Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, from friendship bracelets to wedding rings

What started as a friendship bracelet led to a wedding ring. Pop superstar Taylor Swift and football champion Travis Kelce are officially married.

The couple, both 36, married Friday at Madison Square Garden, according to Swift’s publicist. The news was announced to the public with a marquee reading “JUST&T MARRIED” outside the arena in Midtown Manhattan.

Why is everyone so fascinated by Taylor Swift’s wedding?

This is the latest chapter in the couple’s love story, which spans three years, two Super Bowls, an album release, and the highest-grossing tour of all time.

Here’s a look at some of the main events in their relationship

Friendship bracelet not delivered

Fittingly, it started with a friendship bracelet.

It was all the way back in July 2023 that Kelsey attended Swift’s Ella concert at Arrowhead Stadium, where the Chiefs played.

Later, on the New Heights podcast with his brother Jason Kelsey, he professed his disappointment in not being able to meet Swift and gift her a bracelet with his phone number on it.

“I took it personal because she didn’t see anyone or at least didn’t want to see me,” he said jokingly. The podcast posted on Instagram: “Does anyone know how to give @taylorswift13 a bracelet?…Looking for a friend.”

drive a getaway car

However, by that September, Kelce was hinting that his efforts had achieved some success. Amid speculation, he declined to elaborate, telling an interviewer, “That’s what it is.”

But clearly something was going on. Soon Kelsey revealed that she had invited Swift to a game at Arrowhead. “I threw the ball in her court,” he said on another talk show.

Swift accepted Kelce’s offer and appeared at the Chiefs-Bears game in front of the entire world, cheering alongside his mother, Donna Kelce. The two left the stadium in Kelce’s purple Chevelle “getaway car.” Pardon the pun, but Kelce himself used it.

Days later, Kelce called Swift “pretty brave,” adding that he was so happy to see her cheering next to her mother.

This marked the beginning of a long series of appearances for Swift in Chiefs games. There were concerns online that Swift was distracting from football while the NFL itself capitalized on her fandom. She returned to Arrowhead the day after the glitzy Los Angeles premiere of the movie “Taylor Swift: Ella Tour.”

Karma is a Chiefs player.

And now it’s time for Kelce to become a big fan. After a two-month hiatus, Swift toured Argentina in November 2023, where she changed the lyrics to “Karma” in honor of her lover. “Karma’s a Chiefs guy, coming straight home,” she sang. Scott Swift stood next to a beaming Kelsey and applauded his daughter’s new boyfriend.

Few people were surprised when Time magazine announced its Person of the Year. In an interview with Time magazine, Swift spoke about her relationship.

“It all started when Travis really sweetly pumped me up on his podcast, and I thought it was metal as hell,” Swift said, adding that they were already a couple before their first cameo at a Chiefs game.

Things heated up on the football field soon after, which meant the Chiefs were headed to the Super Bowl. At the AFC Championship Game, the couple made it clear they were okay with all the attention. Swift and Kelce kissed in the middle of the field in Baltimore after the Chiefs beat the Ravens. “I love you,” Kelce said. “It’s not that interesting.”

A race across 9 time zones

There was only one game left. Fans wondered, “How will Swift get from her performance in Tokyo to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas?”

“This week has been a complete mess,” Swift wrote on Instagram.

It’s just chaos. One week in February 2024, Swift attended the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, flew to Tokyo for four concerts, and then hopped on a private plane to attend the Super Bowl with time to spare. To get there, she crossed nine time zones and the International Date Line.

“She’s rewriting the history books herself,” Kelce said the day after the Grammy Awards, where Swift won her record-tying fourth album of the year award. “I told her she had to hold out for the end of the bargain and go home with the hardware as well.”

And he did. After the Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers, the two kissed again on the field, with Swift wearing an “87” necklace.

on the street again

Within a few days, Swift was on the road again, and Kelce joined her to cuddle a koala at an Australian zoo.

