Heli Weddings

Mt Charles Stewart half day Helicopter Wedding

Board Alpine Helicopter’s Bell 407 helicopter and climb smoothly up over 1000 m passing Mt Grotto and Mt Lady MacDonald to Mt Charles Stewart in a spectacular 6-8 minute flight. Here we have a variety of possible wedding sites offering mountain top views, slightly lower alpine ridges, or more sheltered meadows with a few clusters of trees and a creek with a small waterfall. We like to go to the high sights with the biggest views, but are lucky to have options for all weather conditions and also opportunities to hike from one landing site across to another for our pick up.

We match our ceremony site and hike to the weather and the group, sometimes we land in an open saddle and hike up to the summit of the Wedding Mound, about 100 m up a spectacular ridge. We can also land on an alpine ridge and hike down steep grassy slopes 200 m to a lovely saddle with a creek at tree line. Strong hikers might wish to land at the Medicine Wheel and work their way down a rocky ridge to the saddle and then up to the Wedding Mound summit.

Most importantly, we have plenty of time to savour all the moments, the magnificent views, the fragile alpine vegetation, and perhaps some wildlife sightings.

With six seats in the helicopter, we can accommodate wedding parties of five (plus Martha) with one flight, or groups up to 22 with a second guide and three extra flights.

A scenic helicopter tour may also interest you.

If you’d like a long and fabulous scenic flight on your wedding day, you can add a 25 minute tour next to the lofty Three Sisters and over the vibrant blue Spray Lakes, finishing next to the Goat Range and over the Bow River. This is $280/person + GST. 

With 35 minutes you can fly all the way to the iconic Mt Assiniboine, almost 12,000’, and fly right next to the vast glacier tumbling off the east face. This option is $380/person + GST.

Here is the link to all the options for the scenic tours.

Marvel Pass 1-hour Helicopter Wedding

Opt for a long and scenic flight before and after your remote mountain wedding with 30 minutes flying time, landing at the truly lovely Cabin Lake in Marvel Pass, on the pristine east side of Mt Assiniboine. Due to the long flight the helicopter will shut down and remain at our wedding site with us, giving us a good hour for our wedding ceremony, a short walk to the lake, and plenty of photographs looking out over Aurora Creek or in front of Cabin Lake.

Marvel Pass 1 hour heli wedding rates

Your marriage license, witnesses, vows, and marriage registration

Martha will coach couples in all the necessary steps to ensure all your documents are in order, discuss ways to customize your vows without changing the required statements, and take care of the details of helicopter booking and mountain safety. She likes to meet couples at a cafe in Canmore prior to the wedding if they want to meet. Please contact Martha if you’re in Canmore and ask about her availability.

The marriage license is obtained by the couple at an Alberta registry office, with several days to spare in case there are any problems. A marriage cannot be performed if there is no license. Book your appointment in Canmore by emailing info@canmoreregistry.com. Download PDF here for more information.

Two witnesses are required to sign the marriage certificate, who can be adult family members, friends or your photographer, but not our pilot or marriage commissioner. We can assist with providing witnesses when required.

You will be presented with a Civil Marriage Statement following your vows, and you will be registered as a married couple with the Province of Alberta within a few weeks of your ceremony.

Weather forecast and webcam links for Canmore:

• Environment Canada
• Webcam for Mt Charles Stewart from downtown Canmore. We fly up the Cougar Creek in the centre of the photo, and behind Mt Lady MacDonald, the peak on the left.
• Webcam for Marvel Pass showing the other side of Mt Assiniboine, view from Mt Assiniboine Lodge.

Bookings and cancellations

Once you have learned all about heli weddings and decided this is the right match for you, Martha will send you an invoice with a request for a $1200 non-refundable deposit/booking fee, usually payable in two weeks. Once this is paid, she will book your helicopter flights and confirm your date and time. You will get a reminder to pay the balance of your heli wedding fee one month before your wedding date. You can always change your wedding date to another date that is available. If you wish to cancel at any time, all is refundable except for the deposit/booking fee.

If the weather is not suitable for flying, or if high covid cases trigger a restriction for helicopter flying, then the wedding can be postponed until flying is possible, or can continue without the helicopter at an attractive and secluded spot in Canmore, and the helicopter portion of the booking will be refunded.

“All-terrain” Wedding photographers

We strongly urge you to consider one of the local photographers listed below for your heli wedding. To capture great images in the open alpine environment requires outdoor skills and mountain experience. Too often, photographers have been overwhelmed by their surroundings and uneven rocky terrain, or they don’t bring the right camera equipment for the big landscapes, or they bring too much to carry, and thus they are unable to capture the best possible images.