Columbia Valley Weddings by Columbia Valley Pioneer

Columbia Valley

2023 / 2024

Weddings

featured wedding •

Eventually things were set in stone for October 15, 2022 — for the couple to tie the knot and for municipal Radium voters to cast their ballots. The wedding involved an outdoor ceremony at Radius Retreat and then a reception at the Radium Hot Springs Centre. “It was perfect for us. The outdoor experience and then the elegance of the hall. Patrick is a planning maestro,” says Mike. Wanting to focus on the nuptials, Mike asked election officials not to call him, but instead to call Tim, one of the groomsmen who was working at the pub that night. When the results were finalized, Tim was to come tell Mike. But instead Tim called Patrick. Patrick stopped the DJ, strode up on stage and announced “It’s official. I am the first lady of Radium Hot Springs.” The crowd went nuts. “So it was our wedding day and also probably the best election party ever. Apparently the cheer in the Radium hall was so loud that people several streets down got the news that I was the new mayor,” says Mike.

Marrying the mayor Mike + Patrick

Photos © Kylajayne.com

all it a double celebration. New Radium Hot Springs mayor Mike Gray was elected on his wedding day.

Mike and his husband Patrick Tolchard are well-known in the Columbia Valley: Patrick as co-owner of Valley Zipline Adventures and Kootenay Adventure Collective; and Mike as mayor, a twoterm Radium councillor before that, and as owner of the Horsethief Creek Pub and Eatery. Both are absurdly busy. After getting engaged, their packed schedules and then the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic conspired to alter their wedding plans multiple times before they decided to finally settle, once and for all, on the weekend after Thanksgiving 2022. Eventually it dawned on Mike that this was October 15 — the municipal election date in B.C. He would be campaigning for the mayor position. But Patrick was really fixed on the wedding date. Delicately Mike broached the topic, asking “is it really a good idea? Should we maybe change the date?” “Patrick responded: ‘Yes, of course we should. That’s great, I had no idea you could change a municipal election date’,” recalls Mike with a laugh. “So that made it clear: we weren’t changing the wedding date.” Mike met Patrick in Calgary in 2012. Patrick was studying at

Medicine Hat College, and in the big city for the Victoria Day long weekend. Mike was running a nightclub. He was texting back and forth with a DJ whose phone died. The DJ began using a friend’s phone to communicate with Mike. Later that evening Mike saw the DJ standing in line and fired off another text. “I said ‘I sure hope that phone you borrowed belongs to that cute boy beside you,” recalls Mike. It did in fact, and that boy was Patrick. It was a classic case of love at first blush. But it was love that lasts too. Almost exactly two years later, in May 2014, the couple moved to the Columbia Valley. “I lived in Victoria but went back to Calgary because my brother and his wife were having kids like crazy (six in total) and I wanted to be close to family. Sure enough they then decided to relocate to Panorama. So Patrick and I moved too,” says Mike. Mike took over the Horsethief, and Patrick began working in the local tourism industry. Both Mike and Patrick are go-getters, and after a few years they found their lives full to the brim and then some. “We both work a ton of hours, sometime odd hours. Especially in the summer, it seems those hours are often offset, so we sort of live parallel lives. We get through it, but it’s not always easy,” says Mike. As an antidote to that, the couple started taking a big annual vacation. It was a sanity saver and became a tradition. One year, that trip was to England, where Patrick was visiting his dying grandfather. “I saw this side of Patrick, in family mode, that I hadn’t seen a lot of before. And it made me decide right there that I was going to marry him,” recalls Mike. He proposed to Patrick on the next big vacation, during a wine tour in California. But planning for the wedding was tricky — they needed a date that accommodated their busy schedules. Then COVID-19 came along and scuttled big weddings for a few years. Columbia Valley Weddings 2023

