Senior year is stressful enough with homework, college applications, post-graduation plans, and attempting to maintain a social life throughout all of it.  However, these challenges didn’t faze recently graduated senior Jake Settera, who decided to plan a wedding on top of everything else.  He said that the decision to get married was an easy one, despite all of the other difficult choices he faced.

                “It just kind of clicked one day.  You’re like, ‘Yeah, I could do this forever.’”

                He and his fiancée, senior Kellie Hartman of Highwood High School, got engaged in December 2011, and the couple is set to tie the knot on July 13.  Though the couple has received a great deal of criticism for deciding to get married earlier in life, they say that the reason behind it lies within their faith.

                “I really feel like God was saying that we could marry now and grow together in Him,” Hartman said.

                She said she feels that their love is founded upon their shared beliefs.

                “God is the center of our relationship.  If we grow closer to him, we grow closer together,” she said.

                In addition to their commitment to God, Settera said that in order to make their relationship work, it takes more than just warm fuzzy feelings.

                “Love is a verb, and with a verb being something that you do, it’s not a question of why I love her.  I just do it,” he said.

                Though she agrees that it is an action, Hartman said that it isn’t hard to love Settera.

                “He’s cute, cuddly, and he has another side where he’s actually really sweet (secretly.)”

                Settera feels the same way.

                “I love her because there’s nothing about her that would make me want to love anyone else,” he said.

                Overall, the couple is excited to begin their new lives as married people, and they are eager with anticipation.

                 “It’s insane and wonderful all at the same time,” she said.