Victoria T. Li ’25 and William N. Brown ’24

For most members of the Class of 2025, graduating from college is the biggest life milestone of the year. But for Victoria T. Li ’25, Commencement is just one of two important events occuring that week.

On May 24, five days before graduation, Victoria married William N. Brown ’24 during a ceremony at the First Lutheran Church of Boston, where William grew up attending services.

It marked the culmination of a year in which Victoria got engaged, planned a wedding, wrote an award-winning thesis, got married, and graduated from college.

“I’ve learned a lot,” Victoria says. “But it’s also definitely been the single most stressful year of my life.”

The two met during Victoria’s freshman fall after she began writing for the Harvard Salient, a conservative campus publication. William was the editor-in-chief and she considered him nice and respectable. He helped her move out of her freshman dorm. She just wasn’t sure where their friendship was going.

Yet, she does remember thinking, “Whoever marries this guy, that girl is a lucky girl.”

After moving her possessions into storage, they went for a long walk together, stopping along the way to grab ice cream. Over the summer, the two began to exchange not texts, but handwritten letters. Victoria had known since April that she had a crush on William but was hesitant to fully invest her emotions.

There were a few questions that Victoria had to work through before she was ready to start dating William; the biggest was about religion. Victoria converted to non-denominational Christianity in her freshman fall and William grew up Lutheran. Victoria was unsure if their differing doctrines would be compatible.

Victoria says they were very careful to “not start something we can’t end well.”

So she and William started having open conversations about their theological beliefs. Early on in her sophomore year, Victoria says they had pretty much hashed out all of their differences and started going on walks together about two to three times a week.

She knew at that point that she wanted to date William, but he hadn’t formally asked her out. She recalls telling her roommate, “If this guy doesn’t say something by next week, I’m done.”

That next week, William asked Victoria if she wanted to attend Sunday services at each others’ churches. So that Sunday, they attended both, grabbing coffee after William’s church service. As they chatted, William mentioned that he liked the film “The Godfather.” Victoria had never seen it, so they agreed to watch it together later that night. At the end of the night, Victoria asked William if this was a date. He said yes.

They continued going on dates and were officially dating by Sept. 16, 2022. Less than a week later, Victoria says, she wrote in her diary: “William Nathanael Brown, he might be the one.”

Victoria T. Li '25 and William N. Brown '24 got married May 24 in Boston. By Courtesy of Olivia Glunz

Victoria knew she wanted to marry William about three months in, after reading C. S. Lewis’ “A Grief Observed.” The story, which revolves around Lewis’ mourning after the loss of his wife, inspired her to think, “I would be so sad if William died tomorrow, and I never got to marry him.”

“It’d be the greatest regret in my life if I were so scared of x, y, z, things. If I was like, ‘We’re too young, we’re too poor, we’re too whatever. Maybe we can’t make it work,’” she says. “I would be so sad if these fears stopped me from marrying him and having the best thing ever.”

After about two years of dating, around the end of summer 2024, William’s location stopped showing up on Victoria’s phone. She assumed it was a glitch. In reality, William had turned off his location so he could fly to Denver and quietly retrieve his great-grandmother’s ring. Meanwhile, on Sept. 7, Victoria’s roommates told her they were all going out to dinner in Boston and got her to dress up.

When she and her roommates got out of the Uber at Boston Common, Victoria spotted William walking over to them, holding a bunch of roses. He proposed to her in front of a willow tree and Victoria, overjoyed, said yes.

Edwin Dominguez ’25 and Savannha Walde

It was just after the bell rang for Savannha Walde’s math class when Edwin Dominguez ’25 pulled her aside and asked her to be his girlfriend. The two were friends and freshmen at Ramona High School in Riverside, Calif. To Savannha, it felt “straight out of the movies.”

“But it was also very awkward,” she adds. Seven years later, the couple is engaged. Any awkwardness is long gone.

The transition to college — and long-distance — wasn’t easy. While Edwin adjusted to the demands of school and Division I soccer at Harvard, Savannha was back on the West Coast.

Yet there were silver linings. The time zone difference made his training times line up with her classes and allowed for nightly FaceTime calls, where the pair would chat about their days or simply study together.

