Elopements

Intimate Elopement Adventure & Wedding Ceremony Near Sunshine Coast, BC

What better way to celebrate your wedding day than going on an epic snow mountain helicopter adventure just the two of you and then coming to a gorgeous home to share a meal together and celebrate your wedding day? Mimi and Mason did just that!

Ready to start planning your wedding adventure? Use our elopement directory to team up with an elopement vendor!

About This Sunshine Coast Elopement in BC

Photography by Candice Marie Photography

This elopement near Sunshine Coast, BC is an absolute dream and inspiration for other couples to plan a day that is special to them. This couple planned a micro wedding ceremony on a good friend’s private property. Mimi and Mason’s special day looked like this:

Waking up early to do makeup and hair
Eating breakfast together
Getting dressed separately to keep the first look a surprise
Getting picked up and flown by helicopter to 2 different spots in the nearby mountain range and glaciers
Sharing their vows on a mountaintop
Landing back on the coast for the legal stuff
Lunch with friends
An afternoon in the ocean, boating, and paddleboarding, ft. lucky sightings of whales!
A full evening with multi-course, family-style dinner
Dancing the night away on the docks
Ending the night in a beautiful yurt

“This couple reminded me that it’s possible to incorporate your loved ones in different ways, and how meaningful it can be to have them around! The family who owned the property were good friends of theirs, and they absolutely loved having them be a part of their day. They also asked their friends and families who weren’t there to write them letters, and on their wedding day, they read them together. It’s the perfect in-between solution if you’re nervous about having lots of people around, but want to include them.” [Candice, The photographer]

Check out these backyard wedding ideas for more inspiration!

Deciding to Elope

“A combination of wanting to do something between just us and, of course, being impacted by multiple pandemic lockdowns in our home province of Ontario…

We pushed the wedding date to Halloween 2020…and then to the summer of 2021. By early 2021, we pushed it indefinitely with no real certainty as to when we could have our wedding. This gave us the perfect opportunity to elope instead!

It was so freeing to shift our minds from a large party that would undoubtedly have social expectations, to doing something meaningful and special to mark our commitment to each other.” [The Couple]

Explore more reasons to elope!

Planning Your Elopement

“Our hearts belong to the mountains – most of our trips consist of exploring and hiking mountains all around the world.

At the end of the day, we decided on British Columbia because it’s such a special place for us. Over the last few years, we have spent a lot of time all around BC, from months skiing in Whistler to road trips along the coast and around the interior.

We chose July 9th since this is also our dating anniversary date, and we asked our friends who graciously let us celebrate on their property. We scoured Instagram and found the perfect photographer, who also just so happened to be in BC and was available for the date. Over the next few months, we did more research and booked the next biggest items – helicopter and florals, and officiant – as well as general travel for us (flights, rental car).

End to end, we didn’t do that much planning. Most notable elements we were hands-on with were giving photographer ‘must-have’ shot ideas, giving the florist a colour palette and mood board,and working with the chef (also our friend) on designing a custom Spanish/Japanese inspired multi-course dinner. We didn’t have to worry about many traditional ‘wedding’ things such as guest invitation follow-up, seating charts, or other caterers! We already had our outfits, we had our rings, and we spent time on our own to write our vows to each other.” [The couple]

Learn how to elope!

Planning a Private Helicopter Ride for Your Elopement?

With helicopter rides, usually, the spots they are able to land in have been predetermined so they have arranged any permits needed for tourism (weddings included).

“On this heli adventure, we were lucky enough to land in two spots; one on a mountain top, and one in a bowl where a lake was still thawing from the winter snow. In the bowl, there aren’t really many plants in the area; mostly snow and rock so it’s super easy to leave no trace as long as you pack in what you brought. On the mountain top there was some vegetation, but thankfully there were lots of rocks and still some snow so it wasn’t hard to move around without stepping on the fragile plants.

A tip for those taking a helicopter; make sure you are aware if you have trouble with heights or getting car sick, and have some medication, water, or food perhaps to help with that. The groom ended up feeling sick while flying in the helicopter, especially being away from the windows. Thankfully we had time to take a break and regroup, but it’s always good to think about beforehand if it can be avoided!” [Candice, The Photographer]

Memorable Moments During This Intimate Wedding

The Couple:

“When people say that their wedding day was the best day of their lives – well, our elopement day sure was”!

“Mimi: My favourite part of our day is probably a tie. One being sharing our vows on top of a beautiful mountain range, which was so beautiful, intimate and emotional. To me, it is probably the single most special moment in the history of our relationship. The second one being our insane dinner. As foodies, it was a heavenly combination of foods and flavours. Hats off to the chef and his partner!

Mason: Mine would definitely be the mountaintop vows – I’d be lying if I said we weren’t both crying trying to read our vows in the company of just each other at such a beautiful location.”

The Photographer:

“I absolutely loved that their friend’s dog was a part of their day, and somewhat photo-bombed their ceremony! Dogs create such a playful and happy atmosphere during weddings, so I absolutely recommend having them around if logistically possible! I also loved the break-out snowball fight that happened at the second heli-location! It’s always recommended not to take yourself too seriously on your wedding day and bring that inner kid out!”