A Wedding Vendor Guide · Galiano, Pender, Mayne, Saturna & beyond
The Gulf Islands. A scatter of small worlds.
Galiano, Pender, Mayne and Saturna in the south, Hornby and Denman up the strait, Quadra and Cortes off Campbell River. Each with its own character and its own ferry.
Guide updated
The Gulf Islands are a scatter of small worlds between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Galiano, Pender, Mayne and Saturna in the south, Hornby and Denman further up the strait, and Quadra and Cortes among the Discovery Islands off Campbell River, each with its own character and its own ferry. Active Pass runs deep and fast between them, orcas move through in summer, and the sandstone shorelines glow at low tide. There is very little here that feels manufactured for weddings, which is precisely why couples fall for it.
Celebrating across these islands means a wedding built around water: guests arriving by ferry or floatplane, a ceremony on a bluff or a pebble beach, a dinner where half the table is still talking about the crossing. Accommodation tends to be the organising problem and the great pleasure of an island wedding most couples take over a lodge or a cluster of cabins and turn a single day into a long weekend.
Practically, every one of these islands runs on its own ferry route. In the south some connect to each other only through Swartz Bay or Tsawwassen, Hornby and Denman go through Buckley Bay, and Quadra and Cortes through Campbell River, with Cortes a second crossing beyond Quadra. Build a full travel day into each end of the weekend, confirm which vendors will island-hop and what they charge to, and lock accommodation before the date, beds, not venues, are the real constraint here in summer.
A guide like this only works if it is honest, so every business here is one we have either worked alongside or gone looking for on purpose. Couples who hire close to home tend to get people who know the tides, the ferry schedule, and the light, and the money stays in the communities that make celebrating here worth the trip.
Who will photograph and film your wedding?
Sydney Woodward Folklore Profile
SALT SPRIG ISL
Sydney Woodward is a passionate storyteller who, alongside his partner Taryn Strong, co-founded Folklore Wedding Company. He combines his love for tintype photography with digital wedding photography and cinematic wedding video, bringing a collaborative, artful approach to Salt Spring Island weddings and celebrations across the coast. Rooted in a dedication to preserving love stories in meaningful ways, Sydney works with the 19th-century tintype process to create one-of-a-kind heirlooms while also crafting emotive digital imagery and film.
Stasia Garraway
SALT SPRInG ISL
Stasia Garraway has been working as a professional photographer for the last 15 years, offering wedding photography for the last eight. She specializes in natural, documentary-style images, focusing on candid photos that capture the essence of each special moment. At every wedding, she likes to work on a series of poetic and editorial-style photographs to tell the couple's story of love, family, and connection. She is always looking for gorgeous scenes, exceptional light, and the possibility of a moment that feels sublime or cinematic.
Stephanie Artuso Folklore Profile
Gabriola Isl
Stephanie Artuso is a skilled photographer based on Gabriola Island and a valued member of the Folklore Wedding Company team. She brings a deeply artistic approach to documenting weddings, focusing on real emotion, meaningful connection, and the subtle beauty of each moment. With an eye for detail and a calm, intuitive presence, Stephanie helps couples feel comfortable, seen, and confident in front of the camera. As part of the Folklore Wedding Company collective,
Jessica Kirkwood
galiano Isl
Jessica Kirkwood Photography is a Galiano Island–based photographer offering maternity, family, and wedding sessions with a focus on storytelling, natural light, and intimate, unscripted moments. During each session she aims to capture the weather and ambiance, the flora in bloom, and the moments not to be missed, from first looks and first kisses to the quiet glow of an expectant parent or siblings dissolving into giggles, alongside the surrounding ferns, roses, and eagles that frame the day.
Rachel Barkman
Rachel Barkman Photography works with adventurous couples across the Vancouver area and beyond, run by Rachel, a photographer of more than twelve years whose two great loves are the outdoors and people. She documents weddings, couples, families, and pets, from intimate island elopements to full-day coverage that begins at $4,800 and includes a second shooter, an online gallery, and printing rights. Alongside her wedding work she makes fine-art prints of PNW forests, mushrooms, mountains, and water. Love is love here, and all couples are welcomed.
Which venue suits your celebration?
Galiano Inn & Spa
Galiano Island
Galiano Oceanfront Inn & Spa is a boutique oceanfront resort on Galiano Island, set along the sandstone shores of Active Pass with all-oceanfront suites and villas, each with a wood-burning fireplace and private terrace or deck. Guests can stay steps from the water, enjoy contemporary West Coast dining at Atrevida Restaurant, wander the gardens, and relax on a private swimming beach, all within a short walk of the ferry and village. For weddings and elopements, the inn offers oceanfront ceremonies and receptions for up to 100 guests, as well as intimate island weddings and elopement packages.
