On his wedding day, Dominic Pfister ’17 found himself waiting with a familiar feeling inside Swasey Chapel.
“I remember being in the green room before performances with Denison’s bluegrass ensemble, nervous, holding my instrument before shows,” Pfister said. “It was just funny to be back there, but not having an instrument to hold to calm my nerves this time.”
Nearly a decade after graduating, Pfister and Heather Grimm ’17 had returned to the place where their friendship first blossomed into something more.
“There was no question that we were going to have our wedding at Denison,” Grimm said.
Their story on The Hill began during freshman year. The two met briefly at a theater party and Pfister told his friends about the “tall girl” he hoped to see again, despite the room’s darkness leaving him with only a vague memory of her face.
They eventually became good friends through close proximity and similar interests. While Grimm remembered their initial meeting, Pfister and his friends only later realized that she was the “tall girl” he had connected with that night and boasted about for weeks.
“It feels very rom-com looking back at it,” Grimm said.
The pair officially began dating during their sophomore year, and Denison became the picturesque backdrop for their budding relationship. Date nights consisted of sneaking into empty classrooms together to watch their favorite movies on the large projector screens.
After graduating from Denison, however, being together became considerably more complicated.
They maintained a long-distance relationship across different cities and countries while pursuing graduate degrees and careers. At one point, seeing one another meant a six-hour drive. During the pandemic, Pfister’s graduate work went virtual, finally allowing them to live together for an extended period.
Through the moves, degrees, and distance, their connection to Denison remained. Both eventually returned to The Hill to teach (they were both visiting instructors) and stayed close with professors, advisers, and friends. When it came time to plan their wedding, many of those same people became an integral part of their celebration.
Grimm’s Denison adviser, Associate Professor Mark Evans Bryan ’96, officiated the ceremony, and many of their former professors filled an entire table at the reception. One of Pfister’s closest Denison friends even traveled from Guangzhou, China, returning to the United States for the first time since moving abroad. “It’s thanks to Denison that we still have friends who are willing to travel across the country or even across the world to celebrate our wedding,” Pfister said.
For Grimm, those lasting relationships are part of what made returning to Denison feel so natural. “I think that Denison does make really strong connections,” she said. “Our success is in part owed to the foundation we made at Denison, which is just a great place for forming bonds.”
Pfister and Grimm are only the latest Denisonians to return to Swasey Chapel for one of life’s biggest moments. The first wedding inside the iconic sanctuary took place on May 17, 1924, between Josephine Darrow (Class of 1921) and Gordon Shorney. Standing at the highest point on campus, Swasey has served as a landmark for generations of Denisonians and a setting for joyful celebrations, bringing alums back to the place where their own relationships, friendships, and memories took shape.