Weddings at Bristol
A Manitoba wedding venue with room for everyone
Two hundred guests, one open room, a roofed gazebo for the ceremony, and the whole building for three days if you want it. Ten minutes out of Steinbach, forty-five from south Winnipeg.
The ceremony goes outside under a roof and the supper and the dance go in one room, because there is one room — and it holds 200 people, 180 of them sitting down to a plate.
Country wedding venues in Manitoba mostly come attached to a hotel, a golf course or a caterer who has to be used, and they price like it. This is a building in a field on sixty acres, run by the family who owns it. What that buys you is the whole place from seven in the morning to midnight, a kitchen nobody guards, any caterer you like including your own relatives, and free parking you can leave a car in overnight. What it costs you is the decorating. We do not set rooms, we do not decorate, and we have no decor to rent — you get the building, the tables and chairs and the kitchen, you dress it however you want, and we will tell you who does that for a living. There is nowhere on site to sleep, and the hall is left as you found it unless you add cleaning for $250.
- 180
- seated for a plated supper, 200 standing
- $2,500
- the whole building, Friday to Sunday
- 12 × 28
- feet of roofed gazebo, included with the hall
- 7 AM – 12 AM
- every day you book, not a block inside it
How the day runs
What actually happens, in order
Friday
The first of your three days on the weekend rate. Decorating, deliveries and the rehearsal, in daylight, in the room you are actually getting married in. Nobody from here is hanging any of it, which is exactly why you want the Friday: everything goes up off a stepladder at two in the afternoon instead of at eleven at night.
Saturday, morning
Tables and chairs for 200 are in the building and you put them where you want them. Your caterer gets the kitchen — two fridges, the stove, the microwave, and a commercial dishwasher that does a wash and rinse in two minutes. Helmut is on site and is your one phone number for the day.
Saturday, afternoon
The ceremony, in the gazebo. 12 × 28 feet on a cedar deck, lattice sides, a roof over it and warm bulbs strung under that. It is not a decision anybody has to make at noon off the radar, which is the whole reason it is there.
Saturday night into Sunday
Supper, speeches, dance. The bar rolls out to wherever you want it, backed onto the kitchen pass-through, and the urns stay full, because around here the coffee runs out before the food does. The building is yours to midnight, or to 1 AM on the weekend rate at no extra charge, and you load out Sunday in daylight rather than at two in the morning.
What it costs
The whole rate card for a wedding
One rate buys the building for the day, 7 AM – 12 AM, with the tables, the chairs, the dishes, the kitchen and the gazebo already in it. Everything under it is a thing we own and you may or may not want. There is no tier to pick and nothing is compulsory — the weekend rate is the only line that bundles anything, and what it bundles is the late hours on the Saturday night.
Saturday
7 AM to midnight on the busiest day of the week. Room for 200, with 180 sitting down comfortably for a plated supper.
$1,250
Friday or Sunday
The same hall and the same hours as a Saturday, two hundred and fifty dollars less. Sunday afternoons get the west light off the field.
$1,000
The whole weekend, Friday to Sunday
Three full days for the price of two, and the late hours on Saturday night cost nothing. Decorate Friday, get married Saturday, load out Sunday in daylight instead of at one in the morning.
$2,500
Bar
The rolling bar, wheeled out to wherever you want it and backed onto the kitchen pass-through so whoever is pouring is not cut off from the room. You bring the drinks and the permit.
$80/ day
Stage
A raised platform for the band, the DJ, the head table or the speeches — worth it the moment you have 180 people sitting down and somebody at the back who needs to see.
$80/ day
Late-Night Extension to 1 AM
The rental runs to midnight; this holds the building to 1 AM. It costs nothing on the Saturday of a whole-weekend booking — that one is already included.
$200
After-Event Cleaning
Floors, kitchen, washrooms and bins the morning after. Without it the hall has to be left as you found it — which on a wedding night means somebody's uncle mopping at two in the morning.
$250
Coffee & Tea Service
Urn coffee, tea, cream and sugar topped up from your first guest to your last, with a thermos left on each table. Around here the coffee runs out before the food does.
$2.75/ guest
One rate buys the whole building from 7 AM to midnight. Anything below it is something you add on top. Every rate we charge is on the pricing page.
