The honeymoon is over before it began.
In a dramatic change of heart, Port Moody city council voted Tuesday not to go ahead with a plan to install a "love locks" railing in the city, after staff recommended the planned lovers' monument be moved from the Rocky Point pier to Pioneer Park.
The love locks tradition - wherein couples inscribe their names on a padlock, fasten the lock to a railing or fence and then throw away the key as a symbol of their bond - is popular around the world.
It was even popular with Port Moody council as recently as May 24 when councillors voted unanimously in favour of installing a love locks railing somewhere in the city.
The favoured lovers locale was the pier at Rocky Point Park, but after consultation with city staff, Pioneer Park off Newport Drive was chosen as a more suitable spot.
But much of the love for the locks was lost when the time came at Tuesday's council meeting to put the final seal of approval on the $4,000 lovers' railing.
Despite Coun. Mike Clay's proposed amendment to move the lovers' railing back to Rocky Point, councillors Meghan Lahti, Bob Elliott, Gerry Nuttall and Karen Rockwell had turned against the idea, the latter calling love locks an ugly form of graffiti which has no place in the city.
"We live next to the ocean where everything rusts in the salt air and I think it will take no time at all for these things to become extremely unsightly and people will start putting them everywhere," Rockwell said.
The love locks railing was defeated 4-3 with councillors Mike Clay, Diana Dilworth and Mayor Joe Trasolini still in support of the idea.
