Katie and Sharon

What’s better than a Canadian wedding? Two Australians marrying in Canada! Today’s wedding is a lovely mix of Canada and Australia as our newlyweds Katie and Sharon traveled to Canada to tie the knot! (And really, who wouldn’t with those majestic mountains as your backdrop?)

Katie and Sharon met through work. “We are both former Police Officers and met at work in 2001 on Fox’s 21st birthday! We have been together for 8 years.”

Photos today are by Julie Williams Photography. I love Julie’s clean, thoughtful captures and how she caught the stunning backdrop in the fun and happy nature of Sharon and Katie’s big day.

The girls each wore a different Maggie Sottero gown purchased from Abbey Bridal in Sydney. They both wore pink custom embroidered converse sneakers. Sharon says “Mine were embroidered with the wedding date ‘10.10.10’ and Katie’s had ‘I love you’ embroidered on hers.”

There were vendors from Australia dotted throughout the day. Sharon explains “We weren’t able to find a hairdresser or makeup artist in Canada that we were happy with. So we both had a bridal consultation with our hairdresser here, Eva from Natures Energy in Glebe who showed us both how to style and help each other with our hair for the wedding.

We also decided to have a makeup lesson with Julie Elton which was fantastic. Not only did we learn how to do our makeup for the wedding, we now also have a skill for life!”

Katie and Sharon were married at Two Jack Lake Banff National Park, an amazing location on a beautiful lake surrounded by lush pine forest and the majestic Rocky Mountains. Sharon explains “We both love the outdoors so an outdoor wedding was an obvious choice for us. Two Jack Lake was a truly beautiful location that was recommended by our wedding celebrant, Monque Hunkeler. As we were organising the wedding from Australia we did the majority of it over the internet. So recommendations from locals such as Monique were very helpful.”

The girls walked down the aisle to “Space They Cannot Touch by Katie Miller-Heidke and when the ceremony was over, we walked out to Eight Days a Week by the Beatles!”

Sharon says “Our engagement rings were made by Daniella and Bobby of  Daniella Jewellery.   We were extremely impressed with their level of service and expertise. They went above and beyond to make us the perfect rings, we cannot recommend them highly enough.” The wedding bands were purchased from Tiffany & Co.

Mother Nature provided a little ray of sunshine. “It was overcast and raining on the day of the wedding. As we were driving to Two Jack Lake National Park, we couldn’t see the Rocky Mountains (which were right next to us) because of the rain and clouds. As we got closer to the location we could see a small blue patch clearing in the sky. I said to Fox ‘I bet that’s at Two Jack Lake’. As we rounded the last corner we could see that it was, and we also both teared up when we saw a brilliantly coloured rainbow between the mountains. As we parked the car, there was a couple and their wedding party who had just gotten married before us, they were all completely soaked from the rain. The small patch of blue sky remained for the duration of our wedding and the rain held off. As soon as the ceremony concluded it started to rain again!”

The newlyweds held their reception at Silvertip Golf Resort in Canmore, Alberta. Sharon explains “We also hired an amazing house in Canmore (we found it on VRBO) and it was the location of pre and post wedding celebrations. We hired it for one week so that our guests could stay there and not have to worry about accommodation as they had already made such a huge effort in coming to the other side of the world to celebrate with us. Staying with our guests for the week was also a beautiful part of the whole experience. We have never laughed so much in our lives. The house and it’s location was amazing, many late nights were spent laughing, talking and drinking and stargazing in the outdoor hot tub! We all saw Canadian wildlife such as squirrels and Elk. To be able to spend time with friends and family on an overseas trip was truly special.”

Even though there were far from home, the girls wanted some personal touches at their reception. Sharon explains “We set up the reception the day before. We also bought wedding favours for our guests. As our wedding was in Canada we wanted something Canadian so we hunted around in Calgary the week before our wedding. We went to a chocolatier  and bought giant chocolate cowgirl hats and horse shoes and also bought Canadian soft toy moose and bears.”

The couple chose “Silver Frost” by Wedding Paper Divas as their wedding stationery suite.

Sharon (Fox) put together a surprise for her bride. “I surprised Katie with a video on the day containing messages from many close family and friends from back home that couldn’t make the journey to Canada.  I decided to even contact some celebrities and ask them to make a short video of congratulations to add to my video montage.  Funny man Merrick Watts was kind enough to respond and actually made us a video to play on the day.  Kate and all of the guests were very surprised to see Merrick’s message.  Katie would listen to Merrick, Rosso & Kate Ritchie everyday on her way to work and they would always make her laugh.”

An added surprise was a family member. “Katie’s parents were unable to make the trip to Canada so they made very special video messages and sent them over with Katie’s brother who surprised us both at the reception.  It was very cute with Katie’s parents dressing up in wedding attire and her dad even bought and wore a corsage for his video speech.”

The flowers for the day were styled by Elements Floral Design, Canmore Alberta. Sharon recalls “We each wore a wrist corsage comprising of white freesias and two roses (‘deep water’ was the colour which is a soft-medium pink in the centre of the rose and a dusty to deep pink on the outer petals) with a silver wristband. We then had cubed vases with this combination of flowers for the reception venue.”

Congratulations Katie and Sharon! Thank you for sharing your wedding day with us today on Polkas Dot Bride! Thank you also to by Julie Williams Photography for sharing today’s photographs!

Photos by Julie Williams Photography submitted via Two Bright Lights