NIAGARA ON THE LAKE // KURTZ ORCHARDS MARKET WEDDING

Real Weddings

Sep 13

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Talk about quintessential Niagara, holy smokes! This wedding from planner Danielle of Shaw Events is all kinds of lovely!

From the bride:

About their wedding day: It was magical - we truly had the best day and felt surrounded by so much love. We had planned for the whole thing to be outside in the vineyards and orchards at Gracewood Estates, at Kurtz in Niagara-on-the-Lake and lucked out with a spectacular September day. It was a high risk plan that went perfectly. We've traveled to a number of wine regions and were looking to recreate that feeling close to Toronto, where we're both from. We had rented out the Riverbend Inn adjacent to Kurtz and it was full of our family and friends. We started the day with an outdoor yoga class overlooking the vineyards and both had a lot of fun getting ready with our bridal party. The ceremony was officiated by Kyla's uncle and a close friend of ours from London, Tony Cronin which made it feel really personal and reflective of us. We had a champagne toast while signing the registry. We had acoustic Beatle's music throughout and our London friends (dubbed the Notting Hill Boys Choir for the occasion) sang us out with a rendition of "With a Little Help From my Friends."

We had lots of friends and family fly over from the UK and elsewhere which meant a lot to us and wanted to ensure that everyone knew how much we appreciated them making the trip so we wrote personalized notes to all of our guests and dropped them off in hotel rooms with bottles of Niagara sparkling wine to welcome them. Alex's dad Rick is super handy and made a beautiful sign with our names and the date at the entrance to the ceremony and made a number of other things that we incorporated into the decor. It was so nice to have a personalized ceremony that captured us as a couple, and having our guests sing us out of the ceremony with champagne in hand was a pretty great moment. Having the Riverbend Inn booked out was also pretty awesome- we felt like we were able to celebrate for the whole weekend and bring together all of our special people around one place.

Why did you choose your date and venue? We love wine and visiting vineyards and Kurtz provided a beautiful backdrop to get that vibe without having to travel too far from Toronto. We both love the sun, but the sun doesn't love us as much so we thought late September would be a little more forgiving temperature-wise. We ended up with a perfect bluebird day and 25 degree weather- it couldn't have been better.

What was the highlight of your day? The whole thing- but we both loved the ceremony, sitting under the stars and the wild dance circle that really took off.

What surprised you about your wedding day? That Kyla showed up (that's from Alex). Any challenges on or leading up to your wedding day? Planning a fully outdoor wedding in a place neither of us knew well (Niagara-on-the-Lake) from the UK presented some challenges. Luckily we had a great wedding planner and lots of help!

Any advice for other couples planning their day? Get started early and be prepared to follow up- everyone will be super excited to attend your wedding, but they may be less focused on sending back their RSVPs or dinner choices. Pick vendors you like! You're putting a lot of faith in them and will be sharing some emotional moments with them too. We were so lucky with our band, wedding planner, hair and makeup team and photographer!