Valentine’s Day is the maligned and adored holiday that becomes the year’s most anticipated economic stimulus to the flower industry. Meanwhile, President’s Day weekend is the apex of the Seattle virus season. How romantic: flu symptoms and chocolate truffles. It is fitting that this Saturday, these two events overlapped, for true love is supposed to be about loving someone in sickness and in health. Heaven knows, in the current economy, this weekend already seemed to exemplify the concept of loving one another for richer or poorer.

Partaking of the above vows is rarely an uncomplicated matter. Even city hall and shotgun weddings take paperwork and witnesses. Wedding planning is a career for some people, yet plenty of graduate students chose to do it themselves during their so-called “free time”.

“It is a ton of work, especially if you are being creative about your budget,” said Emily Griffin, a master’s student who wed her fiance Mark Griffin at the beginning of this quarter. “Some tried to suggest that we wait until after I graduated [next quarter.] I’m so glad we didn’t. I love being married, and I love that I can use his name on my degree when I finally get out of here.”

Aside from staying within your budget, it’s good to make sure you’re ready for such a commitment.

“Get married when you are in love with someone and you are ready,” said Sage Emry-Smith, a first year student in the Evans School of Public Affairs Master’s Program. While her Evans School peers use their summer to complete a required internship, Sage will wed her longtime sweetheart, David Moon.

“We thought about waiting but there’s always something that comes up,” she said. “If it’s not school, it’s work or family.

Emry-Smith and Moon annoyed one another in high school, but when he was sent to Iraq, she wrote him letters and postcards to lift his spirits. Upon his return from the fray, it took a single official date before they knew they were meant to be, and Emry-Smith began her program already engaged.

Emily Griffin, unlike Emry-Smith, began her time at the UW with anything but marriage on her mind.

“I was going through a bad break-up and my friend dragged me to choir practice and the choir decided to adopt me as a member,” she said. “Mark was a basso. I was an alto and I was not in any way looking for love, having set a goal for myself to stay single for 6 months.”

Despite her well-laid plans, it wasn’t long before Mark Griffin proposed to Emily Griffin under an umbrella in Kerry Park. When she said yes, she realized that the future she had imagined was about to change.

“My plans have changed a lot,” Emily Griffin said. “Getting married wasn’t anything I ever saw in my future.

After my program, I planned on moving somewhere else in the country where the teaching competition isn’t so fierce. Mark’s job, however, is just a perfect fit for him. It never occurred to me to ask him to move. Instead, I will be looking for a job here and if I apply to any Ph.D. programs they will need to be in the area as well.”

Emry-Smith’s plans have not taken such a drastic change.

“Our plans are the same, making the decision to get married hasn’t altered anything,” Emry-Smith said. “I think that when you commit yourself to a relationship you agree to incorporate another person’s dreams with your own which means that you are going to have to compromise somewhere along the way.”

She hopes to get a job that allows her family to live abroad, and Moon is willing to follow his dreams in whatever place her job takes them. While the Griffins find compromise and happiness by staying at home, Emry-Smith and Moon will find it by leaving home far behind them.

This flu season, here’s to finding someone who will hold your hair back while you puke. A love like that may not be romantic, and it may not be engagement fodder, but it is a love which certainly bears appreciating. Congratulations to all on surviving the worst of the flu season and the Hallmark holiday.

Reach reporter Elizabeth Brady at features@dailyuw.com