‘Josh assured me that no matter the size or weight of the dress we would find a way to get it up the mountain. What we didn’t anticipate was being barefoot, in the snow, during the ceremony.’
In June this year, Susannah and Joshua Beckett were married at Birendra Lake, near Sama Gaun on the Manaslu Circuit and Tsum Valley Trek. Opting out of a big wedding in Canada, where the couple are from, Susannah and Joshua nevertheless wanted to have a day they would remember for the rest of their lives.
The bride was stunning in a backless traditional white dress, while the groom looked the classic bridegroom in his black suit. What the stunning photographs don’t show however, is how the bride had to get into her dress behind a stone hut while trying hard not to step in yak dung or how they are both actually shoeless (Or hiking bootless) in many of the pictures!
While tourists do get married in Nepal not many opt to do so during a 22 day trek. So how did this idea come about?
‘We live in Whitehorse Yukon which is in the northern part of Canada and quite mountainous. We love the mountains, and spend almost every weekend in the Yukon mountains. What is great about Nepal is with teahouse treks you can have a long trek without having to worry about carrying food for the entire journey. We have both been to Nepal together before, and Josh has been on another occasion too.’
‘I wanted to have a big wedding with friends and family but Josh had the idea to elope! First we were going to get married on a mountain in the Yukon but the logistics of it didn’t work so well, so we thought we would go to Iceland. In the end however the beauty of Nepal won out. We both love being in the mountains so much it was an easy choice to go to Nepal once we had decided to elope and get married on a mountain somewhere. And it really didn’t take long to organise, because we had been to Nepal before and knew what we were getting into. In fact it was much easier to arrange than organising a traditional wedding in Canada,’ Susannah.
Having done their research, the couple met someone who had used Magical Nepal for their trek and on that recommendation we got in touch. With Magical Nepal being very helpful, the decision to go with them was easy to make. ‘Magical Nepal were amazing in helping us organise our wedding trek. They even sent a photographer at no extra charge. Originally we thought of doing our own photography with a tripod but instead we have stunning professional photographs taken by Jaya Photography from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam to remind us of this time,’ said Josh.
‘On the day we were both really excited, it was a beautiful location with amazing mountains all around us and we were marrying the person we love. Our guide, Deepak, was the one who suggested the spot we got married at, he even picked Susannah a bouquet of wildflowers on the way to the location. By chance we did actually have ‘guests’ at our wedding – another couple from Canada we had met earlier along the trail – who arrived just as Susannah was walking down the ‘aisle’. They even rescued Susannah’s dress when it got caught in a bush! A second group of ‘guests’ arrived with their guides, who were extremely excited to see us and asked if they could have a photograph taken with us. The guides picked some wild flowers for both of us and placed Khatas around our necks as a symbol of happiness. This was an amazing gesture and we have the Khatas hanging on our wall at home,’ Josh.
Magical Nepal is proud to organise the wedding in Himalayas and believes that mountains are not just for hiking.
.jpg){kind=tracking}