Imagine you’re strolling down a grassy aisle along with your accomplice on the finish, able to say “I do,” whereas surrounded by Happy Valley’s greatest tailgaters. With blue and white rubbish luggage forming the marriage arch, this tailgate marriage ceremony is the blueprint each Penn Stater must observe.
If you don’t know what we’re speaking about, a devoted Penn State couple, Paula and Mark Foster, determined to tie the knot at their favourite place on earth. That’s proper, their Penn State tailgate takes the cake.
Their tailgate marriage ceremony passed off on October 23, proper after Penn State’s nine-overtime loss to Illinois. The ceremony was fantastically situated beneath Beaver Stadium’s neon signal.
But, earlier than each marriage ceremony, a pair should first fall in love. We had the possibility to get to know the Fosters, study their time main as much as their tailgate marriage ceremony, and listen to their household fairytale.
Paula Foster first met her now-husband when her daughter, Sophie, began college together with his son, Owen. They had been in the identical education applications since age 3, so Paula was conversant in Mark and his son.
In the 2016 college 12 months, she was additionally each Sophie and Owen’s pc and know-how integrator trainer at Harrisburg Academy. Since she taught the 2 of them, Mark was round very often, giving her previous pc {hardware} to let her college students work hands-on with.
Paula constructed a curriculum the place college students had a “Breaker Space” to dissect pc elements and be taught their inside workings. Mark Foster was the constant puzzle piece offering the tech supplies, so she noticed him very regularly and had no complaints.
“[Mark] was the good-looking man that walked down the hallway in a full go well with whereas I used to be within the pc tech room,” Paula stated. “I’d all the time search for him when he picked up his Owen.”
Their first date passed off at University Park’s “OneTeam” occasion. Paula and Mark attended a Beaver Stadium occasion in 2017 the place they may stroll on the grass, stroll by way of the staff gate, and spend the night within the stadium. Paula noticed what he was doing to “schmooze” her.
Paula and Mark Foster on their first date (Courtesy of Paula Foster)
For the couple, destiny completely aligned once they realized simply how a lot Penn State performed an element of their relationship. Even although they went to the identical highschool, their paths didn’t cross again then. As they appear again, “it’s completely full circle.”
“I used to be raised with my household telling me that the sky is blue and white as a result of God is a Penn State fan,” Paula stated. “My great-great-grandfather owned property close to State College. I grew up there.”
From the day Paula was born, she was raised within the mountains and understood the distinctive surroundings State College offered. Even although she had such shut ties to State College, she accepted a full-ride scholarship to the University of Pittsburgh. But, she quickly discovered her approach again to central Pennsylvania.
For Mark Foster, his household is one in every of Penn State’s founding households. The Fosters had been “born and bred” at Penn State. Mark Foster’s oldest son is now a fifth-generation Penn Stater.
“You know Foster Avenue? That’s this man’s household,” Paul stated.
Now, their buddy group is made up of Penn State alumni, individuals they befriended at tailgates, and even Penn State workers. Fellow Nittany Lions makes their circle “extra full.”
Since Penn State is so prevalent within the couple’s lives, every step all through their marriage course of included a bit of the college. On December 12, 2020, the couple was formally married underneath a gazebo with their two kids, dressed absolutely in Penn State gear.
Before their masquerade-themed marriage ceremony reception and celebration on October 31, 2021, the couple knew they wished to finish their marriage ceremony tailgate fantasy. It was “precisely what they wished to do with everybody.”
Two weeks previous to the tailgate, the couple was telling their circle that they brainstormed a tailgate marriage ceremony thought.
“Everybody went nuts,” Paula stated. “Someone was going to be the flower woman and the opposite could be a hoop bearer. We even wished Coach Franklin to officiate! But, all of us simply received excited, and we didn’t do the entire particulars.”
Because the sport was a midday kickoff, they weren’t too certain when the marriage was going to happen. After Penn State misplaced they usually noticed how down everybody was, they knew this was the easiest way to “salvage the day.”
“We wanted a purpose to have fun. I introduced the arch and we put it collectively behind our tailgate,” Paula stated. “Everyone was tremendous excited to get on board. A bunch of us went round our tailgate space and would say to individuals, ‘Hey, be there at 6 o’clock. We’re getting married.’”
At their particular lot this season, they seen how useful and current their neighbors have been. From the beginning of the season, sharing with each other has performed a giant half of their expertise.
Like Penn Staters do greatest, strangers dropped all the things they had been doing to assist out and attend the couple’s marriage ceremony. As quickly as the marriage was introduced, people lined up by the blue and white arch.
A buddy posed because the reverend, individuals gathered and cheered, Paula Foster tossed her bouquet, and strangers turned mates. That’s all they hoped for with the Penn State neighborhood.
“The most enjoyable factor is to have the ability to share the Penn State expertise with returners or first-time guests,” Mark Foster stated.
Mark Foster is obsessed with what Penn State presents on and off the soccer discipline. This couple acknowledges how a lot the college and athletics applications supply to all neighborhood members, college students, and alumni.
“We are joyful to have the ability to assist the college in any approach,” Mark Foster stated. “We have a good time each time we go [to the games.] It is what we’re most excited for every year.”
Mark and Paula Foster had been adamant in stating that there’s “no higher place to be than with the individuals you like.” To them, it’s with greater than 107,000 of their closest mates.
