Frequently Asked Questions

​

• WHAT ARE THE RENTAL TIMES? DO I HAVE TIME TO SET UP & TAKE DOWN MY EVENT?​

• CEREMONY ONLY RENTALS

• If you are renting the property for Ceremony Only, then you would have access for eight hours. The eight hours would be inclusive of set-up & take-down. The start & end times of your eight hours will depend on when your ceremony time will take place.

• Given access for 2 hours the day before your ceremony for a rehearsal.​

• CEREMONY WITH LUNCHEON OR COCKTAIL HOUR RENTALS​​​

  • If you are renting the property for Ceremony with a 2 hour luncheon  or cocktail hour, you would have access for ten hours. The ​ten hours would be inclusive of set-up and take-down. The start & end times of your ten hours will depend on when your ceremony time will take place.

  • Given access for 2 hours the day before your ceremony & rehearsal.

• CEREMONY ONLY / CEREMONY & RECEPTION RENTALS​​​

• If you are renting the property for a Reception Only or Ceremony & Reception, you will be given the following rental times:

  • Day Before Event​ - you will have access to the property from 2pm-9pm for set-up/rehearsal purposes.

  • Day Of Event – you will have access to the property from 9am-1am. Music must be shut off at midnight but guests may stay to visit until 1am.

  • Day After Event – you will have access until  12pm (noon) for clean-up & to remove all rentals. Vendors must also have their items gone by noon the day after your event.

​​

• AM I ALLOWED TO BRING IN MY OWN CATERER?

  • You may bring in your own caterer and we also have a list of preferred caterers we can recommend. We highly encourage caterers that have not worked at Brook & Barn previously to do a site visit before booking to ensure that what the venue offers is sufficient for your caterer's needs.

​​

• DO YOU HAVE A KITCHEN MY CATERER CAN USE?

  • Our little cabin on the property is included in your rental and has small kitchen inside. The kitchen is not a catering kitchen and not intended for your caterers to cook your meal within it. The kitchen is intended only for meal preparations (such as plating, heating something up, making a sauce, etc.) and for bussing.

  • If your caterers would like to cook onsite we recommend one of two options:

    • Hiring a caterer who has a mobile kitchen

    • Having them cook outside of the cabin closer to the barn. Some caterers have rental equipment that they bring to cook onsite or you can rent cooking equipment from a local event rental company.

​​

• WHO TAKES CARE OF GARBAGE REMOVAL?

  • Your caterers and bartenders are required to bag all the garbage and recycling. There is a dedicated location for your caterers and bartenders to place the bagged garbage/recycling. The dedicated location is unseen to your guests and goes into enclosed bins. Brook & Barn takes care of disposing all the bagged garbage and takes the recycling to the depot on your behalf. Brook & Barn will only recycle cans, bottles, and plastics. Brook & Barn does not take care of recycling cardboard, clients are required to pick up their cardboard recycling the day after their event and disposing on their own.

​​

• WHERE SHOULD I HAVE MY DANCE?

  • Our barn includes a sound-proof & contained room that will be great for your guests to have a loud, fun time! This room will keep your guests warm & dry for evenings that might be cool & rainy. This enclosed part of the barn is called 'The Dance Room'. Dances must be in this area for noise bylaw purposes.

​​

• DO I HAVE TO USE YOUR DANCE ROOM?

  • You are free to have your first dance and other special dances (such as father-daughter dance, mother-son dance) anywhere you like but the dance with all your guests must be in the dance room to avoid noise disruption to our neighbours.

​​

• IS THE DANCE ROOM PART OF THE BARN OR A SEPARATE ROOM?

  • The Dance-room is attached to the barn but acts as an enclosed room for sound proofing purposes. This room has three separate entrances

    • One standard door (3ft) from the “roadside”

    • One standard door (3ft) from the “field side”

    • The main entrance from the barn. The entrance from the barn has 12 feet of glass so you can see into the dance-room from the barn. This 12 feet of the glass has two 6ft glass doors, one sliding into the other.

