BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY
Special to the Birmingham Times
“You Had Me at Hello’’ highlights married couples and the love that binds them. If you would like to be considered for a future “Hello’’ column, or know someone, please send nominations to Barnett Wright bwright@birminghamtimes.com. Include the couple’s name, contact number(s) and what makes their love story unique.
JEREMY AND JASMINE AARON
Live: Trussville
Married: Oct. 14, 2016
Met: September 2010, at Jacksonville State University. Jeremy saw Jasmine walking on campus with a mutual friend of theirs and was immediately intrigued.
“Jasmine was fine, it was her shape, it was everything,” Jeremy said, “I saw something that I liked, and I was like yeah, I need her… so I asked [their mutual friend] who was the girl you were walking with on campus the other day, and that I wanted to talk to her.”
Once Jasmine learned that Jeremy had reached out about her “I shut that down,” But unknown to Jasmine, they had a matchmaker on their hands. “[Our mutual friend] went behind my back and told him to meet us at [an on-campus eatery],” Jasmine recalled. “And when we walked in I saw Jeremy sitting there, I waved at him and walked right back out,” she laughed. “…and later that day he wrote [their mutual friend] on Facebook and said, ‘I’m done, I’m not gonna try to talk to her again, and I said, ‘ok, I’ll give him a chance…’ I had a type I was used to and he wasn’t that type, but once I got to know him, I liked that he was funny and intellectual at the same time. The next day he came to my dorm, and we sat outside and talked for hours.”
The pair continued to get to know one another until April 2011 when Jasmine was blindsided by a text message from Jeremy.
“He said he wanted to pursue different options, and that there was a girl he was talking to and he wanted to see where that would go,” Jasmine recalled. “I was completely caught off guard.”
By May 2012, Jeremy’s relationship with the “different option” had ended, and he was reminded of his connection with Jasmine by a Twitter post she’d made.
“She posted a picture on Twitter and it gave me the same feelings I had the first time I saw her, and it made me [miss her], so I sent her a message,” Jeremy said.
Jasmine was apprehensive when Jeremy reached back out, and turned to their initial matchmaker, her best friend, for some advice. “I got her approval before I gave Jeremy a second chance.,” Jasmine said.
First date: May 2012, at Regal Cinemas in Trussville. “The movie was horrible,” Jasmine said, “I don’t know why he subjected me to that,” she laughed. “[After the movie] something was wrong with his car, and he had to pop the hood and fix something. I’m sure he was embarrassed, but I didn’t think less of him, I didn’t even have a car at the time.”
“I thought that movie was alright,” Jeremy laughed, “and I was definitely embarrassed about my car… I had to take the battery cable off just to stop the alarm from going off.”
“I thought it was sweet that he came all the way to Trussville to come pick me up and [take me out]. It was the first step to showing me that he wanted to try to build something,” Jasmine said.
The turn: July 3, 2012. “The dates got better, Jeremy was so intentional about planning dates, and in July we had made it official,” Jasmine said. “I remember him telling me that he made a point to plan [thoughtfully] when he was taking me out and that [meant a lot to me].
“I just knew what I wanted for my future, and I knew Jasmine was that missing piece in what I wanted for my family, so I went all in to let her know I was for real,” Jeremy said.
The proposal: “We had already had our first child [Ari, then 1], and we just decided we were getting married. Jeremy just went and bought a ring and gave it to me, and we got married a month later,” Jasmine said.
“We had a house under contract and it was like ‘hey, we’ve been together all this time, we have a child, we’re buying a house, let’s get married,” Jeremy laughed. “I wanted a family and I knew marriage came with it.”
Asked if their “matchmaker” gets the credit for bringing them together, Jasmine said, “Absolutely, but she [Jasmine Clark] never tries to take the credit… she is still my best friend and very active in our children’s lives. If our wedding wasn’t family only, she’d have definitely been there.”
The wedding: At Sybil Temple in Vestavia Hills, officiated by Jeremy’s father’s friend, Pastor Steve Taylor, of Jefferson Avenue Church of Christ. Their colors were navy blue and burgundy. “It was a small, simple wedding, just immediate family,” Jasmine said.
Most memorable for the bride was “sitting down afterward and realizing we were really married, it was so surreal for me,” she said. “We had been together for so long, I met him when I was 17, and now I was 23, and we were married.”
Most memorable for the groom was “saying our vows, and putting the rings on, it made you know it was real,” Jeremy said. “I’ve never been big on weddings, but when we were saying the vows and putting the rings on it was like, ‘wow, we’re really doing this.’”
“We had no honeymoon. We had just closed on our house the day before, and we were broke,” Jasmine said. “We went on our honeymoon five years later in Cancun, Mexico, and that was the best time of our lives.”
Words of wisdom: “Remember that you did not marry yourself. One of the biggest obstacles that I’ve had to overcome was criticizing Jeremy for not handling something the way that I thought we should or the way I would have. Learn to appreciate your spouse for who they are, and how they operate. One of the things that have helped us throughout the years is keeping it fun; I appreciate that we’re never so serious that we can’t find something to laugh and smile about. Always try to find the light, I appreciate the lightheartedness of our marriage,” Jasmine said.
“Don’t try to complicate it just cause you’re married. You did everything right to get to the point of marriage, so keep doing everything that you have been doing. Also, marriage is not a fairytale, it’s what you make it.”
Happily ever after: The Aarons have three children, Ari, 7, Amir, 5, and Aiden, 3.
Jasmine, 30, is a Center Point native, Huffman High School grad, and attended Jacksonville State University where she studied broadcast communications. She completed her bachelor’s degree in communications at the University of Alabama at Birmingham [UAB], and works for a corporate credit union in Birmingham, serving as an operations specialist.
Jeremy, 30, is a West End native, Ramsay High School grad, and attended Jacksonville State University where he studied accounting. He completed his bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of Alabama at Birmingham [UAB] and owns and operates a mobile auto detailing company named Aaron Detailing.
