Wedding spotlight: Michael & Amanda Klapchar

Michael Klapchar and Amanda Sommers met during their senior year of high school in May 2005 when they attended an orientation meeting for incoming NEOUCOM students at Youngstown State University. They became good friends in college, but both were in other relationships. After three years of college, they attended medical school at NEOUCOM (now NEOMED). As they were no longer in relationships, they began dating. In February 2013, Michael took Amanda to the Cleveland Zoo for a winter outing. When he picked her up, he was dressed in a monkey costume (monkey was Amanda’s pet name for Michael). It was at the Waterfowl Lake that Michael proposed, and after eight years of knowing each other, Amanda of course said, yes!

On June 7, 2014, Michael and Amanda were married at St. Peter Catholic Church. It could not have been a more perfect day for a wedding until, as the processional music was playing, the best man realized that he had forgotten the wedding rings at the groom’s house. Quickly, Amanda’s mother gave her her wedding band, and her brother gave her her deceased grandfather’s ring. Following the wedding, the rings were quickly retrieved, exchanged and blessed.

The reception was held at Brookside Country Club with music provided by the Kevin DiSimone Quartet. Michael is a second-year resident in emergency medicine at Akron General Medical Center, and Amanda is a second-year resident in psychiatry at Akron General Medical Center and Summa Health System. The couple resides in Canton with their rescued greyhound, Smart.