About sixty couples find themselves without a place to celebrate their marriage due to the closure without notice of the Rouville-Campbell manor, in Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
“I oscillate between solution mode, panic and crying bitterly,” says Anie Pier Létourneau, who was to get married at the manor next August.
Last Tuesday, his friend Julien Chaumillon received a call from the establishment announcing its final and immediate closure.
Their marriage, like that of around sixty other couples, cannot therefore be celebrated there.
Courtesy picture
Anie Pier Létourneau and Julien Chaumillon were to get married at the Rouville-Campbell mansion this summer, which has just closed its doors.
The Létourneau-Chaumillon couple must turn around on a dime in order to find a new place to pronounce their vows and welcome their 100 guests, some from France.
“We are at five months notice. Everything is already archi booké from Friday to Sunday, from May to October”, specifies Mme Letourneau. She has already contacted more than fifty places, in vain.
“It’s hard to move this to ten minutes to midnight. As soon as I found out, I got on the phone looking for another place. It’s a lot of stress, ”says Isabelle Ferland, who learned of the closing of the manor during a call with her florist this week.
“The requests are coming in in industrial quantities. […] People cry on the phone,” confirms Daniel Fortin, manager of Maplewood Manor in Waterloo.
Hard to find
While some couples have had to postpone their weddings multiple times since March 2020 due to the pandemic, brides and grooms may struggle to find a similar venue with the same amenities for this summer.
This is particularly the case of Nancy Lefebvre and Martin Huard, who had reserved 23 rooms at the Rouville-Campbell mansion for their wedding in May, which was initially planned for last year.
“We went to visit hotels, but there is nothing that backs that up,” she laments.
In the meantime, she has reserved a space in a hotel on the edge of the highway, in Saint-Hyacinthe.
“For my wedding night, I’m going to be in a normal room with a small bath. There’s nothing in there that has the cachet of a wedding […] My house is more luxurious than the hotel I’m going to! exclaims M.me Lefebvre.
Sudden closing
“It’s the worst case I’ve seen, where the ax falls so quickly and so drastically,” says Daniel Fortin, who has been in the event business for more than 20 years.
The Rouville-Campbell mansion, once owned by Yvon Deschamps and Judi Richards, went on sale for $28 million in October 2021.
Future brides and grooms were told by employees at the time that it was almost impossible for the mansion to be sold before their marriage.
If such a transaction occurs, “this [n’aurait] no effect on future events since we want to respect the agreements already in place, “they said at the time, according to an exchange of emails consulted by The newspaper.
The Rouville-Campbell mansion has still not been sold, but the owners, Groupe Gestion G5, have ceased operations. Employees were laid off.
“An announcement will be made in June. We cannot go into the details of the use of the manor because we are under confidential agreements, ”specifies Michel Desrivières, vice-president of finance for the group.
– With Kathryne Lamontagne