Hornby Heart Vineyard
Hornby Island
Hornby Heart Vineyard is a boutique vineyard estate on Hornby Island, combining five acres of Pinot Gris, Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir and Turan vines with a small-batch winery, tasting room, and event spaces surrounded by forest, fields, and views of Mt. Geoffrey. Guests can sip “wines from the heart” in the tasting room, explore the grounds, and, for events, make use of a romantic outdoor setting that includes ceremonies on a small island in the pond and receptions with a vineyard backdrop.
Avalon Flower Farm
Pender Island
Avalon Flower Farm is a 10-acre oceanfront wedding venue on Pender Island, offering “say I do by the sea” celebrations on a pebble beach or lawn with panoramic harbour views. Couples can book the historic beachfront house, which sleeps 14 and sits just steps from the water, and use the property’s cut-flower gardens, open lawns, and ocean backdrop to host gatherings of up to 100 guests with on-site parking. With three-night venue bookings, flexible ceremony and reception spots, and easy access to ferries and seaplanes, it creates a relaxed, all-in-one Southern Gulf Islands wedding escape.
Bodega Ridge
Galiano Island
Bodega Ridge is a Gulf Islands retreat on Galiano Island, offering cozy log cabins, seaside Panabode cabins, and a lodge tucked between ocean and forest. Spread across 22 acres, it includes Bodega Ridge’s three-bedroom log cabins and Bodega Cove’s restored 1960s beach cabins, each with full kitchens and comfortable living spaces that make an easy home base for wedding parties and guests. For weddings and elopements, Bodega Ridge offers exclusive use of the property, a ceremony site with views over Trincomali Channel, and flexible reception areas, along with in-house coastal cuisine.
Sea Breeze Lodge
Hornby Island
Sea Breeze Lodge is a waterfront resort on Hornby Island, offering an intimate, all-in-one setting for West Coast weddings with ocean views, cozy cabins, and a relaxed island atmosphere. Couples can host a beachside ceremony framed by mountains, sea, and sky, then move indoors to a vaulted-ceiling dining room with ocean views that seats up to 130 guests. Their weekend wedding package includes exclusive use of the 10–11 acre property, a beach ceremony site, three fresh, West Coast–inspired meals, and 17 ocean-view cottages that together accommodate up to 80 guests.
Who will bring the flowers?
Gossip Floral
Galiano Island
Gossip Floral is a wedding and event floral studio and specialty flower farm on Galiano Island, led by designer Lauren, who grows local, seasonal blooms using sustainable practices and brings them directly to celebrations across the Southern Gulf Islands, Vancouver Island, and Vancouver. The studio offers full-service wedding design with hands-on delivery and setup, elopement and à la carte florals, and a rental inventory spanning vases, candle votives, arches, chuppahs, and lounge décor.
Keep Floral
Denman Island
Keep Floral is a Denman Island–based wedding and event florist founded by Emma Scheurwater, specializing in sustainable, garden-inspired designs using seasonal blooms grown on the Keep homestead and sourced from local flower farms. Their work leans into organic form, unique colour palettes, and native BC species, with wedding services ranging from elopements and micro-weddings to full-service ceremony and reception florals.
Evermore House
Pender Island
Evermore House is a floral studio and cutting garden on Pender Island, led by florist and flower grower Mercedes Papalia, offering artfully arranged garden-style bouquets, Pender Island flower delivery, and bespoke bridal floristry. Drawing on a lifelong connection to flowers and a decade in the wedding world, Mercedes “writes poetry with flowers,” creating whimsical, organically arranged seasonal designs that honour the unique botany and locally grown blooms available in the moment a couple chooses to say “I do,” with real Evermore weddings unfolding across the Southern Gulf Islands.
Avalon Flower Farm Website
Pender Island
Avalon Flower Farm offers on-site wedding florals designed from blooms grown on their own 10-acre oceanfront property, with seasonal arrangements spanning bouquets, boutonnieres, flower crowns, and more. From spring wildflowers to late-summer dahlias, their rotating palette of cosmos, snapdragons, and specialty blooms means every design feels genuinely of the place and the season. Couples can also add a hands-on flower workshop where the wedding party handpicks and arranges their own florals by the sea, pairing the oceanfront setting with flowers grown just steps from where they say "I do."
Who will feed your guests and quench their thirst?
