We chose our venues!
Oh boy, the trouble we went through to find a date. As we wanted to respect our parents, the dates and more specifically a timeframe had to be checked by a priest to determine if it was ‘auspicious’. We gave the priest a series of dates and NONE of them worked out. After a lot of drama – the ceremony day and timeframe (between 1:00 – 1:30pm) was chosen! Just for you non-SouthAsians scratching your head, that means from 1:00 to 1:30 is the time when you can tie the ‘knot’ (basically the equivalent of exchanging the rings at church). But that does not mean the ceremony is only 1/2 hr long. There is about 1.5 hrs worth of rituals before and after so we’re looking at about a 11am – 2:30 pm wedding ceremony – I know, tell me about it!!!
Our Dates
I’m super excited!!!! (if you cann’t see that my excessive use of exclamation marks)
Ceremony: Sunday June 27, 2010
Reception: Sunday July 4th, 2010 (the week after)
Our Venues
I do not have enough words to say about these two places – they are gorgeous and the coordinators are SUPER flexible/accomodating/very nice and have been really great about getting back to me over e-mail/phone.
Ceremony: Angus Glen Golf Club
Angus Glen
Location: Kennedy & Major Mack in Markham
Ceremonies at Angus Glen have the option of either being conducted inside the tent or out in the patio. THey are both right beside each other and have a FABULOUS view of the golf course. I chose the tent as we will be using the traditional Hindu structure called a mandap and with 150 guests, I thought the tent was a nice option – not to mention its so beautiful!
Costs: $2500 (for ceremony only; $1000 if reception is held there afterwards). The $2500 includes a $1000 food/beverage credit that can be used towards cocktail items/coffe/tea etc. If you do not use that money, it will just go towards food rental so might as well use it! The coordinator was accomodating in that we could bring traditional Sri Lankan appetizers (as everything has to be vegetarian on the ceremony day) that they would order on our behalf through our specified catering company. The fee includes all chairs, staffing, and decorative planters (they have two large ones). Parking is also free. Does not include aisle runner (needs to be rented separately inhouse or can bring your own).
We get usage of the tent from 10-2pm and can come as early as we want to set-up (this is VERY good for us because set-up of the mandap takes between 4-6 hrs…other places, timing was very restrictive for us).
Reception: The Bay Arcadian Court
Arcadian
Venues
Its very hard trying to find a suitable venue to host an ethnic wedding. I really wanted to avoid the usual South asian/Indian halls because practically every other family member/friend hosted their wedding there.
Our ceremony guest count is max 150 and reception between 300 to 350. This is a Sri Lankan wedding, not an Indian one (yes there is a difference in food, not all curries are the same!) We’re trying to stick to a budget of 30k (including ceremony/reception/photog/videographer)
This is a very LONG post!
Atlantis Pavillions
Atlantis Pavillions
Atlantis was pretty strict about not allowing for any outside caterers except the Host. Since we loved the venue so much (its gorgeous!!), we thought compromise and still offer the Host although its Indian food. But after much discussion, some of our elderly guests would not be happy if there wasn’t any traditional Sri Lankan food offered.
The starting menu price for a Saturday wedding catered by the Host here would be 76 pp. Now multiply that by 350, add in drinks, and tax, and my partner and I will be a very broke couple so we skipped it for that reason
We did however wanted to look at the option of at least having the ceremony there (at the rooftop patio). The ceremony fees were riduculous IMO: $750 per hour (and our ceremonies are usually 3 hours!) with just one hour set-up fee, being charged for any time over that…….unfortunately no ceremony here either 
On the positive side, the staff were very patient my numerous questions and I’m sure would have done a great job based on reviews I’ve read elsewhere – just not within our budget!
Eagles Nest Golf Club
Eagle`s Nest
This place is gorgeous!!! I have no complaints about the venue or my communication with the coordinator there. Unfortunately it holds a maximum of 250 (at that time when we were checking out venues, I blindly thought 250 would be enough for us!). They also allow outside catering with the following breakdown:
$7500 hall rental; $2500 staffing fees. So 10K rental fees but if your like me and have a frugal family caterer, you can easily save money here!
There is an outside area to hold a ceremony.
Boulevard Club
Boulevard Club
This does allow you to bring in your own caterer. Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to see the venue from inside. We booked an appointment with the coordinator and she forgot to book us in her calendar and we ended up waiting over half an hour, at that point we realized its not a very good first impression for us!
