The winter holidays can feel like the season of love, and with that, some Auburn students are getting engaged.
Presley Shoemaker, senior in biomedical sciences, got engaged to Ryan Rutherford, senior in mechanical engineering, over this past Christmas break.
Shoemaker said she was in Colorado on a ski trip with her family and her then-boyfriend when he proposed.
“They posed it like we were taking family pictures because all my mom’s family was there, like aunts and uncles and my grandparents as well,” Shoemaker said. “And so, they said ‘yeah we’re taking family pictures’ and it was outside by an overlook with all the mountains in the background.”
Claire Mattingly, junior in nursing, got engaged to Will Buschmann, junior in chemical engineering, on Dec. 21, 2019.
Mattingly said they were in Fairhope, Alabama, at their favorite restaurant where they go for anniversaries.
“We were just kind of walking around a bit afterwards, and that’s when I really had a pretty good idea because it was sprinkling a little bit outside,” Mattingly said.
Mattingly said they usually do go for walks downtown after dinner, but the rain gave her a clue something was up.
“There’s a little corner in Fairhope with this old-looking clock, and he did it right there. My two best friends were there in the background secretly taking pictures,” she said.
Although Shoemaker and Mattingly got engaged while attending Auburn, they both met their fiancés in high school.
Shoemaker met Rutherford while at Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama.
“We didn’t start dating until the very end of high school,” Shoemaker said. “Before, we were always super close friends.”
While Rutherford went to Auburn, Shoemaker said she went to Mississippi State her freshman year.
“Then I wanted to switch to nursing, and so then I was like ‘[I] want to go somewhere that has a nursing school’,” Shoemaker said. “And so it just kind of helped that he was already here too.”
Shoemaker and Rutherford decided to get married because they have been dating for four years, and her schooling isn’t over. She is going to dental school after she graduates, and she would rather get married before that rather than after, she said.
Mattingly said she met Buschmann at their high school in Mobile, Alabama.
“My parents actually met and started dating at the same high school that we met at,” she said.
Mattingly said she started dating Buschmann halfway through junior year. She asked him to a dance where the girls ask the guys, and it went from there, she said.
Mattingly said she and Buschmann have been talking about marriage for a while.
“It just kind of seemed right because we are both ready,” she said.
Mattingly said they didn’t want to get married while they were both in school either.
“I’m graduating in August, so it’s going to give me a little time to get accustomed to a new job,” Mattingly said.
Mattingly and Buschmann will have their wedding in December. Shoemaker and Rutherford will have their wedding in October.
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Abigail Murphy, senior in journalism with minors in history and women and gender studies, is the operations managing editor at The Auburn Plainsman.
