Lottie + Jack
Mount Engadine Lodge Elopement
When planning your wedding day a sensical place to start is choosing a season. Spring for those who enjoy roulette and welcome sun, rain, or snow. Summer for those that want predictable warmth and mayhaps a touch of showers. Autumn for those crisp mornings, extra colour, when the trails are still accessible and the crowds are less. Winter for the monotonous delight of a real-life snow globe. Or that is how you think it would go. The Canadian Rockies, however, make for planning a mountain wedding a bit less predictable.
Lottie and Jack travelled from the UK to Kananaskis to elope on their dateiversary, October 9. A date that would typically guarantee a ceremony backdrop of peaks dusted in snow and the marshlands behind Mount Engadine Lodge would be awash in warm yellow and orange hues. Yet, the mountains had a different idea. Days before a front moved in that closed the Trans Canada Highway and left a foot or more of snow on the ground. It could not have been more perfect.
Tucked along the Smith Dorrien Trail, a dirt and gravel road leading you south of Canmore, is one of the most delightfully hidden gems in Alberta, Mount Engadine Lodge. Overlooking meadows and creeks, with iconic mountain ranges that were the backdrop of the film The Revenant, is the best place for afternoon tea after a strenuous hike, and accommodation to disconnect and reset. It is here where these two got ready together. Earlier they had prepared her bouquet, crown and his boutonniere using evergreen branches foraged from the area. With the final touches of a suit jacket and her Needle and Thread dress, they strapped traction cleats onto their hiking boots and set out.
We made our way through a pine path to a more secluded part of the meadow – the spot selected from a bull moose that visited the lodge daily during their stay, his trail was packed, keeping them from sinking to their knees in the surrounding snow. So began the ceremony, as the sun rose behind them, the earlier snowstorm that had settled in the valley moving to allow for glimpses of Mount Birdwood. After a brief reading, they turned to each other and shared personalized vows, exchanged rings and did a little dance as they were announced as married. After popping a bottle of champagne we retreated to the warmth of the lodge. Because what could be more delightful than snuggling on a couch, drinking champagne out of tin mugs, and watching the snow fall? Mayhaps in place of a first dance picking up a guitar, sitting down to a piano, and sharing a moment of music and conversation. Or relaxing in their room, admiring the rings they exchanged, talking of wild animals, adventures around the globe together, and their upcoming tickets to Hamilton in New York City. We made the most of the morning using the ground of Mount Engadine Lodge and a frozen wall nearby. Then we went our seperate ways, and they spent their first day married hiking.
As a photographer that focuses more on connection than details, it was an honour to document such authentic moments, an elopement that embraced all things them. Thank you.
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