{"id":76116,"date":"2017-02-14T10:36:50","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T15:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=76116"},"modified":"2020-02-14T09:25:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-14T14:25:43","slug":"hold-forever-black-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brent Beumel \u20191<\/strong>4 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u20191<\/strong>3 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had just popped the question at a bed and breakfast.<\/p>\n

Giddy off the high of their engagement, they started imagining what their wedding day would look like. Who would officiate the ceremony?<\/p>\n

Without a moment\u2019s hesitation, long-time UCF sports and exercise science instructor Jeff Biddle emerged at the top of their list.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s what every professor should be to a student. He doesn\u2019t want you to just come in and get your degree and walk out. You could go into his office anytime he was in there and talk with him. He loved to get to know people and what you wanted to do with your life,\u201d La Londe says. \u201cHe was the first person we thought of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The now-Beumels met in 2012 in a biomechanics class at UCF\u2019s South Lake campus in Clermont.<\/p>\n

They started out as friends. Bryanna had plans to move to Portland, Oregon, at summer\u2019s end. After a month, their relationship progressed to more than friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I didn\u2019t go! And it worked out well,\u201d she says with a smile.<\/p>\n

The two finished their sports and exercise science degrees, frequently driving the hefty commute out to Clermont \u2013 La Londe drove 70 miles one way from her mother\u2019s home in Merritt Island — because they loved the program and professors, especially Biddle.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery class that he taught in our major, I tried to sign up with him. He made the drive out to Clermont worth it,\u201d says Beumel, who lived less than eight miles from UCF\u2019s main campus at the time. \u201cIt was an hour to get out there but you knew when you\u2019d have him at 8 o\u2019clock in the morning it was going to be fun. It wasn\u2019t just staring at a PowerPoint for an hour and a half. You were interacting with him and all the other students. He made it enjoyable. He\u2019s not one we\u2019ll forget.\u201d<\/p>\n

La Londe , a first-generation student, graduated in 2013 and is now working in the rehabilitation department at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children. Beumel graduated a year later as a second-generation UCF alumnus.<\/p>\n

As fate would have it, Beumel\u2019s parents met while they were students at UCF at a house party on Alafaya Trail. His mother, Linda, graduated in 1983 with a bachelor\u2019s in chemistry. They didn\u2019t expect that decades later, their son would mirror their love story and find his future wife while at school.<\/p>\n

\u201cUCF helped make me who I am. The experiences I had through sport and exercise molded me into the trainer and coach that I am now,\u201d says Beumel, who works at CrossFit Firebase in Orlando. \u201cI view it as a starting off point. That\u2019s where we met. It\u2019s where my parents met, as well. It holds a special value in that to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple married Thanksgiving weekend in 2016 at Club Lake Plantation in Apopka with a black-and-gold-bow-tie-clad Biddle as their officiant.<\/p>\n

Their grandparents gave the couple their wedding rings and served as ring bearers in their ceremony.<\/p>\n

The gold band of Beumel\u2019s ring belonged to his grandfather. It had to be pieced back together after it was cut off his grandfather\u2019s finger following a motorcycle accident.<\/p>\n

When the jeweler melded it together, he chose a black zirconium to sandwich it, making it the perfect color combination for Beumel\u2019s UCF roots.<\/p>\n

As the couple anticipated, Biddle was a hit among the family in attendance. He was as comical and engaging in the ceremony as he is in the classroom.<\/p>\n

In order to perform the ceremony, the professor needed to obtain a notary license. He told the couple to leave the logistics to him.<\/p>\n

Biddle, who makes it a point to attend as many of his students\u2019 commencement ceremonies as he can, says that the request for him to serve as their officiant was an honor and a privilege.<\/p>\n

That realization hit him even harder when he recently watched their wedding video.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir kids and their kids\u2019 kids are going to be watching that video. I\u2019m permanently a part of their lives and their family\u2019s lives from now on. And that\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Biddle says. \u201cI am thrilled that they asked me, thrilled that they wanted me to do it. It is certainly one of the bigger moments to happen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

What he may not realize is that he secured a special place in their lives a long time ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a first-generation degree seeker \u2013 professors are who I looked up to for guidance and direction throughout the whole process. Dr. Biddle was a role model for me,\u201d La Londe says. \u201cFinding what you love to do may change over the years and that\u2019s OK. That is something I learned from him. I don\u2019t even know if I\u2019ve ever told him this, but it\u2019s how I feel about him and what he\u2019s done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brent Beumel \u201914 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u201913 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had just popped the question at a bed and breakfast. Giddy off the high of their engagement, they started imagining what their wedding day would look like. Who would officiate the ceremony? Without a…","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":76118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,27],"tags":[3930,202],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-76116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-student-life","tag-regional-campuses","tag-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\nTo Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Brent Beumel \u201914 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u201913 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Brent Beumel \u201914 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u201913 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-14T15:36:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-14T14:25:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zenaida Kotala\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zenaida Kotala\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Zenaida Kotala\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e\"},\"headline\":\"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-14T15:36:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-14T14:25:43+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/\"},\"wordCount\":863,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Regional Campuses\",\"UCF Alumni\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Colleges & Campus\",\"Community\",\"Student Life\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2017\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/\",\"name\":\"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-14T15:36:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-02-14T14:25:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e\"},\"description\":\"Brent Beumel \u201914 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u201913 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"mans hand overlapping womans hand both with wedding rings\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today\",\"description\":\"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e\",\"name\":\"Zenaida Kotala\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Zenaida Kotala\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/zkotala\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"University of Central Florida\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold","description":"Brent Beumel \u201914 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u201913 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold","og_description":"Brent Beumel \u201914 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u201913 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/","og_site_name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF","article_published_time":"2017-02-14T15:36:50+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-14T14:25:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Zenaida Kotala","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UCF","twitter_site":"@UCF","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zenaida Kotala","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/"},"author":{"name":"Zenaida Kotala","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e"},"headline":"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold","datePublished":"2017-02-14T15:36:50+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-14T14:25:43+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/"},"wordCount":863,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg","keywords":["Regional Campuses","UCF Alumni"],"articleSection":["Colleges & Campus","Community","Student Life"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2017","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/","name":"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-02-14T15:36:50+00:00","dateModified":"2020-02-14T14:25:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e"},"description":"Brent Beumel \u201914 and his fiancee Bryanna La Londe \u201913 were driving back to Central Florida in November 2015 from a weekend trip Savannah, where Brent had","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428.jpeg","width":900,"height":675,"caption":"mans hand overlapping womans hand both with wedding rings"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"To Have and To Hold, Forever Black and Gold"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"University of Central Florida News | UCF Today","description":"Central Florida Research, Arts, Technology, Student Life and College News, Stories and More","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/4f0fdedfa744a8bfddd06132e6ce9b5e","name":"Zenaida Kotala","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b942e6b48d92cfeb8c940ffaf4efc2f77419a530cc2bd85f06c36bbffea9b02a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Zenaida Kotala"},"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/author\/zkotala\/"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/hold-forever-black-gold\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"University of Central Florida"}]}},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/20\/files\/2017\/02\/rings-e1487086583428-300x225.jpeg","primary_category":5,"primary_tag":3930,"author_byline":"Jenna Marina","acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76116"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106773,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76116\/revisions\/106773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76116"},{"taxonomy":"tu_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tu_author?post=76116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}