If you’re a Wisconsin resident (a likely scenario, considering you’re reading a magazine called Wisconsin Bride), you might not know that you’re different. While football fans in other states think fondly of their football teams, your admiration for yours approaches worship. You view cheese not only as a food group in and of itself, but also as headgear. And when you’re thirsty, you drink not from a simple drinking fountain, but from something called a bubbler.
It’s easy to understand why you like your football team (they did, after all, win the Super Bowl not so long ago). And it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t like cheese (I hear they’re out there, but we won’t bother ourselves with crazy people). But your usage of “bubbler” is unique. As it turns out, you owe that uniqueness to the Kohler Company, a Wisconsin plumbing and waterworks company that patented an early model of the drinking fountain that, rumor has it, was called “the Bubbler.”
The Kohler Company has done far more for Wisconsin brides, however, than simply supply them with an unusual colloquialism. In 1918, Kohler opened The American Club in the company-owned village of Kohler to provide comfortable, low-cost housing to its single male employees. Nearly 100 years later, The American Club is the only AAA Five Diamond-rated resort hotel in the Midwest, and is one of the region’s premier wedding destinations.
The village of Kohler is convenient to several major metropolitan areas—it’s a short two-and-a-half-hour drive from Chicago and a mere hour from Milwaukee—making The American Club an ideal central location for wedding guests traveling from Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison or Green Bay. It provides numerous ceremony and reception sites within Kohler and the surrounding towns, ensuring couples can find a location that best suits them.
Whistling Straits’ rolling hills, views of Lake Michigan and rugged stone barn with peaked ceilings sealed the deal for Rochelle and Andrew Van Caster, who married at the renowned golf course in 2010. Photos by Craig John Photography © 2011.
All about The American Club
The American Club is the most popular wedding venue, as well as the oldest and most lavish. For brides who like the idea of an outdoor ceremony, the Gazebo or Fountain Courtyards provide two equally compelling options. The former features a greenery-veiled gazebo for those who prefer to say their vows in a pastoral setting. The latter evokes the feel of an English garden, with a classic brick courtyard surrounded by a border of immaculately kept planters and trees, at the center of which stands a lively fountain.
The wedding couple has their pick of indoor venues as well, with the Founder’s Room, Great Lakes Ballroom and several banquet rooms. All have their draws, but the Founder’s Room is best for an intimate ceremony of up to 24.
It should come as no surprise that wedding planning can be stressful, and The American Club features numerous opportunities for pre-ceremony relaxation, such as shared cigars for the groomsmen on the terrace connected to the Founder’s Room, a game of billiards in the Winnebago Suite or some R&R at the Kohler Waters Spa (more on that later).
Everyone knows what comes after the ceremony, and The American Club features two ballrooms for dinner and dancing. Décor is best described as elegant yet warm. Rich browns and creams dominate, while numerous crystal chandeliers bathe the venue in a diffuse golden, almost liquid light. Food and beverages are in-house only, but the bride and groom will find no cause for complaint. Cold-smoked salmon canapés, beef carpaccio, roasted beef tenderloin and pan-seared sea bass are just a few of the menu items that will delight you and your guests. The American Club even provides the ever-important wedding cake, a signature confection consisting of layers of cheesecake, sponge cake, mousseline and fresh fruit, designed as a collaborative effort between you and the resort’s expert pastry chef.
After the dinner and dancing, the bridal party and guests can retire to the luxurious rooms of the resort itself where, for a small fee, welcome baskets featuring Wisconsin goodies such as New Glarus Spotted Cow beer and local cheeses await them.
The American Club offers numerous ceremony and reception options as well as luxurious accommodations for your guests.
Room with a view
For couples seeking another experience, Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run, and the Inn on Woodlake all offer venues of unique character and appeal.
After The American Club itself, Whistling Straits is the most popular of the venues that The American Club operates. Situated outside Kohler in the nearby community of Haven (though it has a Sheboygan address), Whistling Straits is perhaps most famous for hosting several high-profile golf tournaments, including the PGA Championship, the U.S. Senior Open, and the Palmer Cup. It’s also an outstanding venue for outdoor weddings, with breathtaking views of Lake Michigan and the picturesque Irish Barn, a stone and wood building that breathes rustic, old-world charm.
Rochelle Van Caster, who married her husband Andrew at Whistling Straits on September 18, 2010, says, “As we stood in front of our family and friends reciting our vows, the backdrop was the golf course and Lake Michigan—no need for extra flowers or decorations. It’s stunning just how it is. The wood and stone of the barn, the green of the golf course, the blue water and sky; I’m not very good with words—they simply do not do it justice, but it is truly a picturesque setting.”
Like The American Club, Whistling Straits is a full-service venue; although it has no hotel for guests, lodging is available at both The American Club and the nearby Inn on Woodlake.
Blackwolf Run and the Inn at Woodlake are more rustic locales, with the former featuring Canadian lodge-pole construction, Native American décor, iron chandeliers and authentic bearskin rugs. The Inn at Woodlake abuts a private beach that makes an excellent spot for an informal wedding.
Photos by Craig John Photography © 2011.
One-stop shop
Regardless of their venue, bridal couples can choose from tiered, full-service wedding packages in Kohler. Packages are truly inclusive, right down to the chair-bows, and are designed to provide one-stop convenience. They range from modest to opulent (with corresponding price tags), ensuring the bride and groom should easily be able to find a package that meets their needs and budget.
No discussion of Kohler weddings would be complete without mention of the Kohler Waters Spa, an amazing, full-service spa connected to The American Club’s luxurious carriage house. It’s the perfect spot for pre-ceremony relaxation and pampering for the entire wedding party, with 21 treatment rooms and roomy locker rooms loaded with amenities like a whirlpool, cold-water plunge pool, saunas and steam rooms.
Spa service makes the perfect gift for bridesmaids or family members, and the spa has even hosted bachelorette parties (of the more low-key, laughter-and-champagne variety). As befits a spa owned by one of the biggest names in plumbing and bath fixtures, the focus of the Kohler Waters Spa is on the therapeutic benefits of water; and it’s reflected in everything from the locker rooms’ tricked-out showers to an $8,000 toilet.
Bridal parties can lounge in the spa’s relaxation room, which comes complete with a glass-enclosed rooftop deck, fireplace and whirlpool. Or take a dip in the spa’s pool downstairs, ducking beneath its signature eight-foot waterfall for a deep-tissue water massage. Treatment rooms boast state-of-the-art programmable Vichy showers, ensuring the utmost in comfort and luxury.
And while it doesn’t appear in the company literature or on any of the venue websites, it seems likely that somewhere in Kohler, you might find a bubbler.
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