- Kelli Van Harn and Omar Brown were supposed to have a large wedding celebration in May, but they had to cancel the event, as well as their bachelor and bachelorette parties.
- When Brown couldn't go on his
bachelor party to Las Vegas, Van Harn recreated the experience in their apartment, setting up a roulette table, shot glasses, and even mini slot machines. - Brown returned the favor when it came time for Van Harn's bachelorette, offering mimosas, an at-home nail salon, and a viewing of the movie "Bridesmaids."
- Van Harn shared a
TikTok of her fiancé's surprise, which quickly went viral, with over 800,000 views at the time of writing. - Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Kelli Van Harn and Omar Brown have known each other since high school.
"We went to the same high school, but we were a
But the couple reconnected via social media in their 20s, and they've been together ever since.
They got engaged in November 2019, and they began planning their wedding for May 2020.
The couple ended up canceling their wedding celebration as a result of the coronavirus
Rather than postponing, the couple decided to go forward with a small wedding in May.
"We've talked about postponing, but we have no idea when will it be socially responsible to have 300 people gather," Van Harn said. "We'll just make a new plan and re-write our wedding story a bit."
Although Brown and Van Harn still have their wedding to look forward to, they were sad they wouldn't get to celebrate their bachelor and bachelorette parties. Brown and his friends had a tradition of going to Las Vegas for their bachelor parties.
Van Harn decided to surprise Brown by bringing the trip to him, transforming their home into Vegas for a day.
"She had these boarding passes with each of our names on it and then a voucher for a canceled bachelor party trip," Brown said of Van Harn's elaborate setup.n"She had a deck of cards, a roulette table with shot glasses on the outside, several bottles of alcohol, and mini fake slot machines."
"She really outdid herself," Brown said of his fiancé.
So when it came time for Van Harn's bachelorette, Brown decided to return the favor by giving her an at-home celebration of her own
"I did not expect it to be reciprocated because my
But Brown was more than happy to give Van Harn the girls' day she had hoped for.
He set up a nail station in the shape of a heart, woke her up with a mimosa, and set up a private viewing of the movie "Bridesmaids."
He painted her nails for her, giving his bride-to-be the full beauty treatment.
Brown also woke up early to make breakfast for Van Harn.
"He was like, 'I'm your standard maid of honor for today,'" Van Harn said of Brown.
"When you're engaged, obviously you're a bride, but you don't always feel like that until you have a shower or something. And I felt like the most special bride that day."
"It was kind of like, 'Wow, this is why I'm marrying you. This is definitely the right relationship,'" Van Harn added.
Van Harn shared a TikTok of Brown's at-home bachelorette party, and it quickly went viral
"That was my first TikTok I ever made," Van Harn said of the video she posted of Brown. "I put it up and didn't even really know how TikTok worked."
But people loved it. The video had over 800,000 views at the time of writing.
@kj_and_hairspray Covid cancelled my bachelorette party so my fiancé put on some girl clothes and threw me a brunch in our living room ##fyp ##fypage ##foryourpage
♬ We Can't Stop - Miley Cyrus
"It's been really, really special to see the hope that it brings that love is still there and things are still happening even though this horrible virus is out there," Van Harn said of the response to the video. "So I'm really thankful to be a light in the darkness right now for some people."
"We just want to share our story and hopefully bring some smiles to people," Van Harn added.
"One really important thing is just being intentional," Brown said of relationships. "I don't necessarily think that couples need to go out and try and hit a home run every single time they want to do something special, but the little things are important."
For instance, Brown and Van Harn set aside Saturday nights for dates each week, and they make sure to spend time together on Sunday evenings.
The couple has been keeping people updated on their relationship through social media. You can follow Van Harn's TikTok here.
- Read more:
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- A couple fed over 400 frontline workers after they had to postpone their wedding
- A woman wore her mother-of-the-groom dress to the grocery store after the coronavirus prevented her from showing it off
- Stop rescheduling your wedding for spring 2021 — the pandemic still won't be over