Getting married in Québec City, by the Château Frontenac

Picture the wedding photos first. Snow on the boardwalk, the lamps coming on along the railing, the St. Lawrence going blue below, and a castle above you with every window lit. That is a Québec City wedding, and it is why so many couples choose the city, in winter above all.

The castle is the Château Frontenac, a hotel that has stood over the old town since 1893. Its story runs through every part of planning a wedding here, so we will tell it in pieces, where it helps.

Why Québec City suits a wedding

Old Québec is small enough to walk. The ceremony, the photos, the dinner and the hotel can all be a few minutes apart on foot, which matters when your guests are in boots and good clothes.

It is also a place guests remember. The Historic District of Old Québec has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1985, the first in North America, and it still has its stone walls, narrow streets and steep stairs. Guests who have never been will spend the weekend exploring, and those who know it will be glad to come back.

Where to get married in and around Old Québec

At the Château Frontenac itself. The hotel, today called Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, hosts weddings in its own rooms, from very small ones to large receptions. Ask the hotel directly about rooms, dates and prices; we have no link with it, and it is the only one who can answer.

A little history helps here. In the late 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway was building its line across Canada and wanted travellers to ride it. So it built grand hotels along the way, and Québec got the first of its château-style hotels. The railway hired Bruce Price, an architect from New York, who drew turrets, steep copper roofs and brick walls, like a French castle on the cliff. It is named after Louis de Buade, comte de Frontenac, twice governor of New France in the 17th century.

At venues a short walk away. The Morrin Centre, a cultural centre in a former prison and college in the heart of the old town, rents its rooms for weddings. For a religious ceremony, Old Québec has the Cathedral-Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, a Catholic parish, and the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral, built in 1804. Ask the parish directly about weddings there; each has its own rules and calendar.

A civil ceremony. In Quebec, a civil wedding can be celebrated by a court clerk at the courthouse, by a notary, or by a mayor or municipal councillor. A relative or a friend can also be designated to marry you, if they meet the conditions set by the Directeur de l’état civil. Ask your officiant early whether their authorization covers the place you have in mind: a room at the hotel, a restaurant, the home of a relative.

Whatever the ceremony, a notice of the marriage is published on the Directeur de l’état civil’s website for 20 days before the wedding. Plan it early, along with the officiant, especially if you live outside Quebec.

Photos around the Château

The best-known view of the hotel is from the Dufferin Terrace, the wide boardwalk that runs along the cliff at its feet. It was opened in 1879 and named after Lord Dufferin, the governor general who pushed for it. Under its boards lie the remains of the Saint-Louis Forts and Châteaux, where the governors of New France lived, now a national historic site you can visit.

Go at dusk. In winter the sun sets around 5 pm, and for a short while the sky turns blue while the lamps and the hotel's windows are lit. That is the light painted in our Quebec in Winter save the date, and it lasts less than half an hour. Snow helps: it brightens faces and hides everything you would rather not see in the photos.

The building you see is not the one that opened in 1893. The hotel grew in stages, with new wings in the 1900s and the 1920s, and its central tower, the one in every photo, was completed in the 1920s. It is often called the most photographed hotel in the world; nobody can measure that, but you will see why people say it.

During the Second World War, it was at the centre of history. In August 1943 and again in September 1944, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met in Québec for the Quebec Conferences, with Prime Minister Mackenzie King as host, and the talks were held at the Citadelle and at the Château. It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1981.

Planning a winter wedding

The cold. January and February days are often well below −10 °C, colder with the wind on the terrace. Keep outdoor photos short, have coats and hand warmers ready, and plan a warm room close by. Tell guests on the save the date or the website that the photos will be outside, so they bring boots.

The short days. With sunset around 5 pm, a ceremony early in the afternoon leaves daylight for the photos and the blue hour for the terrace.

The Carnaval de Québec. The winter carnival has been held every year since 1955, with its snowman mascot, Bonhomme, and it now runs for about ten days in early February. The 2027 edition is from February 5 to 14. It makes the old town lively and festive, and it also fills hotel rooms; check the dates before you pick yours, and book rooms early if they overlap.

The toboggan slide. On the Dufferin Terrace, an ice slide with three lanes runs from about mid-December to mid-March, as it has since 1884. Toboggans reach about 70 km/h. It is the kind of thing guests talk about for years, and a good plan for the morning after.

When to tell guests. Winter weddings need more notice than summer ones. For a wedding between late November and March, send your save the dates nine months or more ahead; see when to send your save the dates.

Guests who travel

Québec City has its own airport, Jean Lesage International (YQB). From Montréal, the VIA Rail train reaches the Gare du Palais, at the foot of the old town, in about three hours and a quarter, and the drive is about 250 km on Highway 20.

Old Québec has hotels of every size within the walls and just outside them. Once you have a room block, say so on your save the date, so guests can book while it lasts.

Some guests will read French better than English, others neither. Send each family the save the date in the language they read best, in up to 30 languages: see one save the date, in up to 30 languages.

How it ended up in our save the date

The Château Frontenac in winter is where our Quebec in Winter save the date takes place. Your guest taps the stamp and a pair of tall doors swings open. Behind them, the Dufferin Terrace in the dark, with the snow already falling.

A street lamp flickers on and lights a young couple standing beneath it. Then dusk spreads over the Château, from the lamp outward, until every window is lit and the sky turns peach over the river. As the view zooms in, the couple lean in and kiss, and your names, your date and your place appear above them, with a button to add the day to the calendar.

It is painted in thick, swirling oil strokes, and made for a winter wedding in Québec City. You can play it on your phone, then make your own for free, with your names and your date.

Sources

• Parks Canada and the Canadian Register of Historic Places, Château Frontenac National Historic Site of Canada.
• The Canadian Encyclopedia, Château Frontenac.
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Buade, Louis de, comte de Frontenac et de Palluau.
• U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian, The Second Quebec Conference.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Historic District of Old Québec.
• Québec City Tourism, Dufferin Terrace and Au 1884.
• Carnaval de Québec, About the Carnival.
• Gouvernement du Québec, Authorized officiants, and Directeur de l’état civil, Choosing an officiant and Publication d’un avis de mariage ou d’union civile (in French).
• Morrin Centre, Weddings.
• VIA Rail, Montréal–Québec City.