Québec · Montréal and Québec City
Eloping in Québec
Two old cities four hours apart, both walkable, both better in winter than anyone expects. Here is what each is actually good for, and the honest position on whether I am the right person to run it.
Before you read the rest
Québec is not where I chase work
I should say this before you spend ten minutes here. My season runs June to October in the Rockies and on the BC coast, and November to April in Colombia, Mexico and Costa Rica. Québec is not on that map, and I am not going to pretend it is so that this page ranks.
What is true is that I will travel for it. If you have read the rest of the site, you want the whole day designed and run by one person rather than a photographer who arrives at noon, and you are set on Québec, then write to me. It is quoted the way anywhere outside my two regions is quoted, from $14,000 USD, because it is a trip rather than a drive.
And if that is not what you want, this page still earns its keep. What follows is the real information about eloping in these two cities, including the notaire problem that catches almost everybody, whether or not you ever hire me.
The two cities
Four hours apart, and not interchangeable
Montréal
A city that will not pose for you
Old Montréal is the obvious answer and it is a good one for about forty minutes a day: the hour after rain, when the setts go black and throw the lamplight back up at you. The rest of the time it is a busy tourist quarter and your photographs will have strangers in them. The better version of a Montréal day starts on the Plateau before the cafés open, moves to the Mont Royal belvedere for the drop down onto the city, and only comes down to the cobbles once the light has gone.
Québec City
The one North American city that reads as older than it is
Old Québec is walled, steep and small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes, which makes it the easiest place in Canada to run a whole day without a car. Petit Champlain under snow and string lights is the frame everybody wants. Dufferin Terrace at first light, before the tour groups, is the frame nobody thinks to ask for and the one you will actually keep.
The part that catches people
Québec does not do quick weddings
Québec is the only province with its own civil code, and marriage runs through it. You cannot fly in on a Thursday and marry on a Saturday the way you can in Alberta. There is a published notice period, the ceremony must be performed by someone on the provincial register, and the paperwork is in French.
The usual solution is a notaire. Notaries in Québec can solemnise a marriage, they will travel, and the good ones book out months ahead in summer. That single booking is the constraint the whole rest of the day hangs off, which is why it is the first call and not the last.
The workaround plenty of couples use is to sign the legal paperwork at home, then come to Québec for the ceremony that actually matters to them. Nothing about that is lesser. It just means the day is yours to shape instead of the registry's.
Rules change. Confirm current notice periods and requirements with Directeur de l’état civil du Québec before you book flights.
When to come
Winter is the right answer
January and February
The reason to come. Snow on the Petit Champlain steps, ice on the falls, and a city that looks like it was built for it. Cold enough that you plan in twenty minute outdoor blocks with somewhere warm between each one.
May and June
Everything is open, nothing is crowded yet, and the light runs late. The quiet best answer if you do not want to be cold.
July and August
Peak everything. Festivals in Montréal, cruise ships in Québec City, and both old towns genuinely full. Workable, but you are buying early mornings and nothing else.
Late September and October
The colour in the Laurentians and on Île d'Orléans is the real draw, and the cities empty out mid-week. My pick after winter.
Twenty minutes from Old Québec
The falls are higher than Niagara
Montmorency drops eighty three metres, thirty more than Niagara, and almost nobody outside Québec knows it is there. In deep winter the spray freezes into a white cone at the base that people climb, and the whole cliff crusts over.
It is the one place near either city that makes you feel small, which is the thing a city elopement is usually missing. Twenty minutes from the walled city, so it fits inside a day rather than replacing it.
Before you ask
Questions, answered
Do you actually work in Québec?
Not as a core region, and I would rather say so than have you find out later. My season is the Rockies and the BC coast from June to October, and Colombia, Mexico and Costa Rica from November to April. Québec sits outside both. If you want the whole day designed and run by one person and you are set on Montréal or Québec City, I will travel for it, quoted the way anywhere outside my two regions is quoted, from $14,000 USD.
Montréal or Québec City?
Québec City if you want the day to look old and to run it on foot: the walled town is small, steep and crossable in twenty minutes, and Montmorency Falls is twenty minutes further. Montréal if you want a city that feels lived in rather than preserved, and if you would rather the day had a modern edge to it. Montréal also has the better food by a distance, which matters more than people expect on a day with only two of you at dinner.
How long does it take to marry legally in Québec?
Longer than most provinces. Québec runs on its own civil code: there is a published notice period, the ceremony has to be performed by someone on the provincial register, and the paperwork is in French. It is not a jurisdiction you can fly into and marry in three days. Plenty of couples sign the legal paperwork at home and come here for the ceremony that actually matters instead. Confirm current requirements with Directeur de l'état civil du Québec before booking anything.
Who can marry us there?
A notaire is the usual answer. Notaries in Québec can solemnise a marriage and most will travel to a location. They book out months ahead through the summer, so that booking is the first thing to secure and everything else in the day is planned around it.
Is winter really the best time?
For Québec City, yes, and it is not close. Snow on the Petit Champlain steps, ice on Montmorency, and an old town that was built for that weather. The trade is that you plan in twenty minute outdoor blocks with somewhere warm between each one, and you accept that a January morning can be minus twenty five. Late September and October is the other strong answer if cold is a dealbreaker.
Can we do both cities in one elopement?
Yes, and it is a good shape for it. They are about three hours apart by road along the north shore, with Île d'Orléans and Montmorency on the Québec City end. Two days lets you give each city a half and use the drive as part of the story rather than losing a day to it.
Set on Québec?
Then say so and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it, or point you at someone who lives there and would run it better.