I got a call last week from the mother of the bride the day before her daughter’s wedding.
You have all heard of “Bridezilla” right? And while we all know about mothers-in-law…apparently there’s also such a thing as “Momzilla.” Though it’s much more mama bear, who’s willing to go the extra mile for her daughter.
(Now you’re super excited about reading a crazy wedding story, aren’t you? Sorry, only good news ahead!)
So where was I? Right. The mother of the bride, Victoria’s Kareen Mckechnie, called me and told me her lovely daughter Mercedes was marrying her “true love”, fiancé Scott Harbicht, after 15 years together.
Mercedes and Scott became engaged seven years into their relationship but wanted to finish school and settle into their careers first. Eight years after their engagement, the time was right.
The date: Saturday, July 28, 2018.
The venue: Pine Point Campground in Youbou.
“We have brought her camping every year since she was a very small child,” so the place has a lot of meaning to Mercedes and her sisters Rhiannon and Madison, and to the extended family as a whole, Mckechnie explained, noting she has fond memories of Mercedes admiring the same house every year on their way out to the campground.
But there was one problem. Getting married while camping includes one thing normally not invited to such fancy occasions: dirt.
“It’s a logging road out to Pine Point,” Mckechnie said. “It was a little bit of a dilemma because I was trying to rent a B&B; something where the bride and her consort could shower and dress prior to the event.”
First, being in a tourist hotspot in the summer makes for low vacancy rates. Second, “many of the properties are from anywhere between two to 14 day rentals. The only ones that responded would not take a bridal party,” Mckechnie said.
Suffice it to say there was no room in the inn(s).
As it turned out, that one particular cottage Mercedes had always be drawn to was actually a rental.
Wouldn’t that be serendipitous?
The mother of the bride wrote to owner Anita Telford and explained the situation.
Mckechnie learned it was a five-day rental.
It just wasn’t meant to be.
Or was it?
“[Telford] wrote this beautiful note back and said she loved the story but that her family was going to be using their property,” Mckechnie said. Her heart sank. She kept reading.
Telford’s note went on to say that although they intended to go to the lake, they would be happy to arrive late and it would be their pleasure to let Mercedes, on her special day, get ready at their house.
At no charge!
When Mercedes heard the news she cried. (The happy kind of tears. This is a good news story after all.)
It was kismet.
Telford later told me, “It felt really good to help out. The family was super nice and appreciative.”
So appreciative, in fact, the mother of the bride called the newspaper so she could publicly thank Telford and her family for their generosity.
“Basically I just wanted to acknowledge how when people come together as a community to help each other out, even people they don’t even know...this was just a very generous and special thing that they did,” Mckechnie said. “We are always reading about all the negativity. This is something positive.”
sarah.simpson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
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