When it comes to wedding planning, what makes for a perfect day? Is it the flowers? The dress? Is it the vows? The picturesque venue? The delicious food? The dance floor full of lively, smiling guests brought together for the sole purpose of celebrating love?

For Mike and Elaine, it was finding a venue that felt like home. Because, as the saying goes, “It’s like coming home after a long trip. That’s what love is like. It’s like coming home”, and their love story is precisely that. After years of having loved and lost, they found their way back to each other. After a long trip, they found their way home.

The pair met when they were 14, when Mike was working as an usher at the Yorkdale movie theatre. For their first date, they went to see ‘Blazing Saddles’ and, over the next few years, their young love thrived in on and off fashion. But, as is so often the case, their lives eventually took them in different directions, and they lost touch with each other in their early twenties. Later on, Elaine married and divorced, and although Mike was a permanent, tender fixture in her memory, she didn’t know what happened to him. Occasionally she would meet up with past schoolmates who had also crossed paths with him but didn’t know where he was at that time either.  That didn’t stop her from looking for him years later, determined to reunite with the first man she ever loved. And yet, even with the modern nudge of social media, her search came up blank, and she began to doubt she would ever find him.

Fortunately, fate seemingly had other plans. Three years ago, Mike’s children decided their Dad needed a computer and, as luck would have it (or, as Facebook would have it, in this case), he found Elaine on June 13th of that year. In true kismet fashion, the two of them quickly discovered that they had spent years crossing paths without knowing it; unknowing neighbours who shared a history that was waiting for revival. Even as they moved in together, they realized that their furniture was almost identical — down to the cooking utensils. What’s more, the first night she visited with him at his apartment, Blazing Saddles was playing on TV, neither of them knowing this until they looked for a movie to watch.  They had their first date all over again!

Photography by Kirstyn Ivana

Of course, this wasn’t the end of their story. The two planned to marry this year, and the wedding date was especially important to them both. “We were desperate to get married on June 13th, because it marked 3 years to the day that he found me on Facebook”, Elaine explained. And although the global pandemic stood in the way of their initial plan, we were still able to give them the moment they had waited so long for, on the day that offered so much meaning. Although we cannot exceed ten guests in attendance, we knew we would still be able to create something special for them.

On June 13th, 2020, Mike and Elaine tied the knot standing under the gazebo at The Glen, with their wedding party there to witness the long-awaited culmination of their love. “Like everyone else, we had to move ​being dressed in our actual wedding attire and our festivities to 2021, but we were lucky enough to get married on the grounds and have our wedding party there with us. The space feels so comfortable and welcoming… even when we first came out to view the venue, we knew that was where we wanted to get married.”

With a bottle of champagne, some cupcakes, and those nearest and dearest to them, Mike and Elaine were able to celebrate in intimate fashion, as they await their reception which is now slated for March 13th, 2021. “The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and we had so much fun and were so relaxed. We are so grateful to Carl’s for allowing us to do that. It was our day.”

Thinking back to that day, Elaine describes it affectionately as a ‘gift’. “I have been in love with that man since the day I met him. For over 40 years, I practiced writing my last name as his last name. The only difference now is I don’t have to scratch it out, because it’s finally real. Carl’s accommodated us in the most beautiful way, and being at The Glen felt like being home.”

Mike and Elaine, welcome home. We are so honoured to have been a part of your story.