Looking for a custom cake?

Yesterday BlogTO posted a list of the best custom cake bakers in Toronto. While the article itself is great, I find the dozens and dozens of comments that it attracted particularly useful. In addition to listing some other bake shops, the comments also give you more than a few honest opinions about the winning entries.

Personally I love the bird cake pictured in this entry. It’s made by The Wedding Cake Shoppe and while I don’t think this particular cake would work for my wedding, I definitely plan on checking them out and seeing if they can put together something that does work.

Venue Review: The Toronto Botanical Garden

About It 

The Toronto Botanical Gardens are a scenic and accessible location for your Toronto wedding. Fully renovated in 2005, the Gardens pride themselves on being a “green” venue that’s also a good bang for your buck. It’s also a great spot i

f you want to have your ceremony and reception in the same place.

The Botanical Gardens offer a number of rental spaces but for most weddings, you’ll want to book either the Floral Hall (seats 200 with room for

 a dance floor) or the Garden Hall (seats 80 with room for a dance floor). The attractive Westview Terrace can be rented with the Garden Hall while the Floral Hall comes with its own outdoor space. The lobby can also be rented with either space.

Pros

- Great setting that is sure to be remembered by your guests 

- A choice of seven caterers

- You can bring your own alcohol and there’s no corkage fee

- A “green” venue

- Space is quite flexible 

- Comes with tables and chairs

- Both outdoor spaces include water features

- Basic on-site lighting and sound system 

- Decent washrooms 

- Plenty of free parking

- Air-conditioned 

Cons

- My biggest issue with both the Floral Hall and the Garden Hall is that while the outdoor spaces are great, the indoor spaces would require draping and tons of flowers/candles/whatever to look great- It's not really that cheap; the Garden Hall will run you $3000 for a Saturday night

- No real bridal room though you can use one of the smaller meeting rooms to change in

- Will host up to two events though depending on what spaces you rent, you may never see the other party 

- Choice of seven caterers; all the choice can be a bit overwhelming 

- While this is great place to do photos, you’ll need to get a permit

Useful Links

Weddings at the Botanical Gardens 

Photo Gallery 

Venue Review: Kortright Centre

About It
The Kortright Centre is “located on 324 hectares of pristine woodlands along the Humber River Valley” and is a great spot if you want a “green wedding” and don’t mind of a bit of a drive (the centre’s located out in Woodbridge).

It features two beautiful, tree-lined ceremony sites and receptions can be held in the charming glass house or even inside the actual centre itself if you need a bit more room (and don’t mind too much about décor). Dancing can take place in either place or outside on the glass house’s patio. The centre supplies plenty of candles, tiki torches and twinkle lights that result in a look that is simple though very stunning and memorable.

Pros
- Great setting that is sure to be remembered by your guests and personally I love the fact that you could dance outside surrounded by tall trees and tiki torches
- If your reception was in the glass house you wouldn't need a lot of flowers or other decorations
- All food and drink is looked after by the Centre and this does simplify things; the Centre also offers some flexibility with the menu, for example, will serve your wedding cake for dessert and then serve the original dessert as a midnight snack
- There is a strong emphasis on organic and local food
- The Centre itself is very “green”
- Only one event per evening
- Comes with tables and chairs
-Your rental includes access to the centre’s theatre; perfect for entertaining kids
- Plenty of free parking


Cons
- Kortright’s primary goal is to educate people about the environment; weddings are just something they do on the side. As a result, the condition of this venue isn’t comparable to say, a hotel ballroom. The centre itself is very ‘70s while the glass house could do with a good power washing
- Bathrooms are exactly what you would expect to find in such a venue; clean but could do with makeover
- Just to re-enforce the obvious but this is a “naturey” venue so that means that things like trees, pollen, bugs, birds and animals will be part of your day
- Not the cheapest place; it'll run you about $110 a head including all food, a four-hour open bar, wine on tables, all staff, table, chairs and and basic rentals including table covers (chair covers are an extra $3 per person)
- You can’t bring your own alcohol
- No AC though the glass house does have doors and windows that can be opened to let in a breeze
- Dancing on the patio is great as long as the weather co-operates. Depending on how you use this venue, you’ll need a back-up weather plan
- Menu is fairly straight-forward so this might not be the best place if you’re a foodie
- No access via TTC and taking a taxi up here won't be cheap; there are also no hotels within walking distance
- No on-site sound or lighting system
- No real bridal room though you can use the theatre to change in

