Burroughes Building - downtown with a vibe and a view

Had a lovely wedding last night at the Burroughes building on Queen West - despite the usual adventures with the meandering Bathurst bus and those delightful detours.  The absolutely great photographers were a Brit and a Blonde- and if you can grab them when they're not in Costa Rica, say hi for me.  This room can be set up for any purpose (they moved the chairs after the ceremony, and set up a wet bar in the back).   Great feeling in the room.

Fantasy Farms, stormy weather, lovely brides

So the radar was scary this season - but we've managed all the outdoor weddings with some sort of magic timing luck!  In this case, the heavens opened JUST after the ceremony!  But we had a great wedding on the Fantasy Farms verandah, and here's a pix in the garden afterwards. A few clouds are good for picture contrast!

Hart House Chapel - delightful family wedding

Hart House Chapel

Funny moment at a lovely family wedding at the non-denominational chapel at Hart House, University of Toronto.  We have held many elopements in the chapel, and it's good for a small family wedding (the maximum capacity is 25-30, but kind of squishy).
Lovely photos are by Nika Jaksic

Photos at the Carillon tower

Le Select Jardin - lovely indoor/outdoor downtown venue for a family-size wedding

Le Select Jardin wedding

Here's a great recent wedding at Le Select on Wellington (the lovely bride is an elegant dancer!)  We are standing in front of the wooden wall, to the right of the greenery and fountains (panoramic view below). Their overhead canopy is useful with inclement weather, and you can have a private brunch or lunch or dinner in the adjoining dining rooms.  Great atmosphere, great food!

Le Select Jardin

Happy Pride! Lots of weddings!

Happy 2 weekends of weddings - at the Bathurst Community Centre, Allan Gardens, Edwards Gardens, and on some nice backyards and roof decks.  I was already booked during the Pride Parade this year, so my friend Arran is conducting a little informal wedding at the Ontario Humanist Society BOOTH at the PRIDE Parade!  Sounds perfect (and a lot quieter than being up on the float in the parade).  Perhaps he'll send pix.  I was recently asked to help with a Hindu-Secular-Vegan -Non-dairy-Same sex wedding, (wow!) and again, wasn't available, but my colleagues and I worked together to offer advice and help.  Lots of creative couples, with lots of good ideas.  We make sure your wedding follows the LEGAL requirements of the Marriage Act of Ontario, and help with advice on combining rituals and traditions to add your personal touches.  Always feel free to write with questions or ideas....   And here was LAST year's Pride wedding! The one on the float!

Wedding Ceremonies & Formal Photography - Permits & Rentals - Parks, Forestry & Recreation | City of Toronto

Wedding Ceremonies & Formal Photography - Permits & Rentals - Parks, Forestry & Recreation | City of Toronto
We've gotten several enquiries about Park weddings for this year.  Here's the info page again (above, and a short link here) bit.ly/1daSbin   (or call parks office from 311). 
Note the Rules:
Facility listings:  Parks

Rates:"Rates for wedding ceremonies and photography are approved by City council.  Rates can be adjusted at anytime, please discuss the permit rental rates directly by calling (416) 392-8188."

How to Apply for a Permit

To obtain a permit or get further information on rates and availability, call 416-392-8188 and press 1, Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 4:00pm. Payment by VISA, Mastercard or American Express is
accepted over the phone. You can also book your permit and pay by cash or certified check in person by visiting your local permit office.

Wedding Ceremony Parks List

this is from the City of Toronto Website
"Toronto Parks, Forestry & Recreation offers many beautiful outdoor parks and indoor facilities available for your stand-up wedding ceremony.
NOT ALL PARKS ARE AVAILABLE FOR WEDDINGS.
"Please note that ceremonies are stand-up only, no chairs are permitted. Accompany your ceremony with soft taped music or a live  non-amplified trio"

MUSEUMS:
The parks list above does not include green space associated with Historical locations, such as Colborne Lodge, Todmorden Mills, Fort York, etc.  You'll find those facilities under MUSEUMS. We had a great wedding on the steps of Spadina House, with guests in the front lawn. (Reception held at another location.)  The Couple booked a permit for the steps of Spadina house. Another couple is holding a wedding AND the small outdoor cocktail reception at Spadina, (as you have to book a minimum of 3 hours for the space). 

The above city parks and museum list does not include Riverdale Farm, Dufferin Grove, Campbell House, the Children's Peace Garden, the Toronto Island clubhouses, Black Creek, Kortwright, and other green places you can also rent for weddings. Some of these are managed by community groups, and you can apply to them for an event. You can obtain a photography permit at the Brickworks and hold a small wedding in the ravine, for instance.

NOTE: very small informal weddings in a park are sometimes possible, please write to me directly. But for any group larger than a dozen or so, you will need to consider a proper permit, a photography permit, or permission.  Drop me a line :-)

Smaller Spring weddings! Inside/outside

We've braved the elements this spring, in the snow, in the rain, and had some lovely lucky days, in Philosopher's walk, in some local parks, and cosy inside Allan Gardens in the spring flowers.  The back patio at Le Select is sunny now, and the Brickworks is coming up a few times soon.  We might slip into the Ravine next week for a little family wedding, and they're cleaning up the garden in front of St James gazebo.  For inside comfort, several couples have used hotels, and smaller meeting rooms or suites:  the Trump Tower, the Park Hyatt, Gladstone, Four Seasons, etc.  And I've seen lots of new condo party rooms, some quite wonderful.  Restaurants are good spring ideas, some have nice patios you can snag if the sun is out - been to Bravi, Le Select, and Terroni's, all for family-size weddings.  You can always book the Hart House chapel and have a great lunch at the Gallery Grill (but only September thru June, alas! tho they now have sunday brunch and a cocktail hour!

update - finally! hot weather! Off to the Brickworks, (stunning tonight - baby ducks, too...) then Todmorden Mills, the Ravine, St James Cathedral park, and the top deck of a few townhouses - nice to see the sky.  Some Pride weddings, in homes and backyards, and a bar or two -- Happy Summer!

