NEED TO KNOW
Sending secret messages through song titles led to exes reuniting and tying the knot.
After a 12-year, on-and-off relationship, high school sweethearts Kayla Sentell and Trenton Miller called things off for good in February 2024. Eight months later in October 2024, Sentell “missed” her longtime love and “wanted to feel connected to him in any way possible,” but knew he was off of social media just like her. So, she snooped on his Spotify page.
Although Sentell “didn’t really expect to find anything,” she suddenly paused after scrolling through a playlist titled “alasKa.” Because the playlist was filled with meaningful songs and the K in the title was clearly capitalized like her first name, Sentell knew the tracks were customized just for her.
The Sentell Family
“I felt every emotion in the world at the same time when I saw alasKa,” Sentell tells PEOPLE. “Excitement, anxiety, joy, fear, hope, insecurity, peace. I knew I wouldn’t reach out to him, but I had to do something.”
In response, Sentell created her own playlist titled “This is about you,” and included a few songs from “alasKa” just so that there would be no doubt that it was for Miller. She used the final three song titles to send a call to action: “If You See This,” “Call Me,” “I Wanna Be Yours.”
The Sentell Family
Much like his then-ex-girlfriend, Miller longed for Sentell and quickly saw her secret message when he checked her Spotify page. He tells PEOPLE he originally made his “sad boy playlist” just for him to listen to “a bunch of songs that reminded” him of their relationship, not necessarily for her to see it. As a result, he was both shocked and excited that Sentell made the first move toward reconciliation after they had both “agreed not to talk and to both try to let each other go.”
“Then I told my best friend and his wife about it and she informed me that ‘This is about you’ is a Taylor Swift reference. So then doubt crept in,” Miller remembers. “After about a week of deciding how I was going to respond, I decided the best option would be to respond the same way.”
Miller updated his playlist, ending with his own response: “If You See This,” “Speak Now,” “I Want You Back.”
The Sentell Family
Feeling “absolutely hopeful” Sentell checked Miller’s page again and saw his update on Nov. 3, 2024. That morning, she called him and they got back together. About a year after reconnecting on Spotify, the couple got engaged.
“Throughout our entire 10-plus year relationship in so many of our different phases — friends, dating, hardly talking — we wrote each other letters. I proposed surrounded by our decades worth of letters to each other,” Miller shares.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Three weeks before the pair’s wedding, Sentell wrote to Spotify, sharing her story and thanking the digital music service for “creating a platform that truly brings people together.”
Touched by their musical romance, the team at Spotify surprised Sentell and Miller at their ceremony at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas on Nov. 13 by sharing a personalized video from Teddy Swims congratulating them and wishing them a “happy life.” One of the singer’s songs, “You’re Still The One,” was featured on Sentell’s playlist.
The Sentell Family
“That was such a fun surprise!” Sentell says. “It’s so sweet to have so many cool players involved in our love story now!”
To this day, the newlyweds still update the same playlists.
“It’s been so cool to physically be able to see the journey of our relationship through songs as the playlists grow,” Sentell says.
