Where to wed in and around Banff and Canmore

by Paul Peters
CanadianRockies.net Editor

If there’s any difficulty presented by getting married in Banff or Canmore, or anywhere in the Canadian Rockies for that matter, it’s narrowing down a choice of location. You can pretty much get married anywhere you want to inside of Banff National Park, and Canmore has no shortage of beautiful sites either.

So where to start?

Banff National Park offers some of the best wedding aisles in the world.

Here at CanadianRockies.net we’ve spoken to some of our local wedding experts and gotten their opinions on some of the best locations in the Banff and Canmore area.

John Stewart, a wedding photographer out of Banff, sets the scene for just how difficult it can be to choose your Canadian Rockies wedding spot.

“There’s literally hundreds of ideal places,” he says. “There is not just one perfect location. It all depends on what you want.”

Stewart notes that, “Anyone can get married in the Canadian Rockies on any budget,” and that, “If you are organized, any location in the Rockies can be ideal.”

That said, we’ve still got a few recommendations for you.

Local wedding commissioner Patricia Compton says that she often favors Canmore as a place to get married.

“It has several locations with incredible views,” says Compton.

Quarry Lake, just a few minutes drive out of Canmore, is one of her favorites.

“It has a 360 degree view,” she says. “It’s beautiful any direction you look, and it’s an easy spot to get to for both the young and old.”

For larger groups, she recommends the Tunnel Mountain Meadow in the town of Banff.

For a beautiful, yet easily accessible place, Compton advises taking the Sulfur Mountain Goldola right from the town of Banff.

“It takes you right to the top, and it’s easy to get to,” she says.

The Gondola ride takes only eight minutes, offering amazing views of the Canadian Rockies all the way up. It lets you off at a height of 2,281m (7,486 ft), providing inexpensive and amazing backdrops of the surrounding mountains for your wedding.

Lauren Laming, a wedding planner, loves the ice castle that is built on Lake Louise every winter after it is frozen over.
“It’s an absolutely magical place to have a wedding,” she says.

Banff and Canmore offer no shortage of mountain summits as a backdrop, or site, for your wedding.

The chef at the Chateau Lake Louise builds the castle out of solid ice every year out on the lake, providing a dream-like setting among the natural beauty surrounding Lake Louise.

For a summer wedding, Laming mentioned Two Jack Lake, a short drive from Banff in the park.

“It’s beautiful, with lots of wilderness as a back drop,” she says, noting that the site also offers the chance to see elk and bighorn sheep.

Laming also recommended Quarry Lake, both because of its beauty, and because it can accommodate much larger weddings than most locations inside Banff National Park.

The Juniper Hotel & Bistro in Banff is also a trendy place to do a mid-sized wedding. In Banff, the Buffalo Mountain Lodge built a special building called the wapiti that can be used as a venue. It’s a big room with an open timber ceiling and a huge stone fireplace.

Another suggestion for a venue is the Emerald Lake Lodge and the Num-Ti-Ja Lodge on Bow Lake as places a little of the beaten path. A little more rustic, this place is built for the nature lovers, the people that want to get away a little bit.

Want more options for your Canadian Rockies wedding? Bookmark this page, as we’ll continue to update it with more information on wedding locations.

Adventure weddings

by Paul Peters
CanadianRockies.net Editor

Canmore and Banff are well known for having some of the best terrain for outdoor adventure in the Canadian Rockies, which is why this is area is perfect to have an adventure wedding.
“Adventure wedding” is not a term you’ll find in your Webster’s, so we’ll loosely define it as a wedding that takes you out of any traditional wedding sites, to somewhere wild, possibly involving a recreational activity, and maybe even an adrenaline rush. Specifically, we’re talking about weddings performed on skis, in white water rafts, after hikes, climbs or a long dog sled ride. You get the idea.

Could this be the site for your adventure wedding?

So how exactly do you arrange an adventure wedding?

