Ali & Cole : 1826 Photographic

When brides come to me for wedding advice, I always say to make it as personal as you can. Your wedding should reflect the type of couple you are, and Ali & Cole's wedding is the epitome of that statement! You can tell by their pictures what a fun-loving couple they are and that there is no doubt they threw an awesome party!

Not only did they get married on a boat by a comedian, but their I Guess I Do moment involves an accident with an ice cream truck. Yes, you read that right. Enjoy Ali's hilarious story in her own words below...

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I was not a typical bride. I had never really dreamed or thought about what I wanted my wedding day, wedding dress, etc. to look like. All I knew was that I wanted to marry Cole, the love of my life. When we first discussed ideas for what our wedding would be like, we were just throwing out a lot of random ideas. 

We were kind of reception experts at this point. We had been to 30+ weddings over the last 3-4 years and we knew what we wanted. Some rip-roarin' rager that was completely out of the box. Cole, I believe jokingly, threw out the idea of having a pig roast in a warehouse at his family’s marina. I thought it was brilliant and we wouldn't have restrictions on our 450+ guest list. We could make it a little more formal but the concept was casual, which matched our personalities better. From there the “out of the box” ideas kept on rolling. 

Cole came from a Lutheran family where as I grew up Catholic. We wanted to get married in a place that was both special to us. Cole’s uncle was married at sunset on his parent’s boat out in the middle of Lake Erie a long time ago, which I always thought was a beautiful story. So we intended to get married out on the water where we both had great memories and we both felt God the most but we needed a boat large enough to fit our extended families (over 150 people) who would be traveling from all over to celebrate with us. Then it hit us, the Goodtime! We have had a lot of drunken excursions on that boat (so we knew our families would fit right in) and we are lucky enough to call ourselves family friends with the owner Joe Lamb so what better place to get hitched! 

Now to figure out who to marry us. Well that was pretty much a simple story. Cole and I attended a comedy show at Hilarities in downtown Cleveland. Cole pointed out to the current comedian on stage “Hey, that guy is in my volleyball league and he married some of the people I play with.” Me-“you want him to marry us.” Cole- “Sounds great.” Josh (the man who married us)-“I’m in.” 

We spent a lot of time planning all of the extra details to our wedding since we were basically building a wedding venue from the ground up. My sister works with some badass teachers who, with a little persuasion at the annual Christmas get together, agreed to be our bartenders. We had cardboard cut-outs of ourselves there for people to take pictures with instead of the usual photo booth (Yep-pictures to follow of that). And we also had a beer wagon (Yes, I said beer wagon). The bridal party rode on Cole’s cousin's boat for the party in between the ceremony and the reception. It was just a group of unhip 20-somethings with bad dance moves on a really big, really old boat, but if you drank enough and squinted, the in between party looked a lot like a grand R Kelly video (Drunken, squinty version of in between party). 

Finally, our last “unusual” wedding detail was the ice cream truck. And yes folks that’s where we get to our I Guess I Do moment. Now, we got the idea from my parents to have an ice cream truck at our wedding because they had attended a graduation party with an ice cream truck and everyone loved it! Cole is much more of a pie person and I am more of a bag of chips kind of lady so we knew we didn’t want to do the “cake cutting”. We thought an ice cream truck full of goodies would be the best solution to satisfy our sweet tooth friends. 

They could not recall the name of the company so I started googling around for local ice cream truck rentals. The company we used shall remain anonymous for the reasons you are about to be told. The company was very friendly on the phone and willing to accommodate any needs we had. However, I could not find any pictures associated with this company we were using. I figured it must be a “mom and pop” type business possibly new to the internet, I guess. We booked them and I explained that our “unusual reception” would be held at the marina and laid out the land for where the truck will be located. 

The story is very unclear since we have heard multiple versions and everyone had hit the beer wagon or the special cocktails provided. Supposedly, as we were inside celebrating after our bridal party was announced and speeches were commencing the ice cream truck had some “technical difficulties.” As the woman who was driving the truck came to her designated parking space, she was not aware that a 45’ tall telephone pole was within her vicinity. As she backed up, she hit the telephone pole, the pole broke in half and landed directly on our videographer’s car. It completely demolished the back of his car. I apologize that I have no visual evidence of this, but we have yet to see any pictures of the incident.

Now, with some quick thinking family members, including my uncle who is an insurance agent and knew our videographer, we were able to talk him down from calling the police. Because if there was one thing we did not need, it was police arriving at our party before the sun had even set. Cole and I became aware of the incident, however, by the time we were told the story everything had already been handled. The ice cream truck workers apologized immensely and offered us lots of treats including Hawaiian ices which we lushly paired with our favorite spirits. One of the fine ice cream truck workers even offered for me to come back and make some ice cream. As Cole tried pushing me on the truck, I so kindly declined and informed Cole lovingly that if I have to go in this truck so did he. 

We both continued on with talking to our loved ones and dancing the night away. Everything turned out amazing and we have countless people to thank. We felt so much love from our family and friends and it wouldn’t have been the spectacular night it turned out to be without them there. So my advice to any brides out there: 1) Don’t let your husband push you into a suspicious ice cream truck alone 2) Relax and enjoy every moment the day will fly by 3) Remember it’s all about the two of you beginning your lives together 4) Something will go bad that day whether it’s something small or an ice cream truck blasting top speed through a telephone pole to total your videographer’s car…shake it off, get a drink, boogie down, it will all get figured out. 

Photographer: Jamie Speer at 1826 Photographic (we absolutely loved her!! ) DJ:Brandon Stone (He has done so many weddings we have attended and DJ’ed my sister’s wedding we love him! And the first pic to pop up on his website is my husband in the backwards capts hat) Ice Cream Truck: (The ice cream truck will remain anonymous for reasons listed above)  Decor: My mom did the decorating her side hobby/company is called “One Less Worry”  Catering: Mesenburg’s  Venue: Huron Lagoons (The venue was actually in a warehouse at Cole’s family’s marina, however, they don’t usually have weddings there)  Videographer: Larry Oper, our family friend, and last but not least we got married on the Goodtime by a part-time comedian/on the side pastor Josh Womack. He also has a business for comedians helping with best man/MOH speeches! Hair: Megan West- Moxie Salon tel:(419) 621-7776 Sandusky,Ohio Holly Ensign Locksmith Salon Sandusky, Ohio tel:(216) 378-1778

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