In Paris, Swift introduced excerpts from her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” Fans wondered if Kelsey was featured in some of the lyrics from “So High School,” such as “You knew what you wanted, and you got her.”

But the highlight came during a celebrity-filled concert in London in June. There, Kelce made his Ellas stage debut, wearing a tuxedo and top hat and holding Swift in his arms as he performed the choreography before “I Can Be Broken.”

Swift later wrote on Instagram that she was “still freaking out and passing out.”

“Happiness, fun and magic”

As for Kelsey, she spoke proudly about their relationship on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast, saying she has nothing to hide.

“That’s my girlfriend,” he said. “That’s my little lady. I’m proud of it.”

Swift echoed that sentiment when she accepted the MTV Video Music Award last September, shouting out “My Boyfriend, Travis” in her speech.

“Everything this man touches turns into happiness, fun and magic,” she said.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce wed in star-studded ceremony at Madison Square Garden

“I’m just a jamoke supporting his girlfriend.”

Throughout the summer and fall of 2024, Kelce appeared on numerous of Swift’s remaining tour dates, mentioning her on New Heights and officially calling her “his girlfriend” in a July episode.

“She’s everything you imagine her to be. She’s so amazing. Some of the people you meet are like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here,'” he said. “You’re incredible, your talent is incredible, the way you present yourself is incredible, and I’m just a jamoke supporting his girlfriend.”

Swift was also regularly photographed attending Kelce’s games, including the 2025 Super Bowl.

lights, camera, action, soccer

A month after the Super Bowl, the couple made their red carpet debut in June at Tight End University, an annual three-day training summit founded by Kelce, George Kittle and Greg Olsen.

They were then spotted at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl, where Swift jumped on stage to perform Shake It Off with country singer Kane Brown. For fans, it marked another moment in which the couple showed very public support and admiration for each other.

“The Life of a Showgirl”

Couples who work together stay together.

Swift announced her long-awaited 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, in mid-August, and the release also included Kelce. It started with a tease from New Heights, and it was later revealed that Swift would appear on the next day’s episode.

Swift said she had something to show the Kells brothers, and showed them a mint green briefcase with orange initials on it. Jason Kelce asked her what was inside and prompted her to take out a vinyl record.

“Our jobs are very similar.”

In the two-hour New Heights episode featuring Swift, she detailed their post-Super Bowl summer. She said she spent quite a bit of time with Travis Kelsey in Florida. She also said that “our jobs are very similar” and revolve around “entertaining people for three hours in an NFL stadium.”

On her self-proclaimed “favorite podcast,” Swift credited New Heights with giving her her boyfriend. “This is like, ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been writing songs about things I want to happen to me,” she said of their romance.

And Kelce says the tour helped him get a girlfriend. “When I see you on that stage and see the way you light up the whole stadium, and then I take you into the room, I feel as if I’ve known you all my life,” he said. “That was the easiest conversation I’ve ever had. It was so much fun it knocked my socks off.”

Jock, meet the writer

In late August, the couple announced their engagement in a carousel of five photos shared to Swift and Kelsea’s official Instagram accounts. “My English teacher and my gym teacher are getting married,” she wrote in the caption.

Wedding at MSG

The idea seemed too crazy for even the most open-minded Swiftie – a wedding at Madison Square Garden? Really? But as the Fourth of July weekend approached, one of New York’s iconic venues became abuzz with activity as staff moved equipment into the huge private space, and a law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press that Swift and Kelce’s wedding will take place on Friday, July 3.

The couple did not have any bridesmaids or groomsmen, instead choosing to have Swift’s older brother serve as the guest of honor and Kelce’s younger brother Jason to serve as their groomsman. Actor Adam Sandler served as master of ceremonies for the star-studded ceremony.

Swift and Kelsea’s outfits were designed by Christian Dior Haute Couture and its designer Jonathan Anderson, and their shoes were custom-made by Christian Louboutin, according to a Swift spokesperson. Swift wore Cartier jewelry.