Mackinac Island Comes To The Rescue Of Newlyweds

Sunday's fire did more than damage one of the island's older cottages, it almost took out a wedding celebration as well. Key word: almost.

The huge blaze that damaged the third floor of the Brigadoon Cottage on the historic island also impacted a wedding taking place nearby.

A couple identified as simply "Jake and Elizabeth" were forced to evacuate their own reception at the Mackinac Island Yacht Club because of the fire.

Island Fire Chief Jason St. Onge told the story of how residents of the tourist community came together to save the reception on the Mackinac Island News and Views Facebook Page.

According to St. Onge, the couple had been married earlier in the day Sunday at Mackinac Island's St. Anne's Catholic Church. You may remember hearing about the church back in March when it was vandalized by squirrels.

This wasn't the wedding date that they had originally planned, but their nuptials had to be moved back a year due to the pandemic.

The reception was held outdoors at the Mackinac Island Yacht Club, which is directly next door to the Brigadoon Cottage - which we all know caught fire Sunday evening.

According to St. Onge, just as Elizabeth's father had begun his speech, guests saw smoke coming from the neighboring cottage.

The magical day was suddenly interrupted, just as it had been canceled by Covid a year earlier. The guests were evacuated, and nobody really knew what would happen next.

After evacuating, the newlyweds returned to St. Anne's, not knowing what would happen next.

Well, what happened next was that the community of Mackinac Island showed up to make sure that their special day wasn't ruined.

St. Onge says that the General Manager of the island's Mission Point Resort saw the chaos and jumped into action.

Brandon recognizing what was happening, picked up his phone, called his bosses and put a plan in action. The staff at Mission Point mobilized their convention personnel and many others including CEO Mark Ware and his sister, VP of Sales and Marketing Liz Ware. Within minutes, a plan was coming together. The wedding was being moved to Mission Point. Mark Ware would serve food, the head bellman would become a bartender, everyone would play a part.

But it wasn't just Brandon and Mission Point that jumped in to assist. The Island House Hotel offered up their kitchen for the Yacht Club's staff to use, while the Pink Pony

assisted with sending over dishes and other supplies.

Everything came together in half an hour. But how? Well, St. Onge says it best:

And this is the Mackinac way. Where else can a wedding get canceled and reconvened in under 30 minutes just a few hundred yards away? I have lived here my whole life and on plenty of occasions I have seen the worst situations met with the greatest compassionate people you would ever meet. And now Jake and Elizabeth have too.

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

Categories: Michigan News, News