Winter Park Wedding Chapel escapes wrecking ball

Winter Park residents and business owners Steven and Suzanne Graffham breathed a sigh of relief Sunday afternoon as the historic chapel that houses their wedding business was successfully relocated to its new home.

The historic building began its journey through the streets of Winter Park around 7 a.m., traveling down New York Avenue on three hydraulic construction dollies it had been placed on the day before.

Dozens of residents stopped to watch the spectacle as movers took the structure from its former site on New England Avenue to a corner parcel at the intersection of New York and Lyman avenues across from the farmers market.

The relocation meant a new beginning for the Graffhams and their wedding business, which was forced to move along with the chapel to make way for future development along New England Avenue.

“We’re really relieved to see it in one piece at its new home,” Suzanne said. “We’re very excited for the future.”

But the chapel hasn’t tied the knot with its new location quite yet. The new basement for the building still needs to be constructed, along with the surrounding walls and minor repairs from the moving process.

Movers took a top-down approach with constructing the new foundation, carefully steering the chapel on wheels down a slope into an 8.5-foot-deep hole and raising it 11 feet high to make room for the basement to be built underneath.

The Graffhams couldn’t help but feel uneasy as their 103-ton business venture slowly rolled down a sandy slope.

“Watching it happen, even though we’re not responsible for actually moving it, is very nerve-racking,” Steven said as the house began its short descent toward its new foundation. “I haven’t felt like this since my wife had a baby.”

The move wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Traditional Neighborhoods Inc. a local nonprofit “committed to enriching Hannibal Square” that’s now spearheading a fundraising effort for the construction.

It’ll cost just over $160,000 to complete the project, including the relocation, setting the foundation and restoration.

Traditional Neighborhoods Inc. has raised about $18,000 thus far and will continue to accept donations on its website as construction moves forward, said Dan Bellows, the founder of the nonprofit organization and the general contractor for the chapel relocation.

Moving day had been a long time coming for the Graffhams. The building should have been destroyed to make way for new development years ago, but property owners allowed the couple to use the space for a photography studio and, eventually, a wedding chapel.

The couple were assured that the building would be eventually demolished.

But the chapel went on to marry hundreds of couples since the wedding business began in 2009, turning the building into a community staple. The property owners took notice and chose to donate the chapel to the couple instead to have it relocated.

Bellows plans to make the wedding chapel even more charming than before with the addition of a new courtyard, a fountain, a slated roof and bronze trimmings on the exterior.

“The fact that it’s going ahead means we can move forward; we can have many more weddings there,” Steven said. “It gives us stability in our business and our future.”

A $50 fundraising event with hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and live entertainment for the Winter Park Wedding Chapel will take place tonight, Dec. 12, from 7 to 9 p.m. between Hannibal’s and Armando’s off New England Avenue.

Bellows said he hopes to have construction complete by mid-February.