Kelly and Tariq's forest wedding in the mountains of Whistler

At the moment, the Brew Creek Lodge near Whistler is one of my favourite venues for a Canadian wedding. Whistler is a mountain town about 45 minutes away from Vancouver, BC via the Sea to Sky Highway. The Brew Creek Lodge itself is a nature-loving couple’s forest treasure chest. It’s a wedding photographer’s dream. Talk about serene – the big trees, the fresh flowing water, even the structures of the venue which perfectly blend into nature. If you’re going to have a destination wedding in the mountains of Whistler, the Brew Creek Lodge is hard to beat.

But as surreal as the surroundings were, a wedding is only as good as the two people who are making the big commitment. And in this case, Kelly and Tariq were an absolute home run. A true power couple. For real.

Tariq owns boxing gyms around the world, and Kelly is a speech-language pathologist. I actually first met these two at another wedding about three years ago. It was love at first sight, and I remember being so sad that they lived so far away in Bahrain. They’re closer now in BC, but still pretty far from me in Montreal.

I sent this incredible duo a little Q&A to help you get to know them a little better:

How did you two meet? We actually met while I was living and working in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2014. We met 4-5 times, always on nights out when I was, let’s say, less than sober. I never remembered him but he apparently liked me. Then one day, I was invited to a pool party at a friend’s house and he was there, in the pool (he lived in the same compound). Our friends noticed we had a connection so they conspired to get us together and ended up inviting Tariq around for drinks that evening where we chatted loads and eventually exchanged numbers. He texted me that same night and told me he was “giddy” to have met me, and I knew straight away that he was not like other guys.

Did you know right away that he/she would be the one? I told my mom four days into our relationship that I would marry him and within one month of dating, all of his friends were telling him to marry me. So yes, absolutely.

Do you fart in front of each other? Are there couples that don’t!? Imagine the stomachaches from holding it in all the time. We absolutely do and we laugh about it constantly.

Who gets up faster in the morning? Tariq, 100%. I set about seven alarms and snooze them all.

What was your biggest most meaningless fight? For example, fighting about something weird like whether the sound you hear outside is a cow or not (this actually happened with me and my girlfriend!): There was one time after moving to Canada when Tariq was cooking and he set off the smoke alarm. Now, our smoke alarm has some sort of disorder wherein, once activated, it MUST continue FOREVER. I was doing everything I could to try and get it to turn off, to no avail, and was shouting at Tariq to come help me and he was shouting back that he couldn’t leave what he was doing and it ended with us SCREAMING at each other and slamming doors. An hour or so later we both came back downstairs to the couch, looked at each other and burst out laughing and said, “Did we just get into a fight because of a smoke detector?!”

How did you choose the venue for your wedding? We had actually chosen another venue on the coast initially, but they turned out to be very unscrupulous so I had to cancel with them, which threw us into a frenzy thinking we had nowhere else to go. Tariq suggested I look around Whistler but I kept saying no as I assumed it would be well out of our price range. When I found Brew Creek I thought it was too good to be true and that something would go wrong, but it was just the most incredible place. We couldn’t have asked for more. The staff were beyond accommodating and so flexible with us and our limited budget!

Why did you choose me? Is this a real question? Cause you’re the fucking BOMB! Sorry, shouldn’t swear in a blog. We chose you because of the emotion you are able to evoke in your photos for one, but also because of the energy you bring with you wherever you go. We knew you would get the best out of us and our guests and just make the wedding more fun!

What was your favourite moment of the day? I’m not sure I could choose, it was all so perfect. Tariq’s reaction when he saw me was pretty incredible… so was Bob getting naked on the dance floor…

What was your favourite image(s) from the day? I love every single photo you took of Tariq, especially the goofy ones! I love the shots you got of me looking at him while we were walking and I’m so in love with the photos you took of my mom helping me get dressed with the close up of the veil. Gorgeous! Oh, and of course the sparklers! Basically, all the photos.

Is there one thing you would recommend to future couples getting married? Don’t sweat about the little details, they won’t be what you remember. As long as you have the right partner, a venue you love and an incredible and talented photographer, you’ve got everything you need 🙂

I loved reading the answers to these questions because you actually get a real good glimpse into what Kelly and Tariq represent as a couple. There’s a list of incredible vendors below. I can’t thank all the staff at The Brew Creek Lodge enough for all the hospitality. I can’t wait to go back. And thanks so much to Pocketful Productions for making sure the day run as smoothly as possible. If you want to see another one of my favourite mountain wedding sites, make sure to check out Chelseay and Devin’s wedding : One of my favourite ceremony sites, Quarry Lake, an oldie but a goodie.