Planning a Maison Principale Wedding: A Photographer's Guide

I have photographed many full weddings at Maison Principale, and it is one of the most striking rooms in Montreal. It is also a venue where a good day depends on planning what happens away from it. This guide collects what I tell couples when they ask how a wedding here works, so that the photographs look like the place feels.

A former church in Saint-Henri

Maison Principale is at 872 rue du Couvent in Saint-Henri, a short walk from the Saint-Henri metro station. The building was built as Saint Thomas Aquinas Church, the parish church of the neighbourhood's Irish community. It was renamed Église de Saint-Henri in 1968 and closed as a church in 2001.

Today it has been transformed into an event venue and painted white from floor to ceiling, but its past is still easy to read: the arched windows, the gallery above the main hall and the organ pipes behind the balcony.

The Grand Salon

The main hall, the Grand Salon, has 42-foot ceilings, detailed mouldings and crystal chandeliers. Because almost everything in it is white, the room works as a blank canvas. Planners and designers can take it in almost any direction, and it carries large floral installations, a big dance floor and a long guest list without feeling crowded.

The mezzanine is my favourite vantage point. From up there a single frame holds the whole room, the tables, the dance floor and the chandeliers, which is how I like to record the design before the guests come in.

The ceremony: at Maison Principale or at a church

Some couples marry in the Grand Salon itself. In that case the planners flip the room after the ceremony, turning the ceremony seating into the reception while the guests are at cocktail hour.

Other couples marry elsewhere, usually at a church, and come back to Maison Principale for cocktail hour and the reception. If you choose that route, plan the transfer for your guests as carefully as for yourselves.

Cocktail hour

The venue has both an indoor and an outdoor space for cocktail hour. The indoor space is on two levels, which keeps a large crowd moving and gives me good angles from above.

Planning around the venue

This is the most important thing I tell couples about Maison Principale: the venue does not offer a place for couple portraits. Every couple I have photographed here took their portraits somewhere else, and getting ready happens elsewhere too, at home or in a hotel. That gives the day more moving parts than an estate venue, and they are worth planning early.

• Transportation. Book a car or a driver to take you from getting ready to your portrait location, to the ceremony and back to the venue, and agree on the timing in advance.
• A portrait location. My couples here have taken their portraits downtown, among the stone buildings, columns and squares. Choose the location with your photographer and keep it within a short drive.
• Travel time. Leave a buffer for traffic and parking between each stop. A first look before the ceremony frees up the evening, so you do not have to leave your own reception for long.
• A rain plan. Have a covered option in mind for your portrait location. One of my couples here had their portraits in the rain, under a clear umbrella.

The venue has several entrances. One of them, with black stairs and black doors framed by ivy, is a good spot for a quick family or wedding party photo on arrival.

Light and design

Because the room is white, it takes on the colour of the lighting design. It glowed soft pink at one wedding and stayed cool and bright at another. Talk to your lighting designer about the mood you want, and remember that the colour of the room will also be the colour of the skin tones in your photographs.

Since everything here happens indoors, Maison Principale works in every season, and a winter evening under the chandeliers is especially beautiful.

Questions to ask the venue

• Will the ceremony be in the Grand Salon, and how long does the flip to the reception take?
• Which cocktail spaces, indoor and outdoor, are included, and what is the plan if it rains?
• Which entrance should guests, vendors and the wedding party use?
• Where can cars and shuttles drop off and wait?
• Which vendors do they require or recommend?

I have left guest numbers out of this guide on purpose. The venue is the right source for the current capacity of each space.

Real weddings at Maison Principale

You can see two full weddings here: Lemya and Yesr's wedding, with its surprise samba dancers, and Tara and Luke's Persian and Scottish celebration, built around a Sofreh Aghd. The gallery below also includes photographs from another wedding I have covered here.

If you are still comparing venues, my Montreal venue guide, the winter wedding venues and my guide to Château Taillefer Lafon are good next stops.

Planning a wedding at Maison Principale?

I photograph weddings across Montreal, and I am always glad to help couples plan the day around this venue, including the portrait location and the timing between stops. Tell me about your plans.