Blue Heron Estates

The drive into Blue Heron Estate begins with a wooden bridge.

Then the road carries you through a private gate and into ten acres of gardens, woods, ponds and waterfalls hidden away in central Nanaimo.

It already sounds a little like the beginning of a fairytale.

This is a wedding property where couples are not handed one designated patch of grass and told that is where the romance happens.

The entire estate is full of possibilities.

There are vine-covered arbours and two gazebos, wooden bridges and quiet pockets of garden. Waterfalls feed into a beautiful pond while trees and greenery create natural little rooms throughout the property.

Couples can choose where the ceremony and reception feel most like them.

Perhaps the vows happen beside the water.

Perhaps an arbour frames the aisle.

Perhaps the photographs wander from bridges to gardens until everyone temporarily forgets that a reception is waiting.

That freedom lets weddings here feel discovered rather than staged.

Guests arrive through the gates and begin exploring the property themselves. The ceremony gathers everyone into one corner of the estate, then cocktails and photographs can draw them somewhere new before dinner begins.

And as afternoon becomes evening, the gardens change with it.

Water catches the last light.

The trees become darker around the celebration.

Lights begin glowing where daylight used to be and the estate that looked lush and green during the ceremony starts feeling almost secret after sunset.

There is something wonderfully romantic about a venue with so many little places for memories to hide.

One couple will remember the gazebo.

Another will always think of the bridge.

Someone else will remember standing beside the pond after dinner for five quiet minutes while the party carried on behind them.

Blue Heron Estate does not give a wedding one backdrop.

It gives couples ten acres in which to find their own.