My fiance and I are planning our wedding for next summer in the area of Lake Louise. We'll have approximately 20-25 guests. We're looking at either The Post Hotel or Moraine Lake Lodge. Any thoughts on these two locations? I was hoping to have an outdoor ceremony followed by pictures. I guess that's why I'm leaning more towards MLL...it looks ideal for pictures, whereas it looks like the Post Hotel doesn't have as great of views. Dinner would be at the restaurant at either location.

I've never been to the area, so any tips/suggestions would be most appreciated!

Or what about Emerald Lake Lodge as another possibility?

Hello Crossroadz,

Moraine Lake is stunningly beautiful. But it's also very popular. If you got married there, I'm hard pressed to imagine where you would stand without the passengers of a dozen tour buses and the occupants of scores of cars sharing your wedding ceremony with you. While it would not be quite as bad as getting married where people stop to look at the Grand Canyon or at the geysers in Yellowstone National Park, it would not be far behind that ambience (I mean in terms of lack of privacy for a wedding ceremony). Also, the restaurant facilities at Moraine Lake are not large enough to provide privacy for you and your guests.

Another weak link in your plan is the <b>assumption</b> that you'll be able to have an outdoor ceremony. The weather in the mountains is extremely unpredictable. There is a high risk that your ceremony would have to take place in the rain if you did not have a Plan B.

The Post Hotel, as you say, does not have the best views.

I still think the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is the ultimate venue for a wedding, if you're going to go for that kind of wedding. My husband and I attended a wedding there in June, and I cannot say enough good things about it. As it happens, only the reception was held there, as the ceremony was held in a church in town. However, many wedding ceremonies are held in the Banff Springs Hotel, and it has spaces that are very suitable for that purpose.

Once of the good things about the wedding that we attended in June was that the town of Banff offered such a large stock of accommodatio in such a large range of prices. The guests were spread out amongst a mixture of expensive and more affordable hotels, according to their tastes and pocketbooks.

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise has a stupendous view overlooking the lake of Lake Louise, but it has even more day trippers walking along the lakeshore path than Moraine Lake has. Besides, as hotels go, I think the Banff Springs has more charm than Chateau Lake Louise (just my opinion).

In June a colleague of mine got married at Nakoda Lodge, which is at the north end of Kananaskis Country. It's about 50 miles west of Calgary and about 20 miles east of Canmore.

She had hoped to have her ceremony outdoors, but it rained durig the ceremony. Fortunately, the bridal couple and Nakoda Lodge had prepared a Plan B in case of inclement weather, so they held the ceremony indoors. Luckily the sun came out immediately after the ceremony, and they went outdoors to get their pictures taken. The photos with the lake in the background came out beautifully.

In case you're interested in exploring that option, here is a website:

http://www.nakodalodge.com/

Yes, I think Emerald Lake Lodge is a strong contender -- better than Moraine Lake Lodge, the Post Hotel or Chateau Lake Louise. But Emerald Lake Lodge's wedding brochure says that, if you use its wedding room for your ceremony, you have to vacate the room for 2.5 hours between the ceremony and the reception, so that hotel staff can change the configuration of the room.

That is a limitation into which you would not run in the Banff Springs Hotel. For example, in the case of the wedding that I attended in June, the hotel provided one room for a pre-dinner cocktail hour, during which guests mingled and drinks and hors d'oeuvres were served. Then we later moved to the room in which we dined and danced.

I've just looked at Nakoda Lodge's website in a little more detail. I see that they are allowed to serve wine and beer only. They are not allowed to serve hard liquor. That is something that you might consider to be an uacceptable limitation.

You have lots to think about. I hope the above has helped.

Given that it's your wedding night and you therefore won't be needing any sleep, I'd wholeheartedly recommend the Post Hotel.

OK Paul, time to get over it, you are becoming obsessed.

Judy thanks for the suggestions, I was reading them in anticipation of my 35th wedding anniversary this year and I might head back to Banff for the first time in all of those years! Or I might just go to Waterton and stay at the Kilmorrey.

My sister had her reception at the Rimrock Resort in Banff and it was beautiful. The dinner was amazing. The United Church in Banff is very quaint and makes for a good Plan B if the weather is bad.