Wedding splendour at sculpture garden

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This article was published 31/07/2017 (3132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

By July, Assiniboine Park is pulsing with activity: joggers and cyclists hit the trails, day-camp kids make their way to the zoo, Frisbee games extend into dusk and families gather for picnics. The scent of sunscreen and clover hangs in the air.

Amid the cacophony of summer, often tucked away in the gardens, you’ll also find quiet, intimate moments. A couple exchanging vows in front of their nearest and dearest, perhaps, promising to spend their lives together.

Thanks to its idyllic scenery, Assiniboine Park is among Winnipeg’s most popular wedding venues. In 2016 alone, 169 couples got hitched in various spaces around the park. And while the conservatory, Qualico Family Centre and the Journey to Churchill exhibit in the zoo all host wedding ceremonies and receptions, the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden is handily the park’s most popular place to say “I do.”

The Leo Mol Sculpture Garden is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2017. Established in 1992, the garden features more than 300 works from the late master sculptor’s personal collection, which he donated to the city he adopted as his home when he emigrated from Ukraine in 1948.

“Leo Mol could have donated his works anywhere, to any number of North American or otherwise galleries, and the fact was he wanted to keep the collection here in Winnipeg and was able to do so with the assistance of community leaders, led, of course, by Hartley Richardson,” says Brenda Bracken-Warwick, the manager of business development and sales at Assiniboine Park Conservancy, when asked about the sculpture garden’s significance to the community. “We all have the opportunity to enjoy the garden and magnificent work of someone as renowned as Leo Mol.”

And, as a place where art and nature converge, the sculpture garden supplies an ideal backdrop for a wedding. The Arbour, which was installed in the garden 14 years ago, is a particular draw for couples. “They’ve got that privacy, but they’re out in the beauty of the park,” Bracken-Warwick says.

Winnipeggers are predictably hardy; Bracken-Warwick says outdoor wedding season at the park kicks off on the May long weekend and goes through until the beginning of October, the garden changing with the seasons.

“It’s always beautiful, but the gardeners do an amazing job of maintaining it,” she says.

“They go from the tulips, to the annuals, to the fall setting.”

Carly Marquardson-Holmstrom and Mark Holmstrom got married in the sculpture garden July 14.

“We were originally thinking of eloping, but it meant a lot to our families to not do so,” says Marquardson-Holmstrom, 39.

“We decided to have a very small wedding.”

She initially looked at city hall for her 20-person wedding, but she remembered that one of the most beautiful weddings she’d attended was at the sculpture garden. “The park also has significant sentimental meaning to Mark’s family,” she says. “His mom used to go there every Sunday when she was little, and his grandfather has a patio stone there in his memory.”

There’s also no shortage of photogenic spots for wedding photos in the park. In fact, they stuck around for so long taking pictures, they were late for their lunch reception at 529 Wellington. “If I had to do it all over again, I’d do the exact same thing,” she says.

Sarah Dubienski and her husband Stephen, both 35, got married in the sculpture garden June 23. The couple moved to Winnipeg from Vancouver four years ago; Stephen is from Winnipeg, Sarah’s from a farm outside of Edmonton but moved to the West Coast when she was in her 20s. They met through work.

The couple was eager to start their businesses — both are entrepreneurs — and their family in Winnipeg, “a big city with a small-town feel,” Sarah says. They got engaged, and then had their son, who is now 19 months old. They wanted to wait until he could walk to get married, so he could be part of the wedding.

The Dubienskis knew they wanted to get married outside and were originally thinking about Victoria Beach before logistics proved too complicated. “We thought the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden would really reflect how much we love being outside, but also where we met in Vancouver. There’s certain parts of that garden that remind us of Stanley Park. It’s so lush and beautiful.”

They, too, have a personal connection to the park.

“It’s funny — and it didn’t occur to us until the wedding was happening — but Leo Mol did a bust of Stephen’s great-grandfather, (prominent Winnipeg lawyer) B.B. Dubienski,” Sarah says.

“We don’t know if (the original) was on display at the time, but the copy for the family is at his uncle’s family cabin at Lake of the Woods. We felt like it was kind of meant to be.”

Bracken-Warwick says the conservancy event staff takes particular pride in contributing to one of the most important days in many people’s lives.

“For our seasonal staff, who are doing the setting up, there’s always lots of great stories about the joy they took from it, or how beautiful the bride looked, or something different that somebody decided to do,” she says.

“As someone who’s in the area, it’s always nice to be a part of that day in a small way.”

jen.zoratti@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @JenZoratti