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Students often move into Residence expecting to be close to campus, classes, late-night study sessions and maybe a few new friends. What many do not expect is that the people they meet in hallways, at events, or over something as simple as pizza nights, may one day stand beside them at their wedding.

For many students, Residence is where university life begins. Itā€™s where people cross paths, work and study together, stay up late socializing, and build friendships that last long after graduation.

For Bethany Van Heyst, BCR'17, and her husband, Jon, BSc (Eng)'17, living in Residence helped create a tight circle of friends who grew close while they worked as community ambassadors (CAs) on the Residence Education Team (RET) from 2014 to 2016.

ā€œWe became close friends before anything else,ā€ says Bethany. ā€œJon hosted weekly pizza nights at his Cascade apartment, and those nights really brought our group together.ā€ Over time, that turned into a tight-knit group that stayed friends after graduation and remains close today.

Through what Bethany describes as a slow burn, her friendship with Jon eventually grew into a relationship. They began dating in 2017 and married in 2021.

ā€œLiving in Residence made it feel more natural to start our relationship based on a strong friendship first,ā€ she says.

But what stands out isnā€™t just their relationship, but also the community that developed around it. Many of those friends stood beside Bethany and Jon on their wedding day, including fellow residence alumni Dr. Tanille Butler, BSc'19, PhD'24, and Connor Butler, BKin'17.

A similar story brought Tanille and Connor together. They met in 2016 while working as CAs, with Connor working in Cascade Hall and Tanille as a first-time CA working in Kananaskis Hall.

At the time, Connor was part of (and co-creator of) the (RAA), a student-led group that offered free daily drop-in physical activities for students living in Residence. Tanille had heard about it and wanted to get involved.

ā€œI went up to Connor after a workshop in the Kinesiology atrium and introduced myself,ā€ Tanille says. ā€œI was looking for ways to be more involved, and RAA aligned well with my interests.ā€

Connor remembers that moment a little differently.

ā€œThis young woman walked right up to me outside Kinesiology and said, ā€˜Hello, Iā€™m Tanille. You are Connor, and I hear you run RAA. Is there an open position? I would really love to be involved,ā€™ā€ he says. ā€œI was completely caught off-guard. There were no openings. But I didnā€™t want her enthusiasm to slip away, so I decided to create a role and offered it to her.ā€

A few days later, he asked Tanille to join. Through their work as CAs and with RAA, they spent a lot of time together, getting to know each other first as co-workers and friends.

ā€œThat foundation mattered,ā€ Tanille says. ā€œWe built a relationship on shared values before anything else. For us, community was important from the very start.ā€

Residence life helped turn that shared sense of community into something real. Both couples point to community as the common thread that made connecting feel natural.

Between their CA positions and their work with RAA, the two spent long hours together, planning events, checking in on residents and leading activities that brought students into shared spaces. That time together eventually grew into something bigger. In August 2023, they were married, surrounded by many of the same friends who have remained close long after leaving Residence.

ā€œResidence life created space for conversations that might otherwise feel awkward or take longer to surface,ā€ Tanille says. ā€œYou already shared common ground, which made those connections easier to build.ā€

Years later, Tanille and Connor returned to the same spot in the Kinesiology atrium where they first met, this time to celebrate Tanilleā€™s PhD convocation. Bethany and Jon, now living in Spain, still keep in touch with their friends and look forward to hosting them again when they return.

ā€œThese are people who were in our wedding and we were in theirs, people who still show up for us and who we still show up for,ā€ Bethany says. ā€œResidence is where it all started.ā€

Long after leaving the university, the connections remain. Residence is not just a place to sleep or live during university. For many, itā€™s where lasting memories are made, lifelong friendships form and, sometimes, marriages begin.