The Vancouver Aquarium is quite possibly the most authentic and unique venue in the entire city of Vancouver. Imagine feasting and dancing with a natural backdrop of thousands of colourful, tropical fish and marvelous aquatic life. Weddings of all sizes are welcome as the Aquarium has the facilities and space to host large formal weddings or smaller, intimate weddings. Did you want impressive photos of your celebration too? Then look no further than this venue full of sea life.
Facilities and capacity
The whole venue has over 100,000 square feet of event space nestled amongst a stunning world full of marine life all around you. The facilities offered include the following spaces, all with plated dinner options upon request:
Entire Aquarium: This space has a capacity for up to 600 for a seated dinner and up to 2,000 for a cocktail reception.
Main Building Enhanced: This area has a capacity for up to 500 guests for a seated dinner and up to 1,300 for a cocktail reception.
Main Building: This area has a capacity for up to 300 guests for a seated dinner and up to 600 for a cocktail reception.
Full Top Floor: This floor can accommodate up to 250 guests for a seated dinner and up to 500 for a cocktail reception.
3/4 Top Floor: This space has a capacity for up to 150 guests for a seated dinner and up to 350 for a cocktail reception.
Canaccord: This gallery has a capacity of 140 for a seated dinner and up to 200 guests for cocktail reception.
1/2 Top Floor: This space has a capacity of 105 guests for seated dinner and up to 180 for a cocktail reception.
Steller's Bay: This space is also great for a small wedding of 100 guests for a seated dinner and 130 for a cocktail reception.
Courtyard: This outdoor space can be used for your ceremony or an outdoor reception of 225 guests for a seated dinner and 500 for a cocktail reception.
Upper Teck (Teck Connections): This gallery has a capacity for up to 100 guests for a seated dinner and 200 for a cocktail reception.
Lower Teck (Teck Engagement) Gallery: This space is ideal for a smaller wedding of up to 80 guests for a seated dinner and up to 175 for a cocktail reception.
Changing Tides (NEW SPACE!): Can seat up to 160 guests and 200 for a cocktail reception
Services offered
Vancouver Aquarium offers a number of services to make your event perfect. The services offered include:
Head table, cake table, signing & gift table, DJ station
Set up & Takedown
60” round, high top & low bistro tables
White folding chairs
Black or White Linen
China & flatware
Oceanic centerpieces
Wi-Fi within the venue
Use of In-house Screens (within the Gallery you have rented, excluding 360-degree screens)
Table Number Frames
Tea Light Candles
Standard background music
Easel for seating chart
Unmanned Coat Check
Pipe/drape set-up x1
Complete Floor Plan
Staffing Labour Costs
Guided and non-guided site tour of the venue
Event Planner
Banquet Coordinator on-site for the duration of your event
Cuisine
The culinary team at the Vancouver Aquarium, led by renowned Executive Chef Ned Bell creates a wide range of delicious dishes full of West Coast flavour. Their aim is to offer a fine dining experience which is as amazing as the venue itself. All food is sustainably sourced whenever possible for their farm-to-table approach to deliciously served dishes.
Other services
As a stunning aquarium, this venue can also offer other activities that will enhance your special day. These include:
As a recent immigrant, I only had a limited number of people who can join me and my (now) wife to celebrate our marriage, and given that we're both fans of The Little Mermaid, we really wanted to do it in the Vancouver Aquarium which we thought might be problematic for us given that we were only around 10 people and it's impractical to book the whole place. Fortunately, the events coordinator (Emma) allowed us to hold our wedding during their open hours so all we really needed was to buy the tickets. Emma was very accommodating to our questions and requests, even toured us around the aquarium during our ocular to see the best place to cordon off for our small ceremony and suggested the best day and time to do it on. On the day itself, Emma helped us throughout the ceremony by escorting us and helping create an intimate atmosphere despite other aquarium visitors being there. Overall, I would recommend the Vancouver Aquarium to couples who want to hold an intimate and magical wedding. It will be exposed to the public for sure if you go the same route as we did, but I'm personally proud to celebrate our love in front of everyone so it was never an issue. When the time comes to renew our vows, we're definitely considering doing it again in the Vancouver Aquarium.
Sent on 19/07/2019
Vancouver Aquarium's reply:
It was my pleasure to make this magical day happen for you two. I look forward to hearing from you when it does come time to renew your vows. - Emma
