A Rustic Outdoor Wedding at Canyon Run Ranch in Pleasant Hill, Ohio

While planning their wedding, Michael Platt (28 and an ob-gyn resident physician) put in long hours at the hospital, and Zane Faulkner (29 and a clinical psychology doctoral student) was busy with his dissertation. So at their DIY event, the grooms just wanted to relax. They envisioned a celebration that felt “like an upscale backyard barbecue,” Michael says. The couple filled the weathered barn at Canyon Run Ranch with chalkboards, used books, glass bottles and twinkle lights, and served sliders and fries for dinner. Instead of a traditional first dance, Michael and Zane led their mothers to the floor for Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young.” Midway through the song, they switched partners and danced with their new mothers-in-law. Michael’s sister-in-law made six varieties of cookies for the dessert table. Canyon Run creek passes through the 153-acre ranch where Zane (left) and Michael wed. Glass jars belonging to Zane’s late grandmother held craspedia, peonies, bupleurum, curly willow and myrtle. To make the seating chart, Zane collected vintage candy shop receipt books and hung slips from numbered copper discs. The DJ quizzed the newlyweds on questions like, “Who is the better driver?” They raised “M” and “Z” paddles in response.