Danielle Arnburg overwhelmed by gift from Taunton Mills
By Kristian Partington
One Sunday, as Danielle Arnburg was in the early stages of planning her July wedding, she was called into work at the Village of Taunton Mills unexpectedly. She was dressed a little more casually than she would have been on a typical day as the village’s administration assistant in retirement, and one of the residents from a group sipping coffee in the cafe took notice. “You look really cute today,” said the resident, and Danielle, with typically playfulness, asked what the group was hoping to gain with their compliments.
“We want your wedding,” came the straightforward reply.
Danielle later thought about it and the idea made perfect sense to her.
“I consider them my family,” Danielle says of the residents, so she was honoured to choose the village as the location for the ceremony. With the full support of general manager Noella Black and the rest of the leadership team, the village set to work planning for the perfect day.
When July 16 dawned, Danielle arrived at the village expecting a lovely ceremony in the Town Hall, officiated by team member Michelle Hoffman. The weather forecast didn’t look promising earlier so the decision had been made to keep the service indoors. Or so Danielle thought . . .
Noella and the leadership team had decided on a gift and had arranged for a large outdoor tent complete with all the decorations and flowers to match Danielle’s chosen theme. Only a few people in the wedding party knew what was coming that day and when Danielle arrived to begin the walk she’d dreamed of, she was surprised to be moving towards the back garden and not Town Hall.
“Are we going outside?” she finally asked, bewildered, and when she caught sight of the tent, the tears began to flow.
It had taken a small army to prepare the tent in short notice, and favour upon favour was called in. Every detail was thought through, and it was perfect on wedding day.
“I was overwhelmed,” Danielle says weeks later through tears of fond remembrance. “I couldn’t believe that everybody did that for me. We were talking about it on our honeymoon the whole time – we were gone for 12 days and we talked about it every day.”
Noella recalls the buzz throughout the village in the days leading up to the event as everyone worked to keep the tent a secret. On the day of the ceremony, it was standing room only. Every window in the village’s west side was filled with onlookers, Noella says, while residents and team members lined the aisle. The men were in blazers and the women draped in fine dresses with their hair done, befitting such an occasion.
They all watched in admiration and their love and best hopes for a happy life together soaked Danielle and Greg in the first minutes of their time together as wife and husband.
“It was everything I’d dreamed of,” Danielle says, tears of happiness still streaming down her cheeks. “It was just beautiful.”
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