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Weddings

About

Located in Grand Bend, Ontario, Dark Horse Estate Winery is a venue that specializes in creating a fun and memorable experience for weddings and other special events. Since 2016, Dark Horse Estate Winery has been an Ontario West Coast wedding venue of choice. With a lush vineyard offering scenic views, great wine and fine dining services, your wedding celebration will be an amazing experience!

Facilities and capacity

The facilites found at this winery venue include 30-acres of stunning vineyards which will provide the perfect backdrop to your wedding photos. Their venue rentals include:

  • Vineyard Ballroom - Max. capacity up to 300 guests
  • VIP Room - Max. capacity up to 20 guests
  • Danu Cellars - Max. capacity up to 50 guests
  • Patio - Max. capacity up to 40 guests

Services offered

Dark Horse Estate Winery offers couples the following wedding services:

  • Venue rental
  • Bar
  • Setup of tables and chairs and glassware
  • In-house catering
  • New Micro-Wedding Packages
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Frequently asked questions

What is the minimum number of guests required to book your venue?

10

How many event spaces or rooms does your venue offer?

3

Describe your venue:

Ballroom
Winery

Describe the style of your venue:

Country
Modern
Rustic
Vintage

What kind of settings are available?

Indoor
Uncovered outdoor

Which of the following wedding events does your venue service?

Ceremony
Reception
Bridal shower
Engagement party
Rehearsal dinner

What event services do you offer?

Bridal suite
Catering / bar
Clean up
Event rentals
Outside vendors
Set up

What catering services do you offer?

Buffet
Cocktail reception
Dessert
Plated
Stations

What bar services do you provide?

Bartender(s)
Cash bar
Champagne toast
House beer
House wine
Liquor license
Open bar
Premium liquor
Signature drink
Specialty beer
Specialty wine

What event items are available?

Altar/arches
Dance floor
Chairs
Tables

What food and beverage items are available?

Barware
Glassware

What transportation and access is available?

Parking
Wheelchair access

Do you have a site fee for wedding receptions at your venue?

Yes

What is the starting site fee for wedding receptions during peak season?

$6,000

What is the starting site fee for wedding receptions during off-peak season?

$5,000

Do you have a site fee for wedding ceremonies at your venue?

Yes

What is the starting site fee for wedding ceremonies during peak season?

$1,000

What is the starting site fee for wedding ceremonies during off-peak season?

$1,000

Which of the following are included in starting site fee?

Set up
Clean up
Chairs
Tables
Flatware
Glassware
Parking

What is the average catering price per person for plated service?

$100

What is the average catering price per person for buffet service?

$80

What is the average catering price per person for stations?

$18

What is the average catering price per person for hors d'oeurves?

$20

Which of the following are included in the cost of wedding catering?

Server(s)

What is the starting price per person for bar service?

$50

Which of the following are included in the starting price for bar service?

Open bar
House wine
House liquor
Bartenders
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4.3 out of 5 rating
20 reviews
  • Quality of service
    4.4 out of 5 rating
  • Response time
    4.3 out of 5 rating
  • Professionalism
    4.4 out of 5 rating
  • Value
    4.3 out of 5 rating
  • Flexibility
    4.2 out of 5 rating
90% Recommended by couples
Tawnya
Tawnya D. Sent on 11/05/2020
5 out of 5 rating

Highly recommend

My fiancé and I have booked this venue via virtual tour by Holly. She did an amazing job showing us using face to face video seeing the grounds and the area in which would best suit our personal wedding come July 2021. The place is gorgeous beyond words, and that was clearly shown we didn't have to have a tour we fell in love via video!
Cheers
Jordan and Tawnya
Jess
Jess K. Sent on 01/01/2022
5 out of 5 rating

We had our wedding at Dark Horse in August 2021, every aspect of our experience with the owners and staff was professional and stress free.

Dark Horse is one of our favourite places to go and we are so glad we decided to have our wedding there. We had a Friday evening ceremony and the entire experience was exactly what we wanted. We can’t thank them enough for making our day perfect.
Anna
Anna P. Sent on 06/07/2021
5 out of 5 rating

Gorgeous venue with a problem solving staff!

