A group of volunteers helped renovate the old bunkhouse to create the new Love wedding chapel. (Shelley Vallier/Submitted)

By Gillian Massie/CKOM News Staff

Sask. village giving couples a new start to their Love stories

Feb 14, 2024 | 10:18 AM

A village in Saskatchewan is taking the meaning of love to a new level.

Shelley Vallier, the mayor of Love, said the small community northeast of Prince Albert is taking reservations for its new wedding chapel.

“People like to come get married here, just so their marriage certificate says they were married in Love,” Vallier explained.

Couples have previously been married at the post office, the park, the community hall and the winter festival. Now, couples have everything they need for a big white wedding at the chapel.

“I want the Village of Love to look like a village of love,” said Vallier.

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The wedding chapel – complete with a bell – is now ready to start taking reservations from couples looking to tie the knot. Vallier said the project has been five years in the making.

“When I first came here, I just realized how marketable our little village could be,” she said. “Because we have such a low tax base – because we only have 72 residents in the village right now – I was looking for some other ways to bring in some revenue.”

Vallier said the ideas brought forward included souvenirs and a wedding chapel.

“We would eventually like to have some kind of a honeymoon cabin for them,” she added.

In 2021, while the community raised money to build the chapel, someone from Choiceland, a village about 20 kilometres west of Love, donated a bunkhouse. The bunkhouse was picked up and moved to Love, where it was placed on a foundation built by a group of volunteers.

“It was quite a big deal. We had quite a few people watch it come into town,” Vallier said.

The mayor said the project was completed mainly by volunteers, along with a few contractors who took a pay cut to complete the job. The whole chapel cost just $65,000.

“It took us a while to get that renovated, but we gutted the whole thing and she’s all brand new inside now,” she said.

The overhaul presented a few challenges, she said, especially when they found the walls were made from plaster covered in chicken wire.