They timed it to coincide with a visit by Rachel’s parents, who live in Ontario.

“It actually wasn’t that stressful because we didn’t have time to second-guess or worry,” Rachel says. “We just followed our hearts and went with how the process naturally evolved and organically happened.”

It was mostly a DIY affair.

Rachel handcrafted and picked all the wedding decorations with the help of wedding planner Maggie Baird of MB&Company.

They booked Payne Lake Lodge in Mountain View, just outside Waterton Lakes National Park in southwestern Alberta. There was no staff at the private, eight-room lodge, so they and their guests did everything that needed doing.

Everyone pitched in to decorate the reception venue and prepared dishes for the Summer Solstice Potluck Wedding Feast.

Darren’s mom Nancy made the wedding cake. Darren brewed three unique kinds of beer for the reception. Their friends at the High Level Diner supplied the wine and food for the rest of the weekend.

The morning of the wedding, Rachel went out with a bucket of water and scissors and hand-picked wildflowers for her bouquet and the groomsmen’s boutonnieres.

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“The core of what we wanted was to have it (the wedding) in a beautiful piece of nature and be able to build a community for the weekend, to have people really feel that they got to be involved, and got to know each other,” Darren says.

“It was important to us that our wedding not only be a celebration of our love and union, but a celebration of our incredible, supportive and loving friends and family,” Rachel adds.

“Our thought was that it is more about the people and the experience than about the money and material things. Our goal was to keep our wedding costs low, so that we could begin our life together on a healthy and sound financial foundation, rather than in debt.”

They extended that approach to the members of their bridal party and their officiant, asking them to “wear whatever they felt awesome in. We love our friends for who they are and their unique personalities, so we wanted to see them in whatever outfit pleased them,” Rachel says.

This was supposed to make things easier for them, but ended up stressing them out a bit, she adds laughing. “They kept asking what colour do you want me to wear?

“They actually ended up all doing really well.”

The bride, 29, and the groom, 28, both servers at the High Level Diner — Rachel also teaches yoga and Darren is starting a window-washing business — led by example in what they wore.

Rachel initially rejected a traditional wedding dress and chose three different bohemian styles from Free People before realizing that she really did want a traditional white gown.

“I was terrified to step into a bridal store for fear of being drowned in miles of tulle and lace,” she says, but the shopping trip to David’s Bridal with her girlfriend Shannon and Shannon’s daughter Zoe turned into a fun time.

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