Bayview Wildwood Resort, an Ascend Collection Resort

Bayview Wildwood is for couples who do not really want a wedding venue.

They want everyone at the lake.

Set along Sparrow Lake in Muskoka, the resort turns the celebration into the kind of weekend where guests arrive with wedding clothes in one bag and absolutely no intention of spending the rest of their time dressed formally.

The ceremony can happen outside beside the water, with an indoor ceremony space held as a weather backup so an uncooperative Muskoka sky does not get the final vote.

Then there is the lake itself.

The shoreline, trees and resort grounds become part of the photographs, and couples can even work a canoe into the day if that feels more like them than another perfectly posed portrait.

But the real appeal is what happens around the wedding.

Guests can stay on site in hotel-style rooms, suites and cottages. A welcome gathering can bring everyone together before the ceremony, while the resort's dining, recreation and accommodation keep people in the same little world for the weekend.

That means friends who live in different cities actually get time together.

Cousins disappear toward the lake.

Parents stop worrying about driving home.

Someone inevitably becomes far too competitive over a resort activity.

Then everyone somehow gets dressed and becomes respectable again for the wedding.

Dinner and the reception happen on the property too, supported by the resort's event and culinary teams.

And after the last song, the lake is still there.

Nobody has to pack the wedding away emotionally at midnight.

They wake up beside Sparrow Lake the next morning with the people who were on the dance floor hours earlier.

Which may be the best part of a Muskoka wedding.

The celebration gets a second morning.

There is something magical about having everyone you love wake up beside the same lake on the morning of the wedding. Canoes drift near the shore, guests wander the grounds and the anticipation seems to build everywhere at once.

Then sunset stretches across Sparrow Lake, the shoreline softens into evening and the celebration glows beside the water. Long after the formalities end, everyone is still together in Muskoka.