  • The original wood from the barns was removed and repurposed into sliding barn doors. These sliding barn doors slide over the glass entrance if you don’t want to see into the barn.

​​

• WILL I NEED TO RENT A DANCE FLOOR?

  • The dance-room has a wood floor meant for dancing so no need to rent a dance floor if utilizing this room.

  • The Dance-room is 24' X 22' 

​​

• WHAT TIME CAN MUSIC BE PLAYED UNTIL?

  • Music may be played until midnight. Due to our surrounding neighbours and bylaws we are not able to extend the time past midnight.

​​

• ARE BANDS ALLOWED OR DO I HAVE TO HAVE A DJ?

  • Bands are more than welcome as long as they are able to make the space in the dance-room work. Generally speaking a DJ would fit more comfortably but would depend on the size of the band & the bands equipment.​ 

​​

• CAN THE DANCE ROOM BE USED FOR OTHER THINGS SUCH AS CEREMONIES?

  • You are welcome to utilize the space for smaller wedding ceremonies or buffet service. The amount of guests that can fit inside for a ceremony will depend on your set-up.

​​

• DO YOU HAVE DEDICATED CEREMONY SPACE?

  • We have a handful of options and suggestions for your ceremony. This would depend on various factors such as type of rental (Ceremony Only or Ceremony & Reception), amount of guests, time of year, and other components you may intend on having at your event (such as a cocktail reception). We highly recommend coming for a sight visit and discussing with our Event Manager the various options that are available for ceremony space.  

​​

• CAN WE HAVE ALCOHOL AT OUR EVENT?

  • You are welcome to bring whatever alcohol you like for your big day as long as it has been approved on your Special Event Permit (aka liquor license). We do require you to have a certified bartender with Serving It Right & to acquire a Special Event Permit for your event.

​​

• CAN MY BAR BE SET UP IN THE DANCE ROOM?

  • No, your bar and guests drinking must be contained to The Barn area and field. To maintain the well-being of the wood floor in the dance-room we ask guests not to drink in their as much as possible.

​​

• ARE THERE EXTRA FEES OR EXPENSES I SHOULD BE AWARE IF HAVING MY WEDDING AT BROOK & BARN?

  • Yes, we require a couple items from our clients when having an event here:

    • Event Insurance – we ask all our clients to purchase event insurance for their protection on their big day. Our insurance does not cover our clients so we do require this item.

    • Special Occasion License – this licence is also commonly known as a liquor licence. This license is only required if you intend to have alcohol served at your event.

​​

• WHAT IS A SOCAN TARIFF & WHO PAYS IT?

  • The tariff that is paid to SOCAN for having music at your event goes back to compensate music creators. We are required to pay the SOCAN Tariff to ensure music is being played legally, ethically and support the music community. For more information please visit: http://www.socan.com/.

  • The fee for your event's SOCAN tariff has been built into your rental price & therefore already included.

​​

• AM I ALLOWED TO BRING IN TENTING, DANCE FLOORS OR OTHER LARGE ITEMS?

  • Yes, we encourage you to make the space your own with whatever rentals you feel you need. Our only restrictions regarding large rentals are how long the rentals may remain on any grassed area and that holes larger than 1 inch in the ground are not made.

​​

• WHAT TYPE OF DECOR RESTRICTIONS MIGHT I FACE WITH THE BARN?

  • We love décor and love seeing the space recreated to your vision. You may use low tack tape on the floors and walls but no nails, screws, staples or other penetrating items are permitted when hanging décor.  

  • We do not allow glitter, confetti, or rice but birdseed, & bubbles are permissible.

  • As this is a heritage building we also do not allow any open flame such as candles. Today’s flameless candles look exactly like the real thing.

  • Rose petals may be scattered on the grass but fake rose petals are discouraged. Real rose petals can be mowed with the grass & are safe for the environment if they are blown around on a windy day. Fake rose petals get easily picked up by the wind & are not environmentally friendly when stuck in the creek, bushes, trees etc. 

 

• HOW MUCH POWER/ELECTRICITY IS AVAILABLE TO US? DO WE NEED TO RENT GENERATORS?

