At one in the morning on the wedding night, nobody is looking for their car keys.
The last song has just ended under the tent. The bride's parents are climbing the stairs. Her sister stops in the kitchen for a glass of water, two of the wedding party linger by the pool, the caterer is packing up. Nobody calls a cab. Nobody wonders whether that last glass was one too many to drive: their room is upstairs.
In the morning they meet again at brunch, still half inside the night before, and tell it to the ones who left too early.
That is what couples picture when they search for a wedding venue with accommodation. The trouble is that the phrase covers very different things, and you often find out at the visit, once you have already fallen for the place.
"With accommodation" can mean four different things
A hotel with a ballroom. There is no shortage of rooms, booked at a group rate, but the hotel stays open to the public. At breakfast, your family shares the dining room with business travellers.
An inn with a handful of rooms. They are often lovely. They are not always included in the hall rental, and not always held for your wedding: an inn lives off its rooms, and it rents them.
A large rental property near the venue. Everyone sleeps together and celebrates somewhere else, which means driving between the two, there and back.
A privatized estate. The party and the bedrooms share one address and one price. Nobody else sleeps there.
A hotel can sleep two hundred guests, which no estate ever will. A privatized estate sleeps far fewer, but they are your people, and only yours. Both count as venues with accommodation. They do not promise the same weekend at all.
At Manoir Blackswan, fourteen people sleep on site, and they are yours
Manoir Blackswan is a private estate in Châteauguay, on the South Shore, thirty minutes from downtown Montreal. It is privatized for one wedding at a time, for two nights and three days, from May to October. Seven bedrooms sleep fourteen guests, and they are included in the privatization, which starts at $15,000.
The bedrooms belong to the estate just as the tent and the gardens do. They are yours from the first evening to the last morning, and you share them with no one.
The list of the fourteen is the first real decision of your wedding
Fourteen places is a little or a lot, depending on the size of the wedding. For a hundred guests, it is close family: the two of you, your parents, your siblings, sometimes the wedding party. For forty guests, it is more than one in three.
We suggest writing this list before the guest list. It names the people who will share the first evening's supper, who will be around while you get ready, who will stay for brunch. They set the tone of the weekend far more than the menu or the flowers do.
The usual trap is giving the rooms to the people you would not dare leave out, rather than the ones you want to see at breakfast. Make it together. One evening, with no family in the room.
Guests sleeping elsewhere still get home without driving
Your other guests stay in Châteauguay, minutes away, or in Montreal. A shuttle between the hotels and the estate, or a valet service, settles the ride home: nobody gets back on the highway after the last dance, and the courtyard stays quiet. For those who drive in, seventy-five parking spaces wait at Saint-Joachim church nearby, by the water, all weekend.
The shuttle costs something. It earns its place: a night where half the room keeps an eye on the clock for the drive home does not end the way a night with no clock does.
What accommodation changes, from the first evening to the last morning
| Moment | A venue without rooms | A privatized estate with rooms |
|---|---|---|
| The night before | Everyone arrives on the day | Your closest settle in and have supper together |
| Getting ready | In a hotel room, away from the venue | Upstairs, steps from the ceremony |
| End of the night | Cabs, shuttles, designated drivers | Your closest go up to bed |
| Photographs | A few hours to fit everything in | Three days, morning light included |
| The next day | Everyone heads home separately | Brunch with everyone who slept on site |
| The rooms | Often booked and paid for separately | Included in the privatization |
Take getting ready. In a downtown hotel, the bride has her hair done twenty minutes from the venue, then gets into a car in her dress and hopes traffic is kind. Here, she walks down the stairs.
What this choice costs you, and who it does not suit
A privatized estate sleeps fourteen. If half your family is flying in from Europe and you want eighty guests under one roof, a hotel or a resort will serve you better than we can.
It also costs more than a hall rented for an evening, for a simple reason: you are renting a place for two nights and three days, not for eight hours. The $15,000 covers the estate, the tent and the seven bedrooms. Catering, reception furniture, flowers and the shuttle are added, and the total is built with you, around your choices.
Finally, a weekend asks you to enjoy hosting. That means more meals than an evening, family to settle in, a brunch to plan. For some couples it becomes the best part of their wedding. Others would rather have one evening, and it is better to know which you are before the visit. To compare with clear eyes, we put five estates near Montreal side by side.
Five questions to ask any venue, including us
How many places, not how many beds? Are the rooms included in the price, or billed separately? Are they held for your wedding, or will other guests be sleeping on site? For how many nights? By what time must you have left on the last day?
Ask them on the phone, before you drive anywhere. The answers often cross half a list off, and save your Saturdays for the places that deserve them.
Emmanuel HébertManoir Blackswan