A lesson in love

The day Nick Maynard and Kelsey Fish closed on their first home together was the day Maynard dropped to one knee and asked Fish to marry him.

The couple stood in the kitchen of their house in Mt. Pleasant in September 2018 when Maynard popped the question. Fish was preoccupied as she looked around their new home and thought about all the renovations that needed to be done. Maynard, on the other hand, surprised her with a house-warming present.

As Fish began to unwrap the gift, it took her a second to realize it was a letter board they had in the duplex they were previously living in, and a second longer to realize Maynard had changed the words from 'You are my person” to 'Will you be my person forever and always?”

As Fish read, Maynard dropped to one knee. Fish was so flustered and excited that she moved too quickly and 'whacked” him on the side of the head with the letter board, she said.

'It was a giant goose-egg on the side of his head for quite a while,” Fish said.

Despite being a little dazed, Maynard continued with his proposal and Fish, of course, said yes.

Friends first

Maynard and Fish met in 2015 through mutual friends while working at the Mt. Pleasant Community School District. Maynard was teaching social studies at Mt. Pleasant Middle School and Fish was teaching second grade at Lincoln Elementary School.

It wasn't love at first sight, however. Maynard and Fish were both in other relationships at the time, and later, Fish moved to Des Moines to pursue another teaching opportunity.

'Even when Kelsey moved away, we were always friends,” Maynard said.

Some may call it a twist of fate, others just dumb luck that Maynard and Fish both ended up single at the same time.

One day in the fall of 2017, Maynard was in the Des Moines area working an Iowa State Game. He reached out to Fish to make plans to see her after the game.

'When he got to my house, the first thing he did as he walked in the door was kiss me,” Fish said.

While Fish may have been a little taken aback by Maynard's forwardness at first, she said she eased her way into it. In that moment, she was already head-over-heels in love with him.

'That's the weirdest part to describe to people,” Maynard said. 'It sounds cliche, but you know when you know. We already had this friendship and thought we would hang out and see if there was anything more.”

They couldn't keep it on the down low for long, however. Later that night, they met up with friends who knew something was up.

'They caught on pretty quickly,” Fish said with a laugh.

Long distance and a reunion

The couple spent eight months in a long-distance relationship before making a decision: Fish would move back to Mt. Pleasant.

Fish moved to Des Moines because she was ready for a change. While she did love it, she missed the small-town feel. Her dream job at Iowa Wesleyan University opened up just in time for her to make the jump. Mt. Pleasant would be Maynard and Fish's home.

Fish moved back to Mt. Pleasant during the summer of 2018.

Maynard now works at Mt. Pleasant Community High School as a social studies teacher, football coach and girls basketball coach. Fish is a services administrator in the teacher education program at IW.

The bling and the dress

Maynard had Fish's ring designed for her.

'Kelsey did a good job of hinting what she would like,” Maynard said with a laugh.

The ring had to be rose gold with no halo, both of which are hard to find, Maynard said.

He had it designed at Kay's Jewelers - a rose gold band with small diamonds and a big diamond in the center.

Fish bought her dress at Sarah's Bridal in Mt. Pleasant.

While she had an idea for what dress she wanted, Fish walked away with something entirely different.

'They were absolutely amazing,” Fish said. 'It's unlike anything I had originally planned to look at.”

The wedding

Maynard and Fish will be getting married on the beach in Montego Bay, Jamaica, on Aug. 9.

From the beginning of their relationship, the couple knew they wanted a destination wedding.

Fish said she never wanted a traditional wedding. 'I feel like everyone does the same thing,” she said. It wasn't until taking a vacation to Jamaica in June 2018, that they looked at each other and knew it was the perfect spot to get married.

'We joked about it at first, and then thought, 'Actually, this might work out,” Maynard said.

'We absolutely fell in love with it,” Fish said.

Most of the wedding-day details will be taken care of by the Iberostar Grand Rose Hall Resort in Jamaica the week of the wedding.

'Everybody asks us how the wedding planning is going, and it's done,” Maynard said.

The cake, the flowers, the tableclothes, even hair and makeup will all be decided the week of the wedding and coordinated by the resort's wedding coordinators.

The ceremony will be at 10 a.m. on the beach, followed by an all-you-can-eat brunch with bloody marys and mimosas. A morning wedding allows the couple to spend the rest of the day enjoying their guests.

'We want to be there and spend time with the small group that travels with us,” Fish said. 'We want to have those memories.”

They expect 30 to 50 people in attendance.

The couple will be taking a pre-honeymoon, arriving in Jamaica seven days before the wedding.