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featured wedding •

When it rains...enjoy the double rainbow

Photos © Kimberleyrae.ca

Kayja + Shane

The sun shone brilliantly during the ceremony, as guests sat on homemade wooden benches under the open sky. Groomsmen and bridesmaids wore splendid smiles, and Kayja’s mom escorted the couple’s dog, Juan Diego, down the aisle. The couple exchanged customized vows, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd. It did indeed rain, but as luck had it, the storm came after the ceremony. Sure, the couple got wet, but the storm enhanced the proceeding by adding a double rainbow. Dinner followed and guests danced in the hay barn well into the wee hours. “It was such a party,” says Kayja. “We are very fortunate to live in such an amazing place. It’s the perfect spot to get married.”

ayja Becker knows the wedding business inside and out, having worked as a wedding and events coordinator at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort in the past. So when it came to her own wedding to Shane Prentice, she knew exactly what to keep in mind: “You have to focus on the big picture. Don’t sweat the small stuff,” she says.

She’d seen brides-to-be brought to tears over details as trivial as table cloths and cutlery, and didn’t want some unrealistic ideal of ‘perfection’ to ruin her own nuptials. “What’s important is love, family, friends, good food and good fun,” she emphasizes. “If you can let go of the table cloths and the cutlery, stop worrying about what might go wrong, and just enjoy the celebration, you’ll have a great wedding.” Kayja is well known in the Columbia Valley as a long-serving Invermere councillor and as owner of the United Dance studio. Shane is familiar to many residents through his work with Superior Propane. Both grew up in the valley and graduated from local David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS) as part of the same class. But they didn’t become a couple until years later. As an adult, Shane moved to Calgary. His roommate in the big city happened to be Kayja’s best friend. That best friend suggested Shane and Kayja would be a great match. “It turns out she was on to something,” says Kayja.

The relationship was tested quickly, when Shane was diagnosed with cancer just five months after the pair began dating. The couple decided Shane would stay in Calgary, so he could access big city medical services. Shane beat the cancer, but it returned a year later. He beat it a second time. In fall 2016, after chemotherapy and surgery, Shane moved back to the valley to be with Kayja. In March 2020 they were set to go on their first big vacation together, to Mexico. Kayja didn’t know, but Shane planned to propose down south. Alas the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and scuttled that plan. Later that fall, when the initial fear around COVID-19 had calmed, the couple took a trip to Nelson. While there Kayja made a point of walking over to Nelson’s city hall. “I’m a local government geek, and I love the city hall there. It’s an old stone building, covered with ivy,” she says. It may not be everyone’s idea of a romantic location, but Kayja is not everyone. Shane knew a perfect spot when he saw it and proposed right there. The couple wed in an outdoor ceremony in July 2022 on Kayja’s grandfather’s farm and apple orchard, at the foot of Mount Swansea, near a singular, sweeping conifer. “The farm has been in the family for generations and it’s always been such a special place for me,” she says. “Everything in the valley seems to change so fast, but not the farm. It’s home. There are trees that I remember playing around as a kid.” They laboured to clear out the old hay barn. Kayja’s brother spent hours with Shane crafting some old lumber into an arch under which the couple could trade vows. “It was a lot of work, but I wouldn’t change a thing,” says Kayja. “We said ‘we’ll do it outdoors’, and if it rains and we get wet, well, then we get wet.” Columbia Valley Weddings 2023

