Lilia Sharpe

A Magical Day

 

Lilia Sharpe highlights the most significant aspects of her wedding day within the Arboretum. She describes how the space influenced her perfect day and how this space still brings her joy to this day. Following her explanation of her magical day, she reflects on the feelings she experiences when visiting the Arboretum with her husband in present time.
Interview by Lauren Budey, HIST*3560 student, University of Guelph.

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Transcript

0:00 My name is Lilia Sharpe

I Got married in arboretum on June 23rd, 2001.

0:04 Right now we are on the back of the center at the grounds where the actual wedding was.

0:11The actual gazebo wasn’t here.

0:12 When, when we got married, there was nothing there when we were looking for the venues to kind of decide what, what we wanted to do.

0:20 Somebody kind of just said, hey, check out the arboretum

0:24 So when I came in here, I really liked the grounds.

0:28 I knew that I could do everything in one spot.

0:30 I wouldn’t have to go places to do because we could have a wedding on the back lawn.

0:36 We can have reception in the hall and take the pictures in the beautiful gardens.

0:41 We had outdoor wedding obviously.

0:43 So we had a…with our ministers actually standing in front of that big tree wasn’t us and there was no gazebo

0:51 Like I said, it was like, I remember walking in into the center looking at everything and just kind of like having this big, ahhh, it’s done.

1:01 It’s here, the weather is good.

1:03 They said to us, you know, like I pronounce you, husband and wife like we had clouds like so the clouds would like cover the sun every so often.

1:12 But she said, when he said that it’s almost like by a miracle, the sun came out and shined right on us.

1:19 She said it looks so amazing and everything was so perfect, like smooth, like butter, like everything worked out to the perfect, such a beautiful ground, the way everything set up and we had like nice spots, our photographer, picked this beautiful spot to take pictures.

1:38 And one of my bridesmaids, her dad, his friend had this really old car.

1:45 he brought it for us and he parked it for us down there

1:48 It was a magical night.

1:50 Like it’s, it’s funny after a year after a year at the wedding, like when I watch every time driving by and I see couples getting pictures in in to go off and I was tearing up because I’m like, I’m, I had my moment, now it’s done, you know, I think it’s amazing.

2:08 Like that’s I’m happy that they’ve improving everything, you know, making it better because I think for me, this place is so magical for the fact that I had like the best day of my life here.

2:21 We’ve, we’ve been here with my husband like on his motorbike just kind of to have lunch, you know, to sit around.

2:29 yeah, brought kids…like I don’t know how many weddings do they get in here, you know.

2:35 But, but I think, I hope that everybody have just as amazing experience like we did because it’s just everything, one beautiful package here, supported, local, supported the university and this facility, like for, to make it better for me personally.

2:52 It’s like I always keep it dear to my heart.