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PrintKatie Shirley & Jackson Sarver
Adam Lowe Photography
BalletMet dancer Jackson Sarver and his wife, Katie Shirley, probably wouldn’t have predicted that a game of kickball three years ago would lead to romance. The couple exchanged vows April 1 at the Columbus Athenaeum.
So, what happened during that kickball game? Shirley, who works as a benefit analyst at Mercer Health & Benefits, decided to join a kickball team with some work friends, and she and Sarver ended up on the same squad. “I don’t think either one of us had played since second grade,” says Sarver, laughing.
He adds that it wasn’t exactly love at first . . . kick. “I thought Katie hated me for a while.” Shirley explains: “At the time, his hair was very long and he looked like a biker, skater guy. When I asked what he did for a living and he told me he was a ballet dancer, I thought he was just being a jerk.” Eventually, friends convinced Shirley that Sarver wasn’t joking. The two developed a friendship and started to date several months later.
Then last year, Shirley told Sarver about a vintage ring she had found at Grandview Mercantile. Even though they hadn’t seriously talked about getting married anytime soon, Sarver went to the store to check it out and ended up buying it. He surprised Shirley with a proposal at their home during a barbecue with both of their families.
When they chose April Fools’ Day for their wedding, Sarver made a special request of his best man, who, after Shirley walked down the aisle, reenacted the famous “mawwiage” scene from The Princess Bride. And Shirley’s maid of honor saved the day when she sprinted a few blocks to the Renaissance hotel minutes before the wedding to pick up the handwritten vows Shirley had left behind.
The couple agrees their favorite moment was seeing each other for the first time during the ceremony. “We were both overwhelmed with happy emotions,” says Sarver. BalletMet’s schedule prevented the newlyweds from taking a honeymoon immediately following their wedding, but it looks as if things turned out OK. Sarver was asked by an old friend to participate in a production in Hawaii for two weeks in May, so Shirley will be joining him there.
Sarver says he and Shirley work well together not only because they are so compatible, but there’s also “an eagerness to learn and continue to better myself because of her.”
The newlyweds reside in Columbus.
