WATER'S EDGE WATER'S EDGE - Holly Matrimony Weddings
WATER'S EDGE WATER'S EDGE - Holly Matrimony Weddings
WATER'S EDGE WATER'S EDGE - Holly Matrimony Weddings
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WATER’S <strong>EDGE</strong><br />
<strong>Weddings</strong> <strong>Weddings</strong><br />
2013<br />
Winter wonderland celebrations • Muskoka-made jewelry • Professional planners ease stress
Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013<br />
CONTENTS<br />
7 HISTORIC ISLAND WEDDING<br />
By Scott Turnbull<br />
Crawford Island was transformed into a magical setting.<br />
12 WINTER WEDDINGS IN MUSKOKA<br />
By Emily MacDuff<br />
Pairing winter sports and winter weddings results in fun for all.<br />
18 CELEBRATING THE BIG DAY<br />
MUSKOKA-STYLE<br />
By Allan Cook<br />
Former editor Melissa Kosowan hosts a truly Muskoka wedding.<br />
22 WED AT THE WATER’S <strong>EDGE</strong><br />
By Allan Cook<br />
Muskoka’s lakes play a major role in many Muskoka wedding.<br />
29 WEEKEND EVENT BLENDS CULTURAL<br />
WEDDING TRADITIONS<br />
By Dawn Huddlestone<br />
When a wedding in Kenya wasn’t possible, Muskoka was chosen.<br />
32 LAKE JOSEPH IS A SENTIMENTAL<br />
FAMILY SPOT<br />
By Yvonne Stiver-Macleod<br />
Amy McDonald and Ross Bates invited many young guests.<br />
36 PLANNING THE BIG DAY<br />
By Karen Wehrstein<br />
Wedding planners and event decorators can remove some stress.<br />
42 MUSKOKA JEWELRY – A TREASURED<br />
KEEPSAKE<br />
By Bill Farnsworth<br />
Many artists create unique made-in-Muskoka jewelry.<br />
46 WE DID IT<br />
Newlyweds share their favourite Muskoka wedding memories.<br />
COVER PHOTO: SCOTT TURNBULL<br />
Bride Stephanie Sher and groom Jason Stephenson slip away for a<br />
sunset photo at the water’s edge on Silver Lake, near Port Carling.<br />
7<br />
12<br />
18<br />
32<br />
Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013 5
When Laura Cook married Jeremy Kiehl at her Gravenhurst wedding last fall, <strong>Holly</strong> <strong>Matrimony</strong> assisted in the planning of the event.<br />
Planning the big day<br />
Mode Function put hundreds of hours into this event at JW Marriott The Rosseau Resort &<br />
Spa. The event decorators provide the mood and feeling for the event.<br />
36 Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013<br />
Photograph: Mode Function<br />
BY KAREN WEHRSTEIN<br />
Hiring a wedding planner or decorator<br />
can give the bridal couple,<br />
and their family and friends, more<br />
freedom to enjoy their special day.<br />
“It’s fair to say that anyone can plan an<br />
event,” says Bryn Allison, owner of An<br />
Artistic Affair, based in Bracebridge. “But<br />
how well and efficiently they do this will<br />
vary. Hiring an event specialist is putting this<br />
responsibility into the hands of a professional<br />
with a wealth of knowledge, connections<br />
in the community and trade secrets for<br />
executing a seamless event.”<br />
Tina Hamer, owner of Plan4Me, based in<br />
Gravenhurst explains. “The brides hire a<br />
wedding planner because they don’t want to<br />
worry about it, or their moms or the maid<br />
of honour. They want one person, not in<br />
Photograph: Owen Cherry
Photograph: Owen Cherry<br />
For the Kiehl/Cook wedding, family members installed hundreds of twinkling lights in the barn, says planner <strong>Holly</strong> Carney (above). An Artistic<br />
Affair planner Bryn Allison ensures all the details, from the wedding flowers to table décor and favours, are exactly as anticipated (below).<br />
Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013 37<br />
Photograph: Scott Turnbull
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On-site alterations by experienced<br />
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38 Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013<br />
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the wedding party, making everything go.<br />
There are weddings that go perfectly and<br />
there are others where there’s a hiccup.” She<br />
works to make sure things happen as they<br />
should.<br />
