Caleigh Ryan on Life and Love with Hardy

Caleigh Ryan and HARDY. Photo via Darian Kaia.

Caleigh Ryan and Michael Hardy’s love story is modern yet fairytale-esque.

It all began when Michael (a.k.a. “HARDY”) slid into Caleigh’s Instagram DMs in 2017 after one of her photos popped up on his Explore page. The pair flirted casually and chatted a couple of times per week until they were finally able to meet in person a year after they first started talking.

“I was going to school at Ole Miss and Michael had some friends that were playing a show at The Lyric in Oxford one night,” Caleigh shares. “He was supposed to be on a writing trip at the time, but it got canceled and then one of the band’s drummers got sick and asked him to fill in at The Lyric. So, it really was just kind of fate at that point, a crazy series of events.”

When HARDY told Caleigh about his sudden change of plans, she arranged to go to the show. After he played, the pair met for the first time on the upper floor of The Lyric and hit it off.

“When I met him, he had this confidence about him, and that fully sealed the deal for me,” Caleigh says. “He was just very secure with himself, and there were no games, which I loved. It was just so easy and never really occurred to either of us to even entertain the idea of other people at that point,” she shares.

Soon after, Caleigh went to Nashville to celebrate her twenty-first birthday. “Michael was so sweet and hosted my friends and I, and took it way more seriously than I thought he would,” she says, laughing. “He came to brunch and everything.”

Caleigh then invited him to her sorority formal. Even though HARDY is seven years older than her, she knew that she didn’t want to take anyone else. “We were basically dating, so I said, ‘Hey, this might be weird for you and you might not want to go, and you might think I’m a freak for asking you, but do you want to come to this formal?’ and he said okay.” In classic HARDY fashion, he showed up in jeans and a baseball cap. “He was like, ‘I’m wearing the baseball hat to the pregame. You can’t tell me to take it off,’” she shares. On the school bus ride to the formal, HARDY asked Caleigh to be his girlfriend.

“We had the best time, but we still laugh about it to this day. Michael’s always like, ‘What the hell was I doing? I had no idea what I was getting myself into.’”

Caleigh and HARDY on the night of the sorority formal. Photo via @caleighryan on Instagram.

Two years later when the pandemic struck and Caleigh’s birthday rolled around again, HARDY surprised her with an elaborate scavenger hunt at his house. “It was my birthday over COVID, so I wasn’t expecting anything at all to happen,” Caleigh shares. “At the time, his house was in the middle of the woods and he had a bunch of land, and he set up a scavenger hunt with little handwritten clues all over the house and outside,” she says. “Each clue was so sweet and detailed, and included something he loved about me, a memory we had together, or something sweet that we had talked about – including things that I barely remembered,” Caleigh reflects. “He really went all out with it, and I saved all the clues and little notes, and it’s something I think about all the time.”

The following year, the pair got engaged on the upper floor of The Lyric, in the exact same spot they first met three years prior. HARDY even marked the location with an “X” made of camouflage duct tape.

HARDY proposes to Caleigh in 2021 at The Lyric in Oxford, Mississippi. Photo via Tanner Gallagher.

Now married, Caleigh says that the biggest thing she and HARDY have learned as a couple is the importance of over-communicating. “Some people say that there’s such a thing as over-communicating, and that might be so, but we do it. If there’s anything on our minds, we have to say it, and we hold each other accountable to that. There’s no like, ‘Oh I’m going to be upset and pout all day.’ If something’s bothering one of us, we have to say it right then and there, and it just works for us because we always remind ourselves that it’s not you guys against each other, it’s you against the problems,” Caleigh says. “You can work through anything if you have that mindset.”

When it comes to the biggest thing that she’s learned from HARDY, Caleigh shares, “He’s really good about putting his foot down and not doing things that he doesn’t want to do. I’m like the most ultimate people-pleaser in the world to a fault, and I’ve really taken a page out of his book, which has helped a lot.”

Conversely, Caleigh says that she’s taught HARDY how to be more open and communicative with emotions. “I feel like it’s not any man’s nature to do that, but I’m so big on that, and so is my family,” she says. “He makes fun of my family and I because when we do birthday and Christmas cards and stuff, we’ll fill up the whole card being like, ‘So grateful to have you in my life,’ and he’s like, ‘That’s so gross, there’s no way I’d do that,’” Caleigh laughs. “They’ll open his card and be like, ‘Happy Birthday, period. From Michael.’ But he’s definitely learned to express his emotions with people a little more.”

HARDY and Caleigh on their wedding day. Photo via Brooke Taelor.

Caleigh’s fairytale relationship with HARDY has taught her a lot about life and love. Today, she generously shares her wisdom with her friends who are trying to navigate today’s difficult dating world. “Until you are so happy with yourself and are in such a good place in your life that you don’t even think about dating, you won’t find your special person because you won’t be able to realize and accept the kind of person that you need,” Caleigh says. “Instead, you’ll find people that fill little voids in your life. But if you already feel like there’s no void to fill, you’re going to find someone that only enhances your life tenfold, and that is so much better. If you’re not at your best, why would you want the kind of guy that’s attracted to that? When you’re thriving and are your best self, you want the kind of people in your life that want to date that version of you because you should hold yourself and your relationship to a higher standard. I feel like a ninety-year-old when I say that, but it’s just true.”

“The biggest problem right now,” Caleigh explains, “is that people, when they’re dating, act like others are disposable because you can just always be searching and swiping through your phone, and scrolling and finding people that you think are cuter, better, or funnier. That’s not the natural human experience. If you fell in love with someone, you would not be out there exposing yourself to millions of other girls or online shopping for them. When you commit, you commit because there’s always going to be things that piss you off about people, but it’s all about picking and choosing your battles. You’re never going to find that person that never pisses you off because that just doesn’t exist. So, when you find someone and they’re good, don’t mess it up.”

Caleigh and HARDY are the perfect example of true love. From life on the road to life at home in Nashville, the two consistently put each other first in their lives and recognize and appreciate their special bond. Like yin and yang, the pair brings out the best in each other. Their love teaches us that if we are patient, secure with ourselves, and have honorable intentions, then we will be ready to give and receive the love that each of us are so worthy of.