Christine Chaplin, Author at Springwood Cottage Resort https://springwoodcottageresort.ca/author/cchaplin/ Year-Round Cottage Resort in Frontenac Mon, 16 Feb 2026 22:07:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://springwoodcottageresort.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/springwood-badge-icon-150x150.png Christine Chaplin, Author at Springwood Cottage Resort https://springwoodcottageresort.ca/author/cchaplin/ 32 32 What does a Springwood Wedding Look Like? https://springwoodcottageresort.ca/what-does-a-springwood-wedding-look-like/ Mon, 16 Feb 2026 21:34:40 +0000 https://springwoodcottageresort.ca/?p=2928 A Sneak Peak Into a “Typical” Springwood Cottage Weekend Wedding As we celebrate Valentines Day, we thought it would be a great time to give you lovebirds a quick sneak peek into what our weddings often look like. Keep in mind each are quite unique, but this highlights the commonalities in the timetable that we […]

The post What does a Springwood Wedding Look Like? appeared first on Springwood Cottage Resort.

]]>

A Sneak Peak Into a “Typical” Springwood Cottage Weekend Wedding

As we celebrate Valentines Day, we thought it would be a great time to give you lovebirds a quick sneak peek into what our weddings often look like. Keep in mind each are quite unique, but this highlights the commonalities in the timetable that we have seen.

Thursday (and sometime even earlier in the week) – A typical Springwood Wedding, starts with the bride and groom (and maybe close family and friends or out of country guests) arriving on the Thursday, getting settled in and enjoying a bit of time together before the festivities get underway. The couple also do a walk through with us and discuss any necessary last-minute adjustments.

Friday – remaining guests start arriving in the afternoon, the bride and/or bridesmaids will often decorate the tables in the tent for the reception. Once all members of the wedding party have arrived, they will typically go through a brief ceremony rehearsal, then the couple hosts a casual welcome BBQ, Pot luck dinner or Build-Your-Own Pizza night for their guests and continue the merriment and catching up with a beach bonfire and s’mores.

Saturday – some couples have facilitated an early morning fitness class (yoga, tai chi etc.), others just let the guests do their own thing while enjoying the resort grounds – they go for a swim, kayak or canoe ride, enjoy the sauna or hot tubs, complete our Fairy Door scavenger hunt, play some indoor or outdoor games or go for a hike prior to getting ready. Friends and family help decorating the ceremony site and finish up any last-minute touches for the “cocktail hour” or other day of events.

The bridal party will usually get ready in either the Log Cabin or the Main House, with the Groomsmen getting ready in any of the other 17 cottages on site. The photographer will capture the “getting ready” shots and maybe first look & family pictures before the big event. Behind the scenes we are doing a variety of preparations and meeting any outside venders as they arrive to help them get settled.  

The ceremony will typically start sometime between 3 and 4pm usually at the beach or on the Leisure Deck as a rainy-day back up. We’ll help bring some of the guests to the beach ceremony site and afterwards to the reception site by golf cart.

After the ceremony, while the wedding party and immediate family are taking pictures throughout the grounds, other guests enjoy a cocktail hour either at the Leisure deck or just outside of the tent, overlooking the marina. A popular activity during cocktail hour is the selection of outdoor lawn games that keeps guests entertained.

Once pictures and cocktail hour is done, guests will then typically enter the tent where the more “formal” reception festivities occur. Since we often get stunning sunsets, we encourage our couples to ensure that they plan for a brief escape during dinner to capitalize on a few extra sunset pictures on our docks.  Dinner, speeches, dance and overall merriment continue throughout the night.

Since guests have been enjoying fresh air all day, we notice that guests start to pack it in between 10 and midnight, with only the more hardcore party-goers continuing much later into the night. As the numbers dwindle, typically the couple and their friends have an after party at the Main House which may include such activities as another campfire, karaoke or party games.

Sunday – Many couples host a send-off brunch for their guests, then clean & pack up. Some couples and some out of country guests stay an extra day or two to enjoy the resort and extend their visiting time.  

Meals throughout the weekend are done in a variety of ways – some couples provide all of the meals throughout the weekend by utilizing caterers, others will take a more DIY – self catering route with friends and family pitching in. Some couples provide their guests with food baskets in their cottages, while others will simply advise their guests to bring their own food for meals that are not shared by all. The great thing about hosting your wedding weekend at Springwood is that you can decide on your approach to food (and other elements like décor, entertainment etc.) based upon your budget and the overall feel you want for the weekend.

The post What does a Springwood Wedding Look Like? appeared first on Springwood Cottage Resort.

]]> Shared Wedding Moments from September 2025 https://springwoodcottageresort.ca/shared-wedding-moments-from-september-2025/ Mon, 06 Oct 2025 16:43:53 +0000 https://springwoodcottageresort.ca/?p=2680 As many of you know, we have been building out our wedding offerings at the resort. We believe that we have carved out a nice little niche, which seems to resonate with nature loving couples, who want to extend their celebration throughout the weekend with their most cherished people in a relaxed lakeside setting, and […]

The post Shared Wedding Moments from September 2025 appeared first on Springwood Cottage Resort.