“Sometimes just sitting in each other’s presence is good enough for me,” Edwin says.

Once every few months, Savannha visited him in Boston, and Edwin would get ahead on his schoolwork so they could spend their days exploring the city and trying out hole-in-the-wall restaurants. “I like to treat her when she comes here,” Edwin says.

Though she worried about their relationship going into college, Savannha always thought she and Edwin would get married.She knew they “had that deep enough connection” to make it work.

For Edwin, because Savannha always made him happy, “the last box to check was really like, ‘Can we make it through college?’”

Learning how to be there for one another virtually during freshman year showed him they could, and Edwin started talking to his family about proposing. By the fall of junior year, he was shopping for engagement rings, and that spring he secured the blessing of Savannha’s parents.

Last April, while Savannha was visiting Boston, Edwin proposed.

Leading up to the proposal, they spent the day playing arcade games, shooting pool, and eating Buffalo wings — “stuff that we’ve enjoyed growing up together,” Edwin says. Then he led her to a park on the waterfront by one of their favorite restaurants, where some of his teammates were hiding in bushes and behind trash cans.

When Edwin got down on one knee, Savannha’s mind went blank. “I literally don’t remember a word,” she says. She had been expecting it to happen back home that summer, so the proposal caught her completely off guard.

At first, she didn’t even believe it was real. “I was like, ‘What?’” she says. “I didn’t say yes for a good, like, two to three minutes.”

When Savannha said yes, Edwin gave the signal, and his friends emerged from their hiding spots with flowers.

“That’s the point I knew it was real,” Savannha says. All at once, “my emotions hit and then I started crying.”

Edwin Dominguez '25 and Savannha Walde are engaged to be married in October in Santa Ana, Calif. By Courtesy of John Valdovinos

In October, the couple’s former youth pastor will marry them in Santa Ana. Then, the two will find a place to live together in Southern California.

An avid cook, Savannha is excited to have her own kitchen, while Edwin already has a vision for the home’s decorations: He’ll hang up his two sarapes — traditional Mexican shawls — and have “pictures of ourselves plastered everywhere.”

After seven years together, the walls shouldn’t be hard to fill.

Joshua J. Halberstadt ‘25 and Candace E. Fox

It all started when Candace E. Fox decided that Joshua J. Halberstadt ’25 would be the one person that she guarded during every game of Ultimate Frisbee. It was 2016 — their second year together as violinists at Csehy Summer School of Music, a Christian classical music camp.

A year later, they were randomly paired up to go to the Promenade, which occurs just before the camp concert. By then, Joshua had switched to viola, but Candace still played violin. When the next summer rolled through, Candace had also switched to viola, and at least one of her reasons was to sit closer to Joshua during rehearsals. They went to the Promenade together for the second time. Although boys and girls were typically randomly paired, a camper could request to be paired with someone. That year, Joshua had requested to go with Candace.

With each passing year, it had gotten progressively harder to guard Joshua in frisbee since they were no longer the same height, but Candace persisted. In their last camp before the Covid-19 pandemic, they went to the Promenade together for a third time — as a randomly-paired duo (although Joshua believes his counselors pulled a few strings to make it happen).

“Back then, we both liked each other, but we were trying not to make the other person notice,” says Joshua.

It wasn’t the last time that Candace and Joshua’s circles would cross due to Csehy, despite living an ocean apart. (Joshua is from Framingham, Massachusetts while Candace grew up in Dubai.) In fact, Joshua’s older brother met his future wife at Csehy — who happened to be Candace’s friend whom she considers “an older sister.” When Candace visited the married couple in 2021, she began chatting with Joshua. Their conversations continued over email after she came back to Dubai, and their threads got longer and longer.

They began dating in December 2022 — which they refer to as “courting” — over seven years after they first met. From the onset, they were dedicated to making the relationship last. “By the time it was 2022, we were both very serious about seeing it going towards marriage,” says Joshua.

Because they were long distance, they only saw each other once a week on Zoom with sporadic text messages in between. It would be late at night for Joshua and early morning for Candace. Their calls would last four to six hours and span everything from politics and theology to aircraft design.

But it hasn’t all been Zoom calls. Last March, Candace joined Joshua when he went on tour with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in Korea. They hiked the same path in Acadia National Park during the summer and winter.

