Fall is here and as we wrap up another amazing wedding season in the Posh books, it has us reminiscing of one of our favorite adventures that took us across international borders. This spring, our team had the amazing experience of traveling up to our Canadian neighbor, to visit the beautiful city of Victoria, BC to visualize and learn all about why Victoria is the hidden gem in PNW destination weddings.
Have you ever considered having your PNW destination wedding in Canada? We hadn’t really either, but we were pleasantly surprised with what we found out! {Can you say exchange rate!?} We’re excited to share with you our discoveries across the border to help kickstart your brainstorming. 🙂
We were invited to visit Victoria by our friend Allan from the renowned Fairmont Empress Hotel who curated a fun-packed itinerary for the week, filled with exploring downtown Victoria, scouting out some of Victoria’s best venues, all the while meeting and networking with the wonderful wedding professionals of Victoria!
We traveled by boat–the Victoria Clipper to be exact, which happens to embark directly from downtown Seattle {perfect for guests who live in Washington or are flying into Seattle!} and was organized by Kirsten from Clipper Vacations. We met up with her later for craft cocktails at the Empress featuring the famous Empress gin {P.S. It may or may not change color magically!} We were so blown away by how easy, simple and comfortable the travel was up to Victoria! Even if you’re reading this and are already married, at least plan a trip up to Victoria if you haven’t been! It’s one of the best mini PNW destinations out there! Additionally, you can travel in by a charming sea plane from South Lake Union up to Victoria, if you prefer to travel by air.
We stayed in Posh-style at The Empress and enjoyed the benefits of Fairmont Gold, courtesy of Allan and his team at The Empress. We started the trip off right with the famous Tea at The Empress. Then we were whisked away to explore the streets of downtown Victoria and all its photo-ops. Allan arranged for us to be accompanied by a lovely local photographer named Raj from Ra Photography Studio, who captured all of the lovely photos you see on this blog! {Thank you, Raj! We miss you!}
After an afternoon on the town, one of our favorite moments from the trip was a carefully curated evening dinner in the library at The Empress. A chance to dine and enjoy a seven course Empress meal, and meet some of the amazing vendors working in Victoria. We even had a chance to visit some of their studios the next day to see what they are creating for the amazing weddings in Victoria.
The next morning we traveled in style and spent the day touring around to scope out the diversity of venue options that Victoria has to offer. We stopped by the Crystal Garden, which happens to be a renovated swimming pool, the Gardens at HCP {Horticulture Centre of the Pacific}, St. Ann’s Academy, a decommissioned chapel, and last but not least, the Olympic View Golf Club. On the way home, we took a pit stop for a photo-op on a gorgeous beach that overlooked the Salish Sea; with Washington in the background!
To finish out our trip, we enjoyed chatting with vendors at an industry meeting to discuss all Victoria has to offer! We also answered questions around the logistics of bringing around more PNW destination weddings to Victoria. We are so grateful for our time in Victoria, and to our Victoria wedding industry friends who made our trip such a memorable one. We can’t wait to plan PNW destination weddings in Victoria!
Victoria is such a wonderful destination for weddings and we loved the opportunity to learn the logistics of planning a wedding just a quick hop, skip, and a jump from Seattle and Portland. In conclusion, if you’re looking for help in planning your PNW mini destination wedding, we’ve got you covered. 🙂
Photo Credit | Ra Photography Studio
A BIG thank you to all of the lovely and talented wedding professionals of Victoria who hosted us during our trip!
If you haven’t gotten enough of our trip, here’s a video we made full of highlights from Victoria!