Couple Takes Engagement Photos Inside College Classroom Where They Met

Stephanie Simpson and Ethan Anderson met at the University of South Carolina.

ByABC News
November 6, 2016, 4:35 PM
Stephanie Simpson and Ethan Anderson took engagement photos inside the classroom where they met at the University of South Carolina.
Stephanie Simpson and Ethan Anderson took engagement photos inside the classroom where they met at the University of South Carolina.
Trevor Mercer Photography

— -- When two students at the University of South Carolina got engaged, they returned to the place where they met to document their romance in an engagement photo shoot.

Stephanie Simpson told ABC News it was the idea of her photographer, Trevor Mercer, to take photos in the classroom where the couple met.

"It's more than we could have ever wanted. It's really nice to have photos in the exact place, the exact seats, the exact building that we met in," Simpson, 22, said.

The mathematics major, who graduates this semester, met Ethan Anderson in a calculus 2 class last year. She had changed her seat to move closer to him. It was after a tragedy struck the campus in February 2015 that the two began a conversation.

A professor at the school, Raja Fayad, was shot and killed, allegedly by his ex-wife before she turned the gun on herself in an apparent murder-suicide, the coroner told local ABC affiliate WCIV-TV.

Simpson recalled that she and Anderson "started talking to comfort each other."

PHOTO: Stephanie Simpson and Ethan Anderson took engagement photos inside the classroom where they met at the University of South Carolina.
Stephanie Simpson and Ethan Anderson took engagement photos inside the classroom where they met at the University of South Carolina.

Six months later, Anderson, 22, a geophysics major who will graduate in the spring, dropped to one knee in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.

"Since we had first met we had always talked about going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We both love classic rock and that’s something that’s not so common in our age group," Simpson said. "We made our way up to Cleveland and he proposed right outside."

The two plan to wed two days after Simpson graduates on Dec. 14. The math-loving students picked their wedding date because not only do they both love Christmas but because each number is an even number.

"It's symbolic of us meeting in math class," Simpson explained, adding that they'll actually wed at 6:20 p.m., which is 18:20 in military time. So in essence, they'll get married at 12/14/16/18/20.

PHOTO: Stephanie Simpson and Ethan Anderson took engagement photos inside the classroom where they met at the University of South Carolina.
Stephanie Simpson and Ethan Anderson took engagement photos inside the classroom where they met at the University of South Carolina.

The two expect 120 guests at their wedding to be held in South Carolina.

Simpson said for their honeymoon they're planning a trip to California. They'll make stops in San Francisco and Yosemite National Park before ending their honeymoon in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The bride-to-be said she's most looking forward to starting her life with Anderson.

"Ethan has always felt like a husband to me since the first day that I met him. We’ve felt married since day one. We’ve always said that," Simpson said."[I'm looking forward to] him being able to wear his ring and us having the same last name and sharing a family together."