When anthropology professor Kirk French turned 30, all he wanted for his birthday was some hot sauce and tequila. Fellow anthropology professor Laurel Pearson didn’t quite get that message.

Instead, she showed up to the party at French’s cabin in the woods near Tussey Mountain with homemade chocolate cupcakes. The two had never formally met, — which explains Pearson’s decision to bring dessert — but they had mutual friends and classmates.

“I remember thinking, ‘That’s kinda sweet, but weird…no one else is bringing cupcakes,'” French said. “I’m thinking, ‘Where’s the tequila?'”

The fact that French was looking for tequila shouldn’t surprise anyone. He’s best known at Penn State for creating the popular ANTH 140, a course more informally known as Booze & Culture that studies the anthropology of alcohol. French came up with the idea a few years back after a lecture about alcohol while teaching an introductory archeology course at Penn State.

Pearson, on the other hand, has a Ph.D. in genetics. Last fall, she too designed a course of her own, ANTH 210N: Anthropology, Ancestry, and You, which teaches students how to interpret their family trees through the analysis of genetic ancestry tests.

While he may not have received his preferred gift at his 30th birthday party, French did receive something else. The infamous chocolate cupcakes would go on to spark a conversation, friendship, and later romance between the two strangers and then-grad students at Penn State.

“The way I remember it is, we just sat in the kitchen and talked for like an hour or more while [she] was holding the cupcakes,” French said. “I swear I felt like nothing else happened.”

Unbothered by all of the people and things around them, the two delved deep into conversation. French was particularly fascinated with Pearson’s love for Uncle Tupelo music and the fact that she — unlike anyone else — knew which songs were playing in the background.

After the birthday party, the two became close friends and spent a lot of time with each other and the other ten members of their graduate school cohort. Constant trips to The Phyrst and Zeno’s became important traditions, helping the group form a tight-knit bond.

This bond was so tight, in fact, that the twelve friends would go on to generate five different married couples. It’s just that some couples, like Pearson and French, waited longer to unite than others.

“Our relationship took kind of a long time to really happen,” Pearson said. “But it was funny because we had some friends in grad school who were just, like, determined to get us together.”

The chemistry was always there, and it didn’t go unnoticed by those around them. Yet it wasn’t until much later, when a massive fire broke out on Tussey Mountain, that the two ventured out to inspect the damage for their first “official” date — quite fitting for a couple of archaeologists.

“It looked crazy, like scorched earth insanity out there,” French said. “So I was up here, and I asked her if she wanted to check it out.”

Afterward, the two indulged in conversation and, of course, some tequila, before ending the night in Bellefonte for dinner. From this moment, their relationship took off, and the rest is history.

Fast forward to 2009 when French proposed to Pearson over dinner at the Elk Creek Cafe in Millheim, Pennsylvania. The restaurant, which was usually only open Wednesday through Fridays for brunch, happened to be open for dinner this particular Tuesday night in December.

But Pearson and French went on an adventure before making it to the dinner table that night. Pearson hadn’t mailed any of her Christmas gifts, and it was only three days before the big holiday. So the couple ended up stopping at three post-offices before arriving at their final destination.

“He was being incredibly patient — which is not typical Kirk French,” Pearson said. She soon learned why.

During their dinner, French told Pearson that his late dog, Dusty, had always been his best friend, but now, that best friend was her. He popped the question with an antique ring he had purchased in Belgium, on the night of Dusty’s birthday. On October 14, 2012, the couple officially tied the knot at none other than the Elk Creek Cafe.

They now have a daughter, Viola, who just turned five and started kindergarten.

Although they enjoy a “happily ever after” that includes them guest-lecturing at each other’s classes, Pearson and French took two very different paths that ultimately led them to a life together.

French came to Penn State after spending more than six years doing fieldwork in Mexico studying the Maya Mesoamerican archeology, deforestation, agriculture, and climate change, while Pearson had previously worked as a contract archeologist in Hawaii.

“The goal was always to come here and get a Ph.D. and go get a job somewhere else…and it just didn’t work out that way,” French said. “I’m pretty happy with how things turned out.”