Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant

I got married here in September, and we could not be happier with how our wedding went. Leading up to the day Suzanne was incredible to work with. She was very responsive and helpful, and ensured all the little details with the venue were sorted out. Everything went so smoothly on the day and all of the staff were great to work with. The venue itself is absolutely beautiful, and provides stunning spaces indoors and out. Being able to do everything in one location was also a huge plus - the bridal suite was perfect for getting ready and there are so many great photo spots. The guests all had an amazing time and commented on how magical the venue was, and how much they loved the food. I would highly recommend to anyone getting married in Calgary.

(Photos included are by Whitney Cowan Photography)

We started looking for venues 1 year prior to our actual wedding date. Bow Valley stood out initially for its aesthetic - a rustic restaurant that feels right at home for a city next to the Rocky Mountains.
While we did consider another venue at the start, Suzanne, the event coordinator at BVR, was our deciding factor. She was very responsive in her emails, provided us with the event pricing and menus, and was also willing to accommodate our requests (e.g. we wanted to have outside bubble tea served during cocktail hour and also to bring our dog for the ceremony). We also met with her several times before our event to discuss questions, how the event would run, and to tour the location.
The location itself is beautiful. The restaurant is separated into several rooms, and we only rented out the largest to use on the day of the event. This also gave us access to the bridal suite upstairs (very much needed since I was looking to change into traditional Chinese dress - we also used this room for a tea ceremony beforehand), as well as the front yard (our ceremony location) and back yard (we put out bubble tea out there). Since its located right in Fish Creek Park, there's lots of beautiful places to take photos in the area. Underrated is the ample parking space - I couldn't imagine the logistical disaster of our first venue pick which would require downtown street parking. We were even allowed to drop off florals and decor the day before, which made set up even easier! It made a big difference, since I had family helping with set up instead of hiring a separate team.
The food was fantastic. We'd had a previous meal there and tasting, and the wedding day did not disappoint. We ordered the beef carpaccio (a crowd favourite), beet salad, entrees of the beef tenderloin or pan-seared salmon, and a lemon cake. The lemon cake was very pretty, with pressed flower petals in meringue. A wonderful surprise was the wedding cake - we didn't have a tasting and had low expectations, but it turned out incredibly moist, flavourful, and not too sweet! The other amazing item was the late night poutine snack, which was exactly what we wanted and so tasty. The downside was that everyone was too full to properly enjoy it! The drink service was courteous and efficient. The only thing I might add is that we paid for coffee and tea all the guests for dessert, but it needs to be ordered at the bar. It was otherwise very smooth!
Lastly, but probably the biggest plus in my opinion, is how wonderful the staff were. We were initially told that we had to have a weather plan by 7 PM the night before. I was too worried about the thunderstorm that was rolling in mid-afternoon (our ceremony was outdoors at 4:30 PM) that I asked for indoors. The coordinator offered to let me change up to 7 am the day of. At about 11am on the day of, the weather was still beautiful and my family asked why we were holding it inside. I ended up calling the venue and they were kind enough to tell me that set up had not begun and they could just hold it outside! To be fair, we got extremely lucky with the rain (it flooded several kilometers away on Deerfoot at our ceremony time), but the point is that the staff were amazing. During the reception, all the questions went smoothly to my MC and bridal party, and I never felt like there was any issues the whole day. When the cake flowers went missing, the staff reached out to my bridesmaid who promptly sacrificed her bouquet and saved the day. They decorated the cake in less than 10 minutes!
100% no regrets with having our wedding with BVR. Suzanne was brilliant, the venue gorgeous, the food was worth the price point, and the staff are absolutely amazing. I should add that several of my vendors have worked with BVR and they all said that the venue has never gone wrong in any wedding they worked with!

The coordinator was easy to plan with everything was set up exactly as we communicated. The lead server Kevin was incredible on the day and made everything go smoothly cannot day enough about this beautiful venue and the amazing staff. It was a perfect intimate wedding.

From start to finish our time with BVR was a dream.

Everything about the wedding planning process was seamless. Suzanne is a real gem of a coordinator and so incredibly dialled. I consider myself to be really organized and excellent at planning - so it is hard to impress me but she is AMAZING. We worked with her for nearly 3 years as the pandemic postponed our 2020 wedding and we had booked in 2019. Through the whole process she was responsiveness, answered every question we had - even the silly ones - with grace and did her best to make anything happen for us.

The food here is exceptional. It was mostly the reason we chose this venue for our wedding (we did not even have a second venue in mind, BVR or bust) and it did not disappoint on the wedding day! All of our guests were wowed by the 4 course dinner and left wanting to come back. Shoutout to Tristan for creating our own specialty cocktail for us based on me simply saying "I like rum and I want it to be fall inspired". Our guests LOVED the cocktail and it was so neat to have something made for me!