Rick Kunelius is a good place to start. Kunelius is a marriage commissioner out of Banff whose motto is “I’ll marry you… anywhere.”
Saying you’re capable of marrying someone anywhere in a park as wild as Banff is pretty bold, but Kunelius is certainly qualified. Before becoming a commissioner in 1994, he spent more than twenty years in the Canadian National Parks Warden Service doing mountain rescues, avalanche control, law enforcement, backcountry horse patrol, and wildlife management. During his last ten years with the service, he was the Senior Wildlife Warden for Banff National Park.
Since becoming a commissioner, he’s helicoptered, skied, climbed, hiked and ridden sleighs, horses, and dog sleds to wedding sites.
“You can get married anywhere you can put five people,” he says. “Really.”
His only qualifying statement, that five people are needed, refers to the commissioner, the two witnesses, and (obviously) the couple to be married. If you can get these five people somewhere, you can get married there. Chances are, Kunelius won’t put much limit on your imagination.
The most extreme example of his willingness to wed is a marriage Kunelius performed on the summit of 11,000 ft. Mount Hector at 8 am.
“We did the climb at night,” Kunelius says.
“We were on ropes at the top, and at 8 am they leaned back over the edge with several thousand feet behind them, and I performed the ceremony.”

Maybe your perfect wedding will take place on a mountain top. © John Marriott

Married, with dogs

Of course, climbing mountains at night isn’t for everyone, but if you have a passion for outdoor recreation, there’s probably a way to get married while you play.
Patricia Compton, a marriage commissioner out of Canmore, Alberta, says her favorite recreation weddings are on dog sleds in the Spray Lakes area.
“They just take the couple out, the commissioner and your witnesses,” she says. “They pick a beautiful location out in the middle of the lake, they have the wedding, and then off they mush.”
In the Canmore/Banff area there are several ski mountains to get married on, including Mount Norquay, Sunshine Village, Lake Louise and Nakiska. Kunelius and Compton generally recommend ski weddings for small groups.

Whitewater weddings

Angela Schrempf, local wedding planner and owner of Sweet Occasions, suggests marrying while rafting the Bow River from Banff to Canmore to add a little adventure to your wedding.
The ride doesn’t have to be whitewater, she says, “There are some months where you wouldn’t even get wet.”
She recalls a trip down the river with some friends last summer to illustrate other adventures to be had on the Bow River
“We were rafting down the river and stopped off at one of the many rocky islands with a couple friend. We had just left the raft, and there is a grizzly bear, probably 10 feet tall, standing 10 feet away.”
Needless to say, Schrempf’s party avoided a grizzly encounert and quickly returned to their raft.

Wedding in the sky

If you want something different and adventurous, but aren’t a skier, rafter, hiker or climber, you may consider having a helicopter transport you to your wedding site.
The ride will offer you the most unique and stunning views possible of the Canadian Rockies, and can take you to amazing, secluded locations you’ll never forget.
Jo-anne Kobelt, an assistant manager at Alpine Helicopters, says, “We’ve never had a customer that doesn’t have a look of astonishment on their face once they’re in the air.”
Locations for heli-weddings are limited by environmental guidelines that minimize disturbance to other wilderness users. The wedding party can include the bride, groom, commissioner, photographer and up to eight guests.
If people are looking for a unique and adventurous wedding ceremony, Kobelt says this is it.
“The average bride wants to walk down the aisle with 200 guests, and have five-course reception afterward,” says Kobelt. “This isn’t for her. This is for the girl that wants to put her hiking boots on under her dress and have some fun.”
But, she advises, “Don’t spend too much on your hair, because when you get out of the helicopter, your hair do is done.”

Sled dog's provide a unique way to get married in the Canadian Rockies.

Kobelt points out that a helicopter wedding is less expensive than a traditional wedding. And that, “People say they feel more secure in a helicopter than in an airplane,” she says.

Back to earth

While there may not be a limit on what kind of recreational activity you can be doing while you get married in the Banff and Canmore area of the Canadian Rockies, your choice of recreation may put some limits on the wedding.

In general, weddings on ski slopes, mountaintops, and backcountry trails will have some limits on the number of people you can bring.
Kunelius likes to remind people that they are planning to get married in a high-altitude environment, where weather is subject to quick change.
“For any outdoor event,” Kunelius says, “I ask, “What’s our back up for lousy weather. Plan for the worst, hope for the best.”
For more advice and information on getting married in the Banff and Canmore area, check out our wedding guidelines page.

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