Country star and Mississippi native Hardy (full name Michael Hardy) met future wife Caleigh Ryan in 2018 the new-fashioned way: he slid into her DMs.
"We just started talking about San Diego and how she goes to Ole Miss and my family's Mississippi State thing," Hardy told People. "We kept in contact until I had a show nearby her school and told her I'd love to meet her there."
Hardy's next show in the area was at the Lyric Theater in Oxford, Miss.
"Once we met each other, there really was no one else," Ryan told People. "We never entertained anyone else. It was just so easy."
"I loved her after the third time that we ever hung out," Hardy added. "It was the realest thing I had ever experienced. I actually told her I loved her at Stagecoach, out in the crowd."
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Fast-forward to Aug. 2021, when Hardy proposed to Ryan at the same venue.
Hardy's social media post announcing the engagement incorporated a line from "Boyfriend:" "I'm not her boyfriend anymore."
The red carpet regulars wed on Oct. 29, 2022 at Nashville's Diamond Creek Farms.
"It's like huge, green pastures," Ryan told People about the venue ahead of the wedding. "It's a beautiful stone venue. It has an outside ceremony space that looks out to all the trees and Tennessee landscape. It'll be moody."
People reported that the couple tied the knot in front of 350 guests. The star-studded list of attendees included country music notables ERNEST, Dierks Bentley, Lauren Alaina, Devin Dawson, RaeLynn, Brantley Gilbert, Mitchell Tenpenny, Lindsay Ell, Travis Denning, Renee Blair, Jameson Rodgers and Morgan Wallen. Regular Hardy collaborator Thomas Rhett was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.
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Ryan set the bar high for her custom-designed wedding dress following appearances on red carpets with Hardy at the ACM Awards and other industry events.
"We go to a lot of awards shows where you get to wear beautiful dresses, so it really was about finding my wedding dress versus just another beautiful dress," she told People. "That was my biggest obstacle. So I ended up creating a dress from scratch."
Good-natured teasing about the prospect of marriage inspired the "Give Heaven Some Hell" singer to write "Boyfriend," a track from his debut album, 2020's A-Rock.
"We were in the pool, picking at each other about something — we're always picking at each other — and I said something like, 'Fine, I don't want to be your boyfriend anymore,'" he told People in 2021. "Then she said something along the lines of, 'It better be because you want to be my husband' with a wink. I looked at her, and instead of turning that into a really sweet moment, I said, 'This is a great song!'"
