this is a story about love, and a brave choice to pursue a dream to create a place to celebrate love + joy
When we got engaged in 2020 we began to tour wedding venues, but every time we left with the feeling “I want to get married at our own venue, on our own farm”. So, we decided to wait to tie the knot until we could do it at our place. However, at the time, we were living on Vancouver Island where real estate prices for farm properties was way beyond our capacity. Nevertheless, we told everyone we met about our dream but the sentiment was usually “sounds great but good luck with that”.
Then, in August 2022, we came to Cape Breton for the first time together for our friend’s wedding and discovered why tourism Cape Breton’s slogan is “your heart will never leave”. We fell in love with Cape Breton, and Cape Bretoners more specifically. Just as we had been, we told everyone about our dream and the response was “you should move here and do it”.
After the wedding as we were driving back across the causeway and we said to this island we had fallen in love with, “we’ll be back as soon as we can”. Well, you’ve got to be careful what you ask for because within a few weeks of returning to BC Percy had a time-sensitive job offer from Nova Scotia Health. So, with 2 weeks notice we packed up our stuff and started driving east. We left Nova Scotia on September 3rd and returned October 28th.
After house-hunting over the winter we bought our farm in the spring. 12 acres, 1 house, 1 barn, and 1 incredible view - all in need of a lot of love. We moved in and set about getting the house into liveable shape and planted 5 acres of sunflowers into the field that had been rented by a local farmer for 20+ years.
When the flowers began to bloom we opened the farm for a sunflower u-pick in August and welcomed over 1,000 people over the course of about a week. It was the most joyful time of our lives so far.
In the spring of 2024 we launched a crowdfunding campaign to help us raise start up capital for the farm - and were overjoyed and so grateful when we hit our $20,000 goal. This is truly the farm that community built, and we are so excited to share with our community the spoils of our work that was supported by their generosity.
With the support from our crowdfunding campaign in the summer of 2024 we planted a 4 acre pollinator meadow, installed a ceremony space, and created an 18 raised bed specialty cutting garden. Then, with the help of the Microloan Program from the Cape Breton Partnership we renovated our barn to prepare to host weddings and large events!
And of course, lots of flowers!
In the summer of 2024 we started growing more than flowers and in the spring of 2025 we welcomed our most treasured perennial - Ellis.
After a couple of months away from the back end of the business, the farm reopened in July 2025 with thousands of baby plants on their way and one little baby human well on her way as well. The summer of 2025 saw 4 weddings and one elopement event - 7 love stories mark a momentous occasion amongst the flowers.
One of those weddings, of course, was ours.
After a couple of months away from the back end of the business, the farm reopened in July 2025 with thousands of baby plants on their way and one little baby human well on her way as well. The summer of 2025 saw 4 weddings and one elopement event - 7 love stories mark a momentous occasion amongst the flowers.
One of those weddings, of course, was ours.
While we were growing a human and a wedding venue, there was a new project happening in the background. We try and think of our farm as an ecosystem, and while the joy of summer is acute and tremendous it is also short lived. On this rock in the Atlantic, the cold months outnumber the warm ones. And so, thanks to a small business loan and an incredible business partner in the background of everything else Audre’s Harbour was being built board by board.
Named after Audre Lorde, Audre’s Harbour is a micro nordic spa - complete with sauna, cold plunge, & rest area. It is a place for us to keep warm in the winter, together. It is a place for us to take care of ourselves so that we can go back out into our community and care for each other. It is the missing piece to the ecosystem of Ager Lane - a place to rest while the farm rests. Audre’s Harbour opened November 2025, and you can book a session at the button below.
Between us we hold many different identities and lived experiences. We are a part of many communities who have long showed incredible resilience in the face of oppression and because of this we know that it is impossible to survive without joy. It is impossible to fight the fight that is required to change this world without periods of respite, without periods of rest and without moments of joy. And we also know that there are important things that we all need in order to find those moments - community, opportunity, beauty.
It is our dream to create a place where every member of our communities can come to celebrate their love, mark the important moments in their stories, take a break from their lives, and be nourished by flowers, food, and good times. It is our dream to create a place that heals the land and the people, that contributes to the ecosystem and the community. And in many ways, that dream has already come true and we are so grateful and excited to continue to build Ager Lane.
xx Clary and Percy
