How She ‘Manifested’ Marrying Her Secret Crush

Allison Alyssa Flynn had a secret crush on Jeffrey Charles Hood from the moment she met him — a secret from Mr. Hood, that is.

The two met in January 2017 in Charleston, S.C., at Trunk Club, a personal styling service no longer in existence. Mr. Hood worked at the Dallas location as a custom clothing trainer, she in Charleston as a stylist, when he came to Charleston to lead training sessions. “The first time I saw Jeff, I was immediately drawn to him, and within 24 hours I was fully obsessed, like, ‘I’m going to marry this man’ obsessed,” Ms. Flynn said.

But Mr. Hood had a girlfriend then.

Ms. Flynn told her family, friends and co-workers about her crush. “I call it manifestation,” she said. “We stayed connected and I kept telling people, ‘I’m going to marry him.’”

“Everyone knew about her crush except for me,” said Mr. Hood, who had interacted frequently with Ms. Flynn during work.

In May 2018, Ms. Flynn moved to Los Angeles having been promoted to a sales manager role at Trunk Club.

However, everything changed in June 2019. Ms. Flynn was leaving Trunk Club and called Mr. Hood to let him know. She also confessed her feelings for him. He told her he was single.

“We spent months talking, FaceTiming and Snapchatting,” Mr. Hood said. “We were falling in love. I was 30-something, but I felt like a teenager.”

Ms. Flynn said that the two “spent four or five hours every day on FaceTime.” She added, “We were talking in a very romantic way.”

In July 2019, Ms. Flynn flew to New York to spend a long weekend with Mr. Hood, who was transferred to the city by Trunk Club the year before. When she arrived, he said, “I just walked up to her and kissed her.”

The weekend did not go quite as planned. After dinner that Thursday evening at JG Melon, a restaurant on the Upper East Side, “I spent the night on the bathroom floor throwing up,” said Ms. Flynn, citing a side effect of a new medication.

She was sick for nearly 48 hours, during which Mr. Hood checked on her and brought her remedies.

When Ms. Flynn was well again, by Saturday, they went exploring. “At one point, we were walking through Grand Central Station,” Ms. Flynn said. “We just stopped and kissed and felt like we were in a movie, and there was no one else in the world even though a million people were buzzing around.”

She visited him again in August, and soon after he visited her in Los Angeles. “It was the first time I said, ‘I love you,’” Mr. Hood said. “I knew then we had something special.”

Not long after, Mr. Hood decided to start his own clothing business and return to Texas, where he was raised. “She supported me and, more importantly, agreed to move to Dallas,” Mr. Hood said, adding that the two moved in together in November 2019.

In 2021, the couple relocated yet again to Atlanta, so they could be closer to Ms. Flynn’s parents.

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Ms. Flynn, 32, a native of Myrtle Beach, S.C., works remotely as the head of growth at Pearmill, a luxury performance marketing agency based in New York. She has a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from College of Charleston.

Mr. Hood, 34, was born in Korea and raised in Richardson, Texas, after being adopted as an infant. He is the founder and owner of Jeff Hood Custom, a custom clothier, and the director for business development for Garmentier, a platform for stylists and retailers. He has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Mr. Hood is also a former child actor. He played Danny for three seasons, from 1997 to 1999, on “Barney & Friends” and appeared in several Barney movies.

On March 16, 2022, Ms. Flynn accompanied Mr. Hood on a work trip to New York. Mr. Hood said, “I had booked dinner at BondST and told her we were heading to a spot on the water for happy-hour oysters at sunset before dinner.”

As they were walking to the edge of the pier, Mr. Hood proposed. “It all seems like a beautiful blur,” he said. “I’m pretty sure I surprised her, too, which would be a first.”

Ms. Flynn is Jewish, and Mr. Hood completed his conversion to Judaism on March 10. “It was something I decided on entirely on my own,” he said.

On March 12, the couple had a Jewish wedding ceremony in Myrtle Beach at Temple Emanu-El, Ms. Flynn’s home synagogue, led by Rabbi Avraham Perets. “It was special because my family flew in for the conversion and ceremony, and our families built the huppah together,” Mr. Hood said.

They were legally married virtually at Ms. Flynn’s family home in Myrtle Beach on April 24 by Shelby Sutherland Gray, who was ordained through American Marriage Ministries.

On April 28, the couple had another wedding celebration, led by Robert McCarthy, a retired New Jersey Superior Court judge and Ms. Flynn’s maternal uncle. It was also held at Ms. Flynn’s family home in Myrtle Beach, with 87 guests. Mr. Hood’s company made the suits and tuxedos worn by several family members and guests. “The whole day I was overwhelmed with love, peace and happiness,” Ms. Flynn said.

As the last song, “Crazy in Love” by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, came to an end, guests cheered, and the couple stood in the middle of the backyard dance floor. “I closed my eyes and held her so tight,” Mr. Hood said. “I have never in my life, ever, felt the amount of love and energy that was enveloping us. The only way I can describe the feeling is heavenly.”