MAPLE CITY -- Weddings seem to prompt an endless string of details, but when Megan Mazurek and Adam Zeigler chose to have their ceremony at his family's home, they both simplified and added complexity to the equation.
The Maple City couple, both graduates of Glen Lake High School -- him in 1999 and her in 2001 -- wed June 14. With an outdoor ceremony planned for the mother of the groom's extensive gardens, a looming worry was the weather.
The newlyweds lucked out: By the time gloom rolled in later that day, vows had been exchanged and the gathering relocated to the Park Place Dome for the reception.
Meanwhile, Barb Zeigler's gardens shone as a breathtaking backdrop. Her third family wedding in seven years is laying a foundation for a dreamed-of wedding business.
"I really couldn't have asked for much more," said Mazurek days before the event, surveying the beds of irises and innumerable other blooms in full color, multicolored garden accessories and a small pond framed by a white arbor.
"Last summer it was gorgeous, but they just planted more and did more and went all out," she said.
The Traverse City region is a wedding destination with couples tapping homes and cottages of relatives or friends for an alternative to a church. Natural settings also weigh in, including beaches or parks, said photographer Gary Howe -- noting that his experience may reflect either a trend or his own professional style.
"I get several a year, usually at a cottage," said Howe, who estimates that a half to two-thirds of his jobs are not in traditional settings. "I enjoy those types of weddings at people's homes, they tend to be more informal, a more intimate experience. People are usually a little bit less nervous, but not always."
Comfort in the setting is another factor that the Rev. Crystal Yarlott sees in couples who choose the home or cottage of family or friends for their wedding.
"I would say there's a familiarity with the surroundings and people have either grown up there or it's a family or friend's place," said Yarlott, minister of the Unity Church of Traverse City who also owns Northern Michigan Wedding Ministry.
When Mazurek and Zeigler became engaged in April 2007, they scratched a church wedding off their list because of different religious backgrounds. Leaning toward the outdoors, they considered other locations before settling on the Zeiglers' home.
For Mazurek, comfort definitely was key.
"I've been coming here since we've been dating," said Mazurek, who graduated in April from Grand Valley State University with a degree in radiation therapy.
Home-based settings require attention to practical details usually handled at a church or hall: seating, shelter, parking and bathrooms. If the reception also will be onsite, food preparation, serving, storage and cleanup, as well as entertainment and dancing, also must be considered. With the outdoor angle, the last-minute flurry of preparations also includes mowing, deadheading and pulling weeds.
To handle logistics, the Zeiglers rented chairs, tents and portable restrooms. They already had plenty of parking on the farm property and the groom pitched in on the mowing. In addition to having bottles of water on hand for her wedding day, Megan added another thoughtful amenity.
"I was at an outdoor wedding last year and I got burned so I decided to provide sunscreen," she said.
Before the couple selected her garden, Barb Zeigler waited anxiously but quietly, determined not to influence them. After the green light, she added new flowerbeds last fall, planting multicolored flowers for Megan's color theme.
The Zeiglers also put a pond in the center of one large bed and planned an arbor in front of the trickling water as the altar. That project was completed over Memorial Day weekend thanks to a tightly choreographed family work bee: buy lumber on Friday, build on Saturday, prime on Sunday, paint white on Monday and assemble that night.
"My husband is the worker; I plan it and he does it," said Barb Zeigler, who coordinated with Barb Mazurek, Megan's mom, who handled details unrelated to the ceremony's location.
Home weddings do not necessarily mean small weddings. Megan and Adam put together an invitation list around 375 people, leveraging the Zeigler's large, manicured lawns.
Yarlott has officiated at home nuptials that run the gamut in size from a handful of people to a full-scale event. One recent wedding took place in a yard big enough to allow a processional. The father proudly walked his daughter down the aisle with the garden's huge lilac bushes in bloom as a backdrop.
"We did one that was just a couple and their grown children and their granddaughter, it was very sweet," she said of the other end of the spectrum.
Print this story
E-mail this story