Columbia Valley Weddings 2023

featured wedding •

Their ceremony was on the ‘yoga deck’ east of the top of the Mile 1 chairlift, meaning the wedding party and all the guest needed to ski down from the Champagne chairlift to get there. Amy skied down with her bridesmaids under clear skis and sunshine. “It’s not as easy to ski when you’ve gathered up a wedding dress in your arms and are trying not to let it drop on the snow,” she concedes. “A lot of people were hooting and hollering from the chairlift as we skied down.” Friends and family, many clad in ski gear, filled the deck and then members of the Panorama Mountain Freestyle Club turned up to add to the celebration. “We thought there would be about 100 people, but so many people in the freestyle community showed up, it was a wonderful surprise,” says Amy. “I think there were 140 or 150 people in total.” After the couple traded vows and became wife and husband, guests lined up and made an impromptu arch of upraised ski poles for the couple to exit under. Amy and Michael and most of the wedding party then skied down to the terrain park and gathered on one of the large tabletop jumps. Michael, who is still a top-drawer freestyle skier, skied down, hit the jump and launched over the crowd, doing a back flip over top of everybody. After that, the guests skied down to a reception at Greywolf. “We live in such a beautiful place that is just so fun to live in. We really wanted to share that with our guests and our wedding was a great way to do that,” says Amy. Her extended family all made the trip out west, many of them for the first time. All were amazed at the Columbia Valley, commenting repeatedly on what a lovely spot it is to get married. “It was fantastic. Everybody had such a good time,” she says.

A bride in ski boots Amy + Michael

Photos © Stephan Malette Photography

Tie the Knot Tie the Knot

here’s a lot of buzz in mountain towns such as Invermere about ski-in, ski-out accommodation. But how about a ski-in, ski-out wedding? That’s what Amy Green and Michael Brush had when they tied the knot in March 2022.

special events, that was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They rescheduled for July 2021, but as this second date drew near their chosen venue was still closed. They cancelled a second time, and decided on a winter wedding instead. Why not? They had met at the bottom of Panorama, seen their relationship blossom from friendship to romance while sliding down the resort slopes, then got engaged on a bike ride off the summit, so it made sense to get married there too. Columbia Valley Weddings 2023

Ph:Yueko Yueko Image Image Ph:

ON TOP OF THE WORLD.

Ph: Yueko Image

An on-slope nuptials was fitting for a couple whose story centres around skiing. Amy grew up in Ottawa but moved out west as soon as she could to spend “just one winter” at Panorama Mountain Resort. Michael grew up with parents who worked at the resort and has been skiing there since he was still in diapers. They met one evening, during an apres ski at the T-Bar and Grill. They became friends, started skiing together and, as the ski season drew to a close, became a couple. Amy’s “just one winter” in the Columbia Valley is up to a decade and counting. The couple’s jobs have switched from slope-side daycare for skiing parents to becoming a teacher at a local elementary school (Amy) and from on-mountain jobs at the ski hill to Kicking Horse Coffee (Michael), but they still live up at Panorama: the resort is their home. Michael proposed to Amy in 2016, popping the question during a bike ride off the summit of Panorama, at Goldie Lake. It was early fall and the needles on the larch trees ringing the lake had already turned a golden hue. “It was spectacular and I wasn’t expecting it. Looking back, things should’ve added up. He was mysteriously clean cut and well put together for a bike ride,” recalls Amy. The couple set their wedding date for July 2020. Like so many

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featured wedding •

Ceremony at home on the farm Charlene + Kyle

SAY "I DO"

on-top of the world

ife offers second chances, and it’s up to you to make the most of them. Charlene and Kyle Madden know this as well as anyone.

For both “this is our second marriage, so we knew what we wanted and what we didn’t want in our relationship. We knew right away that we were a good fit,” Charlene says. Charlene was friends with Kyle’s sister for a decade before she met Kyle. Their first date was in December 2017, when both of their companies’ separate Christmas parties were held at the same location. After a while, they snuck out of those respective Christmas parties to spend time on their own together. “I remember saying to his sister, [my friend] that…. you know, I’m going to marry your brother,” Charlene laughs. “It was just one of those things I knew right away that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.” When you know

