2008: Four Weddings and a Funeral

It must be the birds and the bees… There is surely something in the air (Cupid?) as Upper Canada Village welcomes a particularly fruitful summer with four weddings this year. All visitors are welcome to take part in the excitement, witness the ceremony, revel in the festivities, and share in the wedding cake. Wedding dates are Sunday June 29, Saturday July 5, Sunday July 27, and Sunday August 10 and all the weddings are different in both venue and ceremony; some taking place at home, others in a place of worship. Each wedding re-enactment scenario has been meticulously researched to be true to our 1860s time period. All the weddings commence at 1:30 p.m.

The first, on Sunday June 29, is a Methodist wedding at Providence Chapel. Neither family is wealthy, but the McDiarmid ladies will do their utmost to give their niece a proper trousseau as she begins her new life with one of the young men who works at the tenant farm.

On Saturday July 5, the second wedding of the season will be a Lutheran ceremony. The American nephew of the Lutheran pastor, the Reverend Mr. Hunton, is marrying a daughter of Mr. Michael Cook, the proprietor of Cook’s Tavern. The Reverend Mr. Hunton will marry the couple from Lutheran manse.

The social event of the season takes place on Sunday July 27 as the daughter of John Pliny Crysler marries an officer of Kingston’s Fort Henry Guard at Christ Church, beginning with a procession of carriages from the steps of Crysler Hall. Afterwards, Crysler Hall hosts a garden party, round of croquet, and country dances.

Sunday August 10 sees a Loucks family home wedding featuring a “mature” bride from the Loucks farm marrying a widower who needs a new wife to help raise his large family. The bride has taught school for many years and now gives up her career in order to take on the role of wife and mother.

The circle of life would not be complete, of course, without the sombre reminder that church bells ring for funerals as well as for weddings. This year’s funeral will take place on Saturday August 23 at 1:30. The name of the deceased has not been released yet, pending notification of next of kin. No doubt the elegant, black horse-drawn hearse from the Upper Canada Village transportation museum at the Loucks farm will carry the departed to the ceremony at Christ Church, where the final resting place will be.

Come and join in one, or all four, of the weddings and the funeral.