Gene Shaughnessy had always wanted a big water feature in his front yard.
But running his own Camano Island construction company and raising four daughters with his wife, Jana, didn’t leave much time for the project.
Then, last winter, their 19-year-old daughter, Kallen, and her boyf
riend, Michael Randall, asked for permission to marry. She also asked if she could get married at the Shaughnessy family home, a picturesque rural property on Camano Island.
Happily, Shaughnessy, 51, said yes.
“And then she said, ‘And I’d like to have a gazebo,'” Shaughnessy said.
Shaughnessy, of course, said yes again.
He had, after all, built a memorial gazebo for his late mother-in-law, and his daughter’s request would give him the motivation he needed — including a firm deadline — to fully develop the front yard.
Shaughnessy had already placed about four yards of river cobblestones to create a large, natural-looking creek bed to channel seasonal rains in the front yard.
Incorporating a gazebo and expanding the runout of the creek — a “pond” that was little more than a mud pit — would take some big-picture landscaping expertise, however.
Shaughnessy called Tim Gray, a friend going all the way back to seventh grade at Stanwood Middle School, and one of the groomsmen in his wedding more than 25 years ago.
Gray, 51, is the owner of the Pacific Stone Co., a longtime fixture on Rucker Avenue in downtown Everett that sells natural stone, pavers, retaining wall supplies, statuary and plants.
Though Pacific Stone doesn’t offer landscape design or installation services, Gray is an avid home gardener and landscape industry veteran, so he offered his design savvy to his friend.
His skills, matched with Shaughnessy’s contractor equipment and expertise — and an energetic volunteer wedding-party labor force — helped give Kallen Shaughnessy the DIY wedding venue of her dreams.
It wasn’t easy getting it all done, especially this past spring when the weather was interminably wet and cold.
Major work was still undone weeks before the event, including pressure washing tons of dusty rock for the water feature while trying to keep the lawn pristine for the coming parade of wedding guests.
But the family and the wedding party, bride and groom included, helped construct a landscape to entertain more than 250 guests on July 16.
Gray and the team planted petunias, dahlias, gazanias, wax begonias and hydrangeas for wedding-day color.
In the end, the Shaughnessys ended up with not just a wedding venue but a new front yard.
That includes curvaceous beds of low-growing shrubs and perennials and a sparkling, clear creek that first tumbles over various rocks in progressive pools, then flows under a stone bridge into a 40-by-50-foot pond filled with river cobblestones.
Nestled into the whole scene — about 25 tons of stone in all — is an eight-sided gazebo, decorated with hanging baskets in full bloom and an acid-stained exposed aggregate floor.
A 3-inch-thick slab of Pennsylvania sandstone, commonly known as bluestone, was used to create a bridge between the lawn and the gazebo.
Flagstones interspersed with finely crushed black marble create a matching path from the bridge to the gazebo.
Though the water feature looks natural, it’s a highly engineered structure, Gray and Shaughnessy said.
Many of the stones in the creek had to be mortared into place to keep the creek within its banks and to make for safer frolicking for kids and adults alike.
Hidden electrical cords and elaborate plumbing keep the creek running even on the driest of days. Carpet scraps had to be placed under the pond’s massive rubber liner to protect it from damage.
“This was the goal when we built this, 10 years ago,” Shaughnessy said of his original vision of the pond and creek. “It just takes time.”
Shaughnessy said his three other daughters – Andra, 24; Kayla, 22; and Elle, 16 – are not obligated to use the gazebo for their weddings, but he thinks they might really enjoy it.
Kallen Shaughnessy said she wouldn’t have changed a thing about her celebration.
“The day was perfect,” Gene Shaughnessy said with a satisfied grin.
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