On their one year wedding anniversary, H and Kelsey stood in as models for this inspired elopement. Through rain, this creative team hiked along a 2-mile trail to capture this adventurous elopement inspiration.
How did you meet?
H: In 2015, I graduated college from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I played softball there for five years and was applying to Physician Assistant schools at the time. During my junior year, and while I awaited application responses, I got into fitness and worked out, and decided to start an online coaching website and promote it through my Instagram. I moved to Oklahoma for the summer, where my family was at the time. Within the first week of launching my website in August, a girl I used to play softball against reached out and became my first client.
About a week after I gave her a workout program to follow, I got a DM on Instagram from a girl named Kelsey Stacy, an elementary school teacher in Cleveland, Mississippi. She was also interested in purchasing my program because she had done one of my workouts with my first client. I was so excited that I had two clients within two weeks of launching my little business. In the first five days of talking to Kelsey (about workouts and nutrition), I realized that we were talking all day, every day, not just about exercises and the like.
From Kelsey’s perspective, the only reason she had messaged me and started talking to me (and the reason she even bought my program) was because she thought I was hot and wanted to talk to me! I, naturally, had no idea of this until years later. So I told her that I would need to keep things professional until after her six-week program ended. She essentially said, “forget the program then,” and ten days later, I was driving to Cleveland, Mississippi, from Oklahoma to meet her for the first time.
We fell in love over FaceTime in a matter of days, and I couldn’t go another day without meeting her and being with her. After a six-hour drive, on August 27, 2015, I arrived at her apartment around 10 pm (on a school night), and she was waiting for me in the parking lot. Our first hug was nothing short of magical. It didn’t feel like we were meeting; it felt like we were being reunited. Our hearts were pounding against each other. I’m not sure if we hugged in the parking lot for minutes or hours. Time stopped at that moment, and I knew she was the one. I asked her to be my girlfriend that night, and the rest is history!
What is your favorite memory together?
H: This is so hard because our engagement and wedding are such monumental moments and memories for us. Still, I’m going to say being in London for our honeymoon this past February. Our Harry Potter proposal in October 2018 really inspired us to go to London. We even talked about getting married there at one point. So being there together and indulging ourselves with all of the tea, vegan pastries, telephone booths, and Harry Potter references we could handle was such a dream, especially retrospectively, with our trip having been right before the world shut down.
Honestly, we loved just walking the streets, seeing all of the history and the architecture, and listening to the accents. It’s by far our favorite place we’ve ever been to.
What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome together?
Within the first two weeks of dating, I was driving back and forth from Cleveland, MS to Oklahoma- we went through a LOT. Kelsey’s baby cousin passed away from neuroblastoma, and her school was put on lockdown for an active shooter on the college campus her school was on. She was outed on social media to her school (a private, religious school), our relationship was going to be announced at a board meeting to “decide if Kelsey could stay teaching there.” She told them she’d leave in December. And so we were pushed to leaving that town together and moving in together, all within weeks of dating.
It’s so crazy to look back on, but at that moment, there was no doubt she was the one. We were just doing whatever we needed to do to be together. We’ve been through a lot, and everything has pushed us closer together. In July 2018, Kelsey’s dad passed away from end-stage liver disease by alcoholism, and that was one of the hardest things we’ve been through together. We are a team, and when one is weak, the other is strong.
Tell us your favorite thing about one another.
Kelsey’s favorite thing about Heather is how witty she is. “She’s hilarious! She remembers everything and then brings it up again later in a hilarious way. I love that she can be so weird and goofy with me, and we have so much fun together.”
Heather’s favorite thing about Kelsey is how warm, loving, and caring she is. “When Kelsey walks in a room, people notice because her smile lights up the place and her joy is contagious. You just want to be around her 24/7, and to know her is to love her. I love that I can be 100% myself and be loved unconditionally by her. I’ve been going through a journey of self and gender discovery. And she has been nothing but the most supportive and loving partner I could dream of. Simply put, I love the way she loves me.”
What’s in the future for you both?
Babies, houses, and new business ventures! We have tried at-home insemination a couple of times and weren’t successful. So we will try IVF sometime around June 2021, and we hope to have twins! We are also going to be looking to buy our first home together in the fall of 2021. As full-time content creators, we are also making vision boards of dream projects and business ventures to start in the next 3-5 years. We are always looking ahead and setting goals together.
Photography & Planning Wild Coast Photography
Blanket Trek Light Gear
Dress BHLDN
Florals & Design The Slow Cult
Vow Books Little Canoe