PH: Zoe Ferguson

it’s right, you know it’s right. After eight months dating, they married in August 2018, on their Edgewater farm. “We both love the Columbia Valley. We can’t beat the view. So for us, this is the perfect place. This is where our hearts are,” Charlene says. It was important to both Charlene and Kyle to incorporate their family into their wedding ceremony. Kyle’s godmother Winnie Vitaliano who is Indigenous and who played a very important role in Kyle’s early years, joined them during their first look ceremony and shared a ceremony of smudging with sweet grass and then a blessing of spreading tobacco. “That was the most important part of it. It (meant) being able to share that part of Kyle’s life and being welcomed by his God family. It was probably my favourite moment of the day,” Charlene says. “It has always been an important part of his life and him being so connected to the land himself… to feel that spiritual connection.” “She (the godmother) had smudged our whole seating area, where the guests were going to sit during the ceremony. She offered a smudging to anyone who wanted to participate,” Charlene explains. “The next morning, she made us some beautiful bannock for breakfast.” The wedding was a success, all the more so because neither of them expected to get married a second time. Being single “I thought life was great. But I didn’t realize…. until someone came into it – that I was still missing that part,” says Charlene. “Sometimes when you’re not looking, that’s when it finds you.” Photos © Ruth Cavanagh Photography

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featured wedding •

Beautiful backyard wedding

soft and golden and the Columbia Valley is an excellent spot for sunset wedding portraits. They were fortunate to have friends in the industry. Dear friend Natacha was the officiant and make-up artist. Best man Taylor built their wedding arch, their two daughters were the flower girls and friend Rosie helped with planning. Another friend Sascha happened to be a professional cook who took on the job as head chef. Milena’s brother stole the show with his humourous speech, which gently teased Jeremiah for taking 11 years to propose. The day was heartfelt and special, reflective of the relationship; it was a wedding that was just right for a couple who are just right for each other.

Milena + Jeremiah

Photos © Kylajayne.com

t’s true, absence makes the heart grow fonder. But if you really want to clinch the deal, build her a straw bale cabin.

That did it for Milena Blakley. In fact, the Little House on the Prairie vibe and many other romantic gestures from her soulmate Jeremiah was what melted her heart for good. And she soon learned that distance always found a way of bringing them back together. Hence, a love story with no ending. The two met in university where his “crazy curly afro” and big smile immediately caught Milena’s attention. “I was attracted to him at first sight,” she recalls, adding it didn’t take them long to connect. “We could stare into each other’s eyes forever and it was easy to forget about time.” Their friends started calling them a couple before they admitted what was really happening. On Sept. 24, 2009, Jeremiah gave Milena a ride back to her dorm on a bicycle. “When it was time to say goodbye, he just didn’t leave. I eventually got the clue and invited him upstairs. That is the night we remember as the beginning of our love story, and that is the date we chose for our wedding 13 years later.” Milena knew their love was serious when they tried going their separate ways after she graduated. “I was literally on the other side of the world [in Asia], yet our hearts pulled us back together.”

During her absence in India and Thailand, he built her a beautiful straw bale cabin to live in. How many brides-to-be can say that? But it’s not just the romantic things he does that win her heart, it’s the way he supports, comforts and challenges her that truly strengthen their love. While visiting Europe in 2020, they spent one night in a funky hotel in downtown Amsterdam where he dropped to one knee and pulled out a ring. “I said yes, of course,” remembers Milena Their wedding was held in their backyard in the Columbia Valley, the perfect place to host friends and family from overseas. “We wanted to bring our community together and what better reason is there than to celebrate love?” says Milena. “I really loved how our community showed up for us. Everyone attending contributed to the event in one way or another. It was a true group effort.” Ironically, Milena is a wedding photographer herself during the summer, so she had to find someone she could trust to take memorable pictures. But that was easy since her dear friend Kyla is a professional photographer too. Milena says photography is much more than simply taking a great picture, it’s the planning and set-up that counts. For example, choosing the right location, time of day, and angle of the sun. “I picked the ceremony site [and the time] so that the sun would be at our backs and neither Jeremiah or I would be blinded by it.” She also planned for a portrait at sunset when the light was Columbia Valley Weddings 2023

