First wedding at Flint Farmers' Market may have started trend

First wedding at Flint Farmers' Market may have started trend

Kayla and Adam Hubbard didn't want a traditional wedding, and that made things difficult.

"My fiancée and I — well, he's my husband now, have to get used to that — we're not real traditional. We just wanted something different," Kayla Hubbard, 27, of Burton said. "We looked at getting married outside, or at a farm."

But most farms they found were pricey, and she wasn't sure about an outside venue anyway. She was talking to her mother on the phone, venting her frustration, when she saw a story in the newspaper about the Flint Farmers' Market moving downtown.

They scouted the place out before it had even opened and at the grand opening approached the management about holding a wedding.

About a year later, on June 13, 2015, she and her husband Adam walked down the aisle at the market. Rather, they walked down the atrium, the tall open space inside the market where three times a week people will sit for lunch or take a break while shopping.

Photo: lilac bridesmaid dress

"It was amazing. It was perfect. Everything went so smoothly and went so well," Kayla Hubbard.

It was the first time the market had held a wedding since opening at its new location at 300 E. First St. in downtown Flint almost a year ago. They've had one wedding reception there, but this is the first ceremony.

"For us, it's really touching that someone would have that important of a day in their life at the market. That's just a huge compliment.... To just exchange your vows here, that's really special," Karianne Martus, the market's manager, said.

The Hubbards held everything there. They started with the wedding in the atrium, then went to the upstairs outside patio for cocktail hour while market workers prepared the community room for the reception and turned the atrium from wedding chapel into a dance floor.

"They were so good to work with down at the market," Kayla Hubbard said. "They were setting up flower arrangements for me the day of, they set up everything."

It wasn't just the market management that got involved. Kayla and Adam also took advantage of some of the vendors there. Bongo's Popcorn provided popcorn for the wedding (they do a lot of events in and out of the market) and Tim Bishop, owner of B-Dogs Hot Dog Cart, came in for the last few late hours of the reception to serve late-night dogs to people still partying and hanging out at the reception.

One vendor who hasn't even opened his space yet rented it out to the couple to use as a bar. Kayla Hubbard said he made sure it was painted and renovated in time for the wedding.

Bishop said Kayla and Adam were just touring the market with Janell Baumgart, the market's events coordinator, when she mentioned off-hand that he was available for the events. They stopped her right there and got some more information.

"It's just adding to the repertoire of what the market can do. We've got plenty of people who can cater, we've got the flower people, and I can do this," Bishop said. "We have a wine store there, too, a wine and specialty beer store...we have a lot we can offer at a wedding. There's a baker, a desert lady."

Michelle Yaklin said that in addition to it being good business, there's also something that's just cool about having a wedding in the market—and being a part of it.

"It was phenomenal. It's great that the market's getting such great exposure,. We love getting involved," she said, adding that such events draws people to the market who have never been there before.

"People come down that have not been there and they're just floored. They can't get over how nice the market is inside," she said.

Baumgart said that since she posted pictures of the wedding to Facebook, she's already gotten half a dozen phone calls from people wanting to hold their weddings there. One couple has already booked a date for 2016.

Baumgart said she's ready for the next one.

"It was a lot of fun," she said.

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