Ashley & Holly

Ashley Hancock and Holly Rankin weren’t really looking for each other when they met via a mutual friend but hey, timing isn’t always perfect. “As soon as Holly walked in I started texting my friend Aimee ‘Who is this girl?’ and Holly was texting her the same thing,” says Ashley of the night she was introduced to her now wife, back in 2011. “We literally spent forever together after that.” After passing some true tests of patience and love that solidified they were in it for the long haul (like Ashley nursing Holly back to health after she broke not one, but both of her feet) Holly popped the question in a perfectly imperfect moment. “It rained that day,” she says, forcing her to kibosh her original plans and propose to a hangry Ashley in their car before getting out and taking a (damp) knee outside to make it official. The couple, who celebrated their engagement with matching tattoos instead of rings, wanted to use their wedding as a way to show off their shared home—the Annapolis Valley—to the people they loved. They picked sunflowers for the ceremony at the nearby Dakeyne Farms, said vows on the Wolfville waterfront with red mud of the Minas Basin and Cape Blomidon as a backdrop, and ate, drank and danced at the Wolfville Farmers’ Market, where they asked every guest to request a song for an optimal soundtrack. “There was so much love and closeness,” says Ashley of the day’s overall vibe. “It felt impromptu,” Holly adds. “We didn’t practice a dance. We didn’t practice a kiss. But everything was just perfect.”