The Hare Wine Co.

We absolutely loved getting married at the Hare. We loved that theirs multiple locations at the venue to get married. We had our ceremony by the trees and dinner in the courtyard and it was magical experience. Oh and the wine is pretty good too.





Photos by Samantha Clarke

We booked our wedding at the Hare back in August 2019 for our wedding in June 2021. When we booked our wedding, we were in love with the venue. It is absolutely stunning and unique, which is everything we wanted for our wedding - we wanted something different. Our wedding was supposed to be about 150 guests. We paid $7500 to rent out the entire space and use it however we saw fit. We had full access to the retail space, courtyard, barrel cellar, bridal suite, and all other rooms.

2020 has been a crazy year because of Covid-19. The situation has been changing on a daily basis, and government regulations and restrictions have been constantly changing and making it very difficult for anyone to plan anything, much less a wedding with 150 guests. In October 2020, I decided to reach out to the Hare to find out how they have been dealing with Covid and how they will be dealing with it going forward (as I was doing with all of my vendors to make sure everything was on track, as the wedding was slowly creeping closer and closer). Much to my surprise, I got a response from the venue contact saying that "due to covid" they have decided to change the way that they are doing weddings going forward. How a venue can make a decision for me and my fiance 8 months in advance (and with a signed contract) when the situation is so fluid is beyond me. They decided that they no longer wanted to host weddings indoors at all and would no longer allow us to use the retail space for our reception (where it was supposed to be), they wanted the ceremony in the vineyard (it was supposed to be in the courtyard), and they wanted dancing in the barrel cellar - a completely separate room from where dinner would be held!!! I had a call with the venue coordinator where I explained my stress and frustration about this situation. Planning a wedding is stressful, planning a wedding during covid is more stressful, then they want to add this to the mix? While she sounded to be somewhat sympathetic, she also kept repeating that there was nothing she could do, this was the owner's decision and he isn't budging. I asked to speak with him directly, asked for it to be ASAP (yesterday), and she agreed. I waited TWO WEEKS for a phone call with John Hare. He decided that my wedding and stress was the absolute last item on his list of things to do, despite me sending email after email and leaving multiple voicemails. GREAT customer service. I spoke to John for about 10 minutes. We talked in circles about why this is wrong in so many ways. I tried to explain to him that if the government told me I couldn't do something, I was fine and would be respectful of that last minute decision and scramble. However until then, I wanted my wedding vision to remain as-is and not make any decisions that were extremely premature. He continued to argue and say that he wouldn't budge. When I threatened legal action because we had a contract clearly stating that we were entitled to the entire space, he simply said "I'll call you back" and hung up the phone. After that call, my fiance and I made the decision to postpone our wedding. Because of the disaster that the Hare has created, they offered us $2000 off of the rental fee, which was supposed to compensate for a mandatory tent rental fee for this now outdoor wedding we were being forced by the venue to have, or they would give us our deposit back and we could cancel. With 8 months until our wedding, how either of these options are feasible beats me! We decided to take the money and run, because not only did we have absolutely no interest in getting married at this venue anymore, we were also concerned about the future of this business when customer service for some of the highest paying clients is at the bottom of the list of priorities.

We were nothing but a number to them, and they didn't care about us or our extremely special day that would be costing us 10s of thousands of dollars. They will easily rebook our PRIME wedding date (June 19 2021 - a Saturday) or likely already have.

Don't get married here.

The Hare Wine Co. was such an easy venue to work with! We booked them almost 2 years in advance for our wedding that happened Oct 3, 2020. Through all the uncertainty with COVID 19 they were always super accommodating and understanding! They worked with us tirelessly to provide us with the perfect wedding day while following all of the proper precautions. Alex (event coordinator) is so sweet and easy to work with and the staff is amazing as well! We could not have asked for a more perfect venue with a variety of locations that provide a different atmosphere for our wedding day!! To top it off their wine is to die for!! If you are thinking of booking your wedding at the Hare Wine Co.... DO IT!!! ❤️

The Hare Wine Co. was truly breathtaking and the staff was incredibly helpful. We live in the United States and only had the opportunity to visit the venue once before our wedding day, but I never once felt concerned. Alex & Laura took care of every detail and answered every question. I would throw a wedding there every single year if I could.

The Hare Wine Co. was absolutely amazing!! The venue is beautiful, the staff was so easy to work with. We couldn't of asked for anything more. They set-up the entire space , they worked with the entire time. A dream come true!!

Everyone at The Hare, especially Mallory and Alison, were absolutely incredible to work with! We used the venue for both the ceremony and reception for 110 guests.

Our wedding was on July 2nd 2022, and we were communicating with The Hare since Dec 2020, before we booked the venue in early 2021.

As can imagine with so many uncertainties at the time during the pandemic, and as we live in B.C, a lot of correspondence was done via email. Mallory and the team were so incredibly helpful and responsive for all our questions (and we had so many!) leading up to the big day!

When we were able to meet, we did 3 in-person visits of the venue, as well as meet Alison, the venue coordinator the day before our wedding.

The location is truly stunning for an outdoor wedding, and our guests kept saying to us how magical the venue was!

One of the perks of The Hare that we loved, was the ability to use the space to work with several vendors around the NOTL region with different styles. Everyone of those Vendors spoke so highly of The Hare that it made us feel so confident that this was the right choice for us!

My husband and I had our wedding at The Hare this past summer. The winery itself is beautiful - we had our reception in the courtyard and with the help of our wedding designer, the space was incredible. Could not have dreamt of something more perfect!

Because of the pandemic, my husband and I had a long engagement. As a result, we worked with three different event coordinators at The Hare. I completely understand that there can be staff turnover when you plan an event so far in advance. That is not under the winery's control. However, there were a lot of holes in communication between the event coordinators, permanent changes made by the venue without our knowledge, and ultimately we had to stand up for ourselves and the contract that my husband and I originally signed. We had a very similar experience to the bride who posted below. We were never offered the $2000 discount when I voiced my concerns. Our wedding designer was the one who told us about the discount because she had other couples that had received it. To say I was unhappy was an understatement. I did not receive an apology for that miscommunication, rather they just applied the $2000 discount on our final balance. We were also told three days before the wedding that the event coordinator we were working with would not be present at the wedding. The individual they assigned/hired to help with the wedding left before our reception started.

Overall the winery is beautiful and the wedding was amazing. I credit most of this to our wedding designer. I hope the experience for couples improves as The Hare has more opportunities to host larger events.