BY JE’DON HOLLOWAY-TALLEY | Special to the Birmingham Times
KARAN & HUEBERT VANCE
Live: Irondale
Married: March 6, 2017
Met: Fall 2007, at Shades Valley High School in their sophomore English class. While Huebert had known of Karan’s existence since her freshman year, they were in different programs and their paths did not cross much.
“When I first saw her, I asked my friend who she was and always had in the back of my head that I’m going to get with that girl at some point,” Huebert said. “And [prior to having English class together], she sent me a Facebook friend request but I didn’t think anything of it. Facebook was new and everyone sent everyone friend requests… but one day in class, Karan [was standing near me, waiting to talk to the teacher], and I was talking to a friend and [Facebook came up], and I said ‘Karan sent me a friend request, right Karan?’, and she gave me the most disgusted, ‘why are you talking to me’ look, and I respected it,” he laughed. “My friend laughed at me and said I didn’t have any game, and at that point I realized maybe I just wasn’t her person.”
However, in May 2009, their junior year, Karan messaged Huebert again. “I was running for SGA [Student Government Association] President, and I sent him a copy and paste message that I was sending everyone, saying ‘Hey, you don’t know me, but I’m Karan, I’m running for SGA President, vote for me’, and he was like ‘Karan, we had a whole class together for a whole year. You forgot about me’, and I played it off,” Karan laughed. “I was like ‘no, I didn’t forget about you, I was just copying and pasting the same message over and over again.’ But he said he would vote for me even though I forgot about him, and moving forward we started connecting more on Facebook and Myspace talking about [our favorite shows] ‘Smallville’ and ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ and we became besties.”
As for the election Karan said she won the race but was disqualified. She had the vote, but was disqualified because she “accidentally missed a campaign sign that she was supposed to have taken down before the vote,” she said. Someone saw it, reported it, and she was disqualified.
First date: Christmas night, 2009. They were now seniors and went on a group outing to see the movie “Avatar.”
“She messaged me on Christmas night asking if I wanted to go see ‘Avatar’ with her and some friends, and I asked my parents if I could go, and Karan and her friends came and picked me up [from home in Irondale],” Huebert remembered.
“The movie theater was packed, it was opening day, and there were six of us. There were four seats at the top and two seats at the bottom, and they said ‘y’all [Karan and Huebert] sit down there, we’re going to sit up here and dipped,” Karan laughed. “And we couldn’t even argue, we were just like ‘oookay’.”
“I took up the whole arm rest for half of the movie, and I don’t know if she was irritated or what, but she just plopped her arm on top of mine, and I let that ride for five minutes, and then I lifted the armrest and held her hand, and we held hands for the rest of the movie,’ Huebert recalled.
“After the movie, Huebert was dropped off first, so I got out of the car to say bye, and Huebert leaned in and I thought he was leaning in for a kiss, so I kissed him, but years later he told me he was leaning in for a hug and a kiss on the cheek,” Karan laughed.
“And it wasn’t like a regular kiss, we started making out and our friend Jordan, who was driving, wasn’t paying attention to us and like 10 seconds into the kiss he yelled out ‘Eww’, and we stopped and laughed and I could hear him yelling and joking at Karan as they drove off. I really wasn’t trying to push or be forward, we had cultivated a great friendship and I didn’t want to [ruin it],” Huebert said
The turn: Jan. 5, 2010. The pair made it official the first day back on campus at Shades Valley High School following their movie date.
“I was threatened by a friend who said, ‘if you don’t ask her out I will log into your Facebook account and say crazy stuff to her.’ I wanted to ask Karan out but I was nervous, I wasn’t the type of person to assume that was what she wanted,” Huebert said. “I knew she liked me, and yeah we made out, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be my girlfriend. So on that day, I skipped my statistics class and went to her dance class to see her, and I pulled her to the side making it unnecessarily intense, and said ‘I don’t know what your answer is going to be–’ and she cut me off and said ‘You do know’, and I said ‘Will you be my girlfriend?’, and she said ‘yes’. And that was like the hugest weight off of me because I had had a crush on her since freshman year. And that news spread across that campus [Shades Valley High School](like COVID. By the next period, people were asking me ‘You go with Karan?’.
“And the rest is history. We’ve been together and inseparable ever since. 15 years and 2 kids is wild,” Karan said.
That marked the beginning of Karan and Huebert’s seven -year courtship. At ages 23 and 24 they welcomed their first child, Hayden, and a year and a half later came their second child, Kameron. In 2017, Karan graduated from the University of Alabama [she attended online], in which Huebert was the support for Karan and their children.
“I was being the best version of myself that I could be for Karan and my family, trying to be the foundation and backbone that she needed because she was juggling a lot, she was determined to get that degree… and I wasn’t doing anything remarkable at the time, so I was being the best partner and father that I could be,” said Huebert.
The proposal: March 2017. “Huebert was already going downtown to renew his license, so I said ‘Hey, do you wanna go ahead and get married? We’re already going down there, so we might as well get it out the way,” Karan laughed. “It wasn’t grandiose, we had been meaning to get married for years, but kids and life pushed it off…”
“I said, ‘You know what? Hell yeah’,” Huebert laughed.
The wedding: Downtown at the Birmingham Courthouse, officiated by a courthouse clergyman. Karan was wearing “nothing cute. I had on dark denim jeans with a tunic top,” she said. “And I was wearing a blue checkered button down, with some khaki pants,” remembered Huebert.
The reaction to their spontaneous nuptials was shock and surprise. “My mom was pissed because she wasn’t there. She said, ‘why didn’t you tell me because, because we could’ve been there and we could’ve done more?’ And then my dad cut her off and said ‘honey, we eloped too’, and she told him to shut up,” Huebert laughed.
Most memorable for the bride was going to Rally’s for their wedding night dinner. “Getting married made me crave a Big Buford [a signature burger],” Karan laughed. “Rally’s is a core memory from my childhood and when I’m eating a Buford, I’m happy. I was already on a high, and sharing a childhood meal with my childhood love is indescribable. Also, Huebert had to go to work that night at PF Changs, so a quick meal was all we had time for,” she added.
Most memorable for the groom was, “the ceremony itself. When it was all happening and we were saying the vows, I literally teared up. You see videos of men crying when they see their brides and I didn’t think I was going to. But it just happened and I was like ‘this is the happiest moment of my life and I’m going to be that vulnerable in front of this man that we’ve never met [the clergyman], our friend that was there to witness, and the woman I knew I would spend the rest of my life with since I first laid eyes on her our freshman year,’” said Huebert.
Words of wisdom: “Two things that are pivotal are mutual respect and healthy communication. Communication is one thing, but it’s got to be healthy. You have to be able to come together for understanding and to solve the problem together,” said Karan.
“Karan has gone through a lot of changes since high school, but my thing is never fall out of love, keep falling in love with the person they’re evolving into… especially if you want to make it work. Things won’t always be traditional, or easy. You’re always going to be thrown curve balls. But at the end of the day, this is your support system. They’re the person you’re supposed to love and protect,” said Huebert.
Happily ever after: The Vances have two children, Hayden, 10, and Kameron, 8.
Karan, 32, is a Titusville native and Shades Valley High School grad. She attended the University of Alabama where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Human Environmental Sciences, is a member of Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity Inc., works in the corporate office of a beverage company, and owns a candle business titled Kare Flair www.kareflair.com
Huebert, 33, is an Irondale native, Shades Valley High School grad, works as a specialist for a tech company located in Birmingham, and is developing a screen printing and 3D printing business scheduled for launch in 2026.