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featured bachelorette •

A weekend to remember

Photos © Heather Abegail Photography

Sidney

idney Lapp married Corey Conlon this past September at a rustic luxury lodge in Montana. It was the perfect spot for the outdoors-loving couple to exchange vows. Earlier this spring Sidney said goodbye to single life with a bachelorette party in another excellent spot for those who like nature — right here in the Columbia Valley. The party involved no less than 16 of Sidney’s closest family members and friends, and her parents and sister Braidyn (who is also her maid of honour) worked hard to make most parts of the celebration a complete surprise. The guests traveled from four different provinces for the party, so it needed to be in a spot easy for all to get to. Invermere’s relatively close proximity to Calgary (and Calgary’s airport), its breathtaking mountain surroundings, and the availability of an AirBnB that could accommodate all 16 guests under one roof made it an easy choice. Sidney’s mom Olga and dad Wayne arrived early and decorated the AirBnB in style: balloon arches, fringes, framed photos of Sidney, plenty of pink, and a sparkly-disco-cowboy theme throughout. The arriving guests were treated to signature welcome drinks, and not long after there was a luxury picnic in the backyard as a local musician provided live entertainment. The weekend followed a past-present-future structure through an array of fun events and activities. To celebrate Sidney’s ‘past’ each guest dressed up in costume to represent their favourite memory of Sidney. To mark the ‘present’ Braidyn took snapshots of everybody upon waking up the first morning and displayed the images on the dining room table. For the ‘future’ guests donned

grey-haired wigs and played backyard Granny mini golf. Amongst all that there was still time hit up Kinsmen Beach to dip in the lake, play volleyball and eat ice cream, for midnight snacks, brunches, taco dinners, strolling around town, enjoying sunsets, a stop at the Radium hot pools, and a night out at a local bar singing Shania Twain on the dance floor while dressed in cheetah and sparkling outfits (cheetah-wear and sparkle-wear being among Sidney’s favourite styles of attire). “It was a perfect mixture of sentimental (and) thoughtful and silly (and) fun which was exactly what Sidney wanted,” says Braidyn. “She just kept glowing and getting more excited... I haven’t seen her laugh so much in my life” Olga adds there were tears of joy and that “this was a group and community effort 100 per cent. Every guest and every vendor I contacted wanted to contribute in some capacity. They were more than willing to accommodate times and schedules. And the girls (party guests) just wanted to give back to her (Sidney) as much as she has given to them.” Columbia Valley Weddings 2023

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featured elopement •

Last minute marriage in a horse-drawn carriage

Focus on FUN Jess + Matt

Erin + Chris

vercoming a serious motorcycle accident and the passing of her father taught Erin Herschell the definition of chaos. But love conquered all when she and a man named Chris came out of the other side knowing their time together was not meant to be temporary.

However, more challenges awaited the classic millennial couple who met on Tinder. But like a Charles Wysocki puzzle, everything fell into place like it was supposed to. Love for the business development manager (Erin) and construction company man (Chris) grew over the course of a spring and summer of hiking and floating down the Bow River in Alberta before moving in together in the fall. The marriage proposal that followed was a traditional affair with a ring that included a family heirloom diamond. Their wedding was planned for April 4, 2020 with a guest list of more than 100 people travelling from all over the world. But the COVID-19 pandemic crashed that party and the couple had to cancel on March 16 and decided to elope on March 18. “I sent an email to a few of my vendors asking if they had any ideas for a quick ceremony before everything gets shut down,” Erin recalls. Luckily, one of their vendors (Kim, of KimberleyRae Photography) responded immediately and said she knew of a private cabin in the woods (House of the Friesians) in Invermere. Erin had a gut instinct that if they had hesitated too long, this new

