By- B. Mack Evans
Rob and Lauren Spires share their love story which started at The Settler (now TheSettler.Online) in 2007 for Valentine’s day.
In the spring of 2007, The Settler was not yet virtual; it was printed on physical paper every week and delivered to convenient locations throughout campus where students could grab a copy.
Volunteer State was recovering from a Tornado that struck the previous year which made Caudill Hall completely unusable and damaged several other buildings.
Many classes were being held in portable classrooms, students met for final exams at times anywhere they could squeeze a desk – and The Settler’s own Rob & Lauren Spires were just friends, still getting to know each other having recently met in Professor Clay Scott’s class.
With limited space on physical paper to place articles, extra time was required to create the design and layout, and the editor and assistant editor were known to stay as late as 9 or 10 p.m. some evenings to make sure the paper looked just right.
The next semester, Rob was promoted in his role at The Settler. “When I got promoted to Editor, I knew that I liked her so I asked if she would be my assistant editor so we could spend some extra time together… and it took off from there,” explained Rob.
When the two had free time, Rob and Lauren would spend time and dates together relaxing at Memorial Park in Hendersonville, not far from the Gallatin campus.
Once the pair graduated from Vol State they would both move on to Middle Tennessee State University, but they returned with family and friends to this special place for their wedding on one morning in October 2013.
A raspberry and lemon-filled cake was decorated to match the natural scenery with magnolias made of fondant.
“It was the perfect day for an outdoor wedding,” Lauren said. Rob continues, “There’s a little island and a big bridge that goes over to [it] and we actually got married on the island.”
Today Rob and Lauren are as busy as ever!
Rob is working as a copywriter for a mortgage company.
Lauren is working as an advocate to our state legislators for the University of Memphis while working on her Ph.D. in public policy.
Just a month ago, the couple was blessed with their first child, a beautiful, happy baby girl – Mary Louise Spires, Named after Lauren’s and Rob’s grandmothers, respectively.
“When we found out that we were going to have a baby we started cleaning out our closets… we just did a purge in our house and we found all of our old copies of the settler, so we kinda went down memory lane and had a chuckle at some of the articles that we wrote,” Lauren said, “it’s a big adjustment!” Rob continued, “It’s been good, babies are a lot of work; we’re just learning it all, she’s our first so we’re still figuring it all out.”
Congratulations to Rob and Lauren and thanks for sharing! Happy Valentine’s day from Vol State and TheSettler.Online!
Be First to Comment