‘When I Got the Ring … I Got on One Knee Right There in That Jewelry Store’

BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY | Special to the Birmingham Times

TIFFANY & VICTOR HUNTER

Live: McCalla

Married: April 25, 1998

Met: April 1996, in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the Westin Hotel and Resorts in downtown Indianapolis. Victor was working at the front desk when Tiffany and her family traveled in from Illinois to see her younger sister play volleyball. Tiffany, who was 23 years old at the time said she spotted Victor, who was 25, at the time, through the big lobby windows, and told her aunt “I’ve got to have him.”

“As he was checking us in, I was checking him out,” said Tiffany, “and while he was trying to pull up our booking I looked at his name tag and said, ‘So Victor, where is there to go out around here?’ and he [gave really short answers] … and I’m like what’s wrong with his guy, I’m trying to pick you up here,” she laughed. “And when we got to our room my mom said, ‘why are you trying to pick this guy up, he’s trying to do his job.’ And I said, ‘you’ve been married 25 years, I’m trying to find my husband.’”

Moments later, Victor called her hotel room with instructions on the coffee maker “I’m cocky, I knew he wasn’t calling about the coffee maker,” Tiffany said. After she and her family got settled, Tiffany left the room to head down to the lobby and happened to run into Victor on the elevator.

“…lo and behold, there she was on the elevator as I was getting on it and we struck up a conversation. And as we headed down to the lobby, I asked her if she was doing anything later and if she wanted to grab something to eat,” Victor recalled. “My heart was beating fast, but I [pushed through it], and she said ‘yes,’ and I said, ‘I get off at 4:00, meet me in the lobby at 4:30.’”

There was a mall attached to the hotel, and they chose to go there to grab a bite. This made Tiffany feel more comfortable because she didn’t have to travel in the car with a stranger and the mall had a massive crowd of people. “I thought if he tries to take me, I’ll just scream,” she laughed.

First date: The same day, at Circle City Mall in Indianapolis, Indiana. They ate at a restaurant that they can’t recall and had a steak dinner.

“I’m almost 6 foot, I’m 5’11 and 3 quarters, so I like the fact that he was tall, he’s 6’5. I had already started the interview process when we were in the elevator, I asked if he had any kids and if he’d ever been married, and I was relieved that the answers to those questions were ‘no’ because it can be hard to find people without attachments at age 25,” she said. “I was also very intrigued that he did not use profanity, he still doesn’t till this day, and that was something that was very different for me and I appreciate it.”

Victor said he was a little nervous “because she was beautiful [and] I had not met a lot of women who were tall, and I liked all of her features. Tiffany was very talkative and she carried herself very well. She was very articulate, and I was feeling pretty good,” he said. “I didn’t expect my day to go like that, meeting someone from out of town and going to dinner …”

The pair exchanged numbers and Tiffany returned to Illinois the next day. They began conversing on the phone and arranged to meet up again the following month in May. Tiffany drove to Indiana from Illinois between 4-5 hours, after which, Victor decided to use some vacation time and went to Illinois the next month in June to spend time with her.

The turn: August 1997. “I was told I was going to be laid off and I decided I was going to move to Indiana,” Tiffany said. “Victor was living with his brother at the time and he asked if we could move in together, and I said ‘absolutely not,’” said Tiffany, “I told him, ‘I don’t know you like that.’ But we lived in the same complex and basically shared walls. I had my own place and Victor had his own place.”

A year later, Victor’s lease came to an end a couple of months before Tiffany’s and he proposed living together again. This time, Tiffany said yes, but said, “I expect a ring within six months, or I’m going back to Illinois.”

Victor didn’t mind the ultimatum. “I was at a point in my life where I was done dating, I was looking for Mrs. Hunter, and I was ready to settle down,” he said. “I was tired of dating women that weren’t serious, and after Tiffany moved here and we were living in the same apartment complex, I knew she was the one.”

The pair started ring shopping, learned more about each other and worked on a six-month ring timeline, and Victor became determined to propose as soon as he purchased the ring, which happened just two months later. “I wanted to make sure I had things lined up for her,” he said.

Tiffany and Victor Hunter met in 1996 at a hotel in downtown Indianapolis and married in 1998. (Provided Photos)

The proposal: October 1997, at Jewelry 3 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“When I got the ring in my hands, I looked at her and said, ‘it’s time to do it.’ I got on one knee right there in that jewelry store and asked her if she would marry me … She said ‘yes’, and I got up and we hugged and kissed, and [the staff] took a picture of us to add to their book of people who had gotten engaged in the store. We went to dinner to celebrate at Outback Steakhouse.”

“I was excited and I was surprised that he did it right there in the store, but I was happy. The ring was a marquise with baguette diamonds on the side. I still have the ring, but we upgraded after 10 years. [After dinner] I called and told my mom,” Tiffany recalled.

The wedding: In Indianapolis at a church, they can’t recall, officiated by their good friend, Reverend J.R. Reid. Their colors were purple and white. Tiffany said they had “an accelerated wedding” because in April of 1998, they found out they were expecting while in the midst of planning a big wedding and decided to expedite the process and married 24 days later.

“I already had my dress and everything, so it was fine,” Tiffany said.

Most memorable for the bride was the reception her parents threw a few months later. “My mom and dad had a huge reception for us in August of 1998 in Illinois, and I was very pregnant but we had a great time, the reception was beautiful. We didn’t have a huge reception after the wedding, we just had dinner (Victor’s aunt cooked), we had cake and people said some words, but the biggest moment for me was in August 1998 because I was the first one [of the family] to get married, and it was nice that my dad was able to walk me down the aisle and we got to share that moment. Friends and family from Wisconsin and Pennsylvania came in…”

Most memorable for the groom was a mishap at the altar. “We were in the middle of the ceremony and we were lighting the unity candle and right when we lit it the unity candle tilted and fell over and I had to grab it,” Victor said. “It was headed towards Tiffany’s dress and some of the wax fell on her dress… It was memorable because everyone was laughing and scared at the same time, but we got it straightened out and got the ceremony back on track.”

They honeymooned a year later on a 7-day cruise to “Montego Bay, the Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel, Mexico,” said Victor.

Words of wisdom: “Learn to compromise because everyone has a stake in the marriage. Communicate, and continue to date,” said Victor.

“We have been through a lot of rough times in our marriage, and you have to find mentors who are not family members to help you through those times because you need counsel. Even in the tough times we’ve had in our marriage, we’ve managed to stay together and not call it quits because Victor has been my calm. In my head, I’m like ‘ok, I’m done’, but Victor is like ‘I’m not going anywhere’. I’m very hotheaded, so having someone who balances you that way is very important,” said Tiffany.

Happily ever after: The Hunters attend Rock City Church on Valleydale Rd. and have six children: Kyra, 25, Victoria, 23, Gabrielle, 18, twins Chenelle and Cheyenne, 14, and Annalise, 11. They relocated from Aurora, Illinois to Birmingham in June 2000 for a career opportunity with a local non-profit.

Tiffany, 52, is a Woodridge, Illinois native, who attended Western Illinois University on a full athletic scholarship and earned a bachelor’s degree in communications, arts, and sciences. She is an entrepreneur/loc technician with her own business, Loc Your World, in McCalla.

Victor, 54, is a Glasgow, Kentucky native, and attended Western Kentucky University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and studied cyber security at Auburn University where he obtained a certificate of completion. Victor works for CVS Pharmacy as a shift manager in Hoover.

“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.

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