Outdoor Wedding, Richmond, Indiana

Andy and Ashlee held their Outdoor Wedding at Cope Environmental Center in Richmond, IN. It was a fall 2020 oasis of social reprieve and love. In a time when we have barely been able to gather, their wedding was a respite of family time and careful socializing.

1) How did the two of you meet?

Ash – I noticed Andy during IU East‘s First Year Orientation as a new freshman to campus. I thought I had never seen someone with so much immediate charisma. Who was this broad, handsome, 6”3 red-bearded guy?  I made the first move to ask him out. He took my hand after our first date, and I’ve been hard pressed to let go ever since.

Andy – Ashlee always claims that our “first date” was her responding to a tweet I put out one day asking “Who wants to get El Rodeo with me?”Admittedly, I knew I was hooked after that meal, but our real first date was a dinner at Galos. We then went on a walk through Glen Miller that ended with dancing to Frank Sinatra in a park shelter. 

 2) What is the funniest memory from your wedding day?

 Ash – The funniest memory from our outdoor wedding was during our First Look. I was a bundle of nerves as we were doing the photos, and it all broke with Andy whispering something really dumb, and potentially raunchy, in my ear. I immediately cracked up, and I kept thinking of it throughout the day and laughing.

Andy – For me it was just dealing with my groomsmen. They kept me smiling through the day from  trying to help them get their ties tied, to listening to them banter about abandoning them by the pond so I could go do first look photos.

3) Advice for engaged couples who are planning an outdoor wedding…

 Ash – Remember that it is just a single day for you and your partner. We planned everything around that idea of making it the most meaningful and stress-free day for us. We only invited friends and family that brought us joy, we cut costs so that financial burden from a single day event wouldn’t hang over us, and we rolled with the punches on the day of.

Andy- Don’t think you need to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful, outdoor wedding. When you start to plan the logistics, don’t search out wedding specific things for the day.  Sure, your venue, your photographer, maybe even your DJ will need to know that it’s a wedding. There are so many things you can do much cheaper though if you just shop and plan as though it’s just for a party or any other event. To echo what Ashlee said, you don’t want that burden of one day (as important as that one day is) to hang over the start of your life together. 

 4) What was your most memorable moment of the wedding day?

 Ash – The most memorable moment of the day was the FaceTime conversation we were able to have with my great-grandma. She had just recently been admitted to a senior living facility after a fall a few days before the wedding. Due to COVID-19 she was in a 14 day quarantine. We had planned to visit her in person at her home, so it was nice sharing the moment with her via FaceTime. It became even more impactful as she passed away a few short weeks after the wedding.

Andy- It’s so hard to pick one thing. I think the most unexpected thing for me was seeing the deer that decided to watch us take our pictures. What an unusual and wonderful thing to see. I mean, we wanted our photos in the woods to be around nature, but we never expected nature to want to join in too. 

Face Timing with great grandma.