It was love at first sight for Lady A’s Charles Kelley and his wife Cassie McConnell Kelley.
“I’m not gonna say it was like a movie, but it was like a movie,” Kelley shares of the couple’s first meeting.
Unbeknownst to him, his bandmate Hillary Scott had secretly planned to set him up with Cassie when the band decided to go to dinner together as a group. Cassie’s sister was dating Lady A’s keyboard player at the time, so she tagged along for the evening.
Although there was a group of about 15-20 at dinner, Charles remembers locking eyes with Cassie all night long.
“We’re kind of looking at each other, and we’re like, Holy moly,’” the singer recalls. “She’s the prettiest girl that had ever paid me any attention. It was one of those things where we just started all as a big group going bar-hopping, and we never left each other’s side. We just started talking. Every bar we went to, it was like us going into the corner talking. It was just love at first sight.”
He wasted no time asking her out. “The very next day, I called her up and said, ‘Can I take you on an official date? I’d love to take you out to dinner.’”
They’ve been together ever since. Kelley proposed in December of 2008 and the couple said “I do” on a beach in the Bahamas on July 6, 2009.
In the summer of 2015, the couple shared the news that they were expecting their first child. They were beyond thrilled with the news and later revealed that the pregnancy came after two years of fertility issues.
“When you’re young and healthy and you’re ready to start a family you just don’t envision there will be any problems doing that,” Cassie shared with ABC News. She also revealed that their doctor gave them a one percent chance of conceiving a child without doing in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Cassie and Charles “never stopped hoping.” Right before they planned to begin the IVF process, they conceived naturally.
Ward Charles joined their family on February 11, 2016.
“We feel like our life just began today and are so grateful for a healthy baby boy in our arms,” the new parents shared in a joint statement.
To this day, Charles and Cassie appear to be happier than ever. Fans can follow Kelley on Instagram to continue to watch their sweet love story unfold.
