Getting married on the beaches of Quadra Island is already a magical experience, but for newlyweds Blake and Morgan Belton something unexpected was in store.
From the beginning of the day on Saturday, the couple and their guests kept seeing orcas playing around in the water just by the wedding venue.
The couple had just finished with their ceremony, and had gone down to the beach to do a private vow exchange. Luckily, their photo and video crew was part of that exchange, because as they finished, a pod of about seven orcas surfaced just off the beach.
“We had decided to privately say our vows instead of doing it in our ceremony and so right at sunset, we wandered down to the beach,” said bride Morgan Belton. “We said our vows to each other and then we stood up to give each other a hug and our photographers were like, ‘hey that sounded like a whale.’
“We all turned around and this pot of orcas just jumped out of the water in front of us and we just stood there for probably 10 minutes and watch them swim by us. And it was like a little pod; a little family. There was like a mom, dad and a baby,” she said. “It was so special and so sweet. We heard all of our guests cheering and we thought they were cheering for us taking our photos and they were watching them as well. The DJ even put on the Free Willy soundtrack.”
“That’s a pretty good good way to start your marriage off,” said videographer Alyssa Gaiga.”We talked about it afterwards and, like, I don’t know if there’s like a better sign of good luck or what but that’s definitely a sign.”
Gaiga, who was shooting video of the ceremony, said that though she was used to capturing beautiful moments between couples, “It’s very rare that like I normally get to shoot wildlife as Majestic as the whales.”
“Normally, it’s just a dog carrying some rings down the aisle or something like that some sort of family pet. So it’s pretty cool that we actually were there and got to witness that,” she said. “The timing was just perfect.”
The Beltons also felt that the whales were auspicious. Morgan said that they did some research into the spiritual meaning of orcas, and found that “it was love, family and protection.
“We just felt like it was such a sign that our marriage was going to be often such this wonderful first foot and we just so lucky.”
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marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com
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’That’s a pretty good good way to start your marriage off’ said photographer Alyssa Gaiga. Photo courtesy Alyssa Gaiga productions
