52 | JUNE 24 • 2021 

G

race Van’t Hof and Aaron Jonah 
Lewis wanted a big, but casual 
wedding, ideally in an outdoor 
camp-like setting where all their friends and 
family members could celebrate with lots of 
old-time music and dance. Both American-
roots musicians, they wanted participants to 
be able to jam away on their banjos, fiddles, 
guitars and mandolins.
Van’t Hof, 35, and Lewis, 39, caught each 
other’s eyes at the Knoxville 
Stomp in 2016. They fre-
quently appeared on the 
same music festival bills, she 
with Bill and the Belles and 
he with Roochie Toochie or 
the Corn Potato String Band, 
but they didn’t actually meet 
until the 2019 Brooklyn Folk 
Festival. Van’t Hof was sitting 
in with a pick-up country band and Lewis 
was playing with the Lovestruck Balladeers. 
They played some tunes together, realized 

they both lived in Michigan, and have been 
together since.
Van’t Hof moved from Holland, in West 
Michigan, where she grew up, to Lewis’ 
home in Southwest Detroit. She works as a 
freelance graphic recorder — taking notes 
on meetings and workshops using pictures 
instead of words — as well as a musician. 
Lewis, who graduated from Hillel Day 
School and Interlochen Arts Academy, is 
a full-time performer and private music 
teacher.
Van’t Hof is the one who proposed, by 
taking out an ad in the November 2020 
issue of Banjo Newsletter. The ad, which she 
drew herself, shows her small banjo talking 
to Lewis’ larger instrument and saying, 
“Dear Precious and Singular Aaron Jonah 
Lewis, I love you as much as I love banjo. 
Will you marry me?”
For their ideal wedding to accommo-
date friends and family from out of town 
— which describes many of their would-

be guests — they wanted a nice-weather 
three-day weekend. To hold it at a camp, 
they would have to plan it for a Memorial 
Day or Labor Day weekend when camp 
would not be in session. 

CHOOSING A WEEKEND
This year was out because of COVID. 
Next year was also out because both sets 
of parents — Bobbie (me) and Joe Lewis 
of Detroit and Ellen and Dave Van’t Hof 
of Holland — will be celebrating their 
50th anniversaries, and the young couple 
didn’t want to compete. And Labor Day 
weekend 2022 will be Lewis’ niece’s bat 
mitzvah. So they scheduled the big blow-
out for Memorial Day 2023 at Habonim-
Dror Camp Tavor in Three Rivers, Mich., 
where Lewis spent many happy summers.
But they wanted to be legally married 
in the meantime, so they got a license and 
planned a small signing ceremony at their 
home, to be attended only by parents and 
siblings. 

Celebrate

Barbara 
Lewis
Contributing 
Writer

Mostly Married

Couple plans to complete 
the celebration in 2023.

The happy couple 
celebrate under the 
chuppah in front of a 
few family members 
and friends.

COURTESY OF THE LEWIS FAMILY