Love Stories

Kellie + Jason

We originally met through Montana High School basketball. He was a referee and he reffed several of my high school games during my senior year. We officially officially met through work about an eon ago! We both happened to work at the same place, but on his first day there, I told him, “I think you reffed me in high school.” We had a lot of laughs about how that made him feel old, but fast forward almost 30 years later since my senior year and almost 20 years of dating later on in life, and here we are! 

We got engaged in our very favorite restaurant in Kauai, Hawaii - La Spezia! It’s the cutest little Italian restaurant that we fell in love with. We’ve been to Kauai a dozen or more times, usually with our family, and we go to La Spezia during every single trip. During our last trip, it was just us. We made reservations on our 2nd night in Kauai, he got our server to help video our moment as he got down on one knee, and the entire restaurant cheered when I said yes. It was perfect, and simple, and special! He was acting SO nervous while we were having drinks before dinner and I couldn’t figure out why! It completely made sense later on in the night. It made me laugh that he was nervous that after almost 20 years together, he wasn’t sure if I would say yes or not! 

We look forward to saying I DO with just Jason’s daughter, Kaitlyn, his son, Jaxon, and our 2 granddaughters, Ivy and Wren, as part of our wedding party. This is a second marriage for both of us, and there have been trials and tribulations as we’ve progressed through our relationship - including 5+ years of a long distance relationship when he moved to Rapid City, SD to be close to his kids while they were in school and me moving across the country for a couple of years to take another job. It was hard, but it made us stronger. Having them there for this moment with us, and supporting us in such a lovely setting, means more to us than they’ll ever really know. The most special people in our lives will be there with us!