After learning that their dream venue couldn’t host their wedding, a Winnipeg couple had less than 24 hours to organize something new.
Months of planning gave way to sudden changes. For the newlywed couple, Jeff Sinnock and Desiree Penner, that meant moving their event from Fort Gibraltar — the site of a collapsed platform — to the St. Norbert Arts Centre. The work put in to accommodate the change, the couple said, was nothing short of impressive.
The wedding was held on June 2, a day after they were informed of the relocation.
“Planning a wedding and throwing a wedding is a high-pressure job to begin with,” said Sinnock. “When you have to scramble to have it all come together in such a short period of time is very impressive.”
Sinnock and Penner, both middle school teachers, said that in the end, the wedding turned out to be beautiful. Crediting the efforts of the staff at the Gibraltar Dining Corporation, Sinnock noted it was the professionalism shown that made sudden changes easier to handle.
“These weddings, they’re doing their best to try to relocate them,” said Sinnock, referencing the many other events that have been cancelled or forced to move. With the city stating the fort can’t be used until an engineer inspects its structure, Sinnock said it’s left the planning staff stuck between “a rock and a hard place.”
Penner echoed the sentiment, believing the last-minute changes still resulted in a fantastic wedding.
“You know, it’s kind of that old saying, you think you have it all planned out, but God laughs at your plan sometimes,” said Penner. “We were like … it doesn’t matter. It’ll be great no matter what. In the end, it was perfect.”
On the weekend of her wedding, Penner said there had been two other weddings initially planned at Fort Gibraltar.
As for the incident at the fort last week that left 17 students injured, Penner said she was concerned when she first heard the news.
“We also have a 10-year-old (child) and we’re both teachers. That incident was pretty close to our hearts,” said Penner. “Of course, we were thinking about the wedding and trying not to panic. We didn’t want to worry about things we didn’t know about yet.”