This autumn has been all about weddings with the final and third wedding of the year taking place toward the end of October in Ohio. I took a two-week visit to Ohio and went to my cousin Elizabeth's beautiful wedding, which was held over a couple of days, starting with a small ceremony at her family's orchard in mid-Ohio and then continuing the next day at a resort in Hocking Hills (about an hour's drive away) that Brian's family owns. I do not often get to see my family since I moved abroad, so this was a great time to get to see everyone, even if it was for a fleeting moment. When I was younger, I would babysit for Elizabeth (and to a lesser extent her younger sister) and have a lot of memories of her growing up.
Brian and Elizabeth choose to get married in October because autumn is beautiful in Ohio. They actually got engaged on a hiking trail in Hocking Hills last autumn. I rememeber getting envious and having serious FOMO (fear of missing out) of their beautiful autumn walks in photographs on Instagram as I miss the countryside and I have been wanting to get back to Ohio in the autumn for many years now. The last autumn that I had in Ohio was in 2002 or 2003, and it is my absolute favourite time of the year. The foilage starts to turn in early to mid October with the middle to end of the month being the grande finale, and there's usually a couple of weeks in the month of hot days (and chilly nights) that we call "Indian Summer". This year, the seasons seem off as the trees had not even started to change when I arrived in mid-October.
Normally, Ohio has nice weather in Ohio, but this has been a very odd year. So, why am I mentioning the weather? Mentioning the weather and having long discussions about it is an extremely "British" conversation topic. But, I mention it because we all got just a little bit wet during the ceremony. It wasn't the best weather to greet us for the outdoor ceremony, but it could have been a lot worse and the important thing is that we were all safe and could enjoy the celebration, and my 94-year-old grandmother and another aunt also drove down to attend. Anyway, we all had a really good time, and the rain eased off a bit for the ceremony at least.
The ceremony was held in the supurb location in the middle of the orchard where my uncle had created a Japanese-inspired garden and pond, Japanese tea house (photographed above) and pagoda structure. This is in the middle of the apple trees and on the other side of the vineyard. This was an addition that I have not seen before. The ceremony was mainly for family and close friends.
When I was younger, we tended to visit for birthdays and gatherings in the late summer and autumn. I was obsessed with the concord grapes. I love grapes, and I would eat quite a lot of these when I visited.
Many of the apples were picked in the orchard except for a few trees near the ceremony, but the idea at the time was for guests to pick a few apples to take away with them while photographs were being taken, but it was a little too wet. I think some photographs in front of the apple trees would have been nice too. The bride looked very beautiful in a laced-wedding dress, and the groom looked handsome too, and to have everyone there to show their support and friendship was really wonderful.
The colours were sage, grey, peach and cream and worked well together. In the vineyard, a couple of photographs were taken when the rain eased slightly.
After the ceremony, it was nice to be indoors, which is where the dinner took place. My uncle had actually cleared out the part of the barn next to their little farm market to host the vintage-country reception. The reception was catered with baked chicken, vegetables, dessert, and a pyramid of green and white cupcakes. Cider from the orchard was available to drink, and I had a lot of it as I love cider (American cider is pure apple juice and not alcoholic).
After the ceremony, those of us who were staying at the lodges made our way to Hocking Hills to the lodges (A Long Weekend at Cedar Grove Lodging in Hocking Hills (Ohio, USA)), which are about twenty-five minutes from Logan. For those of us who were staying, an evening of games, s'mores and hot chocolate was put on. I would have liked to have played some board games, but didn't really know anyone there, so we ended up playing a little bit of "corn hole". "Corn hole" is very much an Ohio country game. It's actually quite a new game and had only come about in the past fifteen years and became popular after I'd moved abroad, so I have never actually played it before. Instead of corn cobs, bean bags are used, and there are different points systems for tossing the bean bags into the hole of knocking off a competitor's bean bags.
S'mores are very much an American campfire tradition, and these were indoor s'mores with indoor burners with metal sticks that we could use to put the marshmallows over the flames. I did not do very well and kept setting my marshmallows alight! Oops. Oh, and the hot chocolate bar came with all sorts of toppings that you could ever desire for your hot chocolate.
The following evening was the big reception day. We did our outdoor waks and sight-seeing in Hocking Hills the day before the ceremony when the weather was nice, so we slept in and went to do some shopping and wine-tasting. We made sure we were back in the early afternoon to wait for the family to arrive to the cabin. Then, we all went off to the reception together.
We took part in the photo booth...
And then we sat down and had a meal...
Then we watched the cake cutting...
Then we had candy (chocolate-covered) apples...
Then, we danced...and danced a lot....
The events hall lodge is brand new, and this was the first event to take place in the new hall. It was finished not long before the wedding. (For more information, see A Long Weekend at Cedar Grove Lodging in Hocking Hills (Ohio, USA).)
The evening completed with a sparkler send-off. Some people returned later to party into the night, and there were sightings of a roaming cow. Okay, one person reporting a cow may be a little like "how much did you drink?", but several people reported the roaming cow and I saw photographic evidence of the cow. So, I must say that everyone had a wonderful time. We met some really nice people that evening and enjoyed good conversation, and the evening went very quickly.
The next morning, skies were clear and we had a breakfast at the event hall that was catered by a local company (The Ridge Inn in Laurelville, OH) that the bride and groom recommended to guests staying in the area. The owners of The Ridge Inn are also known for their delicious doughnuts. The doughnuts were vanilla (plain glazed) and pumpkin. They were really good! (Also, since we are talking about sweet food in this part of Ohio, the bakery in Logan bake amazing iced sugar cookies.) After the hearty breakfast, we went to explore a little bit of Hocking Hills before heading back home.
Congratulations again, Elizabeth and Brian! Thank you for inviting us to your special day.
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