WEDDING AT BARCLAY MANOR
Barclay Manor is a great looking heritage house in the west end of Vancouver that lends itself well to smaller events.
There are a couple of great things I love about this venue. At the rear of the house, there’s parking for vendors and the house has an elevator. This is not often a common amenity in heritage homes and is an important feature not only for your mobility bound guests but for your vendors as well. The easier it is for your vendor’s load-in, the easier it is for them to give you their best pricing.
When I pulled into the parking lot, the limo was there but I still had plenty of room to park and load equipment on my cart. From there it was a breeze to wheel everything to the elevator and although the elevator is a little small, it was great to have one.
The elevator opens up on the second floor and leads to the parlour room. The furniture had been moved out and made way for tables and chairs for dinner. Bride and groom had graciously set aside a spot in the Bay window so it was no problem for me to set up. The parlour room is small and in the case of this wedding, worked as a dual-purpose room for dinner and then for dancing later… after the tables were cleared out. One thing of note, the house gets very warm on a sunny day… quite hot actually. If you bring a couple of fans to keep the air moving I think you’ll find it much more pleasant.  Also keep in mind that at 10 PM, staff must close all the windows and doors to due to the noise bylaw. This can really heat things up in the house especially when the dancing gets started. I have a lot of experience working venues without air-conditioning and so I did bring a fan with me… and I’m sure glad that I did.
Another thing to consider is that Berkeley Manor is L-shaped. At this wedding event, there was one dining area in the parlour room, another in the next room which is where the head table was, and adjacent to that, there was another room where tables and chairs were set up for dinner. In order to get the dinner music throughout these rooms, it is advisable to have a wireless speaker addition. We can tuck a speaker in the corner of each of the other two rooms and wirelessly transmit dinner music throughout the rooms of the house. In this instance, the bride and groom opted not to do that and so the dinner music was mostly in the parlour room where the DJ was.
The house has a great looking backyard. It is very nice for taking wonderful photos of the bride and groom or lounging around the veranda. It is a courtyard and is open to the public so there were some locals who live in the area in the courtyard exercising their dogs. if you don’t mind sharing, this was actually great for the kids as they could play with the dogs running around.
When dinner was over and the tables and chairs were cleared there were some fun speeches and hosting by the emcee was a Scotsman. He sprinkled the festivities with lots of humour and wonderful stories of the bride and groom. He really did a great job as an MC and is another reason why he always suggests the bride and groom get someone who is close to them to host their event.
The parlour room has a big screen TV for showing your videos or slide shows but you have to bring your own computer or DVD player to plug into it.
Shortly thereafter we got into the dancing and the bride was so thrilled that in her testimonial she mentioned  “I will treasure the memory of seeing my new husband dancing with his daughter, seeing my stepson boogie to Michael Jackson (a normally fairly shy kid!) and dancing to an Aussie song at my wedding (I didn’t know if that would happen in Canada, it was an important thing and it’s an emotional moment for me :)) “
If you are looking for a cost-effective venue that is quaint, warm and intimate for a smaller guest list. I think The Barclay Manor will fit your needs. Â I give the venue a 3.8 out of 5 stars.