It takes about 250 hours to plan a wedding.<br />
So says, <strong>Holly</strong> Carney, owner at <strong>Holly</strong><br />
<strong>Matrimony</strong> <strong>Weddings</strong>. She bases her business<br />
in Mississauga but grew up in Gravenhurst<br />
so does a lot of work in Muskoka. She<br />
says today’s dual income couples don’t<br />
always have the time to plan all the little<br />
details for their wedding. “Say they want a<br />
horse and buggy for their wedding. I go out<br />
and find them three options,” she says<br />
explaining it saves the couple’s time.<br />
“A lot of people think wedding planners<br />
will take over, and there are some people<br />
who give us a bad name,” says Carney. “But<br />
I’m there to make things easier and more<br />
efficient for the client.” Making sure the<br />
nuptials stay on schedule can save you<br />
money when, say, live entertainers will<br />
charge for additional time, Carney adds.<br />
Most wedding planners and co-ordinators<br />
offer different packages, from the all-inclusive,<br />
starting at the engagement to being<br />
there just on the big day, and everything in<br />
between. Just to be clear on the terminology:<br />
a wedding planner sources the service<br />
vendors (venue, food, flowers, etc.) for you,<br />
whereas a wedding co-ordinator works with<br />
vendors you’ve already contracted with. Carney<br />
strongly recommends hiring an independent<br />
planner, i.e. one with no particular<br />
ties to any vendors, so she’s working strictly<br />
for the client.<br />
The planner’s job, explains Allison, is to<br />
help the couple find a venue, find them vendors<br />
based on venue and/or budget, track<br />
the budget, plan design and décor that suit<br />
the couple’s vision, and finally – “I’m there<br />
the day of the wedding to make sure everything<br />
goes off without a hitch. To see the<br />
bride and groom being able to enjoy the<br />
night with their guests and not worry about<br />
the details is what makes it satisfying for<br />
me.”<br />
A planner can also rescue a wedding<br />
when there’s a major crisis.<br />
Often it involves using her contacts, as<br />
when Carney was planning a wedding with a<br />
singularly unco-operative caterer. “They<br />
were having major food safety concerns,”<br />
she recalls. “I had to come in and a week<br />
before the wedding and we had to make a<br />
decision. The bride opted to forfeit her initial<br />
payment and change caterers.” With the<br />
bride in tears, Carney stepped in. “I called<br />
two people I’ve worked with who could do<br />
something on the fly and with the budget<br />
she had.” Through this last-minute aid, the<br />
wedding feast went off well after all.<br />
Hamer recalls a wedding for which the
An Artistic Affair planner Bryn Allison worked with clients to set up a tasty and attractive Muskoka-themed cake and cupcake table.<br />
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Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013 39<br />
Photograph: Visual Roots
THOMAS BROWN —<br />
CHAPLAIN/WEDDING COMMISSIONER<br />
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within Muskoka<br />
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All couples happily welcomed.<br />
705-783-1846<br />
tomabrown@hotmail.ca<br />
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For readers with a love<br />
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www.muskokamagazine.com<br />
40 Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013<br />
Setting up for a wedding at The Rosseau, the Mode Function team uses birch branches,<br />
lanterns and white chair covers, to capture a wintery Muskoka theme with warm elements.<br />
cake was delivered by a bumpy route she<br />
had specifically warned against. “When they<br />
arrived, the whole cake had tipped over, so<br />
there was no wedding cake,” she recounts.<br />
“But there is always a back-up. I called other<br />
people I know. They always have something<br />
in case something happens.”<br />
Admittedly, some wedding crises are<br />
beyond the abilities of even the most capable<br />
