Jesse and Kelly knew they wanted a rustic mountain wedding when they set out to find their dream destination wedding location. But it wasn’t until they hit a few roadblocks before they found “the one” in Golden, British Columbia. Kelly shared with us their story. “Jesse and I had always wanted to get married in the rocky mountains. We spent a fair bit of time together travelling, camping and playing (snowboarding, biking, hiking) in the Rockies and we absolutely loved it there so it was always a dream of ours. As we started looking for locations and venues we started to get a bit discouraged as most of the places were WAY out of budget. The hotels and resorts had very expensive rental rates, expensive menus and lists of rules that were so long we couldn’t bother to read through all of them. So, we decided to take a week off of work in the summer, take a road trip and see what we could find. When we found the ECO Adventure Ranch in Golden B.C. we knew it was the right location for us immediately. There was a variety of accommodations for our guests nearby all varying in price, location and type. If they wanted to camp, there was camping right at the ECO adventure ranch. There was a plethora of hotels, motels, cabins, resorts and bed and breakfasts to choose from. The events pavilion at the ranch was big enough for the size of wedding that we wanted to have and it had a fully equipped kitchen, two floors (one for the dinner and one for the dance or the ceremony if we happened to get rained out). They allowed us to rent the pavilion for 48 hours which gave us lots of time to set up the day before and clean up the day after (we even had a brunch and gift opening there the next morning).”
“We had the ceremony in front of the old barn. It was a beautiful, natural setting with the mountains in the background. Then we went for pictures around the ECO ranch with the wedding party and took off with our photographers to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort for some more pictures of just Jesse and I. We took the gondola right up to the top of the mountain to get some great shots. It was snowing up there and quite cold so we only stayed up there for a little while.”
“Neither of my grandma’s were in good enough health to make it to the destination wedding and although Jesse’s grandma had planned on coming, she ended up with the shingles a few days before the wedding and was not able to come. One of my grandma’s had given me a broach that was very special to her so I attached it to my bouquet in her honor. Our other grandma’s just had us promise to bring back lots of pictures to share with them when we got back.”
“The centerpieces, seating charts, chalk board, menu cards and table numbers were all homemade. We purchased some supplies before heading to Golden and collected the rest when we were there. All of the decorations were inspired by the beautiful setting of the wedding in the mountains and a lot of the decorations were made with natural materials. We used tree stumps to line the aisle, pinecones to hold our table numbers and branches from willow bushes by the creek to make the arch of the barn for the ceremony. Our centerpieces and wedding cake were placed on stained wooden slabs.”
The gorgeous wedding cake was even made by a close friend of the couple!
“Leslie and Todd did an excellent job of capturing the day. From getting ready for the big day to the dance they were there for every moment. Some of my favorite pictures are of our guests playing our version of “minute to win it” to determine who got to eat first. The whole day was absolutely wonderful and we could not have asked for anything more. We had great weather, it rained a little just before the ceremony but it cleared up just in time to walk down the aisle. Jesse and I stayed the whole night, dancing until the early hours of the morning and then went to the room that we rented at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort for our first night as a happily married couple.”
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post when we share with you this darling couple’s day after wedding shoot on Emerald Lake!
Congratulations to the newlyweds!
Destination Wedding Photographer: Leslie Spurlock Photography
Wedding Vendors: Location: The Golden Eco-Adventure Ranch and Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, Wedding Dress: Stella York, Tuxedos: Black and Lee, Flowers: Flowers From Home, Catering: Whitetooth Mountain Bistro, Chair Covers: Kicking Horse Party Rentals, Table Runners: Table Cloths Factory, Wedding Cake: Close Friend Rosie Voon, Centerpieces, Seating Charts, Menu Cards, Chalkboards + Table Numbers: DIY, DJ: Tracy Mihajic, Hair: Vivid Hair Salon
What a stunning venue!