CELEBRITY
The bride wore five dresses, including a runway Chloé look seen on Kate Moss, for her wedding on the lake
“Our favourite place in the world is our cottage in Muskoka,” Lauren Kyle tells Vogue, “being on the water is so peaceful and calming.” Located about two hours drive north of Toronto, the region is dotted with cottages, marinas, and other lakeside attractions that has made it a hotspot during the Canadian summer. It’s where Lauren’s now-husband Connor McDavid, the star centre and captain of professional ice hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers, proposed to her. “Connor told me we had a charity event at a golf course in Muskoka to attend,” Lauren says, “ as we were on our way to the event from the City, we stopped at our cottage to drop off our dog Lenard, to my surprise as we got out of the car there was a trail of flowers leading us to a beautiful set-up on the deck.” Connor was playing their favourite song, “Only Love” by Ben Howard on guitar, and proposed to Lauren on the spot. It was a fitting memory for Lauren, as the next time the two would find themselves listening to that song at their cottage, it would be for the first dance at their wedding. The wedding was to be held at Old Woman Island, a tiny swathe of land in the archipelago of islands dotted across Lake Muskoka, its lodge-style accommodation the perfect backdrop for Lauren’s vision of the ceremony. Lauren credits wedding planner Ashley Pigott and her team as vital in
“Our favourite place in the world is our cottage in Muskoka,” Lauren Kyle tells Vogue, “being on the water is so peaceful and calming.” Located about two hours drive north of Toronto, the region is dotted with cottages, marinas, and other lakeside attractions that has made it a hotspot during the Canadian summer. It’s where Lauren’s now-husband Connor McDavid, the star centre and captain of professional ice hockey team, the Edmonton Oilers, proposed to her. “Connor told me we had a charity event at a golf course in Muskoka to attend,” Lauren says, “ as we were on our way to the event from the City, we stopped at our cottage to drop off our dog Lenard, to my surprise as we got out of the car there was a trail of flowers leading us to a beautiful set-up on the deck.” Connor was playing their favourite song, “Only Love” by Ben Howard on guitar, and proposed to Lauren on the spot. It was a fitting memory for Lauren, as the next time the two would find themselves listening to that song at their cottage, it would be for the first dance at their wedding. The wedding was to be held at Old Woman Island, a tiny swathe of land in the archipelago of islands dotted across Lake Muskoka, its lodge-style accommodation the perfect backdrop for Lauren’s vision of the ceremony. Lauren credits wedding planner Ashley Pigott and her team as vital in bringing it to life. “It was a 10 day production,” Lauren says, “four events in different locations, and building infrastructures on an island with only boat access.” Despite the grandeur of Lauren and Connor’s plans, she didn’t want that to come at the sacrifice of the small things. “I was really entrenched into all the finest details of the wedding,” she says, “I wanted everything we did to have meaning.” And so, right down the catering, every detail hinted at a memory shared between Lauren and Connor. Festivities commenced with a rehearsal dinner that was hosted on a converted steamship that sailed the lake that surrounds the island. “We asked for our guests to come dressed in ‘old money themed attire’ to play into the steamship’s charm,” Lauren says, which would complement the ‘old world’ theme of the ceremony itself. “I sourced vintage trinkets which we displayed on our tablescape,” she says, “my mum put together old vintage framed photos of our grandparents wedding photos to display around the boat.” On the night, Lauren wore a vintage Ralph Lauren dress from the spring/summer 2007 collection, with Tiffany & Co. jewellery.