The Carrying Place Golf & Country Club is a "secret gem" wedding venue I found just a few minutes outside of the GTA. It's a beautifully manicured, member-owned golf club with a gorgeous, cozy club house. If you look up the address of the venue, it's actually located on the same property as The Manor (a venue managed by Peter and Paul's).
This venue doesn't actively advertise that they do weddings. That's because you specifically have to inquire and they will glady host you. Don't be concerned when you look at their Instagram profile and find no wedding related posts!
A bit of context of my experience with this venue - In addition to hosting my own wedding here (October 2023), I have also done wedding photography and wedding flowers at this venue on several occasions. And let me say - it's one of my favourite venues to work at! This is not a sponsored post, just an honest review from a past bride and vendor!
1. Amazing Grounds and Banquet Hall
When I initially emailed to inquire about hosting my wedding at the Carrying Place, Frank invited us to the venue for an in-person meeting. My husband and I were blown away by the beautiful rolling hills, ample parking, and small yet charming and modern club house. The banquet hall seats up to 110 (80 if you want a larger dance floor), and the entire venue felt clean and minimal. Even the washrooms had cute little details like mouth wash and women products.
As a photographer, I immediately saw so much potential for gorgeous wedding photos - both indoor and outdoor.
2. Very Affordable
My husband and I got an off-season discount for having our wedding in October (even though October is actually very popular for fall weddings in Ontario). We payed:
- $1500 venue fee (included on-site ceremony and reception)
- $90 per person (3 course seated meal)
- "Open bar "- we pre-purcashed drink tickets at $6 per ticket
- +18% gratuity and +13% HST
We felt like this was a bargain compared to the quotes we were getting from other venues in the GTA that were far less clean and inconvenient to get to. I remember getting venue fee quotes for over $8000 before food and drink!!
Open bar would have been $140 per person, which was over-budget for us (and not a lot of our family members drink). The other option was to pre-purchase drink tickets for guests. It was sort of a cheaper way of doing "open bar". And if we ran out of drink tickets in the night, we could purchase more. The only catch was - we couldn't get our money back for unused tickets. We ended up purchasing 200 tickets (we had 80 guests)
After speaking with a few other couples that also got married here, they payed similar prices. Summer prices are slightly more expensive - the venue fee would have been $3500, and plated service would have been $110 per person. And vendor meals were free!
3. Very Accommodating
As a wedding professional, I talk to so many couples and compare wedding venues constantly. Many venues I work at do "assembly-line" weddings - they do two or three weddings per weekend, and have a strict window for couples to setup in the morning and be out by shortly after midnight. This leaves little time for enjoying the entire process!
As an anxious bride, it was very important that I picked a venue that was flexible on setup time and tear down time. Carrying Place was super accomodating - Frank let us setup our decor the Friday night before the wedding, and come do clean-up the Sunday morning after at no extra charge. Luckily, my flowers were all artificial, so it was so calming to show up on Saturday knowing everything was ready to go.
We also had access to two huge locker rooms (one for the groomsmen, the other for the bridal party). They had lockers and private washrooms away from the guests.
4. The Most Amazing Staff
I have seen a lot in the wedding industry, and it surprises me how many venues have unprofessional and inpatient staff. But, wow, did the Carrying Place impress me! Frank and his staff were absolutely seamless on the wedding day. They had all of the tables and linens done by Friday afternoon so we could setup the flowers early, dinner service was extremely smooth, and the staff even joined in on the dancing Saturday night. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes work they did on my wedding day, and it made the entire day so relaxing.
5. Multiple Options for Ceremony Space
Another important item on my wedding venue checklist was knowing that our venue had an outdoor ceremony option and a beautiful back-up indoor location. I knew an October wedding would probably be indoors, and Carrying Place delivered! We did our ceremony indoors in the bistro. I also loved that it was so convenient for guests to have the ceremony and reception in the same building, and that there was no room flip. Room flips during cocktail stress me out!! I have also photographed outdoor ceremonies here, and they were absolutely gorgeous.
6. Gorgeous Sunset Photos
If the stars align and you don't have clouds during your sunset, you'll be sure to get beautiful golden hour photos with the pond and willows in the background. Look up the sunset time on your wedding date, and schedule in a golden hour photo timeslot!
I usually have a decently long list of cons for wedding venues, but I only have one for Carrying Place - while doing photos outside on the golf course, I did sense the golfers were impatient with us and this made me feel a bit rushed during photos. But then we just found more intimate photo locations away from the green, and it went smoother! As a bride, I just wanted to feel extra special on my wedding day, and the golfers made me feel a bit less than that.
Overall, this venue was impeccable and exceeded all of my expectations as a bride, photographer, and florist! I highly recommend it to any future bride looking for a flawless day with a beautiful backdrop for photos.
