Page 63 - Panama City Living May/June 2019

Wedding ASHLEE AND RICH
time to finally meet. Both were driven, business-minded single parents. Ashlee, the director of operations for a communications company in Troy, Alabama, was focused on her career and two daughters, Anslee and Addison. Rich, leading his family business, Gulf Marine, Inc. in Panama City, Florida, was a busy parent as well, to his high-school-aged son, Cameron.
But the day came when they agreed on a lunch date at one of their favorite restaurants, J. Michaels in Panama City Beach. Ashlee brought her cousin along, undoubtedly for backup, but she jokes today, “I thought he should have a choice!”
With their first meeting, they both knew that they would be more than friends. “I remember getting in the car after lunch thinking, ‘I really like him,’” Ashlee says.
Rich felt the same. “She was outgoing, fun, happy, and beautiful.” They simply complemented each other. When she asked him to watch a football game with friends the same evening, he hesitated only briefly. “That’s when his friends knew that he was serious,” Ashlee teases. “Neither of us are huge football fans, but I’m more of one than he is. So, for him to want to come along ... It was a big deal.”
From there, the love grew and strengthened. There was a lot of driving back and forth from Troy to Panama City Beach. Their weekends were reserved for each other—it did not matter whether
it was fun or chores, they
did it together. She joined him
at his yoga classes and he accompanied her and her parents on their search for a Panama City Beach home.
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