Real Weddings
Bostonians Corinne Vien and Bryan Menduke celebrate their love on Lake Champlain with a rustic New England party featuring creepers and good old-fashioned fun.
Photo by CityLux Studios
The story
Sometimes, Online dating actually has happy endings. Just ask Corinne Vien and Bryan Menduke. After meeting on Hinge at the start of the pandemic, the two set up a date. “It was a dinner that lasted five hours,” recalls Corinne, who was living in Beacon Hill at the time. “We both walked away wondering if that was it.” And indeed, it was. Corinne and Bryan’s relationship developed quickly; within 10 months, they had moved in together in the North End. “The pandemic sped things up for us because we all had a closer circle of people we were interacting with,” Corinne says.
The couple’s engagement took place in 2021 during one of their regular after-work walks around the neighborhood. “We were making our rounds on Hanover Street, and suddenly he stopped and pulled out the ring,” Corinne recalls. Bryan had arranged for both his and Corinne’s parents and siblings, as well as their beloved grandparents, to wait for them at a nearby restaurant for a celebratory dinner after the proposal. The next day, friends from out of town came for an even bigger surprise engagement party.
Although both Corinne and Bryan had lived in Boston for years before meeting, she grew up in Vermont, while he is from New Jersey and spent his childhood summers in the Adirondack Mountains in New York. That made Basin Harbor Resort on Lake Champlain the perfect location for their wedding. “I grew up near the lake, and right across from the resort you can see the Adirondacks, where Bryan spent so much time,” says Corinne. “So the location seemed like a perfect fit.” The beautiful natural setting influenced many aspects of their timeless, relaxed wedding at the “summer camp-style venue,” says the bride, comparing the resort to the camp from the movie Dirty Dancing.
With friends and family coming from across the country for their 2023 Memorial Day weekend wedding, it was important to the couple that the event felt like a vacation for their guests. Accommodations at the 700-acre Basin Harbor are cabins, and activities abound. “We had one of the few weekends of good weather last summer; we were so lucky. People were kayaking and swimming and making s’mores and jumping on the trampoline,” Corinne says. “In the end, it all worked out so beautifully.”
Photo by CityLux Studios
The details
The flowers
It was important to the couple that the wedding highlighted the beauty of the area. “It was really about using what was already there,” says Corinne. For the floral arrangements, she chose blooms that “looked like the flowers you might pick in a meadow in Vermont.”
Photo by CityLux Studios
The tent
Because the couple wanted to see the stars and the lake view during the reception, they opted for a tent with a clear roof instead of a white one. The tent, which essentially serves as a greenhouse, was practical because it was May, not August, when it would have gotten too hot inside.
Photo by CityLux Studios
The antiques
Corinne, an antiques lover, purchased vintage candlesticks and oil lamps to accent the reception tables. She also amassed a collection of antique bells, which she and Bryan gave to the bridal party to ring after they shared their first kiss.
Photo by CityLux Studios
The boat
After the ceremony, Bryan and Corinne hopped into the resort’s Chris-Craft and sped to the Adirondacks across the lake for photos before being dropped off at the cocktail reception. When they arrived at the dock, resort staff greeted the couple with appetizers and cocktails for them to try before heading to the reception.
Photo by CityLux Studios
The ice
Instead of a traditional wedding cake, the couple opted for Creemees, Vermont’s version of soft serve ice cream. In the middle of the reception, a Maple Creemee truck arrived and guests lined up for the sweet surprise.
Photo by CityLux Studios
The cocktail
The couple’s signature cocktail was the Vermont Old Fashioned – an Old Fashioned with maple syrup. “Later that evening, the guests mixed the drink with the ice and it was so good,” Corinne recalls.
Photo by CityLux Studios
The phone
Instead of a guest book, the couple rented an old rotary phone, which guests used to record personal messages to them. “As the evening went on, the messages got funnier and funnier. People almost viewed it as a confession,” says Corinne.
Photo by CityLux Studios
The file
Wedding dress
Grace loves lace
BRIDAL HAIR
Kelsey Rossini
BRIDE’S MAKE-UP
Will Landry, Mirror Mirror
BRIDESMAID DRESSES
Show me your pussy
DESSERT
Vermont Maple Creemee Company
FLOWERS
Blackberry + blossom
GROOM’S CLOTHING
Indochina
TELEPHONE GUESTBOOK
After the sound
PHOTO BOOTH
CityLux Studios
RECEPTION BAND
The Sugar Babies
TENT
Vermont Tent Company
First published in the print edition of the August 2024 issue with the headline “I do – summer camp style.”
Real Weddings: Summer 2024
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