Wedding venues on North Vancouver Island.

Several hours of driving north from Nanaimo, and most of a day from Victoria once the ferry is counted. There is an airport at Campbell River and another at Port Hardy, which is the sensible route for anybody who is not making a road trip of it.

Yes, but not many of them in the same place. Rooms are thinner on the ground the further north you go and there are stretches with one road and few beds, so settle where everybody sleeps before you settle the date.

It is workable and it is rarely what people choose. Weddings up here are smaller by nature because the guest list narrows to the people who would genuinely travel, and most couples decide that is the point rather than a compromise.

Fishing, whale watching, kayaking and some of the best old-growth walking on the coast, all of it minutes from where you are staying. A weekend built around one of those gives guests who have travelled a long way a reason to make a trip of it.

A British Columbia marriage licence, bought from any licence agent in the province and valid for three months. Buy it before you drive north rather than after, because agents are sparse up the island and the licence is the one thing you cannot arrange on the day.