Local wedding venue hobbyists gearing up for season

RM OF CORNWALLIS — A ma and pa wedding venue outside Brandon is gearing up for six weddings in the backyard this season.

Lyla and Jeff Perkins have entered the busy season at their rural property east of Brandon. They will open their house to several bride’s parties, their gazebo to groom’s parties, and their acreage to hundreds of guests through the summer.

It’s the seventh year of hosting weddings as a hobby in retirement.

“It’s a joyous occasion, and for me, it’s kind of rewarding to watch their vision come to life,” Lyla told the Sun in a recent interview. “It’s nice to watch the excitement that comes with the weddings.”

The couple has a swath of work to do to run the business, including landscaping, physical labour, administrative tasks, audio equipment operation, gardening, and even a tad of ceremony planning.

For her part, Lyla is a co-ordinator and a gardener. She maintains flowerbeds, but also books the weddings and plans how the physical space will be used for brides and grooms, accomodating custom requests like whether or not the couple will take a first look at each other before the wedding or if they are trying not to cross paths.

“We’ve learned to ask those important questions right at the start,” Lyla said. “We want it to be flawless and we want it to be worry-free.”

For his part, Jeff personally built the wooden arbour where couples are married, the fences that frame the venue, and the gazebo where the groom’s party lounges before entering the ceremony. He also maintains the space where wedding ceremonies are held, mowing grass, and trimming and sculpting shrubs.

On the day of weddings, Lyla and Jeff transition from groundskeepers to managers and work the ceremony as needed, managing the timing of events and ushering out the bride and groom parties while speaking over walkie-talkies to each other. Jeff hauls out up to 200 chairs from storage, as well as speakers, and operates the sound system to time the music that was chosen by the bride and groom and times it with the ceremony.

In the end, the couple wears many hats. But it doesn’t seem like work — it’s a hobby that built onto gardening and landscaping interests they already pursued.

“We realized there was nothing extra, other than setting up the chairs and doing the ceremony. So it made sense to do it,” Lyla said. “If it ever became too much, feeling like work, we’d probably stop.”

The retired couple installed porta-potties on the property, added an accessible washroom with a ramp, bought folding chairs, built the wedding arbour, and so far, “it was a small investment that has paid off really well,” Lyla said.

It’s four hours of work each day leading up to July, and then two hours per day during the season running the hobby business, she said.

“We treat the mornings like our job and the rest of the time you enjoy,” Lyla said. “For us it was like: if it doesnt work, it doesn’t work, we’ll sell the chairs and the porta-potties and we are out.”

The retired couple, has struck out the possibility of adding wedding receptions to their business, because it would be a different beast — requiring several Manitoba Health regulatory upgrades, facility changes, and the need for staff for the long events. They’d prefer to do everything themselves humbly out of their backyard and keep a job they can manage as a team of two.

“There’s so many layers when you go the next step. This way, we keep it simple and we’re OK,” Lyla said.

In a special turn of events, Jeff and Lyla’s son is getting married at the property this August, which Lyla said is “very satisfying.” The son and his fiancé “could have gone anywhere,” but decided to use the family wedding venue, which she said is great to see.

The parents will be kicking their feet up for the day, and participating in the wedding party, rather than the organizing and co-ordinating the event like they typically do on site.

“I’m happy, I’m hoping it’s absolutely perfect. I don’t want them to have regrets about having it here,” she said.

Going forward, they plan to keep up the wedding venue for as long as possible. The work is manageable and rewarding, so long as they can keep up with it.

“As long as we are on this property, we will continue to do weddings,” Lyla said. “As long as we’re physically able.”

The first wedding comes later this month. The couple aims for about eight weddings per season, hoping to book a wedding for every second weekend during the summer in order to not overload themselves with work, Jeff said.

“If we did weddings every weekend, like you’re getting ready for the next Saturday, the next Saturday, you’d never have a summer.”

» cmcdowell@brandonsun.com