Our Cocktail Hour At The Fairmont Banff Springs

And just like that, it’s been six months!

Yesterday Charley and I celebrated our six month anniversary (any excuse to celebrate), and as the months seem to pass, the more nostalgic I get looking back at our wedding pictures. Eleven months of planning felt like forever, but then the weekend flew by in a blink! The entire weekend was a dream come true, and I’m thrilled to share more photos from our special day!

I shared a post about our ceremony at the Fairmont Banff Springs here with more details on why we chose this special location for our wedding, so today I’m excited to share our cocktail reception following the ceremony.

Charley Dickenson Wedding Fairmont Banff Springs

Fairmont Banff Springs Wedding Conservatory Ice Bar

Colin Ward Fairmont Banff Springs Conservatory Wedding

Since the sun started to set behind the mountains around 4, we had our short ceremony at 4:30 and planned a cocktail hour following to celebrate and mingle before the reception and seated dinner later that evening. We chose the Cascade Ballroom for our reception, so the Conservatory was the perfect spot to host our cocktail hour – plus since we moved our ceremony inside from the terrace to the Riverview Lounge due to the snowstorm, all of the events flowed seamlessly throughout the hotel wing. Best of all, it had amazing views of the mountains, and it was so dreamy watching the snow fall all evening behind our candlelit windows!

My absolute favorite part of the cocktail hour (aside from my overwhelming excitement of tying the knot!) was the amazing ice bar my stepdad designed for the party! Since a lot of our guests had never been to Banff before, I wanted to pull elements into the weekend that made it feel unique with a touch of Canadian flair. We’ve been traveling to Banff over the holidays since we were little, and we’ve always loved visiting the ice bars at the Fairmont Banff and Lake Louise in the winter – so my mom thought it would be perfect to feature one as our main bar for the cocktail hour and reception! We added an ice luge in the center to serve Charley’s favorite martinis as our signature cocktail, and it was so fun to watch!

Keep scrolling for more photos from our cocktail reception, and stay tuned for posts on our reception, rehearsal dinner, post toast, and more! I can’t wait to share the gorgeous set up our planner, Julie, designed with our florist, Janie :)

For more photos from the weekend, follow us on instagram @theperennialstyle and our wedding hashtag #FlowersforCharley