{"id":314714,"date":"2025-11-29T17:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/314714\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T17:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T17:03:11","slug":"couple-weds-in-nelson-b-c-with-little-notice-but-great-support-from-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/314714\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple weds in Nelson, B.C., with little notice \u2014 but great support from community"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\" alt=\"Text to Speech Icon\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>This time last week, Tim Bowman and Leah Fried didn\u2019t know they\u2019d be happily married.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The couple had been planning to wed while spending time in B.C. through the winter. <\/p>\n<p>While house-sitting in Nelson, they reached out to their astrologer to figure out what the best timing for their nuptials would be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe got back to us on Monday morning \u2014 early \u2014 with an email headline that said, &#8216;Urgent,&#8217; and the contents of that email said you need to get married tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day,\u201d Fried told CBC\u2019s Radio West.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;tomorrow&#8221; in question being Tuesday, Nov. 25, at precisely 2:34 p.m., about a day and a half from when the email was sent.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0So, the couple got to work.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bowman started reaching out to officiants in Nelson, a city of about 11,000 in British Columbia\u2019s Kootenay region, which turned out to be pretty easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were constantly met with yes, yes, yes, we can make this work. We can make this work. So in short order, we had some officiants that were interested,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A woman smiles as she leans in toward a man as they stand in front of a small waterfall\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764435790_70_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7054131054131054\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Leah Fried and Tim Bowman are pictured on their wedding day in Nelson, B.C. (Thomas Wilson)<\/p>\n<p>Next, they started making a list of places that would work. They wanted to be outside, and settled on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nelsonkootenaylake.com\/listing\/cottonwood-falls-park\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Cottonwood Falls Park<\/a>, a picturesque spot home to Japanese gardens and a waterfall.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bowman, who is American, and Fried, who hails from Kelowna, didn\u2019t actually know anyone in town \u2014 but they needed to find witnesses for their marriage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>They posted in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/NelsonBC\/permalink\/10161870247435718\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">local Facebook group<\/a> looking for anyone who could be available Tuesday afternoon to watch the couple get married and sign the paperwork saying as much.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But the post didn\u2019t go up right away; a page administrator had to approve its content. It went live around 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and Bowman said comments started flooding in.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWithin like an hour, it had a bunch of likes. There was 20-something comments asking, \u2018Hey, can I come take pictures? Can I come play music?\u2019 and a lot of congratulatory offerings,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll we were getting were yeses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Witnesses, a photographer, an officiant and a musician all showed up at Cottonwood Falls Park, with very little notice, to help the couple\u2019s dreams come true.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Two people stand holding hands while others look on\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764435791_863_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7777777777777777\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>A group of strangers in Nelson, B.C., showed up to help Tim Bowman and Leah Fried get married on Nov. 25. (Thomas Wilson)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really warmed my heart to see the community element come into play,\u201d Fried said. \u201cWe&#8217;re both very community-oriented people and very much believe in the power of community. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a whole other level to be so supported by people you don&#8217;t even know, and who know nothing about you \u2014 except that you&#8217;re getting married and you&#8217;re in love, and that they want to offer themselves in celebration of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bowman and Fried exchanged rings made of twisted willow branches; more permanent rings they\u2019d designed and ordered are on the way.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey&#8217;re quite lovely and they&#8217;ll do the job just fine until our more solid, sturdy and sustainable rings show up,\u201d Fried said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Two people's hands are shown wearing rings made from trees\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1764435791_370_default.jpg\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5644699140401146\" data-cy=\"image-img\"\/>Bowman and Fried show off their rings made from willow branches. More permanent rings are on the way. (Thomas Wilson)<\/p>\n<p>As he reflected on the wedding, Bowman said he\u2019s filled with \u201cjoyous laughter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe universe is such a strange and wonderful place, and I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m here to witness it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fried said the whole thing felt \u201cexquisitely miraculous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you Nelson, for holding us. We love you \u2026 we&#8217;ll definitely be spending time here in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LISTEN | The newlyweds share how their wedding came to be:<\/p>\n<p>Radio West15:23Tying the knot in Nelson<\/p>\n<p>A couple travelling house-sitting in B.C. decided to get married on one day&#8217;s notice in Nelson on Tuesday. Tim Bowman and Leah Fried share how the community got together to help them make it happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-314714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}