Embers & Atlas
pender Island
Embers & Atlas is a live-fire catering company serving Victoria, the South Gulf Islands, Vancouver, and beyond, bringing unforgettable outdoor dining and fire-crafted menus to weddings, corporate events, and private celebrations. From intimate private dinners on Pender Island to large-scale BBQs, they design gourmet BBQ, buffet, and elevated plated dining experiences using local ingredients cooked over open flame, with flexible service options including drop-off, buffet, and full-service catering tailored to each event.
Oxeye
Galiano Island
Oxeye is a modern Pacific Northwest café and bakery in the heart of Sturdies Bay on Galiano Island, celebrating the wild and cultivated abundance of the Southern Gulf Islands. Known for housemade sourdough breads, pastries, coffee, and seasonal breakfast and lunch plates, its menus shift with the harvest and often even the weather, drawing on ingredients from local growers, makers, and island artisans. With a bright, welcoming room and patio just a short walk from the ferry, Oxeye is a natural gathering spot for morning coffee, easy brunch, or a relaxed bite during a Galiano wedding weekend.
Who will plan the day, and who will marry you?
Folklore Wedding Company
Vancouver /Gulf Island wide
Folklore Wedding Company offers all-inclusive elopement and micro-wedding packages across Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, pairing breathtaking venues with trusted local vendors and thoughtfully curated details. Every package includes in-house photography and video, with digital, film, and tintype options, so the day is documented with cohesive, artful storytelling while couples focus on each other.
Across The Watters Weddings & Events
Pender Island
Across The Watters Weddings & Events is a Pender Island–based planning studio founded by Allie Watters, who brings over 15 years in hospitality and eight years of wedding experience to celebrations across the Southern Gulf Islands. She offers full planning, partial planning, and day-of coordination, covering timelines, vendor curation, decor setup, and weekend logistics so couples can be fully present on the day.
Where will your guests stay?
Norra Han
Hornby Island
Norra Hem is a cliffside guesthouse on Hornby Island, set on a 6-acre property with sweeping ocean and forest views, a 450 sq ft outdoor living space, and a light-filled interior full of curated, design-forward details including white oak cabinetry, a timber ceiling milled from storm-fallen trees, and spa-like touches like heated floors and organic bath products. Perched roughly 100 feet from the unfenced cliff edge with a private yard and decks, it's a luxurious, nature-immersed retreat for couples or small groups seeking a genuinely removed Hornby Island escape.
The Haven
Mayne Island
The Haven is a private retreat B&B on Mayne Island built around restoration and embodied healing, pairing modern, comfortable accommodations with therapeutic bodywork and a Nordic-style circuit (sauna, salt water hot tub, and cold plunge). Guests can book everything from a self-guided stay to multi-day immersion retreats, with access to forest trails, outdoor sitting spaces, locally grown food, and a calm waterfront setting designed for nervous-system downshifting and deep rest.
Little Trib Ocean View Barn
Hornby Island
Little Trib Ocean View Barn is a loft-style converted barn apartment on Hornby Island, where guests wake to sunrise over Tribune Bay and step out onto an ocean-facing deck just minutes from Ringside, Big Tribune, and Little Tribune beaches. Inside, high ceilings and generous open spaces give the one-bedroom suite a relaxed, airy feel, with a combined living, dining, and kitchen area that flows naturally to the outdoors.
The Barn Suite on Little Tribune Bay
Hornby Island
The Barn Suite on Little Tribune Bay is a spacious, high-ceilinged waterfront retreat on Hornby Island, set beside a private par-3 golf course and facing the white sand of Little Trib. Designed for two, the suite features a lofted king bed with quality linens above an open-plan living area and well-equipped kitchenette, with large windows framing tranquil bay views. Just steps from the beach and a short walk from the Co-op, Ringside Market, and local restaurants, it's a refined and easy base for swimming, kayaking, paddleboarding, or simply watching the water go by.
The Tides Cottages
Pender Island
The Tides Cottages is a 3-acre oceanfront getaway on Pender Island, offering coastal cottages and a heritage house overlooking the Salish Sea, a quiet base to unplug, reconnect, and soak in the beauty of the Southern Gulf Islands. Guests can enjoy private patios with ocean views, a seasonal oceanside pool and year-round hot tub, direct ocean access down the stairs, and communal lawn and fire-pit areas set up for lawn games, sunsets, and stargazing. With pet-friendly stays, mobile in-cottage massage, and access to fresh prepared meals through a partnership with Truss Farm Food,
What else is worth doing while you are here?
Quadra Island Boat Tours
Quadra Island
Quadra Island Boat Tours offers private, small-group boat tours from Quadra Island, exploring the surrounding Discovery Islands, including Quadra and Cortes, their dramatic shorelines, waterfalls, and rich marine wildlife. Led by a knowledgeable local captain, tours are customized to your group and often include sightings of whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and seabirds, all with a focus on fostering awareness, preservation, and respect for the coastal waters and the Indigenous territories they operate within.
