BOYNE

Wedding Notebook The Homestead

Bay Mountain Ceremony

We invite you to visit

a special place where generations of lovers have shared whispered promises, their faces caressed by Lake Michigan breezes, hearts touched by the vision of shimmering islands, souls stirred by watercolor sunsets over a vast bay and towering dunes. Here, at The Homestead, you’ll feel waves of emotion wash over you, as you discover the most wonderfully romantic setting in the place chosen by Good Morning America as the "Most Beautiful Place in America". You'll choose one of three wedding venues with unmatched style and beauty. Each promises a succession of memorable moments you’ll treasure forever. To learn more, please call us. We will send you information filled with wonderful photos and warm reviews from recent brides. And, we will invite you to come for a visit. When you do, you’ll see that your perfect wedding, like your love, can begin with a look and a touch.

Accommodations

Catering

You’ll feel at home in one of our resort hotels or in the spaciousness of a privately-owned condominium or a home. Rates span a wide range but all are available on attractively priced wedding specials. So you can choose a level of luxury that suits your mood and your means.

A Suite at Little Belle

We’ve carefully paired our menus with our community. They include seasonally fresh food from local farms and awardwinning wines from nearby vintners. To that we add sparkling table settings and seemless service for fabulous dining on the most important day of your lives.

Mountain Flowers Lodge

Almost touching the sky, and fresh as the flowers that scent its terraces, Bay Mountain offers panoramic views of Lake Michigan and Glen Lake. Your ceremony and cocktail reception can be there, dinner in the valley below at Mountain Flowers Lodge where you'll find the warmth of stone and pine logs with country gardens and a sparkling waterfall. Accommodates 170.

Camp Firefly captures the charm of the north woods with welcoming ponds, a pine-paneled great hall, covered porch with an outdoor fireplace and wildflower-lined patio overlooking a waterfall and pond. Accommodates 80.

A bouquet’s throw from the beach, Café Manitou inspires Thoreau-like vows in an intimate, shoreside setting with endless blue views of lake and sky from outdoor brick terraces a cozy café. Accommodates 40.

NEW! "Mountain Village" featuring an all new grocerant, restaurant, outdoor grill and bar, stage, dance floor and fire pits. And, a massive stone fireplace and curvilinear celebration table that's perfect for your rehearsal or brunch.

Camp Firefly Lillyjade

You and your guests will enjoy the resort’s many amenities - beach, pools, tennis, golf, kayaks, stand up paddle boards, fitness center, skiing, and snowboarding. Your man and his groomsmen might enjoy golf at Manitou Passage Golf Club or Mountain Flowers Par 3. You and your bridesmaids are sure to enjoy Spa Amira which overlooks Lake Michigan and offers lighthearted fun around a pool. Then, bathed in natural light beside Lillyjade Salon's reflecting pool, you and your bridemaids locks will be coiffed and colored, your nails and toenails buffed for the Big Day.

You can welcome your guests with a beachfront bonfire–S’mores and sunsets are included! Your rehearsal reception, and brunch can feature sophisticated soirees or picnics to go.

Wood Ridge Road Glen Arbor, MI 49636 231-334-5000 231-334-5300 Events Phone thehomesteadresort.com

Event Sales Tony Farragh Sandy Luthardt Reception Capacity Up to 170 Event Rooms 3

Guest Rooms 225

Shhh… Shhh… We’ve quietly created unique new sites for weddings and receptions that are spectacular in any season of the year. We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. We’ve quietly created unique new sites for weddings and receptions that are spectacular in any season of the year. We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They blossom in the spring, shine in the summer, color in the fall, and sparkle in the winter. And, they meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose your season ... wines will fl ow, fl avors will swirl, and your day, your perfect day, will be made. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, your perfect day, will be made. Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day,We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, your perfect day, will be made. Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, your perfect day, will be made. Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. Shhh… We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. They blossom in the spring, shine in the summer, color in the fall, and sparkle in the winter. And, they meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose your season ... wines will fl ow, fl avors will swirl, and your day, your perfect day, will be made. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, your perfect day, will be made. Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day,We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, your perfect day, will be made. Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, your perfect day, will be made. Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. Shhh… We’ve quietly created stylish new sites for weddings and receptions. They meld the majesty of Lake Michigan with the beauty of Leelanau. Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, Choose one…flavors will swirl, wines will sparkle and your day, your perfect day, will be made. your perfect day, will be made. Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. 2018 PICK Come see. It’ll be love at first sight. 2018 PICK

WEDDINGS WE LOVE

STORY BY ELIZABETH EDWARDS | PHOTOGRAPHY BY JANELLE ELISE PHOTOGRAPHY

ANNIE WEIDNER & MATT MURTHA | OCTOBER 10, 2020

Three weeks after their first date on March 28, 2017, Matt wrote a letter to Annie in a leather-bound notebook. Among other things it said, “I don’t know what the future holds, but I hope it holds you.” Both were attending Miami University (Ohio) at the time. He had just five weeks until graduation. She had a year and five weeks. In the three weeks he’d been dating Annie, he’d morphed from a guy who couldn’t wait to get out of school and start an independent life at a new job in Chicago, to a committed man.

