Breanne Guhle, a yoga instructor and stretch therapist, met professional hockey player Keegan Lowe through a mutual friend one summer. After dating for six years, he proposed on the beach in Puerto Escondido, Mexico.
Picking the wedding venue was easy as Keegan’s family has a beautiful lake-front property on Shuswap Lake in British Colombia. The bride and Brandy Maddison Events took on all of the planning and designing for the wedding weekend.
Breanne took a gamble and ended up ordering her dress online. She fell in love with a gown by Georgian label Ingorokva, but was nervous to order it at first. After a few in-person appointments at various boutiques, she still couldn’t get the first look out of her mind, so she pressed that “complete order” button and had it shipped to her home. “Jei Okropiridze from Ingorokva made the entire process seamless. I can’t thank her enough for all of her help. The dress came in the mail, and as soon as I tried it on, I fell in love,” she says. For beauty, the bride went for a natural, glowing makeup look and wavy hair by Janna and Caitlyn from Behind the Blush.
The groom and his groomsmen wore black custom suits by Sam Abouhassan Custom Clothier with white shirts and skinny ties, while Breanne let her bridesmaids select any white dress of their choosing.
In the family garden on a July day, the bride and her father walked up a stone path to the wooden wedding arch, which he handmade, while “Angel” by Jack Johnson played. “Waiting to walk up, my dad and I were both nervous,” Breanne admits. “Our planner told us to take a deep breath, and off we went! Once I got up there and was standing with Keegan, it was pure excitement.” Greenery and white daisies, that Breanne and her future mother-in-law planted a month before acted as a beautiful backdrop for the scene. The bride’s aunt officiated the intimate ceremony, and after exchanging their own vows, the newlyweds recessed to “Good Times” by Sam Cooke.
A lovely cocktail hour commenced by the house with a raw seafood bar, featuring fresh prawns that the groom, his father, and a few friends had caught over the previous weekend. Dinner followed on the tennis court under a clear tent with string lights. The local, family style meal, catered by Start Fresh Kitchen, was served on long wooden tables decorated with greenery and candles. Dessert was a family affair with a table dedicated to sweets that members had homemade themselves.
Once everyone was well fed, DJ and singer Kraig Nienhuis kept the dance floor alive all night. The newlyweds had their first dance to “Honeymoon” by Johnny Stimson, and then shortly after, a conga line got started. For late night bites, a taco stand and homemade cookie ice cream sandwiches were readily available. “Keegan and I were the last people to leave the dance floor,” the bride says. “But we were told that lots of guests went to an after-party on a houseboat or swimming in the lake.”