Black Rock Resort Wedding

So many words come to mind when viewing this wedding – hip, relaxed, intimate, in tune with nature, and most of all – just plain cool. April and Clarke originally planned a lavish wedding with 500 guests before completely rerouting their vision to a 28-person semi-elopement on the beach. I’d have to say they made the right move, because the result is nothing short of breathtaking. Thank you to Shari + Mike Photographers and Celsia Floral for your beautiful work on this one!

From the bride, April: I always envisioned a more polished, glam version of an outdoor garden party. We knew we wanted to be near forest and the water as we are both outdoorsy. We didn’t want a huge production with neon lights, satin, crystals and ballrooms. We stuck to a neutral palette of creams, blush, peach, greens and brass/gold.

Flower recipe: I don’t know all of the actual flowers that went into my bouquet but I gave the very talented Tahnee of Celsia Flowers a list of flowers I wanted and that I wanted a wildflower-esque, organic/natural looking. Colour scheme of pinks, peaches, corals and greenery/foliage. Preferred blooms which could be available: peonies, ranunculus, anemones, garden roses, lavender, dusty miller, lily of the valley, foliage.

I created the dream catchers with willow branches from home (Yellowknife, NT, Canada) to which we ruggedly tied with yarn in the theme colours. I also had ordered these beautiful blush coloured feathers off Etsy and I sprinkled the tips with a fine rose gold glitter mix I made. We made two curtain backdrops for the wedding dinner, one was made of different sized gold paper disks we just glued back to back onto string – turned out very glamourous and added a polished element to the dark grey/dramatic surroundings of the Wine Cellar we were in. The second backdrop was made with a mixture of locally picked greenery, gold discs and the blush feathers. We hung a banner with our names in front of it by Rifle Paper Co.

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? Do what you want to do and don’t feel bad for doing it! We went from a local 500 person wedding to a very small destination, semi-elopement style beach/forest wedding of 28 people. Sure there were a few people who didn’t understand but at the end of the day, it’s YOUR day and YOU’RE going to need to look back at it in 20 years and you can either have regrets or beautiful, true-to-yourself memories. And delegate, delegate, delegate!

See Also

European Charm and Timeless Beauty in this Historic Salubria Editorial

Wedding Music:
Well the original plan was for my brother in law (groomsman) to pull out the guitar from behind his back to play an instrumental Blackbird by the Beatles while I walked down the aisle. But since we ended up with our semi-elopement plan, we didn’t have any bridesmaids or groomsmen up with us and we had a completely natural ceremony with no music – just the sound of the ocean waves! In the hustle of the wedding day, we all forgot our iPods so we didn’t have a set playlist for the wedding dinner and we ended up listening to some Spanish guitar during dinner. We didn’t have a first dance as we wanted to keep the dinner very simple, like a big family dinner… albeit a very glamourous one! But if we were to have our first dance it would have been to “Holocene” by Bon Iver.

Wedding Location: Ucluelet, British Columbia, Canada / Photographer: Shari + Mike Photographers / Flowers: Celsia Floral / Venue: Black Rock Resort / Wedding Dress: Sarah Seven / Wedding Shoes: Jimmy Choo and TOMS / Groom’s Suit: Armani / Groom’s Shoes: Harry Rosen / Wedding Cake and Guest Treat Bags: Zoe’s Bakery and Cafe / Wedding Invitations and Banner: Rifle Paper Co