The couple made it through that next year—Matt traveling whenever he could to Miami University, and Annie heading to Chicago when she had a break in her schedule. After she graduated, Annie took a job in Chicago. As they continued their relationship, Matt kept writing letters in that notebook. The letters documented what they did together, what they did with their friends and the progression of their relationship. When he was ready to propose, he got her friends at work to ask her out for a girls’ happy hour. She drove with a girlfriend and when they pulled up, there was Matt, dressed in a suit—holding the notebook. He asked her to walk with him and as they did, he read her the letters. When they arrived at the Lily Pond in Lincoln Park, he got down on his knee. She could hardly see or speak through her tears, but she made her “yes” clear.

How to top the romance of that engagement? With the perfect wedding, of course. But as it turned out, pulling it off would be complicated. Their initial plan was a destination wedding in California’s wine country. So, a year ago this fall, they planned a scouting trip to Sonoma and Napa to work out the details for a wedding on their chosen date, October 10, 2020. As they were waiting for their plane at Chicago O’Hare Airport, a friend texted and said, “Be safe.” They didn’t know what she meant until they walked over to a television and watched the news: Napa and Sonoma were on fire. They called their hotel and were told the hotel was only open to evacuees.

They decided they could easily pivot and drive south to look for venues in the Monterey/Carmel area. They did, and found a beautiful vineyard to be married in, and lined up many of the vendors that they needed to make a wedding happen. By March of 2020, they were busy buttoning-down plans when COVID-19 hit. Certainly, this will be OK by October, they thought. But by July, California was a COVID hotspot, and they could see the writing on the wall. It was time for another pivot: it would need to be a very small wedding, completely outside, in a region that was closer to Chicago and that wasn’t on the COVID hot list. Northern Michigan—a place where Annie’s family had vacationed and loved, might just be the answer.

The couple reached out to friends who’d been to weddings in the area, and the wedding venues at Boyne Mountain moved to the top of the list. And yes, Boyne Mountain had October 10, 2020, free. More exciting yet, theirs would be one of the first weddings at the new EK Preserve—a rustically elegant wooded setting on the Boyne River with a lodge for the bridal party to get ready in.

The temps were in the 70s and it was peak color season in Northern Michigan the week of the wedding. “It looked like fall, but felt like summer,” Annie says. The bridal party arrived on Wednesday and moved into the resort’s well-appointed Mountain Cabins. Over the next several days they hiked and visited nearby Boyne Valley Vineyards. When the other guests began arriving on Friday, they hosted a golf competition on The Alpine course at Boyne Mountain. 4

With so many gorgeous outdoor venues at Boyne Mountain, all the event functions could be held safely outside. First, a bridesmaids’ luncheon on the Beach House Lawn beside sweet Deer Lake. The rehearsal dinner was held on Stein Eriksen’s patio, at the base of a ski hill and in front of a charming Alpine-style building. When the dinner was finished, the patio became the site of the welcome party, complete with a bonfire and s’mores.

The sky was just as blue the day of the wedding, but the temperature had fallen into the 50s. Annie had purchased her wedding gown for a California wedding, but she never felt cold. “I must have had so much adrenaline that I felt like I had a coat on,” she says. The ceremony at the edge of the Boyne River was intimate and simple. The only decor was a large wooden cross that a family friend had made. The pastor, also an old family friend, included the guests in the service. Annie and Matt exchanged their own vows. “Later, friends told us that it felt like they’d been at a spiritual retreat—everything was centered on peace and love,” Annie says.

Serenity turned to jubilation as the guests and bridal party made the short walk to a huge tent—big enough to make sure all tables were spaced six feet from each other. The plated dinner offered three elegant choices: filet mignon, halibut with truffle butter and chicken piccata. Between speeches, the newlyweds snuck away with the photographer, Janelle Elise, for sunset photos. “As we were going back up the hill, the sun was filtering through these really tall trees,” Matt says. “Janelle said, ‘We have 30 seconds to capture the light, we have to run.’ So, we chased the sunset—and those are some of our favorite shots.”

The six-piece Brena Band from Grand Rapids got the tent rocking. “They played everything from ‘Come On Eileen’ to Justin Bieber,” Annie says. “I’ve never seen a wedding with the guests so involved with the music—my grandparents were dancing to songs they’d never heard of in their lives!”

The couple had planned a sparkler sendoff, but they took Janelle’s suggestion for a better fairytale ending: Dancing alone under the market lights hung in the trees. And that is how Annie and Matt ended their perfect wedding. The wedding that neither fire, nor COVID, could stop.

Read more about what Annie learned about wedding planning (by planning her own wedding three times!) on her lifestyle blog, annieweidner.com.

resources

Venue | Boyne Mountain, boynemountain.com

Photographer | Janelle Elise Photography, janelleelise.com

Wedding Planner | MerryMakers, merrymkr.com

Videographer | Flom Films, flomfilms.com

Florist | Sweetwater Floral, sweetwaternorth.com

Catering | Boyne Mountain, boynemountain.com

Cake | Simply Sweet by Jessica, simplysweetbyjessica.com

Live Music | Brena Band, brenaband.com

Bridal Gown | Lovely Bride, lovelybride.com

Hair & Makeup | Vogue Salon & Spa, vogue-salons.com

Rentals | Rental Express, rentaltime.com

See more photos at MyNorth.com/Boyne21 Know an engaged couple? Send them MyNorth Wedding magazine at ShopMyNorth.com/Wedding21