Ashley and Eric – June 5, 2020
Smoky Mountain Elopement Packages
Ashley and Eric took advantage of one of our Smoky Mountain elopement packages to make their wedding planning extra easy. This adorable pair was our third couple on June 5, 2020. Her parents eloped to Gatlinburg when they got married 25 years ago, and his parents honeymooned in Gatlinburg so it was obviously meant to be for them to elope to the Smoky Mountains! Their plans were delayed a bit due to COVID19, but we were glad to finally get to meet them!! Congratulations Ashley and Eric!!
From the Bride:
We met on kind of a blind set up date. My (Ashley) cousin actually set us up, (he hadn’t even talked to Eric in years but rolled upon his Facebook and sent him a message to see if he was with anyone) Eric then sent me a friend request and was pretty persistent on messaging me on Facebook, so we set a day to meet and the rest is history. Finally after almost 3.5 years of dating he popped the question on the beach in gulf shores (crab hunting!) and of course I said yes!
First date, we actually met at a Dairy Queen for me to ride with him out to eat at Logan’s. We had a good dinner and we went to a movie afterwards. We still aren’t sure what movie it even was ???????? but it did lead to many more dates afterwards 😉
Eric popped the big question. We go on an annual trip every summer to our favorite place, gulf shores. I was kinda hoping/ kinda expecting a proposal this vacation. Eric has taken me to a ring store a few months prior to see what I kind of would like 😉 Of course we had a big week on the beach and enjoyed every minute of it. It was the last night of our vacation and I kinda thought he may wait on proposing, but when we was walking on the beach that last night Crab hunting, he popped the question.
My parents actually eloped to Gatlinburg when they got married 25 years ago, and his parents went on their honeymoon to Gatlinburg. I never wanted a big wedding, and Eric felt the same. We ran across the cutest little chapel in the woods and knew it was what we wanted. We both love to be outdoors and we both knew we wanted something different when it came to getting married. So Gatlinburg seemed to be where we wanted to make it official!
Well our original plans/ date fell through due to the Coronovirus pandemic. We originally had set the date to be the date we started dating officially for 4 years on May 2. But due to stay at home orders and our jobs, we were unable to get married like we planned. But we are excited now to finally get officially married and have a mini honeymoon! Start our official life together!
We have the most perfect/ wild Labrador retrievers, Cash and Piper. We both love animals and talked about getting a dog and Eric convinced me on a lab. We ended up getting a black lab, Cash, and I fell in love with him! Eric loves to hunt and so our next one we was set on sending to school to train. Well we ended up with Piper, and we got so attached we couldn’t even send her to school! They sleep with us in bed and are the best dogs ever! We love to go to the lake or anything outdoors! You can always find us in the Jeep with the pups in LBL! Pretty much a typical date night for us anymore. 🙂
Chapel Florals: Melissa Timm Designs
Bouquet: Southern Blooms Co.
Wedding Dress: Anne’s Bridal Wedding Salon
Menswear: Dillard’s
Rings: Kay Jewelers
Officiant: Ian Parrott
Hair and Makeup: Fringe Salon and Spa
Photography: Star Noir Studio
Venue: Chapel in the Hollow