When their marriages broke up, Sharon Taylor and Larry Fayant both thought their ships had sailed. Little did they know it would be a boat that would bring them together.

A dragon boat.

Last weekend, Taylor, in a long, ivory-white wedding gown, was transported on a dragon boat across Harrison Lake to her wedding ceremony on the beach. And while most brides wouldn't be caught dead stepping foot into a dirty, wooden boat, often filled with ankle-high puddles, Taylor was sure it was the most perfect place for her and her dress to be.

The dragon boat, she said, brought her and Fayant together. It had to be a part of their special day.

When Taylor joined the Thunderstrokers dragon boat team in 2002, it was the same spring that her first marriage had broken up. And while the sport quickly became an outlet for her up-and-down emotions, the team became a family.

And a year later, that family had their eyes set on fixing their girl up.

Fayant was the target.

One of Fayant's co-workers at Save-on-Foods had been urging him to join the team. He'd love it, she said. The sport was great, the people were great, and, well, there was this girl. She had the same personality as Fayant and a really great sense of humour, his co-worker told him.

But Fayant was guarded.

His first marriage hadn't ended well, and his heart hadn't yet healed.

"When you're starting your life over again, you don't really know if there's anyone else out there for you," he said. "And you don't want to get your heart broken again."

But after attending a Thunderstrokers' fundraiser, and instantly clicking with the paddlers, he was hooked. He went to a team meeting in February, where the only seat available in the room was the one next to Taylor.

"It was like they had planned it that way," laughed Fayant.

But it wasn't until April, when the dragon boating season officially started, that the two really started to get to know each other. Every practice the team warmed up with a 10-minute walk from the boat launch to the marina, which was just as much a gab fest as it was a warmup. After practice, they regularly engaged in a cool down at the nearby pub.

It was in those moments that the two hit it off.

Taylor was drawn to Fayant's independence; he didn't need mothering like her previous relationship, and he was actively engaged in his daughter's life, something she viewed as the "perfect recipe for a family."

And for Fayant, while he had first noticed her beautiful smile, it was the ease he felt with her that had him coming back for more.

"She seemed to always be listening to me and chuckling at my stories, even when I didn't think they were that good. And I thought, wow, I don't have to be fake, I don't have to worry about my personality scaring her away, I can be myself."

Seven and a half years following their first meeting, Fayant found himself standing on the beach, watching his beautiful bride – the mother of two of his children – sitting in the third row of a dragon boat, with water splashing all around her, and the blue-clad Thunderstrokers paddling hard.

Nervous butterflies filled his insides.

They had only planned on a small, intimate ceremony, with just 50 or so of their closest family and friends in attendance, but when Taylor had booked the beach, she had no idea it was the same weekend as the annual dragon boat festival.

The couple hadn't been apart of the dragon boat scene for years. The commitment had gotten to be too much when the team became more competitive, and when Fayant and Taylor became more serious, wanting to build their family.

But because Taylor and Fayant had booked the beach first, the Fraser Valley Dragon Boat Club was willing to do whatever it took to make their day special, as long as the festival could share that day with them.

Taylor had already been thinking about approaching the club for a dragon boat entrance, and so, when the president called, she was sure it was kismet.

Their once intimate ceremony had instantly grown from 50 guests to more than 1,500 spectators.

It was worth it, said Fayant.

"Having our wedding [at Harrison] was a way for us to show our friends and family how we met, and to show them that the lake and dragon boating will always be a part of our lives. Without them, we wouldn't be here today."

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