Our Fairmont Banff Springs Wedding Reception

I can’t believe it has almost been a year! As we countdown to our one year anniversary, I’ve been reflecting on the positives of 2020 – and the best thing that happened to me was marrying the man of my dreams! Who would’ve thought our wedding on March 7th would follow with a year of quarantining and adjusting our lifestyle to unprecedented times, but despite the chaos of the year – I would still mark it as the best year ever!

Sunday marked 11 official months of marriage, and time is just flying! To celebrate this exciting new year, I am reminiscing on the best night of my life! I’m so excited to share all of the photos and details about our wedding reception with you all today.

For more Banff wedding posts, check out:

Our Wedding Ceremony At The Fairmont Banff Springs

Our Cocktail Hour At The Fairmont Banff Springs

What I Gave My Bridesmaids On Our Wedding Day

I’m Engaged | The Proposal Story

Fairmont Banff Springs Wedding Reception Charley Dickenson

The Destination:

I’ve shared before, but Charley and I chose to get married at the Fairmont Banff Springs because it was such a special place where I grew up spending the holidays with my family. Charley wanted a big local wedding and I wanted a tiny destination elopement, so deciding to get married in an intimate setting with all of our closest friends and family in Banff was absolute perfection!

Choosing a place where our friends and family would have fun was so important to me when we started wedding planning. Blair got married in Seaside and Janie got married in Rosemary Beach, and both of their weddings felt like a vacation which made them so much fun! While Banff is international, it’s a non-stop flight from Dallas and easy to get to. We always have so much fun in Banff, so we knew our guests would have a blast and the weekend would feel like a vacation – just with a big party added in!

While a barefoot boho wedding in Mexico was another option we considered, I’m so glad we decided on a timeless formal wedding in Banff. In a hotel as gorgeous as the Fairmont, it’s the perfect backdrop for an elegant black tie wedding. Every room in the hotel is stunning, but the Cascade Ballroom has always been my family’s favorite!

The Decor:

The theme of the wedding was black and white with tons of white flowers, a candlelight setting, and an ice bar to pull in the winter elements. I wanted a classic, elegant theme that would never go out of style, and my wedding planner Julie from Rocky Mountain Weddings made the day a dream come true!

My favorite part of the reception decor (aside from the flowers of course!) were all of the candles throughout the room. As each month went on, I kept adding more and more candles, but they really made the room feel so dreamy! Mixing tapered candles with votives made the room glisten and gave such a romantic feel.

We both had large wedding parties, so we made the focal point of the room the wedding party table – and I absolutely love how it turned out! Our wedding planner was amazing with bringing our vision to life, helping us make a wedding website, and it was absolutely perfect.

The Attire:

Since the venue was so formal, the dress code was Black Tie Optional. It felt like a fairytale seeing everyone in long dresses draped with fur, and who doesn’t love an excuse to pull out your favorite evening gown?

For the ceremony, I wore a Monique Lhuillier ballgown that I fell in love with the moment I tried it on! I added this lace jacket for the ceremony and removed it for the first dance and reception. I also added an embellished belt to add a little sparkle to the dress. If I could wear this dress everyday for the rest of my life, I absolutely would. It was my dream dress!

Since Charley and I LOVE to dance, I wore Golden Goose sneakers under my dress. I never would’ve dreamed I’d be the type of girl to wear sneakers on my wedding day, but it was the best decision ever. On a day as nerve-wracking as my wedding day (alll the happy jitters!), being comfortable was such a good idea – plus I didn’t have to worry about slipping on snow!

My family means everything to me, so I wanted to bring a special touch to the day to celebrate my mom. We always talked about one of us redoing her wedding dress to wear on our special day, and unfortunately I didn’t find a designer to do this until after I bought my wedding dress – SO we created a gorgeous reception dress to change into half way through the party!

If you’re looking for a designer to revamp a family wedding gown, Ese Azenabor was amazing! My mom’s wedding dress was gorgeous, but it was a bit too small for me. We took elements from her dress to redesign it into a party dress, and the months of fittings and design appointments were so much fun! I kept the puff sleeves from my mom’s original gown, turned the bodice into a short dress and added all of the embellishment, and turned her ballgown skirt into a hi-lo skirt. I’m so excited my mom let me give my own touch to her wedding gown – and the best part is, the skirt is detable, so I plan to redesign it again with the remaining fabric for a timeless dress I can wear again and again! It meant so much to wear her gown on my wedding day, and it’s something special we will always share!

In addition to my reception gown, Ese Azenabor designed this stunning Mother of the Bride dress for my mom. I wanted my mom to feel absolutely beautiful and special on my wedding day, and words can’t describe how gorgeous she looked in her gown! Plus having our dress appointments together was one of the highlights of wedding planning :)

For the bridesmaids, I wanted something sophisticated and long-sleeved (after all, it was really cold!). I searched so many bridesmaid boutiques for the perfect gown, but everything I found was either flowy boho or full-on sparkle. We decided to take a different route, and all of the girls ordered this Vince Camuto evening gown from Nordstrom, and they were stunning! I know most people prefer to shop through bridesmaid boutiques, but this way worked out for us and the dresses were STUNNING! Plus they were so comfortable and flattering that all of my bridesmaids loved them!

