My Own Cottage Wedding on Clear Lake

Josh + Anita

Josh and I met each other just after high school. We actually went to the same high school, but he’s a few years older than me so we never crossed paths. A friend of mine was dating a friend of his, which resulted in me hanging out with his group of friends a lot during the summer of 2005 (and…every summer since then!).

But…sparks didn’t fly right away. Although I became close friends with this group of wonderful people, it wasn’t until 2013 that things progressed past the friend zone.

Needless to say we knew each other pretty well by that point. By 2016 we were engaged, and on August 12th 2017 we tied the knot at an intimate cottage wedding at Josh’s parents’ place on Clear Lake in Young’s Point, Ontario.

We knew we wanted to keep things intimate, and settled on a guest list of less than 50 of our closest friends and family. We also knew that we wanted to do as much as we could for our wedding ourselves.

We made all the food for the wedding ourselves (including a huge pot of chickpea curry which was a real hit!). I did my own hair and my sister did my makeup. We did all the planning, decorating and florals ourselves. We made our own play list, rented equipment from Long and McQuade. I designed a logo which we had printed on some double old fashioned glasses as favours for our guests. We filled a pinata with miniature bottles of alcohol and firecrackers.

The day was absolutely gorgeous – a hot and sunny summer day. That is, of course, until I started walking down the aisle. A few drops of rain fell. No big deal. A minute later the rain picked up even more…still not a big deal. Someone offered me an umbrella and I declined. By minute 4 we were in the middle of a full on torrential downpour and thunderstorm! I decided to accept the umbrella after all, haha.

Some guests fled for cover, some stuck it out with us in the rain. Our officiant asked us if we wanted to call it, but we were committed to making it happen at that point and we said I do while being absolutely drenched by a summer storm.

Our ceremony was 9 minutes long. It rained for exactly 9 minutes. The moment our ceremony was over the skies cleared, filled with rainbows and we didn’t get another drop all day. Everyone (including ourselves) was totally soaked, and it was perfect.

We finished the night off with pizza from the Night Kitchen in Peterborough, had a bonfire and danced the night away.

A huge thank you to my dear friend Jessica Melnik (who first introduced me to the world of wedding photography) for capturing this amazing day for us!