Pistol Annie Ashley Monroe Marries Baseball Pitcher John Danks
Ashley Monroe of the Pistol Annies and her Major League Baseball pitcher fiance John Danks were married on Thursday (Oct. 24). The couple exchanged vows at the same venue where singer Kelly Clarkson wed just days earlier. Blake Shelton officiated the ceremony, while Miranda Lambert, Monroe's Annies bandmate, stood as maid of honor.
"I married my best friend," Monroe told People after the Blackberry Farm ceremony. The two became engaged in September 2012, meeting one year earlier in Chicago. Danks -- who plays for the Chicago White Sox -- was introduced to Monroe by a mutual friend after her show in the Windy City that night.
In April, Clarkson said Shelton would also officiate her wedding, but it's not clear if he was there for the Oct. 20 ceremony. If so, it'd be two weddings in five days at Blackberry Farms for the 'Mine Would Be You Singer.'
Monroe says she and Danks wanted someone with personality to marry them. "They're my dearest friends," she says of Shelton and Lambert. "Miranda was the one who cared about all the details … it was magical."
The bride wore a custom Haute Hippie gown (she is Hippie Annie after all), while the groom wore Armani. Much of the decor was handmade by Lambert (she also helped design the ring, according to US Weekly), and the nuptials were exchanged in front of 45 guests with the Smoky Mountains in the distance.
show in ChicagoHunter Hayes