Who will get you ready, and where can you unwind?
Heart Journey Bridal Hair & Make-up
Salt Spring Island
Heart Journey offers expert on-site bridal hair and make-up services across Galiano Island, Salt Spring Island, and the broader Vancouver Island region. With over 15 years of experience working on photo shoots, film sets, special events and weddings in West Coast locations like Whistler and Tofino, the stylist Asaya brings a refined yet relaxed aesthetic, perfect for couples seeking naturally radiant beauty in an island setting.
Madrona del Mar Spa
Galiano Island
Madrona del Mar Spa is the oceanfront spa at Galiano Oceanfront Inn, offering a serene garden-tucked retreat where ocean, sky, and forest create a calming backdrop for rest and renewal. Set just above the water, the spa features massage, facials, body treatments, and add-ons using Eminence Organic Skin Care, along with tranquil treatment spaces that include private indoor and outdoor rooms and access to a spa hot tub nestled in the spa garden.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why choose the Gulf Islands for our wedding or elopement? +
Gulf Island weddings offer a slower pace, intimate scale, and a landscape that feels deeply connected to the elements. Rocky shorelines, mossy forests, small farms, and creative communities all shape the atmosphere. Many couples choose the Gulf Islands because they can turn their celebration into a full experience, gathering loved ones, exploring the island, and building a wedding weekend that feels relaxed, intentional, and rooted in place.
2. How does this Gulf Islands weddings resource guide work? +
This guide brings together locally based vendors and businesses who live and work on the islands. You will find profiles and listings organized by category, such as photography, food, florals, accommodations, and experiences, so you can start building a team that understands island life. Some businesses have full write ups with photos and links, while others appear in shared lists by name and location. The goal is to make it easier to plan a Gulf Island wedding that feels connected to the local community.
3. Why is it important to support local Gulf Island vendors? +
Supporting local vendors keeps more of your wedding budget within Gulf Island communities, which helps sustain small businesses, local jobs, and the long term vibrancy of these places. Island based vendors also bring lived experience with local venues, ferry schedules, weather, and seasonal rhythms, which can make planning smoother. Not every type of vendor will be available on every island, especially smaller or more remote ones. In those cases, it is completely fine to look to nearby communities on other Gulf Islands or Vancouver Island. Our other regional vendor lists can help you find trusted vendors who can travel to your location while still supporting the broader coastal economy.
4. Do all vendors in this guide live on the islands? +
This guide prioritizes vendors who actually live on the Gulf Islands, rather than only visiting a few times a year. Being based on the islands means they are familiar with local venues, community norms, and practical details such as ferry timing, road access, and seasonal closures. When vendors from surrounding regions are included, it is because they have an established connection to the islands and experience working here.
5. What kinds of vendors and experiences can we find here? +
You will find a mix of traditional wedding vendors and experience based businesses. This can include photographers, videographers, venues, farms, caterers, bakers, florists, planners, officiants, hair and makeup artists, musicians, and accommodations. Alongside those, the guide also highlights local experiences such as kayak and boat tours, sailing charters, wineries and cideries, restaurants and cafes, farm visits, markets, studios, galleries, and creative workshops. The aim is to help you plan not only your wedding day, but also the days around it.
6. How far in advance should we plan a Gulf Islands wedding, and what logistics should we keep in mind? +
For popular summer dates, many couples begin planning 12 to 18 months in advance, especially if they hope to book specific venues or group accommodations. Spring and fall can sometimes offer more flexibility, but ferries, limited capacity on smaller islands, and the popularity of certain locations mean it is still wise to reach out to vendors several months ahead. Ferries and water access shape a lot of the planning, so it helps to build extra time into travel schedules and to share clear information with guests. Some islands have limited taxis or late night transport, and certain venues may require bringing in rentals such as tents, washrooms, or generators. Local vendors are often the best resource for understanding what is realistic on a particular island and what needs advance planning.
The Vendor Collective
Work in weddings here?
If you're a Gulf Islands wedding vendor, or you know one who belongs on this list, we'd love to hear from you. The Vendor Collective grows by word of mouth.
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Who else should you know?
Soulful Sips
Danae Jensen is a trauma-informed hypnotherapist and healing guide known for creating deeply safe, grounding spaces where women can soften and reconnect with the magic of their being. Blending somatic awareness, subconscious work, and tea-based ritual, she guides groups through experiences that feel both sacred and practical—inviting courageous honesty, emotional clarity, and a gentle return to Self.