Couples celebrate their affection with southern Indiana love locks

STARLIGHT, Ind. (WDRB) -- At a glance out the window, it may just look like a gray, gloomy day in the middle of winter for a lot of Hoosiers. If you look close, Melissa Meier thinks the love in the air can almost make it seem just like Paris.

There are fewer berets and baguettes, and no Eiffel Tower to smooch underneath, but there are plenty of love locks. Similar to those maybe you saw online or vacation before they were removed from a French bridge.

"That tradition was started a long time ago," Meier said.

The idea is to lock in your love forever, and throw away the key. With stomachs full of dumplings at Joe Huber's Family Farm, several southern Indiana couples have done just that.

Dylan and Briana, Addison and Braiden, Dustin and Ashlee to name a few.

The southern Indiana farm isn't the only place celebrating love with the smell of chicken in the air, in addition to having a few live birds in the yard, Meier has a Love Lock Fence.

"Some of these are engraved," she said.

It's located just outside her historic New Albany home, fittingly called The Sloan-Paris House.

"The previous owner ran this as a bed and breakfast, slash wedding venue," Meier said. "We have people who walk around the city, and they go 'oh that's our lock!'"

Meier has never had the heart to get rid of them.

"That would break my heart if someone walked by here looking for a lock, and it was gone," she said.

Who said romance was only a French thing? Hoosiers with heart are not afraid of a public display of affection.

If you'd like a Love Lock for your lover, Joe Huber's Family Farm will start selling them again, when it reopens in March.