There's a moment, somewhere between leaving the ground and breaking through the treeline, when the world below becomes a map and the mountains become everything.
That's the moment I always try to photograph first.
Shooting elopements in the Canadian Rockies means I've stood at a lot of extraordinary places — Moraine Lake at first light, the meadows above Lake Louise, the shores of Bow Lake with the wind pulling at everything. But helicopter elopements with Martha McCallum of Martha's Heli Hikes occupy a category of their own. They feel wilder. More earned, somehow, even though the helicopter does the climbing for you. The altitude, the isolation, the sheer scale of the alpine basin above Canmore — it strips away any sense of performance and leaves couples with something real.
This post is my honest account of what it's like to shoot up there, and why I keep recommending Martha to couples who want their elopement to feel genuinely, breathtakingly different.
WHO IS SHE ?
Who Martha Is (and Why It Matters)
Martha McCallum is an ACMG-certified mountain guide and a licensed marriage officiant. That combination is rarer than you'd think, and it changes everything about how a heli elopement works.
Most couples planning a mountain ceremony have to coordinate at least three separate vendors: a guide for safety, an officiant for the legal ceremony, and a photographer. With Martha, the first two are the same person. She knows the terrain the way a local knows their own street — which landing sites hold calm pockets of air on gusty days, where the bighorn sheep tend to graze in late summer, when the alpine flowers peak along the ridgeline. She brings that knowledge into the ceremony itself. Vows exchanged at 2,200 metres feel different when the person marrying you has hiked every metre of that mountain.
As a photographer, I notice what Martha does in the background: she positions couples naturally, keeps the energy light without crowding the moment, and gives people time. There's no clock-watching, no rushing to the next shot. The half-day on the mountainside is genuinely half a day — space for the ceremony, for a hike, for a picnic, for the photographs to breathe.
THE LOGISTICS
What Actually Happens
Couples sometimes assume a helicopter elopement must be impossibly complicated to plan. In practice, Martha makes it straightforward.
Everything departs from Alpine Helicopters' base in Canmore, about 15 minutes from Banff. The flight itself is eight minutes — a steep, spectacular climb of over 1,000 metres between the rocky faces of Mt. Grotto and Mt. Lady MacDonald. The helicopter is a Bell 407 with six passenger seats, meaning an intimate group of up to five people (plus Martha) can fly together in one flight. Larger parties are possible with additional flights.
Martha works with five distinct landing sites within the Mt. Charles Stewart alpine basin, and she chooses based on weather, group fitness, and what each couple is looking for. Some sites open onto wide saddles with panoramic views toward Banff National Park. Others put you at the base of a ridgeline that leads up to what locals call the Wedding Mound — a summit worth the extra climb. There's also Marvel Pass, a longer 30-minute scenic flight east toward Mt. Assiniboine, where the helicopter shuts down and stays on-site beside Cabin Lake while the ceremony unfolds.
For couples wanting a legal Canadian ceremony: Martha handles the officiant paperwork and will coach you through the marriage licence process well in advance. She'll meet you at a café in Canmore beforehand if you'd like, which I've seen ease a lot of pre-wedding nerves.
A FEW NOTES
Weather : Weather is the one variable nobody controls, and Martha handles it with the calm of someone who has been up there in every condition imaginable. If conditions prevent flying, the date can be rescheduled, or the ceremony moves to a beautiful backup location in Canmore with a partial refund on the helicopter portion. What I've seen on shoots with uncertain forecasts: she reads the mountains well enough to find the window, and some of my favourite images have been taken in the kind of light that only exists when clouds are moving fast across a ridge.
Aircraft: Alpine Helicopters operates as both a tourism and emergency services provider, meaning their fleet is occasionally called to support search and rescue operations in the Rockies. The specific aircraft assigned to your flight is subject to availability on the day. In practice this rarely affects bookings, but it's worth knowing — and it's also a reminder of the environment you're flying into. These are working mountains, and the team that flies you up there is the same one that keeps them safe.
What I Love About Photographing Up There
The alpine basin above Canmore is genuinely unlike anywhere else I work.
There are no other people. On a summer Saturday in Banff, Johnston Canyon has queues and Lake Louise has tour buses. Up here, the only sounds are wind, water, the occasional marmot, and whatever your couple is whispering to each other. That solitude is visible in photographs — it's not something you can recreate at a popular trailhead.
The light at altitude is extraordinary. The atmosphere is thinner, the shadows are sharper, the golden hours are longer. Wildflowers in July and August create a foreground that feels almost unreal against the peaks behind. In September, the larches turn and the whole basin shifts into burnt amber and gold.
And because there's no trail to follow, I can move freely around the ceremony. I've shot from ridges above, from creek beds below, from 30 metres back with the peaks framing everything. Martha understands photography — she knows when to give me space and when to pull the couple somewhere that will work better for a wide shot.
Is It Right for Your Elopement?
> You want true alpine wilderness, not a roadside viewpoint <
>Physical accessibility matters — the helicopter removes the hiking barrier, making summit elopements possible for couples who couldn't otherwise get there <
> You want a small, intimate ceremony (just the two of you, or up to about 22 people across multiple flights) <
> You want one person to handle guide and officiant duties, keeping your vendor list short <
> You're planning between late June and early October, which is Martha's season <
It's probably not the right fit if you're set on a specific iconic location like Moraine Lake or the Plain of Six Glaciers — those require a different kind of planning and permitting. But if you want to elope somewhere that feels genuinely remote, genuinely wild, and genuinely yours — somewhere most people will never stand — then the alpine basin above Canmore is hard to beat.
Want to take to the skies ?
Martha's heli wedding enquiries go directly through her website at marthashelihikes.com. Dates book out — particularly July and August — so if you're planning for summer, reach out at least several months in advance.
Get in touch
If you're also looking for your photographer, I'd love to hear from you. My proposal and elopement packages are built around exactly these kinds of days: long, unhurried, with space for the mountains to do what they do.