———- SUNDAY Focus medieval wedding in Cates Park News Reporter Ichristensen@nsnews.com ONCE upon a time, there was a young prince who -fell in love with a fairy princess. He dreamt of marrying his princess in a mystical place, with minstrels and merrymakers, music and dancing. On Saturday, Aug. 5 in Cates Park, Darien Edgeler and Tierney Fyfe were wed during a ceremony that combined pagan ritual with fantasy dress and community celebration. It was the fairytale wed- ding Edgeler had dreamt of, and just the latest chapter in the Deep Cove couple’s storybook romance. Their story unfolded seven years ago, when the couple first met at a provincial theatre festival at Presentation House in North Vancouver. Fyfe was married with two children and living in Creston. Edgeler, 13 years her junios, was single and living in Deep Cove. The pair, who shared a love for community theatre, knew within the first week of meeting that they were soul mates. They took long walks and talked long into the night. : In one of their earliest conversations, Edgeler asked Fyfe if she believed in fairies. Fyfe replied that she did. Edgeler also shared his views on marriage. “J remember Darien saying: ‘It may be old fashioned but I just think that when I get married it will be forever. And { just thought: ‘Wow, that's a fine man’” He revealed his plans for a dream wed- ding, which would be medieval in theme and held outdoors. Said Fyfe: “I remem- ber saying ‘I really hope that Pil be there to see that.” Part of me was thinking, as a great friend. But there was also part of me thinking, ‘I hope that’s me.” It was pretty amazing to mect this young man who “talked about true love and romance.” Edgeler was just as taken by his new friend. “I just felt her fairy princess essence, I suppose,” recalled Edgeler, a financial adviser who describes himself as the Robin Hood of the financial services . THE bride arrived by sea, a scene reminiscent of the romantic painting, The Lady of Shalott. THE groom’s grandmother, Dorothy Dobson, donned regal dress. Sunday, August 13, 2000 - North Shore News - 3 NEWS photos Cindy Goodman AFTER a seven-year romance, Deep Cove residents Tierney Fyfe and Darien Edgeter were wed at Cates Park. The bride's medieval-inspired jewel-tone gown was custom made by the House Gallery in Kitsilano. world, “There was something in her smite that I just thought was magical and sparkly and wonderful. 1 was irre- sistibly drawn to it.” As Fyfe remembers it: “We knew pret- ty much by the end of the week that this was it. I went back to Creston and packed up the horse trailer.” Fyfe moved to Deep Cove and moved in with Edgeler. “Alistair, my (then) husband, helped me move. [ hadn't planned to move in right away but as fate would have it, Darien was there waiting for us with a blackberry crum- ble.” Fyfe’s owo children, then aged seven and four, came later, They settled into life together in the Cove, a place where Edgeler had spent his youth, a place of - “primal power.” “People say the cell phones don’t work in Deep Cove because there’s no satel- lite coverage but in fact, there are these resonating vibrations in the Cove. It’s a place of mystical energies,” said Edgeler. Three summers ago, he proposed to Fyfe, during a surprise birthday party at their home. He presented her with a commissioned painting by artist friend Charles van Sandwyck titled Will You . Marry Me. “I knew it was coming, but I wasn’t prepared for it that night,” says Fyfe of the proposal. The lovers set about planning their wedding. The wedding party would be in medieval dress. Fyfe’s gown would have wings like a fairy. There would be minstrels and bards. The bride would arrive by boat, reminiscent of Waterhouse’s romantic painting The Lady of Shalott. The couple would write their own vows. Friends would serenade them on Celtic instruments. Edygeler fired off a 14-page proposal to the parks department for permission to wed in Little Cates Park, a special place where as a child he had picked blackberries with his granddad. The couple petitioned neighbours for their official blessing, then sent out 750 invitations to their midsunimer’s night festival. On Saturday, Aug. 5, after the pagan holiday of Lughnasa, they wed. Their union was a marriage of faiths, “a wedding of inclusion, a philosophical mosaic,” said Fyfe, a therapist with the North Shore Health Region. The groom’s mother, Barbara Edgeler, smudged guests on their arrival, a First Nations cleansing ritual that served to sanctify the space as well as pay homage to the groom’s Cherokee roots. A marriage licence was obtained from a friend who is a notary public, The couple were joined in a handfasting ceremony, a pagan rite performed by a reverend of the Aquarian Tabernacle Church, on recommendation of another friend, a wiccan priestess. During the ancient ritual, from whence comes “tie the knot,” the couple’s hands are bound with a cord to symbolize the contract of marriage through the joining of hands, Fyfe’s brother-in-law, an Anglican Church minister, read’ from Corinthians. The couple exchanged Celtic rings and drank from a wedding chalice. After music and dancing, under the light of the moon, a lantern procession wove See Bride page 8 MICHELE Hall-McCaffrey and other wedding guests carried lanterns for a procession through the woods.