Auberge la Montagne Coupée

There are wedding venues with a view, and then there are places where the view seems to explain why the venue exists at all.

Auberge de la Montagne Coupée sits high in the Lanaudière landscape at Saint-Jean-de-Matha, surrounded by mature forest and looking outward across the mountains.

Its Edelweiss Pavilion takes full advantage of that position.

Perched on one of the property's highest natural lookouts among century-old trees, the pavilion gives larger weddings room to become genuinely grand, with reception possibilities for up to 350 guests.

Inside are the Magnolia and Mimosa spaces.

Outside, the celebration can find its way onto a large terrace with an outdoor bar, while a balcony keeps that extraordinary landscape close even after everyone has moved indoors.

This is the kind of property where couples do not have to manufacture a dramatic backdrop.

They simply have to decide how much of it they want to bring into the wedding.

The mountains can sit behind the photographs.

The forest can surround the quieter moments.

Guests can step outside between dinner and dancing and remember, briefly, exactly where they are.

Then the party draws everyone back in.

The carefully planned tables begin looking considerably less careful.

Speeches become stories.

The formal photographs are finished.

And eventually a room built high above the Lanaudière landscape becomes less about what can be seen through the windows and more about everyone gathered on the other side of them.

The mountain brought them here.

The wedding gives them a reason to remember it.

• Vineyard and wines of their own
• Rooms for guests on site
• Sound system and audio-visual
• A patio or terrace