In that time, they realized how much they shared, not only in terms of interests, but in their faith, values, and visions for the future. They played the same instrument and enjoyed the same classical music. They both came from large families and want a large family (“Probably like six,” Candace says. “Like 8 or 10 or 12,” Joshua adds, jokingly).

They decided to get married in January 2024.

Five months later, a few days after he finished his last exam of junior year, he flew 6,000 miles to Dubai with the ring in tow. Somewhere in those four days, he knew he had to pop the question.

When a friend cancelled plans after a late-night Bible study, he sensed that the moment was ripe. It was an hour before midnight, and he took Candace to a man-made island called Creek Harbor. As they were walking along a boardwalk beside the water, Joshua proposed, and Candace said yes before he even finished speaking.

In the backdrop, they could see a line of planes gliding through the clear night sky. Joshua later joked that Candace’s dad — a pilot who was flying into Dubai that night — was watching from the cockpit.

Joshua J. Halberstadt '25 and Candace E. Fox are engaged to be married June 21. By Courtesy of Joshua J. Halberstadt

On June 21, at the peak of summer, Candace and Joshua will be married in Seattle, where Candace’s mother is from. There will be roughly 200 family and friends flying from across the world for the wedding. “It’s not really a destination wedding, but it effectively is,” Joshua says with a chuckle.

In the fall, they will head off to Madison, Wis., where Joshua accepted a job offer. They are both excited for a change of pace and a new rhythm of lifelong companionship.

“It would be a nice clean slate — much more regular schedule, we’ll actually be living together,” Joshua says. After years of cross-continent Zoom calls, Madison will be a “place to kind of do everything together.”

Joanna G. Choi ’25 and Ray D. Noh ’25

It’s a truism that the people you meet during freshman orientation aren’t necessarily going to be your friends for life. But this is far from the truth for now-engaged couple Joanna G. Choi ’25 and Ray D. Noh ’25, who met at the First-Year Fling orientation dance.

That first chance meeting sparked a friendship, and sophomore year sparked something more. Fortuitously, Joana and Ray were both placed in Kirkland House. The two are both Protestant Christians and after spending her freshman year “church-hopping,” Joanna started regularly going to services at the same church as Ray. Time spent together at Kirkland and church made both of them realize they could be more than friends.

“For me personally, he was a big reflection of Christ, and that was the reason why I wanted to start dating,” Joanna says.

While Joanna studies Government and East Asian Studies, Ray is a mechanical engineer; she has a process-oriented outlook on problem solving, while he is more solutions-oriented; she takes a more simple, grounded approach to faith, while he wrestles with his faith more intellectually.

“I think all of these things that are really different help us complement each other and see things in a different way that helps us,” Ray says.

Joanna G. Choi '25 and Ray D. Noh '25 are engaged to be married in one to two years. By Courtesy of Jaylen Wilson

Soon, Ray and Joanna’s lives started overlapping even more. “The people we were really close to kind of started merging,” Ray says.

While the couple loves going on dates to try new things — from tufting rugs to making glass plates to visiting the zoo — one of their favorite activities is cooking and watching a shared favorite TV show from their childhoods, the South Korean variety show “Running Man.”

“I think it’s a very shared experience of Korean immigrants or even just Koreans in general that grew up in the 2000s,” Joanna says. Both she and Ray are the children of Korean immigrants.

Though the two went ring-shopping together, Joanna wanted her actual engagement to be a surprise. Ray rented out a space in Somerville on April 5 for the proposal. With help from both of their families, Ray decorated the space with flowers and waited for Joanna while she was at brunch with friends.

Everything went according to plan. “Her friends led her there, I proposed, and then the rest of the day we celebrated with everyone,” he says.

Next year, Joanna is planning on living at home in Southern California while she applies to law school. Ray will be living in the San Francisco Bay Area. Depending on where Joanna ends up for law school, which will influence when they can live in the same city, the couple plans to get married between one and two years from now.

“This is going to be the first time we’re kind of long distance,” Ray says. “We engaged so that we could go into that space with a commitment that we thought would be valuable.”

Mitchell Sharum ’25 and Katie J.L. Miri ’25

When Katie J.L. Miri ’25 met Mitchell Sharum ’25 at the Harvard Catholic Center the fall of their freshman year, she recalls thinking he was “way too cool for me.”

“You were dressed stylishly and you were social and very normal compared to a lot of people that I met here,” she laughs, looking at Mitchell. “I was like, there’s no way.”

The two, however, quickly became best friends, bonding over their hometowns in Texas: Katie is from Austin and Mitchell is from Midland, though his family has since moved to Austin. They formed a group of friends with others from the Catholic Center and soon began to see each other more regularly.

When Datamatch rolled around the following spring, both signed up on the algorithm and received their matches, but two days before Valentine’s Day, Mitchell decided to ask Katie out.

“I was like, ‘There’s no way that this chump is gonna go out with you,’ so I asked her out on the 12th, and then we replaced our Datamatch dates with each other,” Mitchell chuckles. “Sorry to those two people, but it’s been three years since then, and we’ve spent pretty much all this time together.”

Neither entered the relationship thinking they would get married. But Katie recalls a moment a few years ago when she watched Mitchell hold his baby niece and thought, “Oh my gosh, he would be such a good dad.”

For Mitchell, it was a conversation he had with Katie that opened his eyes to marriage being the right choice. At the time, they were more seriously discussing their long-term future together, and the way Katie viewed marriage helped him get comfortable with the idea.

“She was like, ‘When you’re marrying someone, all that you’re really doing is you’re saying publicly, this is my best friend, and they’re gonna be my best friend for the rest of my life,’” Mitchell recalls. “I felt a very strong sense of like, ‘She’s right about this.’”

Planning the proposal, Mitchell says, was “one of the most egregiously difficult things I’ve ever done.” With minimal help, he arranged the schedule, decorations, catering, and venue, all while trying — and failing — to keep the engagement a surprise.

On March 14, Mitchell invited Katie out to a picnic by the Charles River under the guise of celebrating their 37-month anniversary. By the time they got there, however, they were already running a little behind schedule: It was noon, and Mitchell wanted them to have lunch, walk to a bridge where they first felt deeply connected to each other freshman year, get photos of the proposal, and head back for the afterparty at the Harvard Catholic Center by 1 p.m.

“I’m like, ‘OK, we gotta be going in like, five minutes, so eat your sandwiches.’ And she’s like, ‘No, this is so pretty,’” Mitchell recalls. “I was like, ‘You eat. Eat and run and run.’ She’s wearing heels, and I’m trying to shove little Nutella sandwiches down my mouth.”

The two quickly began walking down the Charles, during which Mitchell told Katie how much he loved her. All Katie could think, however, was, “‘Oh my gosh. He’s about to propose. What if I don’t cry?’” As they approached the bridge, Mitchell asked her to turn and face the water.

“I turn around and he’s on one knee, and I start crying immediately,” she says.

Mitchell Sharum '25 and Katie J.L. Miri '25 are engaged to be married in October in Austin, Texas. By Courtesy of Hamzeh B. Hamdan

The couple is set to get married in October at Emmaus Catholic Church in Austin, with a reception in Lakeway, Texas. Afterward, they will settle in Austin: Katie will be working in cybersecurity, and Mitchell is on the hunt for jobs in the area.

Mitchell says he would read past editions of The Crimson’s “Wedding Bells” section and be surprised at the decision to get married so early. Now, Mitchell says, “it makes a lot more sense.”

“Do you want to wait till you’ve grown and become the person that you are to marry someone else?” he adds. “Or do you want to pick your person, grow with them, and have them be part of what shapes you into the person that you hope to be?”

Mitchell turns to Katie.

“That’s what I’m most excited for,” he says. “Seeing the way that you make me a better person, that I make you a better person, and that we both get more out of life together. Starting now.”

Mehrin M. Faisal ’25 and Shah Akibur “Akib” Rahman

The first time Shah Akibur “Akib” Rahman visited Mehrin M. Faisal ’25 in her dorm, Mehrin’s roommates asked to see his ID to verify the extensive internet research that they had already conducted. However, they soon warmed up to him, as Akib became a part of the friend group over movie nights and Ramadan meals and prayers.

“I was like, ‘Wow, he can also get along with my friends so well,’” Mehrin recalls. “That was just really nice to see.”

Mehrin first met Akib, who graduated from MIT in 2022, at an event the Bengali Association of Students at Harvard co-hosted with MIT’s Bangladeshi Students Association in September 2022. They exchanged Instagram accounts but didn’t start talking to each other much until several months later. From there, the relationship “propagated fairly quickly,” Akib says.

Their relationship has always felt organic; their lives flowed together naturally. “I would literally go directly from the gym in my sweaty shirt, I was not trying to impress her, impress her. It was very organic,” Akib says. “ I don’t have to worry about the superficial things as much, and that’s what reassured me.”

When Akib decided to propose to Mehrin in August 2024, he booked a private lighthouse in Newburyport and covered an Uber for a friend to travel separately and take photos of the proposal. “I don’t think she was surprised though,” Akib says.

“I sensed it,” Mehrin interjects. “He kept asking, ‘Hey, do you have a blue dress?’ And I was like, ‘I do have a blue dress, but I’ve worn it already, it’s already captured on my Instagram.’ But he was like, ‘OK, let’s get a new dress.’”

The day of the proposal, Mehrin skipped an afternoon class to pick up her dress and travel to Newburyport with Akib, where he popped the question.

Shah Akibur "Akib" Rahman and Mehrin M. Faisal '25 got married in late December 2024 in Bangladesh. By Courtesy of Pulok Kumar

The couple had a formal engagement ceremony at Mehrin’s home in New York on Aug. 31 and got married in late December in Bangladesh. Their wedding spanned across three ceremonies over the course of several days: a sangeet, a celebratory event with singing and dancing; the wedding itself, a more intimate, religious ceremony; and a final reception with almost 1,000 people.

“Everything was really hectic,” Akib recalls. “We had a very short time to prepare for our sangeet. We had a choreographer, who helped us pick up the dances. It was a lot of moves and kudos to the bridesmaids—”

“They picked up really well,” Mehrin says, finishing Akib’s thought. “December is finals season, so they tried to practice a little bit whenever they could but it didn’t really happen, so we were all cramming for three days.”

Despite the chaos, the couple “had a ton of fun,” Akib says. They traveled around Bangladesh with family, seeing more remote areas of the country that Mehrin had never been to before. In January, they rounded out their celebrations with a honeymoon to the Maldives.

Mehrin and Akib will be staying in Boston. Akib will take on a new role at his current job at CVS Pharmacy, while Mehrin will be working in research at Massachusetts General Hospital as she prepares for medical school — a journey that Akib is intent on supporting her through.

For Mehrin, their partnership makes it easier to confront the challenges of pursuing a career in medicine.

“All of my friends are like, ‘Is it stressful or hectic to be married so young?’” Mehrin says. “I’m like, ‘No, he does everything for me.’ He cooks, he cleans, he makes my breakfast, he does my laundry.”

“I don’t have to do anything,” she adds.

Valeria L. Barriobero ’25 and Jonathan Calixto

Long-distance is not for the faint of heart. But for Valeria L. Barriobero ’25 and Jonathan Calixto, distance encouraged them to bring a level of intentionality to their relationship that only strengthened their connection to each other.

The two met as freshmen on their first day of school at the New World School of the Arts, a performing arts high school in Miami. Through taking many of the same classes together, the two became close friends and started dating in the middle of the pandemic, the summer before their senior year of high school.

“We always joked that a lot of the first dates people have, like going out for coffee or to the movies — we were quarantining and seeing each other at each other’s homes,” Valeria recalls. “But I think it was a great way to start our relationship. It opened a path for a lot of nice conversations.”

Having this basis for their relationship proved crucial for them. When college decisions came around, the two found themselves on opposite coasts: Valeria at Harvard and Jonathan at Stanford. Though four years of long distance has been challenging, Jonathan says, it has also been rewarding.

“We’ve been really committed since we started dating, so we’re very consistent about calling each other,” he says. “I know sometimes relationships at a younger age can be a little bit shallower, but just the nature of only being able to talk and not being physically in the same place pushed us to have these more profound conversations.”

From the day they started dating, Valeria says, she and Jonathan knew they were going to get married, and in the spring of 2024, they went ring shopping together. Still, when Jonathan proposed a few months later, while the two were doing research at Stanford over the summer, it came as a complete surprise.

Valeria L. Barriobero '25 and Jonathan Calixto are engaged to be married in July. By Courtesy of Valeria L. Barriobero

He took Valeria out dancing and put on her favorite songs by her favorite artist, Camilo. One of the songs, “La Boda,” which means “the wedding” in Spanish, even centers on how excited the singer is to marry his bride.

“I should have known — my favorite singer and my favorite playlist,” Valeria recalls. “And I grew up dancing, I’m a big dancer. And when I turned around and least expected it, he was there on one knee.”

The couple is set to get married on July 11 — coincidentally, the same day that they first started dating — at a church in their hometown. Extended family members will travel from Venezuela and Cuba to celebrate with them.

Following their graduation, Valeria and Jonathan will be moving into their first apartment together in Philadelphia, where Valeria will be attending medical school at the University of Pennsylvania while Jonathan finds career opportunities.

“One of the disadvantages of being long distance is that you don’t get those little intimate moments of just doing mundane things, like being together and going for a walk or going grocery shopping,” Valeria says. “That’s what I’m most excited about.”

Harris Durham ’25 and Emma Sticklen

What if love was hiding in plain sight — in the pool lane next to yours? For Harris J. Durham ’25 and Emma C. Sticklen, true love unfolded after countless missed connections.

The two Texans, Harris from Dallas and Emma from Katy, grew up driving across their home state to youth swim meets, competing in the same age division. But they only met for the first time at a competition in December 2022, where Harris competed for the Crimson and Emma represented the University of Texas at Austin. After the meet, the teams gathered at Sally’s Saloon, the local college dive, to celebrate. Emma noticed Harris immediately when the Harvard squad arrived.

“He’s super tall, he’s super cute, he’s blonde,” she recalls. She turned to her friends: “I’m gonna go find a husband, bye!” The rest of the bar melted away over the next hour as Harris and Emma talked.

“It was so cute and so fun, and of course, I was obsessed,” Emma says.

They reconnected when Harris moved to Dallas for a summer internship and began driving three hours to Austin to visit Emma on weekends. Between dancing together at a Tyler Childers concert and cooling off in Barton Springs, their love story unfolded, and Harris eventually asked Emma to be his girlfriend.

Back at their respective colleges the following fall, Emma and Harris balanced swim practice and coursework while being over 1,500 miles apart. It helped that Emma’s mom, who works for United Airlines, could snag free plane tickets.

When they were together, they were inseparable, even joining each other’s training sessions. Beyond swimming, they sought out new restaurants, documenting date night meals on the food social media app Beli and TikTok videos which have accrued millions of views.

Harris Durham '25 and Emma Sticklen are engaged to be married July 11. By Courtesy of Harris Durham and Emma Sticklen

The next athletic seasons were career bests for both of the swimmers. Emma won her third NCAA championship in the 200 yard butterfly and set the collegiate record in the event.

She says that Harris’s support was what made the difference. “Sport is something where you place so much of your identity and it’s hard not to, but I felt like I was happy with myself and I loved myself because I knew that Harris loved me,” she says.

And Harris helped Harvard take home the Ivy League title in 2024. “Because Emma was so successful,” he says, “it really rubbed off on me and contributed to my own successes.”

Harris met Emma’s family the next summer in Ireland while cheering her on in the European Championships, where she competed with Team USA. Months later, he was rooting for her from an intern desk in Philadelphia as she competed in the U.S. Olympic Team Trials. On a joint family vacation to Hawaii, Harris knew it was time to ask the question. They kayaked to an island off Oahu and hiked to the top, where he proposed.

Family, friends, and teammates will gather on July 11 in Austin for the couple’s wedding. The ceremony will take place at the Addison Grove, a ranch-style venue where longhorn cattle roam.

“It’s really gonna play into our Texas roots,” Emma says. Pat McLeod, a Harvard Christian Chaplain and longtime mentor to Harris, will officiate their ceremony.

After honeymooning in Bali and Australia, they plan to move to Philadelphia. So far, their life together is going swimmingly!

Correction: May 29, 2025

A previous version of this article included the incorrect middle initial for Ray D. Noh 25.