Grow Wild Retreats

Grow Wild is the kind of place where the wedding seems to disappear into the forest.

On the west side of Shawnigan Lake, more than 100 acres of fourth-generation family farmland unfold into fields, forest trails and a private lake, creating a wedding setting that feels deliberately removed from the polished predictability of a traditional venue.

Only a small number of weddings are welcomed here each year.

That feels right.

This is a place where the land is very much part of the celebration.

Up to 150 guests can gather on the farm, with the ceremony tucked into the stillness of the forest. Instead of building nature around an aisle, the aisle simply becomes part of nature, surrounded by trees and the quiet of the property.

Then there is an entire landscape waiting beyond the vows.

Open fields.

Forest trails.

A private lake you can actually swim in.

Camping for guests who want to stay close to the celebration.

And The Burrow, a wonderfully named hideaway where part of the wedding party can prepare before the ceremony and the newlyweds can retreat afterwards.

Grow Wild deliberately leaves many of the traditional wedding pieces in the couple's hands. Catering, rentals and décor are not imposed by the venue, giving each celebration the freedom to grow into something personal rather than following a preset formula.

It suits the place.

A wedding here does not need to feel overly constructed.

Tables appear among the landscape. Flowers can echo what is already growing around them. Guests wander from the ceremony into the rest of the farm and the entire celebration seems to breathe a little differently.

Then evening finds Shawnigan Lake.

The trees grow darker.

People who spent the afternoon dressed for a wedding may end the night gathered beneath the stars, and some will simply stay right there on the land.

There is something beautifully grounding about beginning a marriage in a place that has been cared for by the same family across four generations.

For one of only a handful of weekends each year, Grow Wild lets another family begin a story there too.