Love was in the air as UNI students gathered around the Campanile to kiss that special someone at the stroke of midnight this past Friday night. While many students obtained a smooch as a result of the age-old Homecoming tradition, one couple in particular left with so much more.

“So we’re standing there at the Campanile, and he’s holding my hands and a lot of people are starting to kiss around us at midnight,” said Alexis Hill, senior communication studies major. “And then he just goes, ‘Will you marry me?’ And I just instantly started crying – ugly crying. Like I cried so much that night that my contacts got messed up and I had to take them out. It was so bad. And then he kissed me.”

Hill got engaged to Mason Meyer, who graduated from UNI this past May with a bachelor’s degree in music education. According to Meyer, the two of them started dating in the middle of June 2015 after meeting each other through mutual friends.

After graduating, Meyer had moved to Minnesota, where he received his first teaching job. Meyer said he had been planning to propose for several months but had not had a proper opportunity to do so until this weekend.

“I knew I wanted to propose, like as a solid thought, in May of this year, and I was just trying to figure out how to do it,” Meyer said. “I had lots of different plans. Nothing seemed like it was going to be the right time or the right place.

“But then, we decided that I would come down this weekend. And it just kind of hit me probably a month ago that Friday night is Campaniling, and we Campaniled last year. So it just felt like it would be a good place and a good time because it was my first homecoming as an alum, and that’s one of the traditions.”

Meyer also said the timing worked out with the completion of the engagement ring.

Hill said she was surprised to see members of both their families at the Campanile.

“I kept turning around and seeing all these people,” Hill said. “I saw my sister, I just hugged her, and then I started crying even more. I’d see different people, like even some of his friends that I knew of but I haven’t met yet. I was just hugging everyone. And it was just crazy. And then I looked at [the ring], and it fits perfectly. It’s just perfect. I’m just in shock and super happy.”

Meyer explained that he had invited at least 20 people to the Campanile, including family members and close friends.

Hill and Meyer are planning on getting married in June 2017, two years after they first met.