pro to solve. Hamer remembers one<br />
wedding for which the groom didn’t show,<br />
standing up his bride and close to 400<br />
guests. “He had cold feet. The bride had a<br />
total meltdown,” Hamer recalls. Since everything<br />
had been paid for, the decision was<br />
made just to make a party out of it, and<br />
amazingly, the couple is back together. “But<br />
she’s not planning a wedding.”<br />
Most people tying the knot in Muskoka<br />
are coming from Toronto or even further<br />
afield. The Muskoka outdoor wedding, says<br />
Hamer, is very trendy and couples make a<br />
weekend of it. “A lot of people don’t want<br />
to do a typical hall wedding. They want to<br />
be outdoors in a nice area, that has a lake.”<br />
A Friday-night dinner tends to be followed<br />
by a late Saturday-afternoon ceremony with<br />
reception from six until the wee hours, then<br />
a late Sunday breakfast. “It also works great<br />
for long weekends,” she says.<br />
Getting hitched outdoors adds planning<br />
challenges, though. “You have to rent chairs,<br />
tables, tent, cutlery, everything,” Hamer says.<br />
“You have to have a generator for back-up<br />
if the power goes off. It’s very different than<br />
a hall wedding in Toronto, where your perperson<br />
price includes everything.”<br />
A wedding at an island cottage can be<br />
spectacular, says Allison, but adds, “When<br />
the only access is water the logistics are<br />
about tenfold.”<br />
For one 170-guest wedding she arranged<br />
on Bigwin Island, the guests were staying in<br />
various places on and off the island and she<br />
says, “The shuttle organizing was pretty<br />
crazy.” But it was worth it, for a ceremony in<br />
the resort’s marine dining room overlooking<br />
the water.<br />
Other Muskoka elements included a<br />
birchbark-inspired cake, guest tables named<br />
after historical Muskoka boats or steamships<br />
and locally-made jams for favours. Allison<br />
and other planners like to use local suppliers<br />
and service providers. “It’s really important<br />
for me and other people to utilize the amazing<br />
talent base that is available in the Muskoka<br />
region,” she says.<br />
Cottage weddings are popular, says Tina<br />
Hamer, most of whose clients are Torontonians<br />
with cottages in Muskoka. Aside from<br />
the most popular season of May to August,<br />
she says, “October is pretty much booked<br />
because of the colours, and in December<br />
people do the winter wonderland thing.”<br />
For one simple and elegant autumn wedding<br />
at Trillium Resort in Port Sydney, the<br />
bride didn’t want rose petals scattered along<br />
the aisle, but something different. “I said,<br />
‘Why don’t we collect leaves?’,” Hamer<br />
recalls. “She loved that. We just lined the<br />
aisle on the grass with all-different-coloured<br />
leaves.”<br />
For another wedding Hamer planned, at<br />
Port Cunnington, all the guests were handed<br />
a sparkler for the night-time walk from the<br />
reception area to the barn where the dance<br />
would take place. Then they formed a spectacularly-shining<br />
double line for the newlyweds<br />
to walk through.<br />
When Laura Cook, daughter of Graven-<br />
Photograph: Hasahn Fisher
hurst KOA owner Paul Cook, married Jeremy<br />
Kiehl this past September, the reception<br />
took place at the campground’s barn. “The<br />
week before the wedding, the moms and<br />
aunts lined all the beams with twinkle<br />
lights,” Carney recalls. “The night before,<br />
they gathered a ton of wildflowers. They put<br />
mason-jar centrepieces everywhere.”<br />
Despite on and off rain all day, a leaky barn<br />
and “lots of logistical issues,” a grand time<br />
was had by all.<br />
Carney notes a pro can help with the<br />
aftermath of a wedding, too. “They should<br />
never see garbage on the floor and centerpieces<br />
all over the place, or have drunk<br />
guests doing tear-down,” she says. “They<br />
might have had a wonderful night but their<br />
memory is of how hard the clean-up was.”<br />
For wedding design and décor, you might<br />
