Bowen Island Wedding on the hottest day of the year - Heather + Keenan
Heather & Keenan’s Bowen Island wedding fell on the hottest day of the hottest summer I’ve ever experienced on the west coast. Temperatures exceeded 42 degrees! Thankfully we had a slight ocean breeze and ample shade on Heathers family property to get us through. I loved spending the day in such a beautiful and tranquil setting, with a terrific group of kind hearted people to document enjoying the day. Some words from the bride Heather below..
Like any bride, my dream for my wedding day was to be filled with happiness, love, and joy, and to marry my husband in one of my favourite places in the world. In addition to those dreams, I also hoped to be surrounded by as many friends and family as possible. Of course that wasn’t the most unusual of wedding-day hopes, but our wedding was scheduled to be on June 26, 2021 which was in the throes of the pandemic. The possibility of having in-person nuptials with our closest friends and family was a notion that ebbed and flowed with plausibility during our wedding-planning process. It was something that both my partner Keenan and I dearly hoped for, but at times seemed impossible and unrealistic to fathom due to COVID. To top it off, Keenan’s family was from Ontario, which meant that we were faced with added challenges when welcoming our guests from out-of-province. We were so grateful that due to a dip in COVID cases a couple weeks before our wedding, we were able to have Keenan’s mother and brother travel from Ontario to be with us, in addition to one of his groomsmen, who lived in Yellowknife. I can honestly say that having some special family and friends join us on June 26th was one of the best gifts we received for our wedding! Family to us is everything, so we felt so grateful and happy, despite all the COVID challenges that were presented to us in June 2021! A take home for me from the planning process was to stay hopeful and positive despite all the hurdles we faced.
What was most important to me was to be around my family as much as possible, and to stay calm throughout the day. I wanted to be filled with peace and love in order to enjoy every moment. Keenan and I started off the day with massages on my parent's deck. It was a calm and intimate moment for us that started the highly scheduled day with a touch of relaxation and peace. It was one of my favourite moments before the heat of the day descended, and before we were whisked away into our separate preparation schedules. Seeing him at our first-look before the ceremony was also a wonderful moment for me. Seeing his kind eyes and smile really made me feel grounded before walking down the aisle to him an hour later!
Due to COVID restrictions, we were only allowed to have 50 guests and vendors present at our celebrations. That meant that in addition to some key figures such as our photographer and catering staff, we relied heavily on the talents and skills of our family to come together and help make our day special. Instead of choosing a wedding planning team to pull off the day, we chose to invite more guests and rely on their skills to pull the day together. My bridesmaids teamed up to find wildflowers to decorate the reception table, our marriage commissioner was an old family friend, and my little sister's long-term boyfriend was our tech-guy as well as wedding guest chauffeur. The list goes on. The fact that our wedding was taking place on my parent's Bowen Island property where my family has been spending summers enjoying since my childhood made this sort of family-affair seem somewhat alright, however there is no doubt that our wedding groaned on the backbones of our loved ones. It was a lot, and looking back I do feel a little guilty that their day wasn't as easy as I had hoped it would be. It's something that of course had the pandemic not been in the picture, I would have gone to lengths to avoid--- after all, there is something so wonderful about having the privilege to treat your guests and family to a care-free wedding day. Looking back at Scott's photos I see detail in those special gestures they gave us however, and the gifts and love that we received shines on. Photos of the shibori-dyed napkins that my mother-in-law Cathy painstakingly hand-dyed for us and snapshots of the delicate calligraphy that my mother's best friend Reidun created for us were so thoughtfully documented (to name a few). When I look at the photos Scott took of the ceremony, I treasure the memories of being with my love saying our vows, but I also see the arbour my husband hand-built for our wedding, as well as the flowers that my older sister Carolynn so thoughtfully decorated it in as well. Everyone chipped in. The day was limited in numbers, but it was also great in numbers. Everybody came through for us in their special way, and we were so incredibly touched. Despite the hurdles of travel restrictions, number limitations, the heat dome, and the remote location on Bowen, our day seemed to flit by effortlessly. All thanks to our special people. And we have such beautiful photos to document it all, and deepened love and relationships as a result.
-Heather
