March 29, 2014.
That is the day I will be married to my favourite person in the world. It's been a long road, but finally we found the perfect place and the perfect date.
We returned to Canmore, for what felt like the millionth time. The winding road up to the location was beautiful. Lots of new, rustic condos and apartment complexes lined the trip, which was surprising. I guess I just never knew all this was here. Ryan's Dad explained that this area was a huge up-and-coming location, but in the last few years, went sort of bankrupt. There's a few developments still chugging away, but the community is a small portion of the original plan.
We arrived at Stewart Creek right before our appointment at 11:00 am. The outside of the clubhouse looked new and the structure was impressive. We walked through the drizzle that was attempting to mask the area in grey, and proceeded through the front entrance. It was different than I had expected it to be. A large sweeping front area welcomed us with a staircase leading down just ahead. The walls were a warm yellow and there was a large stone wall to the right side. I liked the stone, not many places we've visited had stone, it was mostly all wood. We were greeted and told to explore while we waiting for our contact to arrive. We first wandered to the right where we would be holding cocktail hour.
It was a smaller "cocktail" room than at Silvertip, but it had character and a great view. The bar featured a built-in wooden bottle display with a thick granite counter. Already this was a definite advantage over Silvertip and their mobile plastic tables and ugly black tablecloths. We went and stood on the balcony that surrounded half of the room and agreed that this was a satisfying space. Probably a little tight for 100 people, but would comfortably accommodate the 80 or so people attending.
We walked back into the entrance way and saw lots of space for a seating chart, escort cards and gift table, then proceeded into the dining space. It was tall, airy and open. There was no door to constrict the space, only a slight wall on one side. Just inside the space, we found a beautiful lounge with low-backed brown leather chairs. There were 6 tables positioned in the space, shadowed by another stone wall, some artwork (which I liked) and a double-sided fireplace that extended fully to the ceiling.
When we actually walked slightly further into the room, we finally saw just how high the ceilings were; spectacular wood beams, lots of recessed pot lighting and more wood slats to fill it all out. It was just as high, or higher than Silvertip, but had a lighter, contemporary feel. I thought I really loved the rustic and old world look of Silvertip, but seeing the rustic style in a newer way was refreshing and unexpected.
We walked throughout the entire space and the consensus was that of awe. Both Ryan and I had our doubts that this location was going to work, but the more we looked, the more we liked. Ryan's parents wandered out on to the large patio outside the space and took in the view. His Dad showed us which golf holes he liked and pointed out the driving range. It was clear that he felt comfortable there. We all walked back inside and met the very friendly event planner and started our "official" tour.
She pointed out locations that would work for the ceremony, as well as all the details we needed to know for rental and use of the space. We were impressed, finally an appointment that didn't feel like we were in an tense, awkward interview. Once we had walked through the space again and asked our questions (the very few that she did not cover), we thought it was over. Wrong! There's still more to see!
The woman led us to various spots; citing great photograph locations or secret entrances for me to hide away in before the ceremony, and then pointed to an elevator. We rode up a floor and landed in a meeting room of sorts. She advised that we could use this room for the bridal party or to store things in. She also asked which weekend we were interested in. We both said we were thinking of March and we were being drawn to the end of March now (in hopes for nicer weather and longer light). She immediately offered to hold the date we wanted so we could take some time to decide.
With those last words, we were sold. She knew that we needed the entire package. We wanted to be wowed with the little details that would make this place special. However, we did know that we still needed to take time to decide, so we thanked her for her help, told her we'd be in touch, and went to lunch.
It was clear while discussing the pros and cons of both locations over lunch, that there was an obvious winner and a clear loser. While both Ryan and I loved Silvertip's location and overall look of the reception space, we felt completely mistreated when it came to actually attempting to book the space. We finally realized that to them, we were just another date that could be filled by someone else. They didn't seem to care whether or not we booked with them, it was merely first come, first served. While I completely understand this principle, we were willing to spend a handsome sum of money there. This made it totally apparent to us that we wanted the full service deal. We wanted to feel that our needs wouldn't be entirely taken care of, because after all, this is supposed to be our most special day. We knew then, Stewart Creek was our venue. Now just to book it.
True to her word, the event coordinator had held our date and within 2 days we had officially signed the check, crossed our "t's" and dotted our "i's". On March 29, 2014, Ryan and I will be married at Stewart Creek Golf, and finally, we really couldn't be happier.
P.S. More photos of the location to come!
