A Hinge Match, a North End Cohabitation, and a Summer-Camp Style Ceremony in Vermont

Photo by CityLux Studios

The Story

Sometimes, online dating does have a happy ending. Just ask Corinne Vien and Bryan Menduke. After matching on Hinge early in the pandemic, the two made a date to meet. “It was a dinner that lasted five hours,” recalls Corinne, who lived in Beacon Hill at the time. “We both walked away wondering if this was it.” And indeed, it was. Corinne and Bryan’s relationship evolved quickly; within 10 months, they had moved in together in the North End. “The pandemic expedited things with us because we were all keeping a closer circle of people we interacted with,” Corinne says.

The couple’s engagement came in 2021 on one of their regular after-work walks in the neighborhood. “We were doing our loop on Hanover Street, and suddenly he stopped and pulled out the ring,” Corinne remembers. Bryan had arranged to have both his and Corinne’s parents and siblings, along with her beloved grandparents, waiting at a restaurant nearby to have a celebratory dinner after the proposal. The next day, friends arrived from out of town for an even bigger surprise engagement bash.

Though both Corinne and Bryan had lived in Boston for years before they met, she grew up in Vermont, while he’s from New Jersey and spent childhood summers in New York’s Adirondack Mountains. That made the Basin Harbor resort on Lake Champlain the perfect venue for their wedding. “I grew up nearby on the lake, and directly across from the resort, you can see the Adirondacks where Bryan spent so much time,” Corinne says. “So the location seemed like a perfect fit.” The beautiful natural surroundings influenced many aspects of their timeless, relaxed wedding at the “summer-camp-style venue,” says the bride, likening the resort to the camp featured in the movie Dirty Dancing.

With friends and family coming from all over the country for their Memorial Day weekend wedding in 2023, 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 the activities are countless. “We had one of the only good-weather weekends last summer; we were so lucky. People were kayaking and swimming, making s’mores, and jumping on the trampoline,” Corinne says. “Everything ended up working out so beautifully.”

Photo by CityLux Studios

The Details

The Flowers

It was essential to the couple that the wedding highlighted the beauty of the area. “It was really about leaning into what was already there,” Corinne says. For the floral arrangements, she selected blooms that looked like “the types of flowers you could pick in a Vermont meadow.”

Photo by CityLux Studios

The Tent

Wanting the stars and the view of the lake to be visible during the reception, the couple opted to have a clear-topped tent rather than a white one. The tent, which essentially acts as a greenhouse, worked because it was May rather than August, when it would have gotten too hot inside.

Photo by CityLux Studios

The Antiques

Corinne, an antiques enthusiast, thrifted vintage candlesticks and oil lamps as accents for the reception tables. She also gathered a collection of antique bells that she and Bryan gave the wedding party to ring after they had their first kiss.

Photo by CityLux Studios

The Boat

After the ceremony, Bryan and Corinne hopped into the resort’s Chris-Craft and zipped over to the Adirondacks on the other side of the lake for photos before being dropped off at the cocktail reception. When they arrived at the dock, the resort staff met the couple with hors d’oeuvre and cocktails so they could sample them before heading into the reception.

Photo by CityLux Studios

The Ice Cream

Instead of a traditional wedding cake, the couple opted for creemees, Vermont’s version of soft-serve ice cream. A maple creemee truck arrived halfway through the reception, 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 made with maple syrup. “Later in the night, guests were combining the drink and the ice cream, and it was so good,” Corinne recalls.

Photo by CityLux Studios

The Phone

Instead of a guest book, the couple rented a vintage rotary phone that guests used to record personal messages to them. “As the night progressed, the messages got funnier. People were treating it almost as a confessional,” Corinne says.

Photo by CityLux Studios

The File

BRIDE’S DRESS
Grace Loves Lace

BRIDE’S HAIR
Kelsey Rossini

BRIDE’S MAKEUP
Will Landry, Mirror Mirror

BRIDESMAID DRESSES
Show Me Your Mumu

DESSERT
Vermont Maple Creemee Company

FLOWERS
Bramble + Bloom

GROOM’S ATTIRE
Indochino

PHONE GUEST BOOK
After the Tone

PHOTO BOOTH
CityLux Studios

RECEPTION BAND
The Sugarbabies

TENT
Vermont Tent Company

First published in the print edition of the August 2024 issue with the headline, “”I Do,” Summer-Camp Style.”

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