want to hire a pro, too – especially if you<br />
want top-of-the-line work such as that<br />
offered by Mode Function Event Design of<br />
Gravenhurst. Fully-equipped with a climatecontrolled<br />
flower department, this business<br />
offers flower arrangements as pricey as<br />
$1,000 for a centrepiece, drapery, chair and<br />
table rentals, custom-built wedding furniture,<br />
life-size ice sculptures of key people,<br />
gazebos, live interactive displays and probably<br />
anything else you or they could think of.<br />
And it all goes together.<br />
The key is capturing the right mood and<br />
feeling, says Jeffery Crawford, of Mode<br />
Function. “Each piece has to relate to the<br />
others for a cohesive look – not necessarily<br />
match, but complement. Sometimes matching<br />
is not great, because you can lose depth<br />
and definition.”<br />
For instance, a Muskoka wedding needn’t<br />
be Muskoka-themed. “Sometimes working<br />
in a metropolitan feel works well,” says<br />
Tina Hamer ensured guests held<br />
sparklers to light the path at Craig and<br />
Andrea Hanley’s wedding.<br />
Photograph: Renaissance Studios Photography<br />
Crawford. “We did one at The Rosseau<br />
where we draped every single wall in the<br />
ballroom sheer white to give us the blank<br />
canvas, then used crystal, flush pink roses,<br />
and gold-embroidered overlay on the tables.<br />
It was a pretty wedding.”<br />
For another wedding at the same venue,<br />
says Crawford, “the client gave us a loose<br />
vision of a wintery Muskoka feeling with<br />
warm elements. She let us run wild with it.”<br />
The result was a mix of custom harveststyle<br />
tables mixed with traditional round<br />
tables in a pattern, and two different styles<br />
of centrepiece – one featuring a lampshade<br />
crafted of moss on a birch column rising<br />
over a giant flower arrangement.<br />
“What’s kind of new and trendy right<br />
now is using the rustic elements of Muskoka,<br />
but kind of sanctifying it with pretty<br />
chandeliers, and using other elements to<br />
soften the rustic elements of a barn or old<br />
boathouse . . . using lighter colours, using<br />
drapery,” says Allison. “It’s using the rustic<br />
backdrop, but making it really chic and soft<br />
and elegant.”<br />
There are some tips for working with<br />
wedding pros: Book way in advance. Some<br />
have already filled up many 2013 dates.<br />
Check for compatibility. “There’s a wellknown<br />
designer in Toronto who told one<br />
bride her ideas were terrible,” Carney warns.<br />
“Make sure they’re open to your ideas.”<br />
Factor custom-made anything into your<br />
budget in a big way. “As soon as you start<br />
adding custom, it requires a great deal of<br />
labour,” Crawford cautions. Seven hundred<br />
hours went into one of his weddings at The<br />
Rosseau before set-up was even begun, he<br />
says.<br />
There are little known facts the experts<br />
can share. As an example, for brides who are<br />
doing winter weddings, keep in mind that<br />
flower petals are very delicate.<br />
“Anything below zero, and they’ll freeze<br />
in three seconds,” warns Crawford, noting<br />
that his arrangements are delivered to the<br />
wedding carefully wrapped. “We caution<br />
brides doing photos outside not to take the<br />
bouquet with them,” he says. “When you<br />
bring them back inside, they instantly turn<br />
to mush.”<br />
So – to hire a pro or not? Really, it’s partly<br />
whether you want to let someone else<br />
stress over the organization, and partly how<br />
adept you are at planning and organizing<br />
yourself. “It’s very hard to hand off control,<br />
but you can’t clone yourself,” Carney says.<br />
“There have been brides whose husband<br />
hires me because he knows she’ll have the<br />
itinerary under her napkin.”<br />
The goal is to have the bride and groom<br />
enjoying their big day. For many, a wedding<br />
planner and decorator can help make<br />
that happen.<br />
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Muskoka <strong>Weddings</strong> 2013 41