An Intimate Winter Elopement at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

Initimate Elopements - COVID’s Silver Lining

2020 was a tough year for weddings. Many plans were disrupted and reworked as couples tried to fit in with the new COVID guidelines. For many, the desire to be married started to outweigh the need for a big wedding, and a small elopement suddenly became a bit more attractive.

For many couples, a small elopement was actually the ideal result, and COVID was kind of a blessing in disguise. Without the pressure for a big family wedding, many couples suddenly found that they were able to save a huge amount of money AND have the dream intimate wedding that they’d secretly always wanted.

Of course, being forced to have a small wedding sucked for many, but there is some good news. A small wedding can be absolutely beautiful AND there are some serious bargains out there.

Amazing elopement deals at the Fairmont in 2020/2021

Without calling around hundreds of hotels, I can say for a fact that the deals at the Fairmonts in Banff this winter are unbelievable.

For a normal wedding, the actual Fairmont venues themselves aren’t too expensive. The real thing that balloons the price is the mandatory food and beverage minimum. These F&B minimum spends can add tens of thousands of dollars onto your bill - I know this from personal experience, having been married at Fairmont Banff Springs in 2018 (*sweats loudly)..

The Fairmonts are now actually offering budget elopements, and in many cases are offering the venues for as little as a thousand dollars, plus a little more if you’re going to have a small meal with the family.

If you’ve ever dreamt of a Fairmont wedding, but didn’t think it would ever be in the budget, now is the time!

But with money aside, the two Fairmont properties in Banff National Park also offer some of the most scenic wedding locations in the world, so they’re an absolutely amazing place to get married in general. This post should give you a good idea about the kinds of photos you might expect!

V & U’s intimate Sikh Wedding at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

V & U were married at the end of October at the beautiful Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. At the time, the rules allowed for up to 14 guests, and fortunately their close families on both sides were able to attend. They arrived in Banff earlier that week, which gave us a chance to get out and take a few adventure wedding elopement type shots, and then a few days later, we all met again at Lake Louise for the wedding.

For the elopement shots, we visited a variety of locations, including Vermillion Lakes, Lake Minnewanka, The green spot up by Mt. Norquay (more of a white spot in winter), and Surprise Corner. (I’ll put a link in when I’ve written this up!)

V & U’s wedding was a condensed Sikh wedding that squashed all of the traditional aspects of the wedding into about a one hour ceremony in the beautiful Victoria Ballroom.

Before the ceremony itself, the couple got ready in separate suites, and had a brief intimate first look down by the water. They were really lucky that the lake was still unfrozen, but this year winter came a little later and they were still able to have open water.

Here are some of the beautiful scenes that we captured during the wedding ceremony and first look. Thanks U and V for being such amazing clients, I look forward to working together again in the future!

V & U’s intimate Elopement at Lake Louise - The Photos

One of V & U’s requests was to take an editorial style photo of the family in attendance. This photo is a composite of about 10 different photos. We sat each family member individually and lit them with a flash, before putting the whole thing together. So much fun to make!