Toronto Argonaut Rowing Club
http://i39.tinypic.com/30us0th.jpg
Again great lake view for such a frugal cost AND you can bring in your own caterer. Unfortunately the capacity is too low. Also, what we didn`t like was the entrance to the hall. There were these very unstable stairs from the side that we knew would not be a very elegant entrance (and not to mention we have a lot of older guests!).
Solarium @ Polson Piers
Solarium
From the pictures, I was really excited about a lake view. This was a 7K rental and allowed you to bring in any caterer you wish. The maximum capacity is 300. But I just hated the entranceway and once upstairs, there was no way 300 would fit comfortablly without looking incredibly crowded and not being able to move around comfortably. Also, I wasn’t particularly fond of the coordinator and the fact that all chairs/tables had to be rented from Chairman Mills only. But its a gorgeous venue and could work for smaller weddings
Palais Royale
Palais Royale
We also checked this place out because of the lakeview. But to hold a ceremony on the outside deck, the inside chairs could not be used and hence we had to pay the ceremony fees AND rent the chairs in addition. Frankly, we weren’t too excited about this place, maybe because I had high expectations. In addition, parking is located right across – its quite small and on dirt road and you can easily miss the entrance. Not to mention they didn’t allow outside caterers.
Sunnyside Pavillion
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Sunnyside pavillion
http://www.sunnysidepavilion.com/
They allow you to bring in your own caterer but all tables, chairs have to be rented. Basically, you get an empty room to work with which can add up. Ceremony fees were approx 1000 for the lower patio area and 1800 for the courtyard room (again all tables/chairs had to be rented out). The coordinator was great to work with though.
Swaminarayan Temple
Temple
We really did not want to get married in a temple as both FH and I are not religious. But I just wanted to check the temple out since it looks so gorgeous! The coordinator was pleasant to work with. He gave us a quote of $28-$35 pp which included a vegetarian meal. The price difference was whether people used plastic plates or the silver plates.
Now when we checked the actual hall for the ceremony, FH and I did not like it because it looked dark (had no windows) and hated the bright red carpeting. The meals were eaten in literally a school gynmasium attached to the hall. This venue is great if you want to feel satisfied you got married at the temple (and not to mention part of the payment goes as a charitable donation so you get a tax receipt) and of course its a reasonable price since your getting the cost of food. Another concern was that the food was with Sayona Foods. I quite remember him saying over the phone there was the option of going with Saravana Bhavan (another vegetarian South Indian place) but in person, he said there was no option – I must have misunderstood!
Tower Garden Cafe
This is located on the 12th floor of the Mississauga Civic Centre. You get a 360 view of the square one area as they have floor to ceiling glass windows. They allow you to bring in your own caterer for a ceremony, the price is frugal – just $500 for a ceremony (bringing in outside catering costs extra) and the coordinator is fantastic to deal with! So why did we not choose this venue? Its still gives you a ‘cafe’ feeling as as much as I wanted to make myself like this because it had only positives, I just felt it wasn’t us at the end of the day. Otherwise, really great place! Not to mention free parking and there is a little garden downstairs (its owned by the city).
Garden Banquet Convention Centre
http://www.gardenconvention.com/
Very bright and spacious hall (large seating capacity), free parking, and frugal per person surcharge to bring in your own caterer. The staff I spoke to through e-mail was wonderful to deal with. So, why did we end up not choosing this? Well for one it was attached to a Mandarin and aesthetically I didn’t like that. Not to mention how crazy busy it was because of the Mandarin dinner crowd! Also, its called a garden banquet and from the virtual tour you expect luscious green area. Well not really, its in the middle of an industrial area, lots of hotels/restaurants nearby and if anything the gardens are not that extensive – just green area. That’s too bad!
Empress of Canada
http://www.empressofcanada.com/
Why do we always end up with such great coordinators? We booked the site visit as they allowed outside catering and from the website, I was realy excited about the boat! Well, umm once you get on – its VERY run down inside (they must have used really great lighting for the website tour). The seats were worn out. The chairs provided were quite ugly and it needed a LOT of decor to cover up all those imperfections. Maximum capacity – 275.
Mariposa Cruises – Northern Spirit
http://www.mariposacruises.com/our-fleet-spirit.php
The Northern Spirit was far more spacious, very nice fleet and bright (maximum capacity – around 350) The coordinator was fabulous…too bad this was way over our budget. A quote of around 23K with a basic meal plan (not including our outside catering costs or booze). If you can afford it and want a different experience – go for it!
Other Venues
We were in contact with a LOT of venues but I only commented on those that we saw in person. Here are a list of helpful sites for you to find out other venues:
http://www.bostonimages.com/reception.html
