A Mountaintop Elopement

For the month of January, allow our Lis Simon Bride Rylan take you to their Canadian rockies elopement! Rylan is also wearing her customized Keegan dress.

T H E L O V E S T O R Y

It was 7 years ago when Rylan and Rayson met. She had just moved into a house with their mutual friend in Lethbridge, Alberta. Rayson would come over before their golf game, he was sitting across the table, eating a subway footlong and cracking jokes. She cancelled her plans that day and tagged along to their game, and they were “pretty much inseparable after that.”

T H E P R O P O S A L

October 15th, 2019

Rylan originally planned a day to take family pictures with Rayson and their dog Noman. Their photographer bailed on them and Rayson insisted on hiring a new photographer (which is when I started to get suspicious). She hired another photographer for their fall photos, and Rayson almost let the cat out of the bag when he had mentioned to her that he had spoken to the photographer, “I was almost certain that he was planning on proposing”. The couple must have taken hundreds of photos and blown through the whole hour that they had booked and gone was every thought she had on him proposing when finally, the photographer said they were going to “ONE LAST SPOT…” Prompting Rayson after just over five years to finally get down on one knee.

T H E D R E S S

“Honestly, dress shopping was slightly overwhelming”.

Rylan went to at least six to seven stores in Calgary looking for dresses. It seemed like every single dress she was put in was an A-line because that’s what would be most flattering for her body, but that wasn’t what she envisioned. Her sister finally took her to Cameo and Cufflinks and, in the window, “I saw the Lis Simon mermaid dress and I knew right away that it would be my dress”. She tried it on and fell in love with the modern boho fabric and design. She was also not expecting to be able to customize it exactly how she wanted it with the mermaid bottom and deep v cut top – “It was absolutely perfect, and worth the wait”.

T H E E L O P E M E N T

September 4 2021, at Fischer Peak in Cranbrook, BC.

The two got ready with their bridal parties and family at. St. Eugene resort in Cranbrook and have their first look there as well. Followed by their family photos until the helicopter showed up to bring them up to the mountain top to get married. “After the hustle and bustle of the day, it was so peaceful to be present in that moment with just Rayson and myself”.

After the ceremony, they took some pictures at the mountaintop and had a tour in the helicopter on the way home. All their family and friends were waiting in their backyard to celebrate to be followed by a beautiful dinner and reception – “It couldn’t have turned out any more perfect”.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE TO ELOPE?

Elopement wasn’t their first option. They originally had a venue picked out where they could get married and stay for the weekend with all their family and friends. They had cut out their guest list down to 50 and had everything planned up until nine days prior to their wedding date, the province put out new restrictions and their venue called and gave two options: to keep the original wedding date and abide by the restrictions or completely cancel it. With the remaining nine days, they chose to cancel what was originally planned and plan something else in one short week.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM YOUR ELOPEMENT

“As if getting married on the mountain top wasn’t special enough; there were a couple special things we incorporated into our big day to make it even more personal”.

Anecdotes from the Bride:

We wrote our own vows and were married on Rayson’s parents 39th wedding anniversary.
We spread my grandparents’ ashes on the mountaintop to include two very special people with us even though they weren’t with us on our wedding day.
Our first dance!

“We feel very blessed to have spent such an intimate moment right in our backyard where we play with our dogs and maybe one day our children”.

From Rylan

Although family may help you on your wedding day, it’s YOUR wedding day. Do what make you happy, what you’ve dreamed of doing and don’t worry about who you might offend.
You’re never going to make everyone happy and, in the end, everyone will be happy for you anyways. I’d also suggest that you don’t need to be traditional to have a beautiful wedding, even something like a back yard party can make some pretty memorable moments.
Lastly, I’d say, be flexible things change (sometimes for the better) and ALWAYS have a backup plan.

Special thanks to:

Being from a small town, everybody knows everybody. It was quite easy to pick my favorite vendors, just make sure they’re the first things you book after you choose your date! We were quite lucky and thankful that our vendors were so flexible worked with us with our last minuet change of plans, we were also pretty lucky that they weren’t afraid of heights.

Photography: Kara Hockley Photography

Videography: Max Webster / Webster Film and Photography

Hair: Alex Ablett / Alter Image Salon

Make up: Hailey Neilson / Alter Image Salon

Dress: Lis Simon/ Cameo and Cufflinks

Flowers: MJS Floral/ The Romantiks

Wedding Officiant: Colleen Friesen

Helicopters: Eclipse Helicopters

Suits: DKNY