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Brooke & Nathan

10/20/21 EVENTS NEWS

Banff, AB

After several failed attempts on Nathan's end, spanning a number of years, Brooke finally accepted his dinner invitation. Although at that time Nate's culinary skills were limited ( he cooked snap peas as an appetizer thinking they were edamame), to the delight of their many mutual friends, Brooke quickly feel for Nate's sense of humour, kind personality, and sick dance moves. It didn't hurt that Brooke's first look, Olive the Italian Waterdog fell fast for Nate as well, and the affection was mutual.

A year later Nathan moved into Brooke's condo, and they enjoyed living the downtown life. Both working downtown corporate jobs, frequenting the hot spot restaurants and bars, attending Oilers games and concerts, and walking their dog Olive through the Farmer's Market and River Valley trails. On the weekends Brooke quickly converted the downtown boy Nate into a mountain man. Nate was a good sport from day one, learning to mountain bike, cross-country and downhill ski, and even venturing into the world of back-country camping.

Fast forward a few years, they purchased a home in Ritchie and now enjoy the perks of homeownership and the Millcreek Ravine Trails at their doorstep. Nate proposed the Summer of 2020 in Jasper, with the help of Brooke's bridesmaid Jane and her beautiful family cabin at Lake Edith. Once Nate stopped hyperventilating, they toasted to their forever and started planning their dream mountain wedding.

Dress Shopping

"I started dress shopping right away. Limited by COVID restrictions the appointments were intimate with my Mom and Sister, and then Mom and close friend. I had two appointments at Novelle, first with Courtney, then with Jessica, both of whom were extremely helpful and accommodating, especially given my uncertainty and perfectionism. I found several good options in my first appointment, but nothing felt like THE ONE. So I booked a second appointment after digging deep on the website and ended up finding my dress- Watters Sirena in Blush." 

The Wedding

"We always knew we wanted a mountain wedding as we love spending our weekends in the mountains hiking, biking, camping and skiing along with our dog Olive. The limitations around COVID were a good excuse to keep the wedding small, and pick an intimate venue, however it did come with some logistical challenges- being on top of a mountain and tourist attraction.

We chose the Banff Sulphur Mountain Gondola and Sky Bistro as our wedding venue, falling in love with the magical views from the outdoor terrace and beautifully rustic Sky Bistro. The location was also meaningful to both of us as we have both hiked it on numerous occasions with our families when we were younger. We unfortunately had to postpone our wedding from June to September, but were still lucky enough to go ahead with it then!

We invited 50 of our closest friends and family from BC and Alberta. The night before we held a party for all guests at High Rollers Bowling Alley in Banff which was a great opportunity for everyone to catch up after months apart. The weather was iffy on our wedding day, with intermittent rain that required us to delay our ceremony slightly, but it resulted in some beautiful rainbows and moody clouds. We managed to have an outside ceremony, albeit a bit windy and rainy. The day and night were magical, with everyone reuniting for one big dance party. 

Two days after the wedding we hiked with our photographers and our dog, waking up at 2am, up Tent Ridge in Kananaskis in the dark, arriving at the top for sunrise. We brought coffee and baileys for the photoshoot but it was so crisp our dog Olive's water froze in her water bowl at the top. It was an amazing experience, although we hike a lot, we had never done it in the middle of the night carrying my dress and Nathan's suit on our backs. We wanted to do this extra adventure because our dog couldn't come to the wedding, and we didn't do a first look, so we didn't have a lot of time for photos on the day of. This was perfect."

Vendors

Photographers: Willow and Wolf Photography

Florals: Grasslands Flower Co. 

HMUA: Bellamore Beauty

Cake: Kake Canmore

Dress & Veil: Novelle Bridal

Suit: Mr Derk

Hairpiece: Untamed Petals

Dog Napkins: Wink Ink Co.