The bride is the daughter of Jerrold and Kathryn Thompson of Ypsilanti. She is a 1989 graduate of Ypsilanti High School. She attended Wesleyan University and Sarah Lawrence College in Florence, Italy. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2001, with a bachelor's degree in resource policy and behavior. She is a youth education director and communications and development director for Northern Alaska Environmental Center in Fairbanks.

The groom is the son of Frank William Pavlovcic of Lorain, Ohio, and Carol Lee of Brighton. He is a 1990 graduate of Brighton High School. He earned his doctorate in osteopathic medicine from Michigan State University in 2001, and completed psychiatric residency training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2005. He is a psychiatrist for the U.S. Army at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. He is currently deployed to Iraq.