A Bayfield Sailboat Wedding

Do you have a love for the water, especially Lake Superior? Does a small, intimate ceremony sound perfect to you? Are you looking for a very unique wedding and experience for you and your guests?

The Bayfield area offers a number of charter businesses that can take you and a small group out on Lake Superior for your ceremony, and even officiate it themselves! This is exactly what Steve and Rhea did this inAugust through Dreamcatcher Sailing. Read about their Bayfield Wedding, and how they went about planning a ceremony on Lake Superior. 

Photo Credit- Colin Schye

Tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you met.
We met in Lowertown, St. Paul at a gallery show. Steve is a graphic designer and art director and I am a photographer. We first became best friends before realizing we were actually in love with each other. We had been best friends for 2 years and together for 5 before marrying. When Steve proposed to me, we were on the sailboat along the north shore from Duluth to Silver Bay. It was the same place we ended up getting married, on the bow of my dad’s boat.

Where and when was your wedding? Tell us a little bit about it.
We had our grooms dinner on August 12th at Maggie’s in Bayfield, early on in the day and then had desserts and drinks at Wild Rice later that evening. Our wedding was August 13th at Presque Isle Bay on Stockton Island. When we arrived and put anchors down, the morning storms cleared and skies opened up into a bright blue and sunny sky. Both of our mothers decorated the front of the boat with yellow Gladiolus flowers (Rhea’s favorite). Then we had our ceremony on the bow of the boat with our fathers officiating. Once the ceremony was over, we grilled some Romocky brats (a local farmer in MN) and ate a late lunch. Next we went swimming and played water frisbee on the beach for hours. After that I made greek pasta salad, we drank and chatted till night fall. 2/3’s of us stayed over night on the island. The rest went back to hotels and stayed overnight in Bayfield. We had just under 20 people with us for the wedding.

How did you decide on Bayfield for your destination wedding?
Well, I (Rhea) grew up sailing Lake Superior with my father. I spent most spring, summers, falls and some winters in Bayfield working on the boat and sailing with my dad. When Steve was introduced to sailing and Lake Superior, he immediately fell in love with it, which was kind of a deal breaker if he didn’t. It seemed to just fit into place.

Photo Credit- Colin Schye

What made you decide to get married on a sailboat on Lake Superior?
When we were looking to plan our wedding, we wanted it to be on a boat, and neither one of us wanted it to be in a fantasy location (i.e. Bahamas, Hawaii, etc.)  We felt it was important to get married in a location that had meaning to us. A place that was based in our reality. So when thinking about our favorite places, Lake Superior, and Bayfield was the undeniable choice.

How did you choose Dreamcatcher Sailing?
When we were looking for help getting some of our family members to the island, we couldn’t find any large motor sailboats for rent. It was actually a little frustrating. We were looking for overnight motorboats for our friends and family that were not comfortable the way we were with sailing. But by not finding this, it allowed us to take our family and friends on an even greater adventure and sailing trip. We looked into some boat rentals, but at the end of the day, really settled on a captained trip. The people from Dreamcatcher were the most receptive, accommodating and helpful that we could find. We are so glad we chose them to help us make our wedding a reality, it was perfect.

Anything you would recommend for other couples getting married in Bayfield?
I think our top recommendations are:

• Get married in the way you want to in a place that has sentimental value to you. It’s a game changer.
• Double, triple, quadruple check in with everyone you have hired, even when they say you don’t need to. Give them your number when they say they don’t need it. Always take theirs.
• Make sure you are not alienating anyone. It’s a small town and when you leave, they have a life after you.
• Book everything FAR in advance to make sure you have everything you need to make your special day happen.