Famous Movie Gazebo Now Wedding Venue
By Karen Gould

The first wedding held in the "Somewhere in Time" gazebo took place Sunday, June 11, when Lee Ann Freriks of Fremont married Mike Chaffee of Appleton, Wisconsin.

A gazebo constructed in 1979 by the Mackinac Island State Park and used in the 1980 motion picture "Somewhere In Time" sat in the west garden of the governor's summer residence until last fall. It now has a new home on a tree-lined bluff overlooking Marquette Park, the city, harbor, and Round Island and is being rented out for weddings to earn revenue for park operations.

The gazebo once served as a film scene for actors Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. It was renovated last winter and received a fresh coat of paint this spring and is now positioned just east of the old Post Hospital building at Fort Mackinac.

The Mackinac Island State Park Commission identified the gazebo as a source of revenue last year, when its $1.5 million state appropriation was removed from the 2006 state budget. Eventually, funding was restored, but park administrators remained uneasy about future funding support by the state and decided to move forward with the gazebo plans.

The gazebo was built at the request of Universal Studios as a prop for "Somewhere in Time," said Phil Porter, director of the Mackinac State Historic Parks. The studio designed it and paid a park crew to build it, then gave it to the park after filming was completed. Before being moved to the governor's garden, the gazebo was featured on a horsedrawn float in the 1979 Lilac Parade.

The structure is one of the few remaining artifacts from the motion picture.

Each fall, Grand Hotel hosts a "Somewhere in Time" weekend. Much of the film took place at Grand Hotel, where playwright Richard Collier, played by Mr. Reeve, fell in love with a woman in a portrait and went back in time to meet her. She was played

by Jane Seymour. The time-travel movie was set in 1912 and required a Victorian backdrop.

The first wedding held in the gazebo took place Sunday, June 11, when Lee Ann Freriks of Fremont married Mike Chaffee of Appleton, Wisconsin. The bride said she chose the location because she is big fan of the movie and the couple wanted to celebrate their wedding during Mackinac Island's Lilac Festival.

"The whole experience of getting married on Mackinac Island in the 'Somewhere In Time" gazebo was wonderful," said the bride following the ceremony.

The gazebo is rented for a maximum of two hours for $500.