From Sheep Barn to Wedding Bliss: Aspen & Alston

Erick and Amie Druehl are a lovely couple. They’ve been married more than 30 years, and they give all glory to God in their decision to convert a former sheep farm into the Aspen & Alston wedding venue on a beautiful nine-acre spread in Ostrander.

The story of how a barn with a dirt floor became a wedding venue is a good one and an example of how a couple with a plan can create not just a wedding venue, but a new life.

A few years back, Erick and Amie were looking to move from Powell and find a place in the country. When they spotted the Ostrander property, they knew they had found their spot. Things have worked out exceedingly well.

For years, Erick worked as a commercial real estate lender and Amie was a stay-at-home mom. She volunteered as an event coordinator at her church and did interior decorating. She had a friend in Fairborn, Ohio, who owned a wedding venue. After seeing this, the idea of running her own venue continued to orbit her brain.

So, when the couple found the property, her plan went into overdrive. 

After purchasing the former sheep farm in 2021, the Druehls (pronounced drool) began remodeling the house and its rockin’ 1970s motif. Meanwhile, Amie kept looking longingly at the sheep barn. She’s the mother of three and homeschools her 13-year-old, so every time she walked past the kitchen window, there was the barn, calling to her.

After the house was remodeled and the sheep barn transformation was in its infancy, Erick decided to walk away from his job as a commercial real estate lender and spend full time working on the wedding venue. After pouring concrete in the barn, they rented a lift so that Amie could scrub the exposed trusses of . . . well, whatever accumulates on trusses over 30 years in a sheep barn. Use your imagination.

The transformation has been impressive, but not particularly easy. When you’re a commercial real estate lender or a stay-at-home mom, you’re not particularly familiar with the long, slow slog of the township and county permitting process, which included having to construct a commercial septic system.

But most of the heavy lifting is in their rearview mirror.

The venue now has a British-themed bachelor’s suite, a bridal suite with a full bathroom and dressing tables that would-be brides will find adorable, and three new restrooms along the landscaped path that leads from the parking lot to the barn. An oak tree that was here before we signed the Declaration of Independence grows behind the barn, serving as a backdrop for outdoor weddings.

Erick was tentative about making the jump from the corporate world to full-time venue manager-landscaper-planner-janitor-laborer, but he’s loving life these days. And, they’ve created a spectacular space.  

If you’d like to book a wedding or a party that requires more space than you have in your living room, check out Aspen & Alston. There are still dates available for the 2025 and 2026 seasons. 

You can book a tour, check availability and see the all-in pricing by visiting the website at aspenandalston.com, or by contacting them at [email protected] or 740.595.4166. Don’t just show up. You have to schedule your tour.

Aspen & Alston is located at 1361 St. Rt. 257 North in Ostrander, and not at the intersection of Aspen and Alston streets. Those streets are somewhere in Hesperia, California. They’re the ones on which Amie and Erick grew up, and cleverly enough, the inspiration for the name . . . in case you were wondering.

By: Robin Yocum


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