AS she watched the bride and groom whizz down the aisle, Vanessa Smith’s eyes filled with tears, knowing she’d made yet another couple’s dreams come true.
Vanessa, 34, has spent the last six years pulling off some of the most logistically complex ceremonies in one of the most beautiful places on earth – the French Alps.
The couples don’t only marry in the snow, but wearing skis. Her unique business has been so successful that, in 2025, it generated a turnover of £1 million.
But the road to running a business that specialises in mountain-top weddings wasn’t a straightforward path, and just like a ski piste – there were plenty of ups and downs along the way.
Vanessa first quit life in the UK when she was 18, and she embarked on a decade working in hospitality in sun-soaked destinations like Greece.
Spending her teens and twenties in the sunshine, she decided to swap sand for snow and moved to Morzine, a picturesque ski resort in the French Alps, in 2015.
Vanessa told Fabulous: “Before I came to Morzine, I’d never been on skis or anything, but it was so eye-opening and how beautiful ski resorts are and what a life it is.”
As she settled into her new alpine life, she knew that this would be the perfectly peaceful environment she needed to create the business she’d always dreamt of running.
She added: “One Sunday, I was walking around the lake in my town and I saw a wedding there, and I thought to myself how cool it was that people could get married at one of the most beautiful places on earth.”
Vanessa, who’d always dreamed of a location wedding herself, had first-hand experience of how tricky this could be.
Just a year before moving to the Alps, she and her partner had decided they wanted to get married abroad.
But it wasn’t as simple as she’d hoped.
She said: “At the time, the only thing I could find were naff package destination weddings, with licra chair covers and different shades of pink bouquets to choose from.
“I had this idea that I would pick all of my own suppliers and support local businesses, but I just couldn’t figure out how to do it, and it was all very overwhelming.”
But as she watched the wedding guests erupt into cheers as the bride and groom kissed in front of the ethereal mountain backdrop, she knew exactly what she wanted her business to be.
Vanessa instantly began reaching out to local suppliers and independent businesses in the area, who were all excited to get on board.
“I’m not religious or anything, so I really wanted to create something that focused on the beauty and nature,” she explained.
However, just as her idea started to snowball, the world was tipped upside down by the coronavirus.
But headstrong Vanessa wasn’t going to let that get in the way of her ambition.
I’ve had photographers skiing backwards to make sure that they capture the moment, but it’s so much fun.
Vanessa
She said: “Covid worked in my favour, although at the time I wouldn’t have said that.
“Covid for me meant I had no other distractions and meant I could work from 6am until midnight on a product that otherwise maybe I wouldn’t have had time to do.”
Vanessa wasn’t working at the time of setting up her business, so everything rested on Mountain Weddings becoming a success.
“My electricity got cut when I was living in Morzine in the winter, and I couldn’t afford to get my electricity bill back on because I refused to let go of any of my staff.
“So I used to plug in an extension lead into the communal hallway so I could put my kettle on in the morning.
“But local businesses supported me and let me sit in their offices because they knew how hard starting a business is. And as my dad said, it was character-building.”
And so Mountain Weddings was launched in 2020 – and six years later she made her first million.
“The first couple of weddings we did were probably the hardest to date,” she said upon reflection.
“We had to get all the guests to the pharmacy within the first 48 hours of arrival to get their tests done.
“But how great, it was a real baptism of fire, and I thought to myself, this is the hardest it’s ever going to be and the least experienced you’re ever going to be – it’s just going to get easier.”
But when your USP is hosting weddings on top of a mountain, “easy” probably isn’t the best choice of wording.
Laughing to herself, Vanessa said: “I picked the hardest place in the world to do logistics for a wedding.
“But if I can do it in the mountains, I can do it anywhere!”
Six years later, Vanessa has countless weddings on top of snow-capped mountains under her belt, and her favourites are always when the bridal party straps into a pair of skis.
Vanessa said: “There was this one wedding where we had 20 of them going down a slope in their wedding gear.
“They had boom boxes, and some were wearing inflatable dinosaur costumes – it was so cool.
“So many people get married, and wedding days can become a bit samey – but a ski wedding is unforgettable.”
Armed with a walkie-talkie and a clipboard, Vanessa sends some of her team up on a ski lift to make sure that the slope is free of ice and isn’t full of fellow skiers.
“We normally do the end of the day, so the bride and groom can have sunset pictures,” she explained.
“We’ll wait at the top of a slope so it’s nice and clear, and then we get the photographer in position.
“The photographer is under so much pressure, as it’s very rare that the bride will do more than one run in the dress, so they’ve got just one opportunity to get the perfect shot.
“I’ve had photographers skiing backwards to make sure that they capture the moment, but it’s so much fun.”
One of the other elements that Vanessa loves about her job is when guests see the mountains for the first time.
She said: “One of the first weddings we ever did, the father of the groom came up to me and said that he would have never come to the mountains, as he was more of a ‘beach guy’.
“He told me how he usually went to Tenerife every year. But he turned to me and told me that the Alps were the most magical place that he’d ever been to.
“He said how amazing it was that a couple could bring all their favourite people, who might not have ever visited, to such an incredible spot.”
And whilst ski weddings are her speciality, she’s now branched out to other stunning destinations in Italy, Greece, and the Swiss Alps – and runs weddings in the glorious sunshine as well as the snow.
I picked the hardest place in the world to do logistics for a wedding.
But if I can do it in the mountains, I can do it anywhere!
Vanessa
Vanessa’s team has grown with her business, and now she spends huge chunks of the year travelling around the world to suss out wedding and honeymoon destinations.
She said: “We’ve had hard times and we’ve had our ups and downs. It can be really tricky selling something that has such a USP, but I just couldn’t not do it now.
“What we create is so special, I don’t know how I’d mirror that in another job or another business, it’s just so unique.
“I was never a cryer, I’m not a romantic, I wasn’t an emotional person. I picked this job because I’m really good at logistics, and I can build something that other people wouldn’t be able to create in the UK.
“And now, every time a couple says their vows, I burst into tears.”
One of the biggest drives for Mountain Weddings was to achieve her dream of running a charity that supports women and girls in India.
And as fate would have it, she was put in touch with the president of Friends of India charity, who was looking for someone to take over so that she could retire.
“Friends of India is my drive behind everything. That’s why I worked 18-hour days to get Mountain Weddings up and running.
“Now we have hundreds of people every year who hear about the charity, and often our couples will ask guests to donate to Friends of India, instead of wedding gifts.
“I’ve had one guest offer to build me a brand new orphanage in a different location. The connections that have come from the business for the charity have been invaluable.”