Absolutely beautiful scenery and very accommodating wedding/event coordinators! My COVID-19 wedding experience was a nightmare with having to reschedule my wedding two times; Dark Horse helped ease the stress of the chaos, and brainstormed options that complied with health and safety regulations (the best part: these options mirrored my wedding vision)! Although it seems like COVID-19 brides are limited, Dark Horse made the experience significantly better with their support and kindness! Side Note: The Rosé Slushie is to die for!!!
Eric
Eric F. Sent on 18/11/2020
5 out of 5 rating

Stunning and perfect

Dark Horse Winery was the perfect setting for our wedding. The venue was stunning and Holly the event coordinator helped made the day perfect. She was willing to help with anything we needed and couldn't have pulled it off without her. We would recommend this venue to everyone.
Glen
Glen C. Sent on 10/01/2020
5 out of 5 rating

Perfect Location!

We had a very small wedding with our immediate family in attendance... only 24 people. We wanted a place that was classy but intimate. Dark Horse was able to provide the perfect location! The winery was decorated for the holidays and was absolutely stunning! It made our wedding very memorable. Our guests were very impressed!
The staff were extremely friendly and helpful and provided us with excellent service.
We would highly recommend the Dark Horse Estate Winery to anyone planning a wedding!
Glen and Kevin
Cailey
Cailey R. Sent on 28/08/2018
4.2 out of 5 rating

Stunning venue!

An amazing venue! The service was excellent as well! We heard so many wonderful comments from our wedding guests and family about the venue being absolutely breathtaking (we already knew this and that's why Dark Horse was our first and only choice for a venue!). Our guests had a great experience in such a unique place. Our rehearsal dinner in the barrel cellar was so beautiful and special, and the experience of getting ready with my mom and bridesmaids in the Dark Horse VIP room was incredible! Dark Horse really catered to all of our needs! My only point about the wedding coordination was that there was a lot of back and forth and not all information was presented in a complete package up front, so I had to ask a lot of questions in order to understand how things would go at the venue. However, Dark Horse provided me with a great contingency plan when the weather was too wet outside for a vineyard ceremony and the wedding ended up still being very beautiful and intimate in their lower wine cellar room.
What a perfect and dreamy wedding day and I wish I could relive it again!
R
Rebecca L. Sent on 21/06/2022
4.4 out of 5 rating

Amazing Customer Service

We booked our wedding during COVID times with Dark Horse. Holly, their venue coordinator was amazing to deal with she was able to guide us through some options, and we ended up postponing our wedding at Dark Horse as the uncertainty last year was unpredictable, so happy we did as we were able to have our day without restrictions. The staff were helpful and amazing to deal with. Thank you again for being patient and walking us through these times!
B
Breanna S. Sent on 12/11/2021
4.4 out of 5 rating

Beautiful Venue

Holly walked us through every step of the way, from booking to recommending vendors to the day of. Although it was a COVID year, Ashley and Holly took the time to explain the restrictions and were able to tailor our day to reflect our vision while still adhering to the COVID Policies. Dark Horse Estate Winery is a beautiful venue and very well maintained, there was definitely attention to detail when building this venue. The bathrooms were stunning! Our guests had a great time and are still taking about it!
T
Taylor R. Sent on 09/11/2021
1.6 out of 5 rating