I shared all of the hair and makeup details in our getting ready post, but Banff Hair Co was fantastic! Their team came to our suite the morning of the wedding, and it was a fun way to spend time with my bridesmaids prepping for the big day! Read more about the wedding prep here, and reach out to them if you’re planning a wedding!

Now the one tip I will recommend is to bring touch-up makeup. I was so insanely happy all day, I teared up nonstop – so by the end of the reception most of my makeup was off! Make sure to bring some touch up makeup if you’re a happy-crier like me!

The Photography:

Since I love photography, I knew I wanted a photographer I could trust to capture our special day. I considered hiring a local photographer originally, but since Banff is a vacation town, most of the “local” photographers still required travel and hotels. Rather than going that route, I decided to bring in a photographer I already knew and loved, Angie Silvy. I met Angie Silvy on a press trip years ago in Greece and Turkey and have traveled together many times, so we flew her in from San Francisco, and it was one of the highlights of the weekend! Not only did she capture the weekend beautifully, she is so much fun and everyone loved her company!

When you’re choosing a photographer, it’s important to find someone who not only captures the style of photos you love, but also to find someone whose personality matches yours. On your wedding day, you’re super busy and time feels like it’s flying (it’s unbelievable!). Having Angie there made the day so relaxed, because she helped the day flow, she was super quick and organized so the wedding party loved her, and she made the whole experience even more fun. She’s extremely talented and creative, and I can’t rave enough about her. If you’re looking for a wedding photographer, I highly recommend Angie Silvy!

The Menu:

The cake from Kake by Darci was one of my favorite details from our wedding day! I love the subtle mountain designs in the icing, and the deer topper was such a fun way to tie in the elements of Banff. Darci added the same flowers Flowers by Janie used in our bouquets, and it was simply gorgeous! (Also, the oreo filling was to die for! It was my husband’s choice and the best!)

I think seated dinners always make weddings so much easier for guests, plus having a table seating chart was such a fun way for our friends to mix and mingle! We surprisingly loved working on this and spent a lot of time making sure every table would have a great time together. If you’re working on a seating chart, Wedding Wire has the easiest tools for mapping out your layout, syncing your guest list, and shifting names around!

We planned a four course meal for the dinner, and it was a great way to relax and have fun before the dancing started. Since the Fairmont handled all of the catering, it was one of the easiest parts of planning – and delicious!

For the late night menu, we set up a Poutine bar in the reception. I never actually saw it because I was having so much fun mingling and dancing, but I heard it was a hit!

For more information about Kake by Darci, click here. (Fun fact: She won the Food Network’s “The Big Bake Holiday” TV show last year)

The Flowers

Since the Cascade Ballroom is so colorful and beautiful, I wanted the flowers to compliment the space rather than distract from it. Working with Janelle from Flowers by Janie was so much fun, and I love how she brought my visions to life! Since we planned all of the florals via Skype, I shared a few images of florals I loved from Pinterest and I LOVE the way she added a creative touch to all of the arrangements. It was absolutely stunning.

In addition to the reception and ceremony decor, we added a large entryway arrangement to the place card table. I gave Janelle full creative control and told her to surprise me, and it was absolutely beautiful! Since the wedding was black and white, it was fun to have a colorful statement arrangement when you first arrive. I can’t give enough praise to the Flowers by Janie team – they were incredible!

For more information about Flowers by Janie, click here.

Janie Lazares, Blair Butler, Melanie Proctor, Charley Dickenson

Lacy Radcliff, Janie Lazares, Hayley Medberry, Blair Butler, Lily Daniel

Our Banff Wedding Band:

When we thought about the most important elements of our reception, we knew we wanted a fantastic band to keep the energy going! Finding a band in Banff was surprisingly the hardest part of planning our wedding! We were hoping to find a classic motown band to play songs everyone knew and loved, but most of the options we found lacked the energy we were looking for or had more of a country music theme.

Luckily we found Side One Band in Calgary and brought them in for the weekend, and they were absolutely fantastic. Since they weren’t local, this was another vendor we had to accommodate with rooms and travel – but our number one priority was making sure the party was fun, so it was the best decision! If you’re planning a wedding in Banff, definitely reach out to Side One Band.

One of our favorite elements of a reception is party accessories, so we had so much fun ordering endless glow sticks, wands, winter-themed light-up crowns, and more! Our wedding planner said she had never seen so many glow accessories, but they were so much fun and I highly recommend them! I found the best options for accessories here and ordered all of our glow sticks from Amazon. Since we traveled internationally, we packed a separate suitcase just for accessories, and it was so worth it! If you are planning a wedding, be sure to pick up party accessories for your guests!

Banff Wedding Experience:

It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since our wedding day, but it has been the most amazing year ever. Planning a wedding is quite the undertaking (luckily you only have to do it once!), but to celebrate the best day of your life with all of your friends and family was truly so so special – and I can’t believe I wanted to elope! It meant so much that they traveled to celebrate with us, so it was so important to me to make the weekend extra special and fun for them as well!

I had the absolute best experience planning our wedding with the Fairmont team and our planner, Julie, and highly recommend all of our vendors for your special day! They are a dream team (especially if you’re planning from afar), so I know you will love their work too! For more information on our vendors, scroll to the end!