In a sea of random hookups and serial dating, some ISU students have taken themselves off the market by getting engaged.

Brianna Carlson, senior in hotel, restaurant and institutional management, and Megan McCorkell, senior in kinesiology and health, both have plans to get married in the next two years.

Carlson’s fiance, James Krantz, is a student at the University of Minnesota. They met in high school and had been dating for almost three years before Krantz proposed last summer.

“I’ve always wanted to be married and have a family,” Carlson said. “It was natural.”

Carlson’s wedding is scheduled for May 2009, only two weeks after Krantz graduates with a degree in computer science.

“He graduates and, with a snap of your fingers, we’ll be married,” Carlson said.

McCorkell met her fiance, Brett Cooper, senior in materials engineering, as a freshman through a mutual friend.

Both Carlson and McCorkell said they aren’t apprehensive of taking themselves off the market at a young age.

“I’m not worried about [getting married young],” McCorkell said. “I’m completely in love with him and I know he’s in love with me.”

Carlson agrees.

“He’s the one I want to be with, and we are able to start planning our lives together now,” Carlson said.

Since her wedding plans are in the preliminary stages, Carlson said the arrangements haven’t interfered with her class work.

“It can be distracting,” Carlson said, noting that having her fiance in the same city would be much more distracting.

“[The long distance] has gotten harder since we’ve gotten engaged,” Carlson said. “He wants it, I want it, and he always says ‘just think, in a year-and-a-half we’ll be married and we’ll never have to be apart again.”

Leading up to the wedding, Carlson hopes to find a job in Minneapolis, following her graduation in May, where she will continue to plan for the wedding.

McCorkell said she and Cooper are still deciding on a definite date for the wedding, but they’re shooting for August 2009 – after Cooper graduates and McCorkell will have started nursing school.

“We want to give ourselves a little time to figure out what we are doing for jobs and everything,” McCorkell said.

McCorkell’s engagement came on her 21st birthday, in August, when Cooper set up a surprise picnic.

“Everyone I told was extremely happy for me,” McCorkell said.

“Everyone kind of knew we were going to end up together anyway.”

McCorkell said her plan to tie the knot early is based on the long-held desire to have a large family.

“We want to get married young so we can have a lot of kids,” McCorkell said.