{"id":20110,"date":"2018-03-14T15:28:37","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T19:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20110"},"modified":"2018-03-14T15:28:37","modified_gmt":"2018-03-14T19:28:37","slug":"going-to-the-chapel-of-logs-petch-house-could-soon-host-wedding-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/going-to-the-chapel-of-logs-petch-house-could-soon-host-wedding-services\/","title":{"rendered":"Going to the Chapel of Logs? \u2013 Petch House could soon host wedding services"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as local wedding venues go, it is probably going to be Aurora\u2019s most rustic option \u2013 but maybe what Petch House currently lacks in electricity and plumbing will be made up by charm?
\nThe Petch Log House, one of Aurora\u2019s oldest buildings, has been put forward a venue for civil marriage ceremonies, following a motion from Councillor Tom Mrakas.
\nIn his motion, Councillor Mrakas said the historic home, which was reconstructed behind the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Centre in 2014, after over a century on what is now the site of the Walmart SmartCentres plaza near Highway 404 and a further decade mouldering on planks near Leslie and Wellington, was \u201cunderutilized.\u201d
\nHis motion called on staff to investigate the feasibility and costs for Petch House to be used for marriage services, or as a wedding chapel, an option he hoped to have firmed up by May.
\n\u201cThe Petch House has been empty for a while, since it has been moved, fixed and cleaned up and put back together,\u201d he said. \u201cI know there have been many ideas put forward [like] a tourist info centre, but I do remember back in the beginning that some thought it should be used as firewood. Those minds changed after a while when they actually saw how beautiful it is.\u201d
\nBut, the Town began offering marriage services in 2015 and, since then, he contended he always saw Petch House as a \u201cwonderful\u201d place for those marriages to be held \u2013 as an alternative to Council Chambers, where these ceremonies currently take place.
\n\u201cI think it is a good way of creating revenue and I think it is a good use of it because it doesn\u2019t need plumbing, which I think was a big obstacle with a lot of the ideas that were coming forward \u2013 the cost of running that plumbing throughout the building was an issue. I think that is a very inexpensive cost-efficient way of utilizing the Petch House. I think it is something that will draw attention to the Town and I think that could be promoted, will catch on and be well-used.\u201d
\nExploring this possibility was an idea supported by Council although the lack of plumbing and electricity still raises eyebrows.
\n\u201cI think it is a great idea, but I am uncomfortable with not having a washroom,\u201d said Councillor Wendy Gaertner, noting the closest washroom facility is in the nearby Seniors\u2019 Centre. \u201cWe have been over this many times. I don\u2019t recall how much [plumbing] would have cost when we looked at this the last time.\u201d
\nWhether or not a washroom is needed, or whether the facilities at the Centre can be used, is an issue which will be explored in the feasibility report.
\n\u201cIt is in close proximity to the Seniors\u2019 Centre, so that if people needed to go to the washroom, depending on when the ceremonies are, and they are generally held on Friday afternoons, the Centre is open so there would be public access to those washrooms,\u201d said Al Downey, Aurora\u2019s Director of Operations. \u201cI believe it is depending on what the uses are whether or not you need a washroom and how many people are occupying that space.\u201d
\nCouncillor John Abel had these concerns as well, asking for information to come back on the current uptake on municipally-held marriage ceremonies, how it can be promoted, how the lack of washrooms and a bridal change room can be addressed, and ventured Victoria Hall might be a more viable venue.
\n\u201cThe beauty of using Petch House for marriage services is we set the terms of when we do them, how many times we do them,\u201d said Councillor Mrakas. \u201cBy all means this doesn\u2019t mean that all of Petch House would be used for is marriage services. The reason this is before us is staff mentioned to me, and I have been bringing this up constantly, is that it would be favourable if a motion was put in front [for direction from] Council to allow Petch House to be permitted for this purpose. It can be permitted today.
\n\u201cThis is just one thing the Petch House can be used for and I think there is overwhelming support around the table. I look forward to the report coming back in May.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As far as local wedding venues go, it is probably going to be Aurora\u2019s most rustic option \u2013 but maybe what Petch House currently lacks in electricity and plumbing will be made up by charm?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5em","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-10 13:03:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}