Jody Summey first met Kevin Turner at former G Bar in Ybor in May 2010.
“I drove my Rolls Royce into the parking lot and Kevin was sitting in his little Toyota,” Jody shares. “He was the most handsome man I had ever seen. I pulled up next to him and rolled my window down and said hi. It turns out he was just out of a bad relationship and was trying to build up the courage to walk into the bar. We talked for hours that first night.”
That set the tone for their long-term romance. Now looking back, the two quickly pinpointed specific moments each of them knew the other was the man they would marry.
“I realized I wanted Kevin to be my husband when I had a family emergency with my father in Georgia,” Jody, a Tampa native, says. “He dropped everything and drove all day to get there to comfort me and be by my side. I realized then how much he loved me and my family.”
“I was bitten by a spider in 2014 and ended up in the emergency room,” says Kevin, who moved from Searcy, Ark. “The doctor came in and asked if Jody was family, because if he wasn’t, he couldn’t be in the room. He told the doctor he was my boyfriend. The doctor still made him leave. Family only. Jody was there day and night. He didn’t leave me. And when I got home he took care of me and made me realize that I was worthy of someone loving me.”
Jody popped the question to Kevin. “But Kevin had special matching rings made from silver dollars,” Jody says. “We said that money would never come between us and these rings symbolized that.”
The two officially tied the knot on May 13, 2016, onboard a Yacht Starship Wedding Cruise. The two walked down the aisle to “When the Right One Comes Along” by Clare Bowen. Kevin baked the wedding cake himself.
“Kevin was the one that 80 percent planned the wedding down to the finest detail,” Jody says. “He made the cake about 10 times before he thought it was perfect. He didn’t get upset or cry or yell at all to anyone. On the day of the ceremony, we were standing together about five minutes before the music was to begin and we would walk down the aisle. Kevin looked at me and said, ‘Is this real? Are you really here and going to be my husband?’ Then he broke down and cried.”
“I held him for a few minutes. I am a teddy bear and I cried a few times leading up to the wedding,” Jody laughs. “I also broke down and cried during our vows to each other.”
