Haley and Cameron Loyet founded Honeymoon Chocolates in 2016 as a couple. In honor of their 2021 Valentine’s Day release of their new strawberries and Champagne bar, they wanted to share the love story of what started it all.
Where did you first meet?
Haley and Cameron Loyet met through a mutual friend at a small get together at their alma mater Illinois Wesleyan University. They instantly hit it off. Haley thought Cam was cute, kind, and admired the way he poked fun at his friends. Cam’s initial thoughts about Haley were that “this lady (Haley) is incredibly genuine, likes really cool music and is a bit out of my league” After their first meeting they started studying together in the student center until their first date.
Dating
Haley and Cam’s first date was to the movies. After the movie they picked up bubble tea and ended up talking for another four hours in the student center about life and their families. Haley said that she loved being able to hold a conversation about everything and nothing with Cam. She opened up about tough parts of her life to Cam and said she knew in those moments that he accepted her for who she was completely. Cam said that he felt like he had never met anyone he could open up to like he had with Haley. They both lost track of time and didn’t realize how late it was until they were literally kicked out of the student center.
Their second date Cam took Haley out to dinner at Medici and they both remember this date due to its gravity within their relationship. Cam told Haley that night that her eyes were “sparkling beautifully” and he could really see a future with her.
Haley and Cam were both very big readers even before meeting each other. Right before they went on their week long spring break from college in 2015 they decided to exchange books as a way to keep getting to know each other. Haley gave Cam her copy of her favorite book Jane
Eyre and Cam gave Haley a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. When Cam gave Haley her book back, he had left notes on pages throughout the book with his thoughts on certain themes, metaphors or his favorite lines. The attention to detail in reading her favorite book was something Haley really admired as it showed how much attention and care he put into something that meant a lot to her. She soon realized this was a large part of who Cam is.
In the beginning of their relationship, Cam’s intentionality was one of the things that made Haley fall in love with him quicker. When they officially started dating it wasn’t a small conversation. Cam drove from Mississippi, in the middle of their spring break, to take Haley out to coffee to intentionally ask her if they could be in a relationship.
Who said I love you first?
Haley and Cam wrote letters to each other at the beginning of their relationship. A few weeks into writing letters Haley signed a letter saying “with all my love”. A few weeks later, after about 4 months of knowing each other and on their one month dating anniversary Cam said “I love you” and Haley said it back.
Current favorite thing about each other:
Cam loves Haley’s compassion for everyone. He loves that she is very genuine. Haley is currently getting her degree in medicine and Cam admires the compassion for the children that she helps at the hospitals every day.
Haley admires Cam’s dedication. She says that Cam has always been a good partner and a good friend. He will do anything for anyone that he really cares about, family or friends. Haley also loves Cam’s spontaneity. She said she feels like she sometimes gets stuck in her schedule and he will inspire her by saying “let’s do something crazy for dinner or let’s go somewhere for the weekend”. She loves this about him and it balances her out.
What is your favorite thing about marriage?
Cam’s favorite thing about marriage is having someone to pick up the slack when he’s having an off day. He also loves that when he needs help there is always someone there to pick him up and he is able to do the same for Haley.
Haley’s favorite thing about marriage is knowing that there is someone who is fully committed to her and who doesn’t have to be there but chooses to be there for her every day. She also loves being able to choose to love Cam in return. Haley believes love is a verb and that love is about choosing to actively love someone and accept their love every day.
Honeymoon Chocolates memories together
One of their first memories of trying out new chocolate flavors was on Cam’s 21st birthday. Cam decided that instead of going out drinking he wanted to make chocolate with Haley. They went to the grocery store to pick up beer for Cam and ingredients for chocolate. They made about 15 different varieties of chocolate bars that night, peach, banana, mango, and raspberry to name a few and it is a really fond memory of chocolate making for both of them.
A few of Haley’s favorite memories are what they consider some of their “fails” throughout starting their business. She remembers vividly when Cam carried a 160 pound bag of cacao nibs up 3 flights of stairs and Cam collapsed after carrying it up. Haley also fondly remembers the times Cam tried to move the cacao grinder while it was still grinding and got white chocolate EVERYWHERE. She described the aftermath as “like a crime scene” and it took weeks to clean up.
The closet in Cam’s dorm room that his roommates graciously let them overtake
Another fond and self-proclaimed “fail” memory for the couple was their first national conference in Seattle, Washington. They shipped 600+ bars in one box with very little padding. The bars that arrived in Seattle were either broken or smudged from poor shipping methods. Cam described the mess in the shipping box as “when you clean up a chalk board with all the dust” how much toner was everywhere. All of their bars were covered in the toner in all different colors. The inner wrapper was fine but the outer wrapper needed to be re-done. They only had 200 bars that made it to the conference that were sell-able. Haley showed up a few days later with a massive folder of new wrappers for their bars. They could not re-melt down the bars that had the toner on them so they lost 400 bars to that conference. Overall it was still a great experience as their booth was right across from large chocolate brands and brands that they looked up to. It was their first time really seeing that they could really do this and make chocolate full time.