Teacher Wedding: Travis Meiers Incorporates His Third Grade Class Into His Big Day

When third grade teacher Travis Meiers tied the knot with fiancée Racheal Yeager in April 2013, his class of 22 students wasn't in attendance, but they played a role in the Big Day festivities anyway.

 

 

Meiers teaches at Learning Without Limits, a small public charter school in Oakland, Calif. Yeager -- whom his students came to know as "Ms. Racheal" -- frequently spent time in the classroom and had developed a relationship with the kids. When Meiers told his third graders that he was going to marry Ms. Racheal, the kids were very excited.

 

 

"It was a big deal, and with reactions such as one student saying 'Awesome! What should I wear?' I realized that there was no way I wasn't going to somehow involve them in the ceremony," he told HuffPost Weddings in an email.

 

 

Meiers engaged his students in a class discussion about the meaning and importance of marriage and eventually arrived at the conclusion that the most significant element of a wedding is the act of standing up in front of all of your friends and family and declaring your feelings for one another. That gave way to a writing assignment with the prompt, "What do you think Ms. Racheal and Mr. Meiers should promise to one another when they get married?" Check out some of the sweetest and most hilarious responses -- which Meiers' brother later read aloud at the ceremony -- below.

"Mr. Meiers promises to give Ms. Racheal 8 billion kisses every day."

"Ms. Racheal promises to travel all around the world with Mr. Meiers in a giant car the he bought for her."

"Mr. Meiers promises to buy Ms. Racheal a Lamborghini, and let her keep the change."

"Ms. Racheal promises never to change because Mr. Meiers likes her just the way she is."

"Mr. Meiers promises to always sit by Ms. Racheal on roller coasters."

"Mr. Meiers promises to buy Ms. Racheal a Komodo dragon."

"Mr. Meiers promises to be more like Johnny Depp."

Based on the students' enthusiasm during the writing activity, Meiers thought the class would enjoy another wedding-related activity and had them create the place cards for his reception.

"My kids got really into customizing the name cards according to the personal interests of whomever they were making a card for, so they were asking me tons of hilarious questions about my family and friends," he said. "It all had a really fun and organic feel to it, very appropriate for the kind of wedding we wanted to have."

Meiers and Yeager tied the knot on April 27th, 2013 at the Annapolis Winery in Annopolis, Calif.