Caleb Sander ’15 is a planner and a romantic. Girlfriend Caity Nowosatka ’15 found out during Homecoming 2015 just how far Caleb would go to express his romantic side.

It all began when they became friends their first year at Luther. Caleb, a music major, hinted at his romantic side on Caity’s 19th birthday when he played one of her favorite melodies—Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata—for her on a piano in the Center for Faith and Life. They took their friendship up a notch during sophomore year. Caleb asked Caity’s father for permission to date her. Then, after a Nowosatka family wedding in Branson, Missouri, the two slipped off to an Ozarks scenic overlook, where Caleb asked Caity out for the first time.

Last fall, when Caleb returned to Luther to work as an accompanist, he devised a surprise for Caity—an elaborate scenario for Friday, Oct. 16, the first night of Homecoming. The evening began with dinner at McCaffrey’s Dolce Vita, scene of their first-ever date. Caity’s friends were in on the plan, key elements in what Caleb called a memory tour. After dinner, Caleb told Caity he just needed to run into Jenson-Noble for a minute. While she waited outside, friends showed up and persuaded her to join them on a walk. Caity worried she’d miss Caleb’s return, but that fear soon evaporated. At the first stop, Brandt Hall, where she’d lived as a first-year, a friend presented her with a flower and a poem from Caleb. He’d written a poem for each stop along way, recalling a memory from each place.

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The last stop on the tour was a candle-lit, rose-petal-strewn CFL main stage. This time, Caleb played Romantic Flight, a song from the soundtrack from How to Train Your Dragon, one of their favorite scores. Afterward, Caleb proposed, and an amazed Caity said yes.

In the lobby outside the main hall, their friends waited to join the celebration. “I was astonished when I saw all of my friends, I felt really supported and loved. I was not only being proposed to by the man of my dreams, but I had my Luther family there supporting me and this relationship,” Caity says.

Caleb wanted to incorporate friends because of their strong support. “I was so excited that Caleb asked all of us to be part of their special moment,” Phillip Johnson ’15 said. “It really meant a lot that he incorporated us to help make his plan come together.”

Caity and Caleb plan to tie the knot next fall, and you can bet the planning will be perfect.