The venue itself is just gorgeous and makes it really easy to work with as we felt that we did not need to add much decor since it was so beautiful already. We originally planned to have the ceremony outdoors but Southern AB weather had a different idea and so we moved it last minute indoors and even that turned out stunningly beautiful. It was so warm and cozy and romantic! A HUGE thank you to Francis - our contact on the day, for making the last minute switch happen. We were so blessed with our vendor team & wedding party that I was up in the bridal suite trying to get warm and had no idea that everything was being worked out so seamless for me. I barely had time to stress about the weather!

I honestly can't rave about this place enough. We were treated like royalty and I will never ever forget how special choosing BVR made our wedding day.

Bow Valley Ranche was my dream venue! Suzanne at BVR was friendly, professional and flexible! We have to postpone our wedding due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Suzanne was extremely accommodating with the changes! Our guests are still raving about the food at our wedding! I would recommend BVR to absolutely any one for any type of event!

We were taken with Bow Valley Ranche from the first time we went to look. (We even changed our preferred date as it fell on a day they are closed.)
We had a small group and booked one of the side rooms for our reception, with our ceremony on the front lawn. Communication between us and their Events Coordinator was always timely. There were a couple of hiccups, the most notable one being that we had no idea the person we had met with and been in touch with through the entire planning process would not be at the venue the day of the wedding. This led to delays on an already tight timeline as we were being told one thing by some of the staff and something else from others, and the ceremony chairs had to be reset as they had been set-up incorrectly. No one came to introduce themselves as the contact person for the venue until our photographer requested to speak with them. Because of the lack of communication and the fact that our reception decor items were placed in an office we weren't allowed to access, we ran quite late.
That being said, the experience overall was still five stars. They were even willing to let us go ahead with our ceremony outside during a September snow storm and had blankets available to our guests, as well as hot tea in the bride's room following the ceremony. The bridal room was perfect. The servers were all top notch and beyond helpful. It was amazing to be able to have our photos, ceremony and reception all in one location. The food was out of this world and the pastry chef did an amazing job on our wedding cake!
Everyone who attended has done nothing but rave about the entire experience.
I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to recommend Bow Valley Ranche Restaurant to any bride or groom!

(All photos included are by JM Photography.)

We are so happy that we got married at Bow Valley Ranche. Since the moment we decided to get married there, they were responsive and easy to work with and ensured we had considered all the details. On the day itself, the staff and BVR were incredible! They were all so kind and attentive and made the day run smoothly!
In addition, all of our guests were blown away by the beauty of the venue and the quality of the food!
It was perfect!

The pros of this venue are definitely the aesthetic, the food, and the excellent customer service! The event coordinator Suzanne did an excellent job communicating with me about room setup, timeline, menu, and drink selections. We had a lunch buffet of salad, potatoes, beef, and cheese, as well as appetizers, cake, and a dessert table. All the food was absolutely amazing. The cake was gorgeous and tasted great. They were willing to put our breakable crystal topper on the cake, which some other venues may have refused to do. The look of the venue is so beautiful! Even though it was only 0 degrees Celsius on our wedding day, our indoor pictures couldn't have been better. We were also able to get a few quick ones done outdoors, and the restaurant made for a beautiful backdrop. The weather will never ruin your day if you have your wedding at Bow Valley Ranche, because you can get beautiful photos both inside and out.

The only cons would be that the really amazing coordinator Suzanne was not available to be at our wedding, because she was instead needed at the "dinner under the dome" event being hosted by the restaurant, which was happening next to the restaurant. The other staff did an amazing job, but I would have preferred that the coordinator be at our wedding since she is who we discussed our details and preferences with.

My only other comment which may be considered a con, is that you are only allowed a strict 5 hour time slot from the time your ceremony starts until the time your reception ends. You are allowed to start setting up 2 hours before the ceremony starts, but your actual wedding can only be 5 hours long. This was fine for me since in my opinion (or at least with my crowd), most guests don't want to be at a wedding for more than 5 hours anyway, but I thought I would list this in my review since some people are looking for a venue for the full day. It did make it so that I had to get creative with photo timing to fit everything else in; my husband and I left our reception for half an hour to go take photos around the building, and our bridal party photos were done after the whole wedding, when the reception ended at 4. You can either have your wedding from 11am to 4pm, or from 5pm to 10pm.

Overall, I am very happy I chose to have our wedding at Bow Valley Ranche! We had very happy guests and have the most amazing pictures from that day!

We had our wedding ceremony and reception at Bow Valley Ranche and it was an amazing day. The service from all of the staff was flawless, the food was incredible, and Suzanne made the planning process very easy for us. Many guests commented on how much they enjoyed the whole experience. We loved our day here and would happily recommend!

Very professional and easy to work with! We postponed due to COVID and this was never an issue. Sometimes not always easy to get responses from but it is because they are so busy making dreams come true. The food is amazing and the venue is gorgeous. They even were able to make the menu gluten free for our celiac guests. You get what you pay for