A worked example
The whole weekend, for 150
Friday to decorate, Saturday to get married, Sunday to load out in daylight. One hundred and fifty sitting down to a plate.
| The whole weekend, Friday to Sunday | $2,500 |
|---|---|
| Bar, Saturday | $80 |
| Stage, Saturday | $80 |
| After-Event Cleaning | $250 |
| Coffee & tea, 150 × $2.75 | $412.50 |
| Subtotal | $3,322.50 |
| GST 5% | $166.13 |
| Total | $3,488.63 |
Those five lines are $3,322.50 before tax and $3,488.63 after, which across 150 guests is $23.26 a head for three days of the building, the gazebo, the tables and chairs, the dishes, the kitchen, the bar, the stage and the cleanup after. The late-night extension is not one of the lines because on a weekend booking the Saturday night already has it. Food, drink, flowers, music, photography and everything you hang on a wall are not ours to sell and are not in that number. The $500 damage deposit sits on top and comes back within two to three weeks.
Before you ring
Questions
Can the ceremony happen outside?
Yes, in the gazebo, and it is included with the hall rather than rented on top. It is 12 × 28 feet, roofed, lattice-sided, on a cedar deck and strung with warm bulbs. What that is worth is the forecast: an outdoor ceremony here does not get called off at noon, because the wedding party is under a roof either way and the guests' chairs can come in if it turns. If you would rather be inside from the start, the hall is one open rectangle with no pillars, so the ceremony goes at the end where the head table will sit and the chairs get turned while everybody is up with a drink.
Do you set the room or do any of the decorating?
No, neither, and we have nothing to rent you for it. What you get is the building from seven in the morning to midnight, the tables and chairs for 200, the dishes and cutlery, the kitchen and the gazebo. Everything that makes it look like your wedding — linens, drape, backdrops, centrepieces, arches — you bring or you hire, and it goes up by your own hands or somebody you have paid. Plenty of the rooms in our photographs were dressed by the couple and their aunts on the Friday. We will tell you who does it for a living around here, and we take no cut of any of it.
Is the whole weekend worth $1,250 more than a Saturday?
Three separate days would be $3,250 — $1,000 each for the Friday and the Sunday and $1,250 for the Saturday — so $2,500 for all three saves you $750 against booking them one at a time. Against a single Saturday it is $1,250 more, and what it buys is time. Since nobody here is hanging anything for you, somebody has to, and doing it on the Friday in daylight is a different job from doing it at eleven at night. It also moves the load-out to Sunday morning instead of one in the morning, and the late hours on the Saturday come with it at no charge.
Who handles the alcohol?
You do. You apply for your own Social Occasion Liquor Permit from the LGCA, and we will tell you which type you need and when to send it. We do not sell drinks, which means there is no corkage, no bar minimum and nobody here taking a cut of what you pour. The bar itself is $80 for the day: a rolling bar that goes wherever you want it and backs onto the kitchen pass-through, so whoever is pouring is not cut off from the room. Parking is free and overnight is included, so anybody who should not drive can leave the car and collect it the next day.
Will 150 sit down with a head table and a dance floor?
Yes, comfortably. 180 is the number that sits down to a plate once the head table and the floor are in, and 150 is the size we see most often. 200 is the room's maximum and it is a standing or buffet number, not a plated one. Past about 150 the head table wants the long wall so the furthest guest is closer, and the buffet has to run both sides of the kitchen doors or supper takes too long. The stage is $80 a day if you want the head table or the band up where the back of the room can see them.
What time does it end?
The rental runs to midnight, and that is the whole building from 7 AM — not a block inside somebody else's day and no clock ticking while your aunts set the tables. If you want longer, the Late-Night Extension is $200 and holds the building to 1 AM, which is an hour of coffee and goodbyes rather than an hour of dancing. On a whole-weekend booking the Saturday night already has it, so do not pay for it twice.
Is somebody in the family going to end up doing the dishes?
Only if you choose it. Dishes and cutlery for 200 are in the building already and cost nothing to use, but nobody here washes them for you — what the kitchen has is one commercial dishwasher that runs a wash and rinse in two minutes, which is fast enough to be one person's job rather than three people's evening. The floors, the kitchen, the washrooms and the bins are the other half of the question. Without After-Event Cleaning at $250 the hall is left as you found it, and on a wedding night that means somebody's uncle mopping at two in the morning.
Tell us the date and we will price the whole weekend.
Day, headcount, and whether you want the Friday and the Sunday with it. The quote comes back itemised with the GST already on it — not a form that lands in an inbox.