{"id":116157,"date":"2026-02-17T16:22:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116157\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:22:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:22:15","slug":"leopards-in-love-the-lafayette","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/116157\/","title":{"rendered":"Leopards in love \u2013 The Lafayette"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each year, as another class of Lafayette College pupils graduates and becomes alumni, they leave with lifelong friendships and mentors. But some lucky leopards leave with a long-lasting love match.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kendall Bierman \u201918 and Alexander Bierman \u201918 got together after reconnecting during a fraternity party. (Photo courtesy of Kendall Bierman \u201918)
\nFraternity fraternizing<\/p>\n

Kendall Contri Bierman \u201818, who transferred to Lafayette for her sophomore year, was set up with Alexander Bierman \u201817 as a date for a formal. They hit it off, but it wasn\u2019t until they reconnected a year later and spent the entirety of a Phi Kappa Psi \u201cfoam party\u201d talking in a kiddie pool that they really clicked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018I forget why I stopped talking to you,\u2019\u201d Contri Bierman said.<\/p>\n

Alexander Bierman made a \u201creal reservation\u201d at a \u201creal restaurant\u201d for their first official date, she said.<\/p>\n

After viewing some Christmas lights and watching \u201cElf\u201d (2003), \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized, \u2018Oh wow, I really love him,\u2019\u201d Contri Bierman said. The couple was married in 2022.<\/p>\n

Lafayette-themed wedding
\n\"\"Alisa Lando \u201910 and Sara Kreisel \u201907 were married at the periphery of the Quad in front of Skillman Library.(Photo courtesy of Sara Kreisel \u201907)<\/p>\n

Alisa Lando \u201810 met Sara Kreisel \u201807 at Hillel House in 2006 during an admitted students event. A friendship flourished on AOL Instant Messenger, and soon enough, they started dating at the beginning of the following school year. They were the first same sex couple photographed in The Lafayette.<\/p>\n

Lando and Kreisel were married on campus in 2015. Their wedding theme? \u201cLive, Laf, Ahava\u201d \u2014\u00a0\u201cAhava\u201d means love in Hebrew.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hired tour guides to give small tours to our guests as they were brought from March Field parking to the Quad where we got married,\u201d Kreisel said. \u201cWe had the Chorduroys perform at the cocktail hour. Because why not?\u201d<\/p>\n

Philosophy of love
\n\"\"Alicia McElhone \u201912 and Steve McClain \u201912 were married by philosophy professor Owen McLeod. (Photo courtesy of Alicia McElhone \u201912)<\/p>\n

Alicia McElhone \u201812 and her husband, Steve McClain \u201812, met in philosophy professor Owen McLeod\u2019s class in 2010.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Lafayette Venn diagram had basically no overlap \u2014 Steve was in Greek life, athletics, and math\/econ, and I was in a cappella, musical theater, and philosophy\/film,\u201d McElhone wrote in an email.<\/p>\n

McElhone and McClain had a mutual crush in college, but only reconnected in 2021 through Twitter. McClain noticed a popular author mention McElhone in a tweet and decided to slide into her direct messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe both happened to be single and living in the city, so\u2026 we met up for a bundled-up outdoor brunch during the pre-vaccine COVID times,\u201d McElhone wrote. \u201cHalfway through the date, the conversation turned to the philosophy class and Prof McLeod \u2014 we talked about how fondly we both still think of Owen and the lasting impact he\u2019s had on our lives and thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMarry us? \u2013 your former students,\u201d read the subject line of the email to McLeod.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe unsurprisingly delivered,\u201d McElhone wrote about the officiation of the 2024 wedding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each year, as another class of Lafayette College pupils graduates and becomes alumni, they leave with lifelong friendships…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-116157","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}