University of Miami sweethearts get married outside of Hard Rock Stadium at tailgate party

Rebecca San Juan
·2 min read

The Hard Rock Stadium is home to more than just football. It’s also a venue where people attend concerts, witness a miraculous cat rescue — and get married.

Couple Annie Rudd, 26, and Ryan Henseler, 26, jumped the broom outside of the Hard Rock Stadium in the West 22 parking area ahead of the Miami Hurricanes’ upset victory on Saturday night. The University of Miami sweethearts wanted to honor how they first met six years ago, Henseler told the Miami Herald.

Rudd and Henseler met at a fraternity tailgate party when both were undergraduate students at the University of Miami. Years later, college chums and Rudd’s childhood friends joined the couple on Saturday where the bride wore a dress by California boutique What’s Up Europe.

“What’s more Miami than a tailgate wedding?” Henseler said by email. “We [later] rented out a party terrace inside hard rock to — luckily — watch our Canes win a football game.”

The tailgate wedding is the second celebration in a three-stop “wedding tour,” Henseler said, noting it’s something they planned that would allow the couple to connect with a total of 50 friends and family members during the pandemic.

“We knew the tailgate wedding would garner some online attention, but definitely not what it has become. We’re not big social media people and didn’t even post about the weddings prior to them,” Henseler said. “We’re just two people in love trying to have a good time.”

Henseler and Rudd met with the groom’s family in his native Rhode Island in August. The couple then traveled to Miami native Rudd’s hometown two months later and dined at Monty’s Raw Bar in Coconut Grove Friday night.

In December, the couple will celebrate again in California — where Henseler is currently stationed as a U.S. Navy naval officer and where Rudd manages a small snack company. Instead of a registry, the couple have asked family and friends to donate to the Starfish Foundation and Healing Warrior Hearts in support of veterans’ mental health.