If you didn’t know Claire Bouwers and Zack Bath, you could be forgiven for thinking they were a sandwich short of a picnic if you seen them skate onto the ice at Minoru Arenas on Saturday.
Instead of wearing hockey pads and helmets, the pair had just got hitched literally minutes before their wedding puck dropped on the Silver Rink, with Bouwers in her wedding dress and Bath in his three-piece suit.
The newlyweds were joined on the ice by Bath’s five groomsmen, as the party got its official wedding snaps taken.
And it may not surprise you to learn that both the bride and groom are crazy about hockey and wanted to run their love of the game through the theme of their big day.
“We came up with the idea of a themed wedding as we’ve both played hockey all of our lives,” said Bouwers, the day before she and Bath tied the knot at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver.
“I’ve been playing since I was eight, Zack since he was six and we both play on a co-ed team in Delta called the Fireballs. We both play defence for other teams; I play in Burnaby for the Rebels, Zack manages that team and he plays for the Blockheads in the Coast League.”
As well as getting their pictures taken on the ice at Minoru, the pair had personalized pucks with their guests’ names on them on the tables and the table numbers at the reception were Canucks’ players’ numbers.
None of the five bridesmaids joined the couple and their groomsmen on the ice, as only one of them could skate, according to Bouwers, 27, a McRoberts secondary grad, while Bath, 28, is a former Richmond High student.
And if their mutual love of hockey wasn’t enough to bond the Burkeville resident pair beyond marriage, they share the same birthday, Dec. 5.
The couple’s honeymoon plans will see them visiting Whistler, Nova Scotia and then Maui.
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