In just under three months, N & I will be saying I do in front of our friends & family in Kelowna. We chose a beautiful winery in the Okanagan for the wedding so we spent May long simultaneously celebrating his birthday, doing hair & makeup trials, tasting wine & food, meeting with different vendors, checking out the venue, & enjoying the beautiful Okanagan Valley. It was a busy weekend to say the least, but we left feeling pretty great about our decision to spend our august weekend celebrating with our closest family & friends.
We headed out to Invermere Thursday night to get a head start on the drive to Kelowna. My parents have a place another 30 min down the road, but we stayed with my girlfriend this time. Her house is a stone’s throw away from Lake Windemere. I feel so lucky to have these opportunities to wake up, throw on my shoes, & go for a run near a lake – be it Windermere, Columbia, or Okanagan, I love them all dearly.
We stopped for lunch just past Sicamouse. There were already people heading out house boating for the long weekend. Sometimes BC is a different world from Alberta. We frequently get snow on May Long, whereas they plan boating trips.
We arrived to 32 degrees in Kelowna, a pretty big departure from the weather we’ve had so far in Calgary this spring. We had some time to kill before checking into our hotel so we hit a patio. What else is there to do when it’s that gorgeous out?
My hair & makeup trials afterwards went great. The girls I’ve picked are lovely & they both did a wonderful job. We look quite a few photos, but I’ll keep those a surprise for now.
That evening, I took Nathan out for dinner at the Hotel El Dorado. We had a fabulous meal together in celebration of his 27th birthday. There are so many great food options in Kelowna, but I’m so happy I settled on this one. Not only was the food wonderful & the service attentive & pleasant, but the space is also wonderful. It’s an older hotel, worn in all the right ways, that sits right on the lake. They’ve got a marina and docks out back so you can go for a walk along the lake or park your boat. It feels a little bit like it belongs to another era – right up my alley. Not surprisingly, it was actually my second choice for our wedding venue. I had my heart set on a winery, but this would have been an equally stunning choice.
The next day, we had some time to kill before our next meeting, so we headed downtown for lunch on the Earl’s patio. It overlooks the brand new marina in the heart of Kelowna. Nathan’s brother worked here until very recently so we’re pretty familiar with it. It’s hard to compete with their patio view & cheap raspberry mojitos.
We wandered the new marina & downtown a little bit before running off to our next meeting. I think I’ll always be a bit of a BC girl – as the weekend progressed I was more & more enamoured with our decision to wed in the Okanagan.
Our next meeting was in a beautiful French pastry shop. Sandrine’s is perfection. Everything here is delicious, but the best part for me is that she’s from Lyon. I couldn’t have planned this any better.
Our last stop of the day was at our venue – Summerhill Pyramid Winery. Again, beautiful venue; I’m so happy with our choice. We scouted out some good photo ops for our photographers & wandered the property before doing a wine tasting & finally sitting down to dinner.
We started things off with the cheese board, as per N’s brother’s suggestion. It was fantastic. Dried cherries from the orchard down the street, some of the best honey we’ve tasted (also from the area), & roasted nuts (again, from nearby) accompanied a beautiful selection of cheeses – brie, port wine gouda, & a blue.
Our main courses were equally delicious. I tried the beef, while N went for duck. Both were cooked to perfection & the presentation was gorgeous. We didn’t taste our exact menu, but our meals left me feeling confident that the chef gets it.
Desert was French toast with a homemade gelato. Not too shabby at all.
The company was pretty fantastic as well.
On our way back, I made N stop at Dave’s Goat Walk. It’s between Vernon & Enderby on highway 1 & is one of the most hilarious stops, in my opinion. It’s just so typically random of small town BC. I swear this province is littered with the funniest “attractions”.
This cracks me up every time. For a quarter, you get a handful of corn. You throw it in these little buckets & the goats use the wheel to pull the bucket it up & feed themselves. Yes, this is a thing. As N was taking the photo above, the goat was trying really hard to get the half a handful of corn I’d already dumped into the bucket. I love it. (They also have some great honey & other products in the little store attached).
All in all it was a great weekend & I’m even more excited for our upcoming wedding. We’re down to double digits so things are getting quite real at this point.