  • The barn comes equipped with a total of 32 plug-ins for your use. The dance-room is also equipped with power for your music.

  • If you need power in the field you are able to use the cabin as a power source and use extension cords out to the field. If you do not want to use extension cords then you would need a generator in that case.   

​​

• ARE THERE WASHROOMS ON SITE FOR MY GUESTS?

  • Yes, we have two permanent washrooms dedicated to your event. If you feel that you need more washrooms there is space near the permanent ones for rentals washrooms to come in.

​​

• ARE TWO WASHROOMS ENOUGH?

  • That depends on how many guests you have attending. We recommend one washroom per every 50 guests. Please speak with our Brook & Barn manager if you think you need more washrooms.

​​

• WHO ENSURES THE WASHROOMS STAY STOCKED AND CLEANED?

  • We at Brook & Barn ensure the washrooms are always stocked with toilet paper, soap and fresh hand clothes. We also take care of emptying the garbage cans and removing any used hand cloths.  

​​

• HOW MANY CARS CAN FIT IN THE PARKING AREA?

                We can fit up to 100 vehicles in our dedicated parking area.

​

• DO WE NEED TO ARRANGE PARKING ATTENDANTS SO THAT PEOPLE DON'T BOX EACH OTHER IN?

  • Brook & Barn provides parking attendants complimentary. Having the parking attendants helps ensure that vehicles are not blocking one another & that vendors have easy in/out access.

​​

• CAN VEHICLES STAY OVERNIGHT? CAN WE CAMP ON SITE OR BRING RVS?

  • Vehicles are welcome to stay parked overnight until 11am the day after your event. As part of our mission to create a safe environment for your guests we offer this to our clients to help eliminate any drinking and driving.

  • Although we allow the vehicles to be parked overnight, we do not allow camping, “RVing” or guests to sleep in their vehicles overnight.  

​​

• WHAT DO WE DO IF IT RAINS?

  • In the event of rain we have a couple options available to you. We have optional rain-barrier walls that can be put up on the open-air barn. You can also move components of your event to the dance-room or covered timber frame carport where applicable. For other options or questions regarding rain please speak with your Brook & Barn Event Manager.  

​​

• WILL THERE BE FARM EQUIPMENT AROUND OR NOISE FROM THE FARM DURING MY EVENT?

  • Although we do our very best to have our farming not affect your event, sometimes there are things like grape boxes, small equipment, farm workers, etc. seen from afar but never directly close to your event. If you are getting married on the weekend then we schedule our active farm jobs to the regular work week hours (Monday-Friday). We have also created many enclosed sheds to have the farming equipment unseen as much as possible during your special day.

  • We also like our clients to note that we are surrounded by other working farms and cannot control their work schedules or noise if they are working on your booked date.  

​​

• ARE WE REQUIRED TO HAVE A WEDDING PLANNER?

  • You are not required to have a wedding planner if you book at Brook & Barn but we do highly recommend one. Outdoor events with many rentals require lots of attention to detail so planners are always recommended.

​​

• DO YOU HAVE PREFERRED VENDORS AND DO I HAVE TO USE THEM?​

• We do have many amazing preferred vendors that we love to send our clients to but you are not required to use them.  

​

• WHAT DOES MY BROOK & BARN EVENT MANAGER TAKE CARE OF? ARE YOU ONSITE FOR OUR EVENT?

  • Your Brook & Barn Event Manager will take care of meeting with you, your wedding planner and your vendors when planning for your event. We are also here to answer your questions and assist with your planning where appropriate and where venue related.

  • We do up a production schedule from the venue perspective that you may give to your wedding planner and vendors where you feel appropriate.

  • Brook & Barn takes care of setting up and taking down to your tables and chairs according to your floor plan that we create with you.  Anything that Brook & Barn provides with your rental package we will set it up and take it down so you do not need to worry about it.

  • The day of your event you have two onsite managers who are there to assist with venue logistics, greet your vendors and show them venue items they might need to know, assist with parking direction, do any floor plan changes throughout the event & manage the bathroom facilities.