When Laura & Charles asked me to come and be a part of their Banff tunnel mountain wedding I knew from that first skype meeting this was something special. I couldn’t have been more right. I travelled from Vancouver over to Calgary and then made the stunning drive up into Banff in mid October of this year. It was only autumn but already the mountain ranges were getting those little sprinklings of icing sugar along the tops. For a girl who primarily lives an eternal summer – this is so exciting.

Laura & Charles have the kind of family and friends who just swoop you up and make you feel part of the furniture, the fact that their ceremony was surrounded by mountains on a perfectly clear day just added to the intimacy. They travelled from Winnipeg to Banff – a place special to them as a couple as Charles worked and lived here for some time in the past. Vows were exchanged at the glorious Tunnel mountain reserve before we settled in for the evening at Norquay ski resort. I had so many lovely moments in this day – not only just in the pictures but just personal moments of brilliant conversations, little smiles to myself, and too much time on the dance floor.

I was also thrilled when Laura & Charles took me up on the idea of shooting a quick morning after session the next day, often with destination weddings we’re in stunning locations that just aren’t accessible on the day itself due to distance. They were so good about it, on just a few hours sleep I picked them up still in the darkness and we drove to Lake Louise for the portraits you see at the end of this post. I couldn’t have imagined the amount of snow that was there already for early October – a real winter wonderland.

Flowers by Banff Mountaintop Flowers

Hair and makeup by Erikka Niemi

Laura’s gown by Martin Thornburg at LA collection