Manhattanville Sweethearts

When Meghan Von Brook and Stefan Stankevich first met, they didn’t exactly hit it off.

“We were actually enemies,” says Meghan, who met Stefan freshman year at Manhattanville. They lived on the same dormitory floor. “He used to say mean things whenever he walked by me in the hall, just to be annoying. But we had a lot of mutual friends, so we were often forced to be in the same room together.” Of course, today Stefan claims he picked on her because he thought she was cute, but Meghan doesn’t believe him.

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By sophomore year, things began to change. As she was moving in her belongings, Stefan paid Meghan a compliment on her new haircut. The taunts stopped; kindness stepped in. And then one night at a college party, they had some drinks, kissed, and, says Meghan, “the rest is history.”

Well, not quite. They couldn’t quite get serious because one or the other always had a significant other. “Three or four months before graduating, we were both single and realized we were about to graduate and might not see each other again,” Meghan says. “We might as well give it a go now. That was five years ago.”

So how did Stefan propose? On their five year anniversary—March 19th—he made special plans in New York City and suggested they go early to enjoy the spring weather by walking the Brooklyn Bridge. Before Meghan knew it, Stefan suddenly said, “I had a whole speech prepared, but I’m just going to do this now,” and dropped to one knee. After bursting into tears, Meghan, of course, said yes. Stefan then pointed out that their close friend Kevin had been following them all afternoon, taking pictures and documenting their special moment.

Though the couple hasn’t made official wedding plans yet, they know they want to wed in the county. “Westchester has always been the exact halfway point between my hometown [in New Jersey] and his hometown [in Connecticut]. After graduation we first moved back home with our families for the first month or so, and we would always just meet up somewhere in Westchester to spend time together.”

One thing’s for sure: they hope to hold their ceremony in a meaningful place—O’Byrne Chapel on the Manhattanville campus—since they met at the college. Through they haven’t set a date, Meghan estimates the wedding will fall in “late 2012,” saying that they both like to take their time.

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