Weddingbee

Let’s say that you wanted to get married outdoors in Vancouver. You’d think there’d be a million perfect locations, right? This is true, except if you want your guests to be seated. Apparently, while you are free to use the beautiful parks and beaches, chairs are a big no-no.

Here’s a photo of the “gazebo” at the park next to our reception site. Try to imagine it without the nativity scene and the Christmas trees. As much as I wanted to like it, I hated it. The idea of our guests penned up in the gazebo like cattle was just not doing it for me.

So then a new mad search began. I spent many days googling “gardens,” “outdoor weddings,” etc. I wanted the ceremony site to be as close to the reception venue as possible. I dragged Miss GB 2.0 all over town to look at all kinds of horrible places. Not fun!

We decided to check out B&Bs. There are a ton of B&Bs in Vancouver, but there were problems here too. 1) I couldn’t seem to find an up to date list of B&Bs. Many have been torn down and replaced by townhouses, but are still advertised on the web. Grr! 2) I have been told that city bylaws in both West Van and the district of North Van, but not the city of North Van (what does this mean?), do not allow wedding ceremonies at B&Bs unless the only guests are those staying at the B&B. 3) We could go with a B&B in downtown Vancouver, but none have backyards large enough to accommodate us.

For example, here we are in the backyard of one B&B in downtown Vancouver. In case you can’t tell from the photo, it was small!

Miss GB 2.0 was smart and went back to look over some places we’d nixed due to budget constraints for the reception. She discovered that Capilano Suspension Bridge rented space for ceremonies. The next day we raced to over to North Vancouver to check it out.

Photo from capbridge.com

The Capilano Suspension Bridge is a 27-acre park of temperate rainforest and the bridge is one of Vancouver’s oldest tourist attractions. The bridge was built in 1889 and stretches 450 feet across the Capilano River. I’d probably make a bigger attempt to avoid a touristy venue if 1) I wasn’t totally fed up with looking and 2) if most of our guests weren’t coming from out of town. I figure that our guests will actually enjoy seeing a tourist attraction.

The ceremony itself will not take place on the bridge and guests won’t even have to cross it to get to us. We’ll get the all the perks of the great outdoors without requiring my 89-year old grandpa to do any hiking. There will be seating and they provide tents in case it rains. Sold!

Aside, from the bridge, the park also has a lot lovely places for photos.

Photo from capbridge.com

And after the ceremony, guests can go on a tree top adventure and a guided rainforest tour (I guess I’ll have to recommend that people bring extra shoes?) I think the kids will especially love this. Oh and it’s about a 10 minute drive from the reception site.
Phew, I’m glad the venue hunting is over!!!

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