The one thing Sarah Jane Eichberger and Jacob Wheeler were certain of is that they wanted to begin their married life in northern Michigan. The Chicago couple rejected the notion of a glitzy, high-priced ceremony and elected to return to their roots to exchange their vows surrounded by family, the land they love, and even the tall beach grasses at Sleeping Bear Dunes that play a symbolic part in their relationship.
Sarah, a Beulah native, and Jacob, of Glen Arbor, met eight years ago at the Dunegrass Music Festival in Empire. When they said "I do" on Sept. 6 in an open field in front of the Port Oneida School, a part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, they chose to combine a traditional Christian service with their own secular beliefs they blended into a ceremony that was both spiritual and nature-based, and in the process, they drew a small community together to be part of it all.
"We were drawn to the simplicity of this building and the history of it," Sarah said of the primitive, one-room schoolhouse located near M-22 north of Glen Arbor.
"We feel we have a history here," Wheeler said. "Symbolism is important to us, so by having (the wedding) here, we're celebrating the land and we're honoring education by having it in a schoolhouse that also was used as a place of worship."
The couple asked a Lutheran pastor, the Rev. Jim Vargo, to co-officiate the ceremony along with close family friend Anne-Marie Oomen, one of Michigan's noted authors and poets. Wheeler's father Norm and Oomen are original members of the Beach Bards storyteller group that started in Leland some 20 years ago. "Both Jacob and his father are storytellers," Vargo said. "The Christian faith is built on the stories Jesus told."
Vargo alternated offerings of biblical scripture and storytelling with secular readings by Oomen, including her own poetry.
"The ceremony combined the couple's love of the earth and caring for it with both families' deep Christian roots in Lutheranism," Vargo said. "It was one of the most rewarding ceremonies I've ever done."
"They talked to me about their love of fields and open land and the natural world, and that was easy to incorporate," Oomen said of the poem "The Field" she wrote as a wedding gift to the couple.
Oomen's gift was one of many that produced a sense of community involvement in the ceremony.
"It's about the community coming to them," Oomen said. "They provided a context for the community to shape the wedding. More and more weddings among my young friends seem to be taking that attitude, the return to the idea of not just standing there being a witness, but actually being participants in a ritual where everybody engages, not just as watchers but as makers. The congregation does more than witness, they are making this wedding and this marriage as much as the couple are."
Many local artisans, family members and friends came forward to offer their expertise as news spread of the engagement. Their talents made for a unique experience.
A friend with a graphic arts background made the invitations copied from the watercolor artwork of the old schoolhouse painted by Eichberger's grandmother Clara Moon. The Wheeler's friend Crispin Campbell, a cellist and former director of the Manitou Music Festival, provided music during the ceremony and his daughter Elara Coleman made the couple's wedding rings personalizing them with dune grass engravings on the bands.
The more the planning developed, the more people came forward to offer their time and talents. Since Wheeler's mother Mimi is a well-known chocolatier, many of her friends who are cooks and caterers prepared food for the wedding supper that was held under a tent in a field at the Sprouse Llama Farm. The meal was prepared with farm market fresh corn and other locally-produced vegetables. The wine was from Leelanau County. The cakes were home baked by friends Nancy Miller and Kristen Kransekage.
"It's definitely a community wedding," Eichberger said. "When so many people offered to take responsibility and make things work, it's been almost stress free."
"I think so many of their artist friends and fantastic cooks in our community have stepped forward because it's a sense that this is not a showcase in the way that so many weddings are showcases these days. It's really a return to an open field and a community of family and friends," Oomen said.
Reach Gretchen Murray at gmurray@record-eagle.com.
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