Overall, our experience with The Bell Event Centre was very positive. The food, atmosphere, and staff are all incredible and made our day that much more special.
There were a fe...w things, however, that were less than ideal about having our wedding at The Bell. To begin, when you contract with The Bell, you are contracting for the bridal suites 3 hours before the start of the event. Anything more than three hours and there is a $100 per hour charge. Personally, I thought this was unnecessary as the suites seem to stand empty all day. We paid $600 to have access to the suites at 8am so we could have enough time to get ready (I had 5 bridesmaids and 2 junior bridesmaids + 2 moms to get ready) and take pictures so we could enjoy our reception as much as possible. In my opinion, we're paying enough for the venue as it is, and the least they could do is give us all-day access to rooms that would otherwise stand empty.
The suites bring me to a second point that made things less than ideal at The Bell. This is a very busy venue and unfortunately we had to do our ceremony rehearsal the day of the wedding. This is partly because The Bell had events scheduled the Thursday and Friday before our Saturday wedding and partly because we had out-of-town bridal party members who were not going to be around on Wednesday when the rehearsal could have been. In paying for extra time for the suites, we also had to account for time in the suites to be able to do the rehearsal before photos began. I just think this system of scheduling a rehearsal adds stress to the day of the wedding that doesn't necessarily need to be there. I am unsure of a solution as I understand the venue is running events almost every weekend evening, but it did cause me stress not knowing when the rehearsal was going to be more than 30 days before the wedding started.
We were extremely satisfied otherwise with this venue. Our coordinator, AJ, went above and beyond in every aspect. He was always friendly, responsive, and accommodating and I never had any doubt our day was going to be under control and handled by him. Two other staff members at The Bell, Morgan and Paige, were also extremely friendly and accomodating during our reception!
Even though there are things I would change about the way weddings are run through The Bell, if we had to do it all over again, we would choose The Bell every single time. There is no venue that is perfect, but The Bell is a stunning venue that comes pretty close!