Time to hurry up and get hitched

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This article was published 29/06/2021 (1760 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You can still get hitched at the Hitch ‘n Post — but you’d better ride quick.

That’s because Grosse Isle country-western themed wedding and event venue, Anderson’s Hitch ‘n Post Ranch, will shutter at the end of the season after COVID-19 wore the owners’ finances to the bone.

“The water was filling in the boat quicker than we could bail it out,” said Kyle Anderson, who took the reins from his parents in 2002, along with his wife Louise.

“Last year we did less than three per cent of our (regular) business.”

It first opened in 1984 and has expanded ever since.

“This has been a part of my life for the past 37 years. I started working here when I was 10 when my dad and my stepmom opened it. I grew up in the business from sweeping floors to serving drinks to serving the prime minister dinner,” he said.

Anderson’s frustrated. He accepts that restrictions and the resulting shutdown of businesses like his are put in place for the sake of public health, but he thinks the province has mishandled their application.

“Unfortunately, the lockdowns have consequences and we’re just a number now,” he said.

He said he doesn’t want the closure of his family business to be a sob story. He and Louise are working on what will come next, he said.

He just wants to put a face on the toll the pandemic and ensuing restrictions have wrought.

Under the current health orders, he’s allowed to host a 10-person wedding in his 10,000-square-foot venue. Last summer, the Hitch ‘n Post could host 50 people at indoor weddings, while outdoor weddings could have 100.

“This year… we’ve had two beautiful wedding ceremonies of 10 people each. But that just doesn’t cut it for us as a business… it doesn’t pay the bills,” Anderson said, noting the ranch normally employs about two dozen people throughout the season, many of them local high school students working part time in their first job.

He has taken advantage of the province’s bridge grant program and a federal loan, which he’s thankful for.

But he wishes the existing business supports were better tailored industry-to-industry.

“We’ve been advocating for our industry,” Anderson said.

“We feel like it’s just fallen on deaf ears.”

Now after more than a year of scraping by financially and taking the toll of shutdowns emotionally, the Andersons have decided to call it quits after hosting the dozen events planned through to the fall.

The couple are going to run those celebrations to the nines, same as they ever would.

“We’re going to finish this year strong. We’re going to make it memorable,” Anderson said.

“We’ll fall on our feet.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca