A Valentine's Day Story: The Courtship of Dan Hall and Anne Wudel
With the spirit of Valentine’s Day in the air, proof of Cupid’s work was recently spotted here on campus. A chalk message had appeared on the steps of Beadle Hall. A chalk message that contained a proposal. A proposal that a young lady had long been waiting for. The wait finally ended with three simple words. “Marry Me Anne?”
A photo of the message showed up on the Dakota State University Facebook page. The “Likes” started flying in like crazy, but the question was left unanswered.
“Who got engaged?” they asked.
Cleverly, someone answered, “Anne did.”
They were correct. Anne Wudel had agreed to marry Dan Hall after meeting him roughly four years ago.
When asked why he decided it was time to pop the question, Dan answered by saying, “I guess it’s just something you contemplate for a while, and one day I just went and bought a ring.”
Dan contacted DSU student and photographer, Shelby Meyer, to schedule a photo shoot on campus where the couple met to keep Anne unaware of his actual intentions. The day before the shoot, Anne joked with Dan and said, “You know people are going to think these are engagement photos, right?” All Dan could do was laugh.
Oh, silly Anne, how right you were.
Dan had worked the morning of the photo shoot and told me that they were the longest four hours of his life. Once they were on campus and ready for the shoot, the only thing Dan was worried about was Anne seeing the message too early. Confident fella, he was.
While they were walking up to the building for the “photo shoot”, Josh Thomas (Dan’s best bud), Mandy Parpart (artist behind the chalk message), and Jordan Schuh were all hiding in the bushes (with Dan’s permission of course.) After the proposal went down, the three of them said that they had almost been spotted. When asked what they would have done if that would have happened, Mandy answered by saying, “I would have popped up, looked around (with her hands held with confusion), and asked, ‘How did I get here?’” The group was able to share a laugh over this.
Anne told me her first reaction to seeing the message was, “Complete shock, I guess. I was too cold to really see what was going on around me.”
I asked them if it felt any different now that they were engaged. Anne replied, “My left hand is a little bit heavier, and shinier, but that’s about it.”
The couple wanted to make it known that they have had a lot of support from family and friends, and are greatly appreciative of that. I would like to take this chance to congratulate the two of you on behalf of the whole DSU community. Your relationship is representative of what we all wish to have eventually, if we don’t already. We all wish you the best, and may your future be lived happily ever after.
Photos courtesy of Shelby Meyer
