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BLACK
CREEK PIONEER VILLAGE COST | VENUE CAPACITY & LAYOUT | WEDDING COORDINATOR | CATERING | DECOR | PUBLIC VISITORS
COST As noted on the Black Creek Pioneer Village website, the ceremony venues rent for $375 outside of peak hours and $450 between 11:00 AM and 4:30 PM while the village is open to the public. The Half Way House dining room is $295 for evening functions. What they don't mention is that ceremony venue prices include tax but reception venue prices don't - a great example of how quirky it can sometimes be dealing with Black Creek. When you consider that these prices include extras like candles for the ceremony, parking outside daytime hours, services of the park's wedding consultant and a booked rehearsal it's obvious what a great deal Black Creek is for weddings! At the time of our wedding (October 2001) catering prices were à la carte, allowing you to match a desired menu selection with your choice of hors d'ouevres, alcohol and coffee service. However, Black Creek has since packaged the menu choices with a pre-determined quantity and selection of the previous options, and is selling them as all-inclusive wedding packages. Prices are listed on their website.
VENUE CAPACITY & LAYOUT The handout we received indicated that the church had a capacity of 120 and the Half Way House could hold 60 for dinner and dance. Our first detailed inspection of the venues made it pretty obvious that both these numbers were far too optimistic! Obviously we weren't the only ones who thought so because the newly posted wedding section of Black Creek's web site has reduced the church number to 100. However, the figures are still based on packing people in pretty tightly and you may want to use the following estimates instead. Our Fisherville Church floorplan illustrates that to ensure guests' comfort you should plan on a maximum of 75 adults - 6 per centre pew and 2 per side pew. That number can go up a bit if there are also children sharing the pews, which is what Black Creek's official figure is based on. The Half Way House's official capacity as being based on 2 tables of 10 in the fireplace portion of the room and 6 tables of 8 including the head table in the other half of the room (see the "official" restaurant floorplan). The 2 tables of 10 would probably be fine but putting 48 people in the other part of the room would have made for a very tight squeeze based on our experience with only 40 in that area (see our restaurant floorplan). Where the coordinator would place the dance floor, we can only guess. The Half Way House may be more intimate and authentic than the reception venues in the Visitor's Centre but there can be drawbacks to its rusticity. One is that it the restaurant is not wheelchair accessible due to its basement location. Also, the Z shaped layout of the room makes it impossible to locate the head table in a place visible to everyone in the fireplace area. In an attempt to prevent guests in that part of the room from feeling excluded, we decided to have people make their speeches from the middle of the restaurant but since the speakers naturally faced the head table (or the parents' table next to it) they inevitably ended up with their backs to the other half of the room. Consider making toasts from a position adjacent to the fireplace instead. We originally planned on having cocktails in the wine cellar across the hall from the restaurant. However, a few days before the event Vijay (the park's wedding coordinator) realized that 50 people wouldn't likely fit in that room and subsequently arranged for a special liquor licence for a much larger room on the second floor of the the inn.
WEDDING COORDINATOR The previously mentioned last-minute change of venue for the cocktail reception is a good example of how Vijay works. If you are like us and like to nail down details as early as possible you may become concerned with his much more laissez faire approach. However, we discovered that what initially appeared to be a lack of interest in details was actually more of a preference for dealing with the finer points much closer to the event. We were pleasantly shocked the night before the wedding when Vijay suddenly came to life while running the rehearsal and provided us with tried-and-true advice on staging the ceremony from start to finish - a major concern of ours throughout our planning. And although Black Creek has standard procedures for many of the smaller details, we would strongly that you ask for particulars so that you can enhance them if desired. For example, when they say they provide signage it is really just a listing of your wedding's location on a board in the Visitor's Centre - if you want directional signs inside the village proper and/or more elaborate signage then you will have to take care of it yourself. Also, we would strongly recommend lending Vijay (or whoever the coordinator might be) a cell phone so that you or your planner can contact him at any time on the day of the wedding. Although he will be on-site to assist you, he does have to deal with up to three other ceremonies on the same day and can't be at your side every minute. Subsequently, we have heard of one wedding where candles were not provided for the church as promised and, in our case, our plans to wait in the vestry for the processional had to be scuttled at the last minute when we discovered that the room's external door was locked.
CATERING Tasting is a hassle but we suggest that it is essential. Unlike some caterers, you are not able to go in and sample all the menu choices at one sitting. Instead you will have to visit the village whenever your desired menu items are being served for a booked wedding. Make sure you schedule your first tasting far enough in advance of the wedding that you have time to return for another if necessary. We're glad we did because we actually ended up preferring our first choice much less than we expected. Naturally you may be concerned about the quality of the food due to the fact that you are obliged to use a caterer for a tourist attraction. However, let us assure you that the quality of the meal at our reception was outstanding.
DECOR If you have come to this page directly, check out our wedding web site's photo album to see how the church and restaurant can look once decorated. Also check out our PLANNING section for decor suggestions and notes on what items are included in the venue rental. You will have to wait until the restaurant is closed to the public and cleaned before decorating it. The decorating of the church can start about 45 minutes before the ceremony.
PUBLIC VISITORS As you can see by the ceremony venue pricing, Black Creek encourages couples to hold their wedding after the village is closed to the public which is 4:30 PM. This allows you to be less rushed when decorating the venues and to not be concerned about having an audience of visiting families during your photo shoots! However, if your schedule doesn't allow for this don't worry - part of the wedding coordinator's service includes keeping the public out of the church during the ceremony. (Regardless of your timing, don't be surprised to find yourself bumping into at least one other wedding party during the day!)
May 2002
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