Cynthia Hudson and Brady Vanuden
June 1, 2024

While they got married in Thunder Bay, Cynthia and Brady Vanuden’s wedding, and the lead up to it, had plenty of ties back to their home in Fort Frances.

Before her Thunder Bay wedding, Cynthia’s bridal shower was held at Curvy Chick Boutique Tea Room and Event Venue.

“My maid of honour was Chantal Derendorf, who owns Batter & Cream Baking Co. and we also had her cupcakes at the reception,” Cynthia said.

“I was trying to use local businesses where I could.”

Accessibility for older family members was an also important aspect of the Curvy Chick venue for Cynthia.

“It was so nice because it is local. So everyone was able to come downtown and it’s a really accessible place, which is huge, you know, my grandma was able to come and a couple other older relatives, so that was nice for them to be there,” she said.

“[Curvy Chick Owner Jennifer Horton] does decorate to like how your bridal party would tell her to. So she has different, colored scenes and things. She always makes it very personal. I love to have tea and do tea parties, so it was kind of like that type of thing. And she also gave options for treats and for tea for all of the gals that were there.”

Cynthia’s bridal shower took place early in Horton’s conversion from women’s boutique to event venue but she says Horton was a great event host.

“There was the gift opening, and she was helping clear things,” Cynthia said.

“She was very, very wonderful, making sure everything was good and that pictures were taken. She even took some pictures for us, which was really sweet. But, yeah, everything is just beautiful that she does. She makes it to how the person wants to have it, right? But I am glad that it was a part of her start, she was able to take some pictures for her social media as well, to kind of spread the word about her new business and her pivot, I guess you’d say. So I was happy to be a part of that too, of course, and then Chantal did most of the planning, but anything you want to bring into Jen, she’s very open to ideas, which is helpful as well.”

As for the big day, Cynthia said they went to Thunder Bay because the city was important to her and Brady.

“We spent most of our relationship in Thunder Bay, which is why we wanted to return to Thunder Bay for the ceremony,” she said.

For the event they chose a unique venue in The Courthouse Hotel.

“The Courthouse Hotel in Thunder Bay has a big ball room, it’s actually a refurbished courthouse so 2024 it was 100 years old which was pretty cool,” Cynthia said. “It was kind of important for us to go somewhere different, you know, a little bit off of the beaten path. I wanted something a bit more elegant and classy because that’s just who I am.”

The ceremony and reception were both held in the same ball room at the Courthouse Hotel and the reception had some Fort Frances touches as well, including a few direct ties to the Fort Frances Times.

“We had all our music done by 2-Tone Music Productions,” she said, adding that there is a DJ associated with the same company in Fort Frances.

“My friends Brittany and (Times Editor) Ken surprised me with a song,” she said. “They kind of redid an old song and made it more applicable to us, so that was really cool. We also had a selfie booth, which was really cool. That gave us the opportunity to get all the pictures of guests.”

Cynthia says several aspects of the wedding were DIYs.

“We made our own bouquets,” she said. “We made our own table settings and invitations.”

For fun at the reception they had the They also had a jumbo word search with words which related to both of them for their guests to do during their cocktail hour. The giant word search was printed by Times Printing in Fort Frances.

In the months since their wedding, Cynthia and Brady have settled back into married life in Fort Frances.