When Holly Najjar and Jeff Hudson first met at the Barn Daze event at Friendship Park last fall, they never dreamed that less than a year later they would be planning their wedding in that very same spot.
But that’s exactly what the happy couple is doing, with hopes that a gazebo they have agreed to donate the labor for can be finished in time for their July 12 nuptiuals.
“We met on the hayride at Barn Daze,” said Najjar. “We just started talking…he asked his daughter, and our daughters knew each other and we didn’t know it.”
Barn Daze was an event sponsored by the Orion Township Parks and Recreation Department at Friendship Park, located at Clarkston and Baldwin Roads. The event was centered around the Porritt Barn.
“We wanted to be married at Friendship Park, and the barn just wasn’t cutting it,” Najjar said of their decision to pursue a gazebo. “We were tempted to do it at the play structure, since that’s where we talked for four hours.”
Najjar and Hudson have both been married before, and both have two children. Najjar’s daughter Amber is nine and her son Nicholas is 10; Hudson’s daughter Kaitlyn is eight and his son Cameron is six. All of the children attend Orion Oaks Elementary School.
The couple got engaged on Good Friday, April 18, much to the delight of the children.
“The girls especially were happy,” Najjar said.
“They wanted it a lot sooner…they were pushing every day,” said Hudson, adding that he and Najjar had a lot in common from their pasts.
“We were both looking for the same thing,” he said.
“The first week we talked until 2 or 3 in the morning for a week straight, until we had our first date,” Najjar said. “We have a lot in common with our kids and what we like to do…we’re outdoors people.
“He’d sworn off women completely,” she said. “He was done. But I thought maybe someday I would get married again.”
Najjar and Hudson contacted Orion Township Parks and Recreation Director Rock Blanchard about the idea of a gazebo in Friendship Park, and Blanchard said he was excited about the prospect.
“We’ve wanted a gazebo for a long time,” he said. “The possibilities are endless, not only for weddings but for things like when we have Barn Daze, maybe we can have story telling there.”
Najjar and Hudson have agreed to donate the labor for the gazebo, which will be built by Tanner Building and Remodeling of Clarkston.
“It’s going to be 18-foot…an octagon,” said Najjar. “The township board approved it unanimously.”
Trustees gave their approval on May 19, and are using $5,000 from the Capital Improvement Fund for any materials that are not donated.
“I would ask one more condition, that we all be invited to the wedding,” joked trustee Eric Wilson.
Blanchard said donations have been coming in for the gazebo, but some lumber and possibly brick paving are among some of the needs still not met.
“We’ve got some lumber from Lake Orion Lumber,” he said. “We also have some concrete or brick pavers for the base, and some requests for two others for lumber.
“It’d be nice to do a paved path,” Blanchard said. “But we could always do wood chips, we have plenty of those.”
Anyone wishing to make a donation for the construction of the gazebo in Friendship Park can contact Orion Township Parks and Recreation at 391-0304, ext. 143, or email parksrec@oriontownship.org.