Kellie Pickler and Kyle Jacobs’ Sweet Love Story: Remembering the Light After His Shocking Death | Perfect Woman FASHION AND LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

Kellie Pickler and Kyle Jacobs’ Sweet Love Story: Remembering the Light After His Shocking Death | Perfect Woman FASHION AND LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

Kellie Pickler and Kyle Jacobs were planning to have a big wedding, figuring the more the merrier to watch them tie the knot after two years of togetherness.

But before the invitations went out, the Nashville-based couple realized something.

“Every time we got to the guest list, it was like, ‘Oh my God, I hate half these people.’ Nothing personal,” Pickler said on The Ellen DeGeneres Show a month after she and Jacobs eloped to Antigua and swapped vows Jan. 1, 2011, on the beach, ankle-deep in the water.

“All we did was I packed the wedding dress and packed him an outfit,” the country singer continued. “We totally just put faith in God that it was all going to work out, and it did, and it was the most incredible day of my life.”

She had “1-1-11” engraved on her husband’s wedding band on one side—and “Put it back on!” engraved on the other. So he’d know exactly what to do if he ever took it off, Pickler explained.

She and Jacobs continued on in that spirited, playful vein, showing what good sports they were on two seasons of the CMT series I Love Kellie Pickler while also making music and teaming up time and again for causes close to their heart, be it visiting U.S. troops overseas (which is how they spent their honeymoon) or raising money for kids with special needs.

After being involved with the event for years, they hosted the Island Time Music Festival in 2021 to benefit the Little Yellow School House in Mexico. “It’s one of the more beautiful things that we’ve ever done,” Jacobs said on the Talk to Chuck podcast, prompting host Chuck Wick to tease that he never realized that the songwriter was as nice as his famously cheery wife.

“He’s got a good heart!” Pickler chimed in. “He’s a good man.”

Such was the overwhelming consensus as tributes poured in for Jacobs after his death at 49 by suicide on Feb. 17.

“Thank you for being the greatest friend to me and big brother that I never had,” Jennifer Wayne, host of the Design Network show Flip U, wrote on Jacobs’ final Instagram post from two days before his death, celebrating Lee Brice‘s album Hey World, which he’d co-produced, going platinum. “You always protected me and looked out for me… no one will ever take your place with Kellie, but I promise that myself and all of her friends will wrap her in the biggest love we know how.”

American Idol alum Dillon James commented, “No words what so ever but I am so glad we got to chat the other day, I’ll be praying for you and your family bud. Thanks for all the laughs Kyle.”

In his own tribute post, Brice called Jacobs “without a doubt, one of the best people anyone could ever hope to have in their corner.”