Ashe, Engle Wedding

Sometimes, high school flirting and puppy love really does turn into a marriage. For Megan Renea Ashe and Nicholas Hughes Engle, love was planted while the pair attended high school together, but little did they know they would have a lifetime together to watch it bloom.
 
On March 20, 2010, the couple finally married after dating for eight years and living together for one year. They held the ceremony at the well known and highly recommended Kelly Plantation Golf Club in Destin, FL.
 
Megan, a registered nurse in the emergency department at a hospital in Miramar Beach, Florida., and Nick, the owner of Engle Distributing along the Emerald Coast, go way back, and both grew up in Fort Walton Beach, FL. While Megan can’t remember meeting Nick before high school, Nick swears that they flirted during PE while in middle school.
 
Megan had playfully been dropping hints to Nick about getting married, but never did she dream that it would happen in the fashion it did! One night while the pair were taking a taxi to AJ’s Seafood and Oyster Bar for dinner and drinks in Destin, Nick got down on one knee in the taxi and asked for Megan’s hand in marriage. Megan was sure that Nick was joking, and dismissed him. Nick’s sister, Tana, had started yelling and crying in excitement in the back of the taxi. Once they arrived at their destination, Megan could see that Nick was visibly hurt, and had been serious during his attempted proposal. Megan asked him to prove himself, so he got down on one knee a second time and Megan excitedly said yes! Ironically, Tana had worn a bachelorette-style ring with a fake diamond that lit up. Megan, of course, wore the ring for the rest of the night to make the engagement official! The next day, the newly-engaged couple were off to pick out a setting for Megan’s engagement ring. Megan’s parents had approached Nick before he proposed and asked if he would use the diamond that is an heirloom in Megan’s family, passed down by her great grandfather.  
 
While Megan and Nick both loved the idea of a destination wedding, in the end, they settled on a location that was close to home, and reminded Megan of the southern plantation-style homes with perfectly manicured lawns that she always loved to admire while visiting family in Georgia. After their wedding planner, Shelby Peaden, owner of Shelby Peaden Events, suggested Kelly Plantation, Megan met with Russ Cooper, who coordinates all of Kelly Plantation’s events, and it was a done deal! Nick loved it, too.
 
Shelby Peaden helped bring together the details of this beautiful affair, and assisted greatly with the décor of the wedding. Dede Edwards of Destin, FL., was sure to capture every electric second between the couple while behind the camera.
 
165 guests attended the ceremony, where the pastor that baptized Megan as a teen, David Malheiro, did the officiating. Megan walked down the aisle in a strapless dress with a scooped neckline that she bought from Simply Elegant in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. The dress was sprinkled with Swarovski crystals around its empire waist, and had lace that danced along the hemline. Megan felt that a veil would take away from her gown, so she opted for wearing a flower in her hair ordered from haircomesthebride.com. Megan had her Liz Renee shoes ordered from Zappos online dyed eggplant to match the bridesmaids’ dresses. Megan’s mother made her a one-of-a-kind eggplant clutch to carry out of left-over material from the bridesmaids’ dresses that were cut to knee-length. The bridesmaids’ eggplant-colored dresses were also from Simply Elegant, and after a few stylistic changes to the dresses, they were good to do!
 
Both the groomsmen and Nick wore Stephen Geoffrey alfresco suits in khaki. They paired a paisley eggplant tie and brown shoes with the suits to pull off a handsome look that complemented the bridesmaids perfectly.
 
Celeste Barefield and Edie Thompson of Celestine’s Special Occasions provided the flowers for the wedding, and helped the couple achieve the “southern garden look” they so desired. Megan carried a bouquet of cream roses, and white peonies accented with a few white gardenias. The bridesmaids carried a bouquet of maidenhair fern, roses, sweet peas and ranunculus. The groomsmen had simple boutonnieres made of fiddlehead fern, rosemary and green hypericum berries. Nick’s had a special checkered flag gold charm that Megan added to his boutonniere to symbolize his love for racing and cars.
 
Celestine’s Special Occasions also provided the delectable wedding favors: caramel-dipped apples coated in chocolate and then drizzled with white chocolate. Does it get any tastier? Based on what we heard, it couldn’t.
 
After an emotional, yet simple ceremony filled with love and happiness, the pair headed to the reception, where they enjoyed a long night of eating, drinking and being merry with friends and family. Kelly Plantation catered the reception, serving much-loved chicken fingers and French fries to the kids, while the adults gorged on an apple-pecan salad, loaded mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, Mediterranean shrimp pasta and a New York strip carving station. For dessert, guests delighted in a six-tier wedding cake (each layer a different flavor) and a racecar-style groom’s cake consisting of chocolate and peanut butter, both made by Rhonda Joodi of Confections On the Coast.
 
Guests enjoyed the buffet-style dinner paired with wine, beer and a special drink consisting of lemonade and Firefly sweet tea vodka served in mason jars. Rhonda Schaefer, of Destin, was chosen as the couple’s photographer and provided a special touch that guests really loved: a photo booth! The reception was overflowing with happiness. The remarkable lighting was provided by A DJ Connection, and Shawn Rowe from A DJ Connection provided the entertainment for the night…keeping the party going for hours, and the couple and guests smiling through it all.
 
Megan and Nick were the last ones to leave the reception, a sure sign that they, just as all of their family and friends, were having the time of their life. After exiting through a line of well wishers the couple made way to their elegant beachside suite at Destin’s Henderson Park Inn -Destin’s only all inclusive bed and breakfast conveniently located on over a mile of private beach on Old Hwy. 98 and like nothing else available so close to the epicenter of everything Destin has to offer.  
After  a wonderful stay at Henderson Park Inn, Megan and Nick spent five days in St. Lucia at Sandals Grande St. Lucian Resort before returning to reality, and their wonderful life as newlyweds in Shalimar, Florida, where they are enjoying life as newlyweds with their perfect wedding memories and a little Yorkie named Colby.
 
Accommodations:
Henderson Park Inn Bed & Breakfast
Destin, Florida
www.HendersonParkInn.com
 
Catering and Venue:
Kelly Plantation
Destin, Florida
www.kellyplantationgolf.com
 
Dresses and Wedding Attire:
Simply Elegant
Ft. Walton Beach, Florida
 
Floral and décor:
Celestine’s Special Occasions
 
 
Coordinator/Planner:
Shelby Peaden Events
 
 
Photography:
Dede Edwards Photography
Destin, Florida
www.dedeedwards.com