Rustic Wedding in Whistler, BC
Rustic weddings in the mountains of British Columbia are, hands down, one of the most amazing ways to say "I do." Because besides being an always-breathtaking celebration, they are chock-full of joy and, in the case of this beauty styled to perfection by Petite Pearl Events, total prettiness, too. It's nature meets awesome all captured by Tomasz Wagner. See it all here.
From the Bride... Mike and I met through a colleague of ours at work. Our relationship started off long distance, with him living in Vancouver and me living in Toronto. It was quickly apparent that this was something we wanted to make work, so I packed up and moved to the west coast.
After Mike proposed, our toughest decision was which province to have the wedding. Once we decided on British Columbia, Whistler was an obvious choice. The Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre was such a fun venue, with attributes like a beautiful outdoor space and the Istken Hall, which is a unique round room made up of all windows that shows off the gorgeous scenery. It would have been impossible to pass up. After that, all the decisions came easily thanks to Jessica Minnie at Petite Pearl Events. She was so integral to making our day easy and special that I can’t rave about her enough. It was Jessica that put us in contact with Tomasz Wagner of Mananetwork, whose photos were exactly what we were looking for in terms of style. We didn’t want anything overtly wedding-y, and what we got with Tomasz was beautiful fine art photos that happened to be of our wedding. Perfect.
Mike and I love to open our home to family and friends and host dinner parties, which means lots of home-style food and loud music, always with the chance of a dance party. Jessica Minnie coordinated Whistler Cooks and the Last Scene, our caterer and band respectively. They were so perfect that it seemed as if people were coming to dinner at our home - from the family-style serving of seasonal salads and veggies to my 80+ year old grandmother dancing to the band playing Footloose, a family tradition.
Of the whole day, the top moments started early and continued until the band played the last song. An early morning run with my mom will forever be such a great memory, and we followed that up with a huge group of the women both in and invited to the wedding being part of a private morning yoga practice before we started getting ready. I’ll never forget the first time my stepdad saw me in my dress and the look on his face, which was right before I saw the look on Mike’s face and his huge grin. Walking down the aisle to Mark Woodyard playing ‘Longing to Belong’ was beautiful, I only wish it had been a longer aisle. Right after we said our vows and turned to the crowd of family and friends was when it hit me that we were both having such a fun day and then ‘holy cow all these people are here to do this with us, how great is that?!’. After our first dance, the band started playing and got everyone on the dance floor. It was never empty the rest of the night! The only time people took time out from dancing was to hit up the Polaroid photobooth set up outside, which was a huge hit with all our guests. When we finally headed back to the hotel, a short walk from the venue, we took a moment to look up and see the beautiful clear night absolutely filled with stars and knew that it had been our perfect, perfect day.
My advice:
Hire a wedding planner - the money spent is worth it, as everyone kept commenting on how relaxed my mom, my bridesmaids and I all looked. It made the day easy and fun for everyone, which is what it should be.
Get a little exercise the morning of - nothing strenuous, but waking up and doing something to help shake some of the nervous energy felt fantastic and set the tone for the day. I couldn’t have done this if we didn’t have such confidence in our planner Jessica Minnie and her Petite Pearl team working to set up the day.
Plan for a quick break - between the photos and the reception we took a ten minute break just the two of us to just breathe it all in. We talked about what had happened so far in the day, and it really helped to set in some of the memories for us.
Have great music - a live band or a great DJ will really set the mood and keep the party going. You and your guests want to have a fun time, and music really helps that. The Last Scene read our crowd perfectly and everyone has told us how much they loved them.
Hire a great photographer - we were so lucky with Tomasz Wagner at Mananetwork. As soon as we saw his work we knew we liked his style, but then when he did our engagement shoot we were so confident that not only would he take great photos, but he’d also be a great person and energy to have with our group for the day.
Eat! - we made sure to have lunch while we were getting ready, and then our dinner I can’t say enough about how good the food was. Whistler Cooks did an outstanding job of using fresh, local produce and meat, and created the perfect summer meal for us and our guests.
After Mike proposed, our toughest decision was which province to have the wedding. Once we decided on British Columbia, Whistler was an obvious choice. The Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre was such a fun venue, with attributes like a beautiful outdoor space and the Istken Hall, which is a unique round room made up of all windows that shows off the gorgeous scenery. It would have been impossible to pass up. After that, all the decisions came easily thanks to Jessica Minnie at Petite Pearl Events. She was so integral to making our day easy and special that I can’t rave about her enough. It was Jessica that put us in contact with Tomasz Wagner of Mananetwork, whose photos were exactly what we were looking for in terms of style. We didn’t want anything overtly wedding-y, and what we got with Tomasz was beautiful fine art photos that happened to be of our wedding. Perfect.
Mike and I love to open our home to family and friends and host dinner parties, which means lots of home-style food and loud music, always with the chance of a dance party. Jessica Minnie coordinated Whistler Cooks and the Last Scene, our caterer and band respectively. They were so perfect that it seemed as if people were coming to dinner at our home - from the family-style serving of seasonal salads and veggies to my 80+ year old grandmother dancing to the band playing Footloose, a family tradition.
Of the whole day, the top moments started early and continued until the band played the last song. An early morning run with my mom will forever be such a great memory, and we followed that up with a huge group of the women both in and invited to the wedding being part of a private morning yoga practice before we started getting ready. I’ll never forget the first time my stepdad saw me in my dress and the look on his face, which was right before I saw the look on Mike’s face and his huge grin. Walking down the aisle to Mark Woodyard playing ‘Longing to Belong’ was beautiful, I only wish it had been a longer aisle. Right after we said our vows and turned to the crowd of family and friends was when it hit me that we were both having such a fun day and then ‘holy cow all these people are here to do this with us, how great is that?!’. After our first dance, the band started playing and got everyone on the dance floor. It was never empty the rest of the night! The only time people took time out from dancing was to hit up the Polaroid photobooth set up outside, which was a huge hit with all our guests. When we finally headed back to the hotel, a short walk from the venue, we took a moment to look up and see the beautiful clear night absolutely filled with stars and knew that it had been our perfect, perfect day.
My advice:
Hire a wedding planner - the money spent is worth it, as everyone kept commenting on how relaxed my mom, my bridesmaids and I all looked. It made the day easy and fun for everyone, which is what it should be.
Get a little exercise the morning of - nothing strenuous, but waking up and doing something to help shake some of the nervous energy felt fantastic and set the tone for the day. I couldn’t have done this if we didn’t have such confidence in our planner Jessica Minnie and her Petite Pearl team working to set up the day.
Plan for a quick break - between the photos and the reception we took a ten minute break just the two of us to just breathe it all in. We talked about what had happened so far in the day, and it really helped to set in some of the memories for us.
Have great music - a live band or a great DJ will really set the mood and keep the party going. You and your guests want to have a fun time, and music really helps that. The Last Scene read our crowd perfectly and everyone has told us how much they loved them.
Hire a great photographer - we were so lucky with Tomasz Wagner at Mananetwork. As soon as we saw his work we knew we liked his style, but then when he did our engagement shoot we were so confident that not only would he take great photos, but he’d also be a great person and energy to have with our group for the day.
Eat! - we made sure to have lunch while we were getting ready, and then our dinner I can’t say enough about how good the food was. Whistler Cooks did an outstanding job of using fresh, local produce and meat, and created the perfect summer meal for us and our guests.