Winter weddings - Allan Gardens, cosy inside!

We've had a few brave weddings in the park - though everyone had to stamp their feet a lot and we rushed back inside for warm drinks!  But it's been a loonnng winter for outdoor weddings, and spring may be the same, cold (or) muddy.  Have a backup plan!  A friend's sunny condo party room, indoors at Allan Gardens,  a nice brunch wedding at a friendly bistro, an old-fashioned wedding at home around a fireplace, if you can find somebody who has one! Check the usual places, 'private dining' is a good google/yelp term.  We're still planning outdoor elopements for a few hardy souls, but if your numbers are larger, the logistics for an outdoor wedding are tricky in early spring if you have to redirect guests to a different location due to weather problems. Thinking ahead, if you're planning an island summer wedding - buy those paper ferry tickets in advance! The lines are too long on hot summer weekends for wedding guests in dressup clothes. You also get a discount on paper tickets.  Station a friend with a guest list at the docks to hand them out.  

Enoch Turner Schoolhouse - time travelling on a Fall wedding

Another century!  The lovely flowergirls and the wonderful couple are in front of the door of Enoch Turner Schoolhouse.  Looks like a Royal Wedding!  (The girls dresses are actually from Amazon - at very reasonable cost - amazingnesss.)  But the bride made almost everything else - from the favours, to the wands, to the table crosswords and puzzles for everyone. It fit the schoolhouse perfectly.
This is a crowdsourced photo, with permission from the mom's to post it here.. thanks!

Special Wedding at Bar Mercurio - and a good cause

Here is a great couple from a wedding on the Bar Mercurio patio, at St George and Bloor.  The groom is a Doctor at UofT, but also works with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) and they were working in Chad. The photographer was a field photographer with MSF, and the best man was also with MSF!   Doctors without Borders do such wonderful, brave work - a portion of this wedding fee was donated to MSF, and if you are looking for a deserving 'wedding charity', here's the link to share:
Medecins Without Borders (Canada) 

Bar Mercurio, Patio

Gladstone, Upper lounge - intimate location

Gladstone, Upper lounge

We usually hold weddings in the ballroom at the Gladstone (or, once, in the Tower Room suite for a family group) but lately we've had a few smaller weddings (15-40 people) in the upstairs lounge area.  Here is a nice little wedding in the upper lounge - just a small group of friend and family, and then a nice dinner downstairs.  And there's that fun elevator!  You can have some drinks set up at a portable bar, and then go downstairs for more food. 

We had another wedding here on the night of Nuit Blanche! It was very much fun, tho some art patrons wanted to see things as dusk fell.  Check the dates of Toronto events when you plan a wedding!

Faculty Club, University of Toronto

Faculty Club, Univ of Toronto

I like these pictures - sort of instagramy - it was a totally delightful family wedding - (with lots of kids!)  at the UofT faculty club.  The intrepid couple went to Easter Island for a honeymoon!

Very touching vows

Small little dinner party wedding at Le Select, and a few other smaller venues

So - a dozen people gathered at Le Select on a Tuesday for a small, intimate wedding.  The garden ('jardin') was available, and so we had the canapes, toasts and ceremony in the back, and then they had a dinner in one of the back side rooms.  It's possible to do this during the week, (weekends are often busier) and have a lovely smallish wedding. We were originally going to go over to the island, or somewhere by the water, but the weather has been pretty iffy, and in fact, this was the 34 degree day - so the shade of the canopy over the back jardin was great.  Wonderful evening.

next week - off to the Arts and Letters club, Fantasy Farm, a private wedding in Cabbagetown, Casa Loma in the conservatory, over to the Rectory cafe on Ward's, and another small family wedding upstairs at the Gladstone...  when TIFF is over, lets hope the TTC repairs are swift!

Tiff Elopement!

Here are two wonderful people, who came up north for TIFF, and got married at the Thompson Hotel, in a bit of calm time in the middle of the crazy (Brad Pitt's bodyguards at the pool, George Clooney sneaking in the hotel...).  But the real romance was here - C and B, together 13 years, had a wonderful, intimate Canadian wedding in the Big Smoke.  Lifted us up for whole day.... I don't usually put comments in these snippets, but they wrote to say they're home, and the wedding was 'perfect', and they felt they'd known us for years (my husband was a witness).  We felt the same - and wish them a lifetime of happiness, just like this.

summer patio at Le Select

great wedding at Le Select, and great photos (as usual!!!)  by A Brit and a Blonde

(remember this? last summer at the Pride parade? that's a Brit and a Blonde)

Lovely morning elopement in the park

Dovercourt Park, quiet and magical at 7:30am - birds, flowers, a couple of kids and a dog or two - and an entirely lovely couple..

Great Photography by Jennifer Rowsom

Dovercourt Park elopement

Here's another great wedding that was shot by Jen

Black Creek Pioneer Village Wedding

Umbrellas in the rain - St James Gazebo

and sometimes it rains -  so make sure your whole group can fit under a roof!  (or have nice big umbrellas)

St James Park gazebo

Unusual wedding guest - and a summer getaway location

Guess the location! (oh well, it's pretty easy - we were on the Toronto island for a lovely wedding and this character is part of the children's theatre programme this summer.  He was just heading over the bridge on Centre Island and stopped for a snapshot)

I think it adds a bit of scale - and a 'royal wedding' effect, don't you?  It was one of those HOT days, so both guys in suits were pretty wilted by this time!  but grins all round...