Terrible experience

April 2020 we had a tour of Dark Horse and completely fell in love with the beautiful venue. Never would I have I thought that I would be wishing we didn’t book this venue due to the terrible management but fast-forward to September 25th, our wedding day and I can easily say
that despite how beautiful the venue is, I absolutely do NOT recommend booking it for your wedding. When you first walk through, you are greeted by Holly and for the most part you deal with her, which is mostly pleasant. Unfortunately, Holly is only the face you see and deal with BUT has absolutely no authority to make any management decisions. Of course planning a wedding during covid is not ideal but ultimately, the way the vendors treat you during this time makes or breaks it. When we booked the venue, we never thought for 2 seconds that we would still be where we were with covid over a year later so we booked all the rooms assuming my whole wedding party could get
ready in the VIP room and assuming we could have the cocktail hour in the cellar room. Unfortunately due to capacity limits that was not the case. We understand that capacity limits are outside of the venues control, however the way they dealt with this was extremely
disappointing. We first reached out to Holly about this and asked we could get ready in the cellar room (capacity 30) instead of the VIP room since we paid for both and the VIP room no longer had the capacity to hold everyone. She immediately said no, the owner wouldn’t allow that. We then asked, since we can’t use both additional rooms we paid for, are we entitled to a refund… answer
was easily no. This was a matter of $2500 for 2 rooms we were no longer able to use and absolutely NO accommodations were being made by the owner. When it was time to pay the host bar 1 week before the wedding, we were absolutely SHOCKED AT THE INCREASED ALCOHOL PRICES.
When we signed our contract, beer was 6$, wine was 7$, cocktails were 9$. We understood that “prices are subject to change” but they went from that to 10$/beer, $8/wine, $10/oz of liquor and $2 extra per bottle of wine which were already significantly increased from their retail prices. Their reason “their cost went up”… My father in law finally got in touch with the owner after Holly said it was out of her hands just to be hung up on. My father in law immediately texted them back and asked what happened and Craig (the owner) mentioned the call had dropped and Ashley (his wife) would be in touch with me in 2 days instead of calling my father in law back). 2 weeks had gone by and I never heard a thing. As you can imagine, I was extremely frustrated with the poor customer service but Holly reassured us that Ashley would not be here on the wedding day so to just drop the frustration and she would make sure we had a good day…we decided to move ahead and we would make that work and rotate people in the VIP room (even though we had paid for a bigger room that they were refusing to let us use now). And we just paid the bar because at that point, what else were we going to do… we were 1 week away from our wedding day. Fast forward to the wedding day, to my absolute surprise a lady dressed extremely unprofessionally was hovering all over us ALL DAY. I later found out she was Ashley, the owner. I truly couldn’t believe it. In my opinion, she was extremely rude and unprofessional. She walked around all morning dictating and making everyone feel uncomfortable, locked the door to the VIP room so that we could no longer go up and down as we pleased, which made the morning very difficult because we e had to rotate people to respect the capacity limit? We were very respectful of the capacity limits and ensured we only had 10 people up
there BUT we also had my 6 week old niece sleeping in her stroller which we never for 2 seconds thought to count in this capacity limit. Instead of coming up to us and asking us nicely to consider her, she locked us out and REFUSED to let my sister go upstairs to get her baby when she was screaming… her reply “there’s already 10 people, you can’t go up”. Despite her simply asking to go up and grab the baby and come right back down. I approached her about this because I
was extremely frustrated with the way she was treating us and she walked away from me and continue mumbling comments below her breath. After the ceremony, we were trying to take family photos in front of the doors. We kept in mind that people still needed to use the doors
and gladly moved anytime someone was there. But we had the pleasure of having Ashley once again HOVER, arms crossed, absolutely miserable, dressed extremely unprofessionally, standing RIGHT in front of us while we were taking pictures. She continued to go up to the photographers telling them that’s enough. She made comments like “oh they must think they’re the only people here”.
Ashley finally left, but of course, she has no faith in her staff because just as she did all day,
questioning them and micromanaging them, she did the same from her home. At exactly 11pm when the outdoor music was to be turned off, she called her staff and had them turn it off immediately. We asked to move the music inside since the rule was capacity of 75, we were WAY UNDER 75 people at 11 pm AND WE PAID FOR THE VENUE UNTIL MIDNIGHT (the outdoor time limit for music was 11 but as per our contract the indoor portion was open until midnight). She refused and told her staff to turn on all the lights. Again, we paid for the venue until midnight and they were essentially kicking us out at 11. The next morning, my husband and I had to go pick up some stuff and Ashley approached me initially apologizing for her behaviour and offering us money back for the cellar because we had not used it. Unfortunately, at this point it was too late to rectify the situation.I am thankful for the refund but it does not dismiss the way she acted on my wedding day and the fact that she refused to return calls and deal with issues before hand. To me, trying to give us money back AT THAT POINT is just a way to try to not get a bad review. In the same breath of apologizing she also added “I’m just really confused why you’re upset with me”. I explained that if she thinks this kind of behaviour is ok, she should stay away from customers and get out of customer service. Her reply: “I’m not in customer service”. I was very surprised to hear this kind of comment from a business owner. I certainly recommend management classes to both of them. On a better note, unfortunately the owners completely ruined our opinion about this place but I will point out, that their staff deserve an award, 1) for having to deal with Ashley and her micromanaging 2) they were all phenomenal all day. Christy & Holly were great to deal with and brought light on our day despite all of the frustrations Ashley caused. The bartenders were also amazing all evening! Throughout our whole wedding planning, honestly the owners of Dark Horse were the only issues we had to deal with.
T
Tyler D. Sent on 07/10/2020
5 out of 5 rating

Engagement

Had an awesome experience with my engagement proposal! Staff were all amazing and Holly helped coordinated and organized everything so it all went smoothly. Dark Horse is a beautiful spot for any event. Super accommodating and helpful.
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Awards

20

Dark Horse Estate Winery Real Weddings

Mark & Dana
35 Photos · 24/Sep/2022
Sarah & Dom
43 Photos · 22/Sep/2018
Linda & Adam
58 Photos · 30/Jun/2018

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Map

70665 B Line N0M 1T0 Grand Bend (Ontario)
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