]]>

As many of you know, we have been building out our wedding offerings at the resort. We believe that we have carved out a nice little niche, which seems to resonate with nature loving couples, who want to extend their celebration throughout the weekend with their most cherished people in a relaxed lakeside setting, and where no one has to drive to get back to their accommodations.

The pickup has been great, and as a result we just finished hosting four back-to-back weekend weddings this past September at the resort, each of which was unique, but all were amazingly beautiful affairs filled with much fun & love. A big thank you to each of our Springwood wedding couples for sharing this extra special moment in your life with us.

Here are some of the highlights from this season.

Most Memorable Entrances:

  • One of our grooms and his groomsmen canoed to beach ceremony site
  • One of our wedding couples picked up some of their guests by golf cart and drove them to the ceremony site
  • A flower girl started her aisle journey by sliding down the slide at our play structure and blowing bubbles through a mechanical flower shaped bubble maker
  • One of the Ring Bearers also came down the slide with a locked & handcuffed briefcase containing the ring in his possession

Most Unique Party Favour:

  • A variety of thrifted mugs were set out for guests to select from (mugs are absolutely a love language)

Most “borrowed” Idea:

  • The Drink Canoe which kept reappearing at most of our weddings this year

Most Unique Ceremony Interlude:

  • A staged pause waiting for 4:20pm to arrive before continuing vows (IYKYK)

Favourite reoccurring Wedding Guests:

  • A pair of Kennebec Lake Ducks that kept a watchful eye on each ceremony

Most Unique (and time consuming) Guest Book:

  • A custom designed (and highly personalized) Lego landscape with itemized parts baggies that each guest/couple was to construct and then sign the associated step in the customized Lego Instruction Manual which included excerpts of the couple’s journey together

Most interesting (and on theme) wedding accessory:

  • Mini canoe paddle boutonnieres

Furthest Travelled Attendees:

  • Guests travelled to Arden from all over the world, including such places as Colombia, Taiwan, the UK, China, California and BC.

Least Travelled Attendees:

  • Some residents of Kennebec Lake & Arden (a few could even walk)

Best Attended Optional Activity:

  • Over 50 people attended a Sunday morning Tai Chi Class following Saturday nights festivities

Most Active Post Wedding Activity:

  • The Groom & some of his mates went rock climbing at Bon Echo the day after the ceremony

Most Unique Reception Entertainment:

  • One wedding essentially set up a full concert in our tent after dinner

Most Popular Store Purchases by Wedding Guests:

  • Affogatos & Ice Cream
  • Tylenol
  • Ice
  • Springwood Hoodies & T-Shirts

Most Popular (unplanned) Kids Activity:

  • Our Fairy Door Scavenger Hunt

Yummiest Reception Snacks:

  • Ramen Bar
  • Donairs
  • Freezies
  • Candy Bar
  • Roast Beef Sliders

The Food Item that kept giving

  • BBQ Chicken from one Friday night kept making the rounds throughout the weekend and beyond

Largest Wedding Group:

  • Approx. 110

Smallest Wedding Group

  • Between 65 and 70

Cutest Decor Item

A handmade paper mache pinata heads of the bride, groom and their son

Décor Item that Most Transformed the Resort:

  • Multi-coloured uplighting on some of our trees combined with professional disco lighting in the tent

The Décor Item that Got Ed into Trouble:

  • Paddle Directional Sign placed near Cottage 6…Why? Because for 4 years, I have been holding onto custom, hand painted directional signs for the resort that need to be affixed to a post at that very spot!

Most Unique Table Setting:

  • Vintage, bohemian styled table linens with thrifted China of varying patterns

Most Surprizing Activity/Photo Op:

  • A Trash the Dress jump into the lake from our docks (expect to see that picture in some of our future marketing for our weddings)

Most Used Outdoor Games:

  • Cornhole
  • Giant Jenga
  • Ladder Golf
  • Giant Tumbling Tower (Tetris)
  • Giant Pong
  • Giant Connect Four

Most Used Springwood Wedding Items (that we picked up this year):

  • 4×8’ Birch Bark Rustic Lit Up LOVE Sign overlooking the lake
  • Half Barrel Smores Bar
  • 40×40’ Wedding Tent with lights & floor for reception
  • Wine Barrels for cocktail hour, coffee station & podium
  • Rustic Table Décor for the casual group meals on the Leisure Deck
  • White Lanterns with Hooks along the aisle
  • Wooden Archway for ceremony
  • Half Barrel Bar for drinks, desserts & candy bar or late night snacks
  • Basket of blankets during campfire

Least Used Springwood Wedding Items (that we picked up this year):

  • Clear umbrellas (Thankfully there was no need this year!)

The post Shared Wedding Moments from September 2025 appeared first on Springwood Cottage Resort.

]]>