plan too would be scuttled. “We told Kim to go for the 18th and she immediately went to work; she found a hair salon, mobile make-up artist, florist, officiant, videographer, private chef and a baker to make a cake. We were truly blown away.” Erin explains they had low expectations and would have settled for a fast food wedding meal, but Kim said no way. “We packed everything up, stopped by a local jeweller to get Chris a ring, then hit the road for the House of the Friesians (to get married).” Only six friends attended the affair a day or two after a big snowfall. “We could not have picked a more beautiful day even if we had spent years looking at historical weather,” says Erin. She admits her shock upon seeing the horse-drawn carriage that transported them, adding it was “absolutely stunning.” Because they had to tromp around in the snow, Erin had to wear boots to keep her feet warm. Good thing they weren’t rubber boots, she laughs. Erin says they were lucky in so many ways because their original wedding plans were the first to be cancelled by COVID-19. Looking back, she would not have changed a thing. “It was so spontaneous and beautiful.” She recalls the phone call explaining the elopement plans to her mom in Ontario. This ultimately meant her mother could not attend the wedding. “She said, ‘Erin you go put that dress on and marry that man.’ It was sad . . . but it was time to focus on the marriage and not the wedding.” That is Erin’s advice to other couples. “Everyone deserves to have a perfect wedding, but at the end of the day it is [only] one day. Staying within budget and focusing on things that truly bring joy should be the main priority.” Unconventionally, Chris took Erin’s last name. It was something they decided a long time ago. Chris informed Erin’s dad of this before he passed away, which Erin thought was “very meaningful and sweet.” Columbia Valley Weddings 2023

Jess is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Matt from Perth, Western Australia. They met in Revelstoke a decade ago, working at the same bar. He was a bouncer, she was a server. “It was fun at first sight. We always wanted to be around each other,” says Matt. They started snowboarding together. One run became several runs, then became a relationship. Like many transcontinental ski town couples, the end of the ski season brought a question – where to next? Jess went back to Winnipeg, and Matt on to Vancouver. They talked on the phone every day for a month, before Jess moved to Vancouver too. From that point on, the bureaucratic complications of two different passports didn’t matter: whereever they went, they went together. And go they did; spending time working, living or travelling in Southeast Asia, Mexico, Australia, Europe, and all over North America. Whether they were scuba diving in Thailand, slurping back bowl after bowl of seafood soup in Vietnam, or riding rollercoasters in Disneyland, they were always having fun. As Matt puts it “10 years went by very quickly.” But the couple do have a serious side: Matt worked full time while Jess went back to school to become a dental hygienist. Jess supported Matt while he trained to become a tattoo artist. Matt proposed to Jess on a sunset beach in the wine country of Margaret River, Western Australia over a particularly delicious meal of fish and chips. The couple moved to the Columbia Valley two years ago, and have found a place to put down roots. Jess has a job with a local dental clinic, Matt has set up his own tattoo business, and the pair recently bought a home in Radium Hot Springs.

CO LUM BIA VAL L E Y

imple, straightforward and a lot of fun. That’s been the story of Jess and Matt ever since they met, so naturally when they tied the knot, there were no frills or complications — just love, commitment and a heckuva good time.

Already plans are afoot for things to fill their home: pets, paddleboards and kayaks. Jess and Matt complement each other well: Matt is spontaneous, Jess is a bit more methodical and thought-through. When they got married this winter, it was wellthought out in a simple-yet-spontaneous way: they eloped on the banks of the Columbia River in Fairmont Hot Springs. They wed in a short-yet-heartfelt ceremony – an exchange of vows and rings, and a kiss to seal the deal. They donned some Jets jerseys (Jess is a true Winnipeg girl through and through, after all) and then the newlyweds hit the Fairmont ski slopes for a few runs as husband and wife. “We stopped in at the pub at the bottom for a couple plates of wings, a jug of beer, and that was that,” summarizes Jess. Both are very happy with their decision to elope, although they do plan to hold celebrations in Winnipeg and Australia at a later date for both sides of the families. “Eloping can be as short and simple as you like. Or you can make it more elaborate. You can personalize it any way you want,” says Jess. “And it’s a lot less stressful.” With families on opposite sides of the Pacific Ocean the only ‘middle ground’ for a traditional nuptials was a destination wedding in Hawaii, says Matt, adding “that’s not really our thing. And besides, a wedding should be about the people getting married. That’s what we did – we made it about us.”

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