A Fourth of July-Inspired Country Wedding at Karnes Stables in Lutz, Florida

Ashley Scherch (26 and a teacher) and Jason Tournay (31 and in law enforcement) met on the Fourth of July and became engaged on their fourth dating anniversary. The couple was on a hike up Cathedral Rock in Sedona, Arizona when Jason popped the question with an custom and personal diamond ring. “It contains three of my grandmother’s diamonds and the mold is made from scrap platinum from Jason’s grandfather,” says Ashley. Within a year, the couple and Blue Skies Events planned an outdoor wedding decorated with a Fourth of July-inspired color palette of red, white and blue. “The theme of our wedding was country/rustic because we live in Florida and we’re proud to be from the south,” says Ashley. The couple accented their ceremony space at Karnes Stables with hanging arrangements of white Gerbera daisies, a lace trimmed burlap aisle runner and two wooden barrels topped with white and red Gerbera daisies. After Ashley and Jason said “I do,” their 90 guests enjoyed sweet tea vodka signature drinks and lawn games such as corn hole, ladder ball and horse shoes. The couple joined their friends and family for a southern barbecue dinner of pulled pork, barbecue chicken and macaroni and cheese before treating them to a three-tiered white wedding cake topped with two cowboy boots. Each guest enjoyed a night filled with line-dancing before leaving the reception with a red, white, and blue whoopee pie cookie, succulent or cactus plant.