A 2025 National Library Week update: The 2017 Periodical Room proposal

As 2025 National Library Week unfolds, we're looking back fondly on a fairy-tale moment from January 2017, when Joel Lynch proposed to Cara Szymanski in the historic reading room in Parks Library. Nearly eight years later, Cara and Joel updated us on what's been happening since their story began.

On a quiet January day in 2017, the Historic Reading Room at Parks Library glowed. Painted eyes of Iowa State’s past presidents gazed down as Joel Lynch knelt before Cara Szymanski, soft music filling the air. “Will you marry me?” he asked, his voice steady despite a few nerves.

Looking back now, Cara recalls what went through her mind. The dress was a perfect replica of Belle’s dress from Beauty and the Beast, Cara’s favorite movie. “I was confused, then shocked,” she’d later say, welling up as the moment sank in. “Seeing that dress is what I remember most vividly.”

Months before the proposal, Joel had hatched the plan. “Cara told me early on that Belle descending the stairs in her yellow dress was her favorite scene,” he recalls. The Beauty and the Beast theme was a no-brainer. He bought a sewing machine, scoured video tutorials, and hunched over it in a basement for hours, stitching the gown in secret. “I started listening to audiobooks then,” he said, “and haven’t stopped since.” The process was a mix of trial and error—ruffling was easier than expected, but doing it well was another story. “I tell people not to look too closely at the dress,” Joel said, downplaying the effort that Cara marvels at.

The library wasn’t simply a backdrop—it was personal. “Cara’s a prolific reader, so libraries were always on my list,” Joel said. He’d first considered the Des Moines Law Library, but their “no” led him to Parks, a place tied to their story. “It’s where we went the first time I visited Joel in Iowa,” Cara says. Joel enlisted then library staff members Kathy Parsons and Brenda Currier, who embraced his “unusual request” with zeal. “I was surprised how accommodating they were,” he says. They secured a private corner, staged the gown, and even arranged a spot for Cara to change—details Joel checked days before.

That day, Cara unknowingly made it easy. “I suggested we go to the library to look at books,” she laughs. Joel’s sister Leah, there to snap photos, nearly blew the surprise. “I saw her down a hallway and frantically waved her off,” Joel recalled, as Cara, distracted by books, missed it entirely. When they rounded the corner to the Periodical Room, the gown gleamed under the library’s lights. “It added so much to the look,” Joel says. Cara said yes, and their fairy tale began.

A year later, in January 2018, they wed at the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul, Minnesota. Roses nodded to Beauty and the Beast, and Cara’s sister sang her Maid of Honor speech to “Be Our Guest.” A blizzard trimmed their guest list in half, but Cara gets the big picture, “Seven years later, I see it didn’t matter. I married Joel—that was the point.”

Life has since swept them into new chapters. After Joel earned his doctorate from Iowa State in May 2024, they moved to Minnesota with their two girls, Molly (3) and Eloise (1). “We’re in the trenches,” Cara says. Joel, now an engineer, amazes her as a dad. “Our girls are obsessed with him—he’d do anything for them,” she says. He still has the original bolt of fabric from the gown, musing, “Maybe I’ll make matching dresses for the girls someday.” 

Cara, working in mental health, treasures small traditions like watching Beauty and the Beast with Molly. “I tried the dress on for her once,” she says. “It was sweet.”

They’ve revisited the Reading Room briefly since, a final stop before leaving Iowa. “Happily ever after,” she says, “is Joel listening to my day, accepting me as I am.” For Joel, it’s “seeing our kids grow up.” Their advice to engaged couples? “Run your own race,” Joel urges. “Don’t stress the wedding,” Cara adds. “It’s one day—marriage is the rest.” 

From a historic library reading room to a full life, Joel and Cara’s story—born at Parks—continues to unfold, stitch by stitch, page by page.