The journey to a Kicking Horse wedding is part of the story. Guests gather below the mountain, step aboard the Golden Eagle Express Gondola and rise toward Eagle's Eye Restaurant at 7,700 feet. By the time they arrive, Golden and the surrounding ranges have fallen away beneath them, and an ordinary wedding entrance feels almost impossible.
At the summit, couples can exchange vows on the terrace surrounded by breathtaking mountain views before moving inside for the reception. Eagle's Eye pairs floor-to-ceiling windows with timber, stone and a large fireplace, keeping the alpine landscape present even when everyone comes indoors. The resort describes the restaurant as Canada's highest elevated venue, giving the celebration a setting few guests are likely to confuse with anywhere else.
Food is part of the experience too, with wedding catering and sample menus available through the resort. The mountain also offers extraordinary possibilities for wedding and engagement photographs, although the views hardly need much help: peaks, sky and the Columbia Valley create the kind of scale that makes two people standing together feel both tiny and completely at the centre of the world.
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There is a fairytale quality to beginning married life above the clouds. Guests travel upward together, the gondola doors open, and somewhere high in the Purcell Mountains the person you love is waiting. Then the promises are made with an entire horizon behind them, before everyone gathers around the fire and celebrates the way back down to earth, leaving the kind of warm, romantic memory that feels almost storybook long after the last dance.
