While many students are unsure of what their Valentine’s Day plans will be, a handful of Grinnellians hope to have secured a Valentine for this and many future Valentine’s Days. Alyssa Bean ’16 and Diana Roman ’14 are both recently engaged students, while Aamir Walton ’15 and Robin Campbell ’16 will be celebrating the holiday for the first time as a married couple.

Both Bean and Roman are apart from their fiancés this Valentine’s Day, as neither men still attend Grinnell.

Bean’s fiancé, J.R. Dowrick, transferred last year, but according to Bean, distance—with the help of texts, phone calls and Skype—truly makes the heart grow fonder.

“[Spending time together is] one of the things that both of us are counting down to and can’t wait for,” Bean said.

Roman’s fiancé, Scott Phillips ’11, graduated from Grinnell after Roman’s first year and currently lives in Chicago. Phillips proposed to Roman earlier this month in Burling Library after leading her on a scavenger hunt around campus to places that were significant to the couple.

Roman and Phillips did not date during their time at Grinnell and the proposal came after a long courtship from Phillips’ side.

“He was writing me letters last semester,” Roman recalled. “They were letters that said ‘21 Reasons Why I Want You To Be My Wife.’ He told me that when I got the first reason—so reason #1—that’s when I would know that he was proposing.”

Phillips timed the proposal with a visit to campus from Roman’s sister.

“[I saw that] she had the card. I got the letter and I knew what was about to happen,” Roman said.

Roman is currently planning their wedding—an outdoor affair to take place on campus after her graduation this coming May.

Bean, on the other hand, was much more surprised by her proposal.

“I was expecting it at some point in our relationship, but then he got the ring in May … and then proposed before coming back to school in August,” she shared. “I had no idea that it was coming.”

The couple met the first week of classes last year, but knew quickly that they were in it for the long haul, and quickly introduced one another to the other’s family.

“He actually told my dad a month and a half into our relationship that he didn’t see himself spending his life with anyone but me,” Bean said.

Similarly to Roman and Phillips, the two also plan to marry on Grinnell’s campus. Their current plan is to hold the event in Herrick Chapel after Bean’s graduation in 2016.

While these two couples have their weddings planned for Grinnell, Walton and Campbell’s wedding took place in their hometown of Chicago.

The couple met in the summer of 2012 at a dinner for a Chicago-based scholarship program, LINK Unlimited, which both were involved in.

Walton took part in the program as an alum mentor and quickly discovered Campbell to be a fellow Grinnell student.

After their initial meeting, they kept in contact throughout the summer. Walton, having completed his first year at Grinnell, was able to offer Campbell useful advice in anticipation of her arrival. She cited his encouragment to join the softball team as one example of such guidance.

The couple remained friends when Campbell first arrived on campus and did not begin dating until months afterwards.

“It was more of a mentor-mentee relationship until I got here,” Campbell recalled.

Walton remembered that he had not been initially aware of Campbell’s interest in him, but luckily came to the realization not too long after.

“I didn’t know what to say in the moment. At the time I was, I guess, too much caught up in myself and too self-centered and focused on me to even acknowledge my feelings for her.”

The couple was married on Dec. 21, 2013 in Chicago, after Walton proposed earlier that month. They now live together off campus and are looking forward to their future together.