From bench chats to wedding bells for these UIC sweethearts

After taking a walk down memory lane leading to the exact campus bench where the couple met seven years ago, UIC alumnus Marc DeMory proposed to college sweetheart Amani Zara, and she answered with an emotional “Yes!”

“Those benches are where we got to spend some of our first hours alone together, learning about each other and falling in love,” said DeMory, a 2017 marketing graduate. “I actually didn’t have Amani’s phone number for a while, so each of us would peek out the windows [of the Courtyard residence hall] to see if the other was at the benches.”

The proposal night Sept. 26 began with a campus walk visiting tables that DeMory had set up on a path from Racine Avenue to Morgan Street on the east side of campus. Each table was decorated with candles, pictures and notes that represented their relationship over the years.

“Marc had tricked me into thinking we were heading to an alumni event for the business college, but once we arrived on campus, I quickly realized we really weren’t there for that,” said Zara, a 2018 psychology and professional writing graduate. “The proposal was lovely and very much Marc with all the sentimentality. It was like walking down our relationship history throughout campus.”