A Tiffany Blue Wine Country Wedding in Picton, Ontario

About the couple

Bride: Katherine MacFarlane

Groom: Hugh Shilhan

How they met: “During the summer of 2002, I wanted a change from the Halifax scene, so I moved to London, Ontario. I was speaking to my friend, Julie, and Julie suggested that I meet her brother, who could help get me a waitressing job in London,” explains Katherine. “I went to the restaurant to meet Hugh with my resume in hand but he wasn’t there (attempt #1). Seven years later, Julie and I reconnected on Facebook. She suggested that we should meet up since our parents lived so close to one another. Once I agreed, Julie said that I should also meet her brother, Hugh (attempt #2). He lived in Ottawa but I happened to be going to visit my sister there the following weekend. We made plans to meet at the Blue Cactus. Hugh had an early morning the following day so could only meet for one drink, and then I was to reunite with my siblings afterwards. Instead, my siblings decided to surprise us by showing up early to crash our date….drunk. The night was either going to go really well if Hugh thought this was funny or I would’ve been completely embarrassed that my family showed up on our first date. It went well.”

Engagement story: “Hugh’s very good friend, Flo from Geneva, recently had a beautiful baby boy, who was to be baptized in France in June 2010 and Hugh was to be the godfather,” Katherine recalls. “We couldn’t miss this opportunity and I was so excited to finally meet Hugh’s friends, Flo and Zena. However, Hugh had another side trip planned. He flew me from Geneva to Nice, where we rented a car with plans to drive the coast of the French Riviera. The first night there, Hugh rented us an amazing room with a balcony overseeing the entire Nice Beach. It was spectacular! As we checked into the hotel, the lady at the front desk made certain I knew how much the room was and that she would be upgrading us. The wheels in my head began to turn. I took a relaxing bath and made sure to put a nice dress on that night. While I got ready, Hugh ran out to get a bottle of champagne. We sat out on the balcony to have a drink while reminiscing about our trips together and overall excitement to have each other in our lives. Suddenly Hugh said, “Look, there’s a boat.” As I turned my head, he ran into the room and moments later came out with a ring. His hands were shaking and as he opened the box, the ring fell loose from our travels and fell into my lap. A couple of inches left and the ring would have fallen off the balcony and onto the street below. We laughed as that would have been so typical of us –- we are both very clumsy. We talked for about 10 minutes about how he plotted this all and who of my family and friends knew and then I thought we should take a picture. Little did I know, Hugh had set up the camera and was filming us the whole time. That was my favourite part of it all. It was perfect!”