Class Note 2020
Issue
July-August 2026
Class Note 2020. In March I spent a wonderful weekend in the D.C. area to celebrate the wedding of a Dartmouth friend and fellow ’20. In a normal wedding announcement, this is where I would prominently feature the name of the bride and groom. But dear reader, this is not a normal wedding announcement—this is a mystery wedding announcement.
The happy couple and I shall attempt to provide you with faithful reporting of the event without any personally identifying information. Can you pick out your Dartmouth classmate from a description of the wedding and a menagerie of affiliated guests? Let’s find out.
The wedding itself, in rural Virginia, was a nod to a cherished summer spot for the bride’s family—though it’s become a special place for both members of the couple. Their first dance was to a song that captured the nature of their whirlwind relationship: “It took me a while, but I got here as fast as I could.”
Before the wedding, the bride sent out a YouTube dance tutorial for the “Hoedown Throwdown” to several members of the bridal party and yours truly. (If you’re chronically online, you might have heard that we recently passed the 20th anniversary of Hannah Montana. Do you feel old yet?)
It ain’t easy to line dance next to someone in a giant ballgown, but the song was such a hit that we made the DJ play it twice. I think I heard more country music at that wedding than I have in my entire life. Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy),” Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” and the Southern-era of Taylor Swift all made appearances.
Even though Virginia is only a hair beyond the Mason-Dixon Line, the wedding theme was decidedly Southern. From the get-go we were told that the dress code was “black tie and cowboy boots.” A card with each guest’s table number was tied (via pink ribbon and white lace) to a cowboy boot-shaped bottle opener. Even the illustrated dancing cat on the ceremony program was wearing cowboy boots.
The only thing sweeter than the wedding’s pretty-in-pink color scheme was the opportunity to reconnect with some of my Dartmouth classmates. Natalia McLaren, Katie Keyser, Karla Rosas, and Dania Torres were excellent hoedown co-conspirators and kept the dance floor alive all night.
My husband and I were fortunate enough to be seated next to Jonathan Gliboff, the new class vice president. I’ve known Jonathan since freshman year, when we both joined the fencing team, but he always has something to make me laugh. This time it was a perplexing encounter he had on the subway.
Speaking of public transit, D.C. has a real subway system (unlike Seattle, which lost its subway funding to Atlanta after a shortsighted lobbying campaign in the ’60s). Unfortunately, this little corner of Virginia had no such amenities, but splitting an Uber on the way to the reception with Rafael Brantley, his lovely wife, Aline, and his brother Leo made for excellent company.
Well, this concludes our first-ever mystery wedding announcement. My company, Saturday Box, will be releasing a couples’ murder mystery adventure at a similar time as the publication of this column, so I heartily thank the newlyweds for giving me another opportunity to practice theatrical concealment. I wish them the very best in this new chapter of their lives.
In other congratulatory news, Sam Zarkower was recently published in The Apothecary. His poem “The Distant Shore” was included in Issue VII. You can find the poem at www.theapothecary-mssm.org/#/sam-zarkower.
As you can see from this unconventional format, I am happy to cover your stories from whatever angle you’d like, so don’t hesitate to write to dartmouth20classnotes@gmail.com with any news, updates, thoughts, or opinions!
—Emma Velicky, 808 24th Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98144; emmavelicky.20@dartmouth.edu
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The happy couple and I shall attempt to provide you with faithful reporting of the event without any personally identifying information. Can you pick out your Dartmouth classmate from a description of the wedding and a menagerie of affiliated guests? Let’s find out.
The wedding itself, in rural Virginia, was a nod to a cherished summer spot for the bride’s family—though it’s become a special place for both members of the couple. Their first dance was to a song that captured the nature of their whirlwind relationship: “It took me a while, but I got here as fast as I could.”
Before the wedding, the bride sent out a YouTube dance tutorial for the “Hoedown Throwdown” to several members of the bridal party and yours truly. (If you’re chronically online, you might have heard that we recently passed the 20th anniversary of Hannah Montana. Do you feel old yet?)
It ain’t easy to line dance next to someone in a giant ballgown, but the song was such a hit that we made the DJ play it twice. I think I heard more country music at that wedding than I have in my entire life. Big & Rich’s “Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy),” Shania Twain’s “Man! I Feel Like a Woman,” and the Southern-era of Taylor Swift all made appearances.
Even though Virginia is only a hair beyond the Mason-Dixon Line, the wedding theme was decidedly Southern. From the get-go we were told that the dress code was “black tie and cowboy boots.” A card with each guest’s table number was tied (via pink ribbon and white lace) to a cowboy boot-shaped bottle opener. Even the illustrated dancing cat on the ceremony program was wearing cowboy boots.
The only thing sweeter than the wedding’s pretty-in-pink color scheme was the opportunity to reconnect with some of my Dartmouth classmates. Natalia McLaren, Katie Keyser, Karla Rosas, and Dania Torres were excellent hoedown co-conspirators and kept the dance floor alive all night.
My husband and I were fortunate enough to be seated next to Jonathan Gliboff, the new class vice president. I’ve known Jonathan since freshman year, when we both joined the fencing team, but he always has something to make me laugh. This time it was a perplexing encounter he had on the subway.
Speaking of public transit, D.C. has a real subway system (unlike Seattle, which lost its subway funding to Atlanta after a shortsighted lobbying campaign in the ’60s). Unfortunately, this little corner of Virginia had no such amenities, but splitting an Uber on the way to the reception with Rafael Brantley, his lovely wife, Aline, and his brother Leo made for excellent company.
Well, this concludes our first-ever mystery wedding announcement. My company, Saturday Box, will be releasing a couples’ murder mystery adventure at a similar time as the publication of this column, so I heartily thank the newlyweds for giving me another opportunity to practice theatrical concealment. I wish them the very best in this new chapter of their lives.
In other congratulatory news, Sam Zarkower was recently published in The Apothecary. His poem “The Distant Shore” was included in Issue VII. You can find the poem at www.theapothecary-mssm.org/#/sam-zarkower.
As you can see from this unconventional format, I am happy to cover your stories from whatever angle you’d like, so don’t hesitate to write to dartmouth20classnotes@gmail.com with any news, updates, thoughts, or opinions!
—Emma Velicky, 808 24th Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98144; emmavelicky.20@dartmouth.edu