Tish & Leo elope in Craggy Gardens

Leo pulled up to the Craggy Gardens parking lot on his motorcycle wearing black pants, black vest, nice shirt & tie, and I knew it must be the groom!  He arrived before Tish so they wouldn’t see each other before the ceremony.  Leo went ahead and hiked up to Craggy gardens with a couple buddies. I stayed and waited for Tish.  She gracefully walked up the trail, the rhododendrons naturally lining the path creating a beautiful flower aisle. It was stunning and absolutely perfect.  At the top, Leo stood waiting for her with their two children, I must admit I had a tear in my eye at the beauty of this moment of them walking towards each other with beautiful smiles on their faces.

We set up the ceremony among the rhododendrons with the mountains in the background. Kyle performed a nature inspired ceremony for Tish & Leo, and their children stood by their sides holding the rings they would exchange with each other.   Afterwards, they celebrated with their friends on the mountaintop and we took time for lots of beautiful photos of the family and of course just the couple.  It was a perfect day and this is the magic we like to create with Asheville Outdoor Elopements.

From Tish:

“In a nutshell this is us…

Leo and I met 2 short years ago with a little push from two dear friends.
I couldn’t get a babysitter the first night we wanted to meet in July 2014, so my two children came along with me to meet Leo for the first time. Aside from the normal first date jitters we clicked right away and felt like we’d known each other for years, we couldn’t wait to see each other again. We went out on our own a few nights later and we have been together ever since.
During that first month, we went camping, where he met my parents, and took a 17 hour road trip from Florida to West Virginia, where I met his family.  From our first date with my kids in tow to our wedding and family-moon, we have been inseparable and always up for an adventure. I was quickly drawn to his sense of adventure, honesty, the easy down-to-earth way about him, and the way he involved my children in all we did right from the start.
I was born in Washington state and moved to Florida when I was 8 and Leo moved from Pennsylvania to Florida about 5 years ago. We joke that we both had to move across the country to find our true loves and our happily ever after.
In August 2015, just a year later, we made another of our many trips to West Virginia. While we were there we took a day and hiked up to Seneca Rocks in the Monongahela National Forest . When we got to the peak,  I turned around to take a picture and Leo was down on bended knee and asked me to marry him. It had only been a year since we met but we had no doubts we had found the real deal.

When we started planning the wedding we knew it would be difficult for his closest family and friends to travel from Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Florida for our wedding so we chose to have the ceremony in Asheville, NC. We both love the outdoors and the mountains so a simple mountain-top elopement on the Blue Ridge Parkway was perfectly us.
We also rented a beautiful cabin large enough for our friends and family to come and stay the week with us. We wanted everyone to be together and celebrate our wedding with us.

Book your small wedding or elopement with Asheville Outdoor Elopements! We specialize in providing a beautiful nature setting, an officiant including custom wedding ceremony and beautiful photography to share with friends and family, and to cherish for the rest of your life!  This is what we love to do and we’d love to be a part of your special and unique wedding day!