bagpipes.
"That was actually my bridal march," said Julia. "Seth wanted bagpipes at the ceremony. I've never been to a wedding with bagpipes. It was very Monmouth."
The couple also enjoyed how Dahl Chapel served as a middle ground between being married in a church or outside at a "destination" setting.
Julia and Seth honeymooned in Door County, Wisconsin, where they embraced its small-town feel, exploring the area, antiquing and playing plenty of mini-golf.
For the rest of the summer, Julia and Seth were based in the home they bought in the Stark County community of Wyoming, but there might be more time apart in their future, depending on where Julia is placed for her fourth-year family medicine residency. Nearby Peoria would be ideal, but the couple has successfully navigated two years of the distance issue and are prepared to meet that reality again.
Meanwhile, they already have plenty of great memories as a couple to relive, including a very special return trip to campus.
"Our wedding was fantastic," said Julia. "I'm super grateful that we had the wedding at a place that means so much to both of us. It was everything we wanted it to be. All our friends and family said it was a beautiful ceremony."
Media Attachments
WHAT'S SPANISH FOR 'KISS?' On their wedding day, Julia Sterr and Seth King returned to the Monmouth College classroom where they first met in Spanish class and exchanged a "beso."
The photographer captured Seth King's leaping 180-degree turn as he got his first look at his bride-to-be, Julia Sterr, on their wedding day.
Julia Sterr and Seth King are pictured in front of Monmouth College's Dahl Chapel and Auditorium, moments after their ceremony on the campus where they met.