Above: An aerial view of the 1,600-acre Castle Farms

OPPOSI TE PAGE: PHOTO COURTESY OF CASTLE FA RMS. THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: PHOTOS C OURTESY OF CASTLE FARMS; MU RRAY GOLDENBERG, CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPHY; CASTLE FARM S.

in Charlevoix. Left: Darren and Emily Rosenberg under
the chuppah, festooned with pale-pink roses, as her
parents Annie and Rob Cohen look on.

nce upon a time, a little
girl named Emily Cohen
fell in love — with north-
ern Michigan. Emily, who grew up in
Huntington Woods, spent many happy
days with her family and friends at her
parents', grandmother's and aunts' vaca-
tion homes in Charlevoix. Breathing
in the fresh air near soothing lakes
Michigan and Charlevoix, she could
feel all her cares drift away.
As young girls, Emily and her sister
Jennifer would pass many joyful hours
in Charlevoix in a stone playhouse, a
miniature replica of her grandmother's
home. As the years went by, Emily
promised herself that someday, when
she got married, she would say, "I do,"
somewhere in this glorious region.
Last July 16, Emily's dream came
true. Among the rolling hills, old field-
stone, pristine lakes and lush greenery,
Emily, 29, and her "prince charming,"
Darren Rosenberg, then 31, exchanged
wedding vows at Castle Farms in
Charlevoix.
Brimming with romance, the archi-
tecture was first modeled after French
Renaissance chateaux. Local fieldstone
was used for the main building, which
is surrounded by turret-shaped struc-
tures, courtyards and sprawling yards.
"When I first suggested to Darren
that we get married in a castle, he
didn't get it. But when we all went
up there to see it during the winter,
he loved the idea," recalls Emily, who
owns Bella Belli maternity shop in
Birmingham. Darren, who grew up in
West Bloomfield, co-owns Friendship
Materials, a masonry supply business in
Detroit.
Emily's mom, Annie Cohen of
Bloomfield Hills, who planned the
wedding with the help of castle staff,
can't be sure if the smitten couple truly
took in all the castle attributes during
that first winter walk-through along
with Emily's father, Rob. "Most of the
time, Darren and Emily were hugging
and kissing while we were checking out
the space and making decisions," Annie
recalls with a laugh. But that's the

Annie. "When we first saw the site, I
could envision what the inside of the
castle, the open room, could be."
So she set about transforming the
reception room into a pink-and-laven-
der haven with topiaries at each table,
set with double tablecloths in pinks and
lavenders and gold-rimmed glass plates
around a chocolate fountain. Musicians
from nearby Interlochen Center for
the Arts lulled guests while they dined
on northern Michigan specialties like
phyllo-encrusted whitefish, tenderloin
filets and, later in the evening, fresh
Michigan cherries, all catered by the
nearby Pellston Market.
Nearly a year later, the couple are
living happily ever after in their own
little castle, a colonial-style home in
Huntington Woods, replete with a pink
Mix Master and pink-handled cooking
utensils. As their wedding anniversary
approaches, Annie suggests to her
daughter that the newlyweds go Up
North to celebrate.
"We should," says Emily with a con-
tented smile. "We really should." ❑

Continued on page 20

magic of the castle — it has a romantic
effect on visitors. Adds Annie: "Even
a year later, people are still telling me
what a special wedding it was."
If Emily's love of Up North was
the focus of the day, running a close
second was her passion for pink. Her
gown, from Birmingham's Roma Sposa,
was white strapless with a lace overlay
and cinched with a pale-pink sash,
while the groom's navy suit received a
complementary flourish with a pink
silk tie. The outdoor courtyard where
the ceremony — officiated by Rabbi
Harold Loss of Temple Israel in West
Bloomfield — was held was covered

by a chuppah festooned with pink roses
from Breath of Spring in Bloomfield
Hills. "The chuppah was an iron
canopy, like a trellis in a garden," Emily
explains.
Bridesmaids wore floor-length pink
satin skirts, while Emily's 1-year-old
niece, Olivia Bloom, carried down the
aisle by her dad, Greg (Jennifer's hus-
band), enchanted guests in a rose-cov-
ered tulle dress. And though tempera-
tures climbed into the 90s, the wedding-
party women looked as fresh as daisies
thanks to an onsite make-up artist from
Ruby's Balm in West Bloomfield.
"I just love stone and wood," says

Above: All the wedding's pastries were created

by Bella e Dolce in Cheboygan. "The tablecloths
were a gorgeous vanilla with an overlay of
embroidered flowers with branches running
through it," says Annie Cohen, the bride's mom.
"So we asked the baker to do something with
branches on the cake."

JNPLATINUM • JUNE 2006

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