These Sorority Sisters Will Soon Be Married—To Each Other

It's the stuff of men's lesbian fantasies: Two college girls meet cute at a sorority gathering, then share an unexpectedly romantic night in the dorms. But for Laura Leigh Semon and Samantha Goettlich, the story didn't end there.

Instead, the real-life sorority sisters embarked upon a relationship that, nine years later, would still be going strong. Now the two women are living in New York, planning their wedding and blogging about the preparations on 2brides2be.com. They just celebrated their engagement with a cocktail bash, and shared the story of their courtship with New York Magazine online, nymag.com.

The couple thought it would be fun to share their story. "We also discussed the fact that total strangers were going to get some botched version of our relationship and feel like they could judge us," Semon, 27, an MFA writing student, told Yahoo! Shine. "We did it anyway; we're not concerned with people we will never meet, we're concerned with those we love."

While tales of girls experimenting with each other sexually while in college-sometimes nicknamed "lesbians until graduation," or "LUGs"-are not uncommon, those about women who wind up staying together are a bit more rare.

"I guess it's still the idea that college isn't 'the real world,'" notes Trish Bendix, managing editor of AfterEllen.com, a lesbian pop-culture site, about the "LUG" phenomenon. "I think it's a lot easier for some people to embrace parts of themselves when they feel less judgment, and college provides them that opportunity. This sounds like I'm saying every woman is a secret lesbian, and I'm not. I think everyone has the capacity to fall for another human being, but there are different levels and depths that decide its strength or its future."

In this case, that depth of feeling took the women by surprise.

"Laura ended up being my big sister, even though we were the same year," Goettlich, 28, recalls on nymag.com about their time at Emerson College, where they both pledged AEPhi. "We had this really sarcastic relationship; we were pretty mean to each other. I guess it was our way of flirting, but at the time we didn't understand that."

The two were very different, and while Goettlich had already dated both men and women, Semon was freaked out by their mutual attraction. "Sam was a wild teenager; I was president of the Key Club. We were night and day," she says. "Being with a woman hadn't occurred to me in a million years. This was my first time with feelings for anybody, let alone a girl."

Then, one drunken night, Goettlich wound up making out with Semon's best friend, and Semon locked herself in the bathroom crying. Goettlich confronted her and they confessed their feelings for each other, and kissed.

"I know, it's the stuff wet dreams are made of," Semon says. "But really, it was also terrible because it confirmed all my fears that I did have these feelings for her."

What followed was a drama-filled roller coaster that involved cheating on both sides, sorority gossip, two breakups, and an eventual coming back together that was cemented by various life changing events-the death of Goettlich's mother in 2011 followed by an accident in which Semon lost her ear.

They attribute much of the heartache between them to conflicts over sexuality, especially on Semon's part. After their final breakup, she recalls, "I finally started to accept that I had found love with Sam. Who cares where or with whom! We got back together, one last time, and that was that."

Goettlich proposed to Semon on the beach in August with an adorable homemade video (Goettlich runs a production company, Penny Lane Pictures), and even recorded the live engagement (which you can see on the blog); now they are planning their wedding, and blogging about details from cupcakes to dresses.

"It's quite freeing to put all of that out there," Semon told Yahoo! Shine about going so public. "We're not held down by our regrets. Life is a series of peaks and valleys for all people, regardless of sexual orientation. We are imperfect humans who are perfect for each other and we are both very happy with that."