Useful Links

Weddings at the Kortright Centre
Virtual Tour

Venue Review: Steam Whistle Brewery

About It

Located inside the historic Roundhouse (255 Bremner Blvd), the Steam Whistle Brewery features two different rooms for rent. The first and smaller room doubles as the brewery’s store/gallery while the second room is used exclusively for events and comes with a large patio.

Both rooms feature high ceilings and post-and-beam features while the larger room features two walls of windows, one which looks into the brewery and one which looks onto on a small park and the base of the CN Tower. The smaller room features a large, permanent bar and can be included with the larger room for a reduced rate.

Pros
- Dana, the on-site events manage was very friendly and seems like she’d be easy to work with
- You can bring all your own alcohol except beer and there's no corkage fee
- Choice of eight different caterers
- The smaller room features tons of original artwork that changes roughly once a month
- Tons of historic charm; both rooms would require minimal décor
- Hosts only one event per day
- Comes with a coin-operated photo booth machine
- Comes with free ice
- Steam Whistle supplies the bar staff who also double as tour guides and will give tours of the brewery during the reception
- Great bathrooms
- Accusable by the TTC and cab-friendly
- Air-conditioned
- Lighting system that’s more sophisticated than what most venues have

Cons
- Vague “yeasty” smell in the air (it is a working brewery after all!)
- Only Steam Whistle beer is allowed
- Choice of eight caterers; all the choice can be a bit overwhelming 
- No on-site sound system
- No real bridal room though you can use the staff lounge
- As of April 2009, there is construction going on on the outside of the Roundhouse, including on the patio area. The patio construction should wrap up by early summer 2009 with the rest of the construction wrapping up later this year but who knows...
- There may be some internal construction going on in the large event room next year
- No free parking and paid parking can be tight depending on what’s happening in the surrounding area

Useful Links
Planning Your Event at Steam Whistle
Photo Album
Room Rates

Be My Blog’s Facebook Friend!

Are you on Facebook? Then click here to follow my blog via Facebook. That link will take you to something called the NetworkedBlog app page and from there you choose to follow my blog. Then you can access and read my blog via your Facebook page. It’s free, it’s fun and it’ll help my Facebook friend section over on the left not look so sad and lonely. Thanks for the add!

Book Review: My Wedding Dress

My Wedding Dress: True-life Tales of Lace, Laughter, Tears and Tulle is a collection of over two dozen short stories that focus (for the most part) on how the authors came to find their wedding dresses.

Stories vary from tales about hand-me-down dresses to custom creations to even a piece about the dress worn by a “bride of Christ”. Written mainly by Canadian novelists, journalists and poets, the stories are well-written, honest and provide plenty of perspective on weddings, marriage and of course the pressures of finding the perfect dress.

However, some of the stories are a bit condescending. Several of the authors make it very clear that they’re intelligent, independent women who never thought they’d get married and who look down on big weddings and their big dresses. In fact, it almost seems like some of the authors are trying to out “indie” each other, explaining in detail how they exist outside of the mainstream and how this was reflected in their garment choice; in this book, it’s the girl who wants to go to Kleinsberg and pick out a gown who’s the freak.

Thankfully, since this is a collection of short stories, you can easily skip through it or put it down for a few days and then return to it. Just gloss over the more irritating ones and spend your time on the truly good pieces, like the one by Margeret Goudie Parsons about her “sophisticated suit”. Set in Labrador in the ‘50s, it’s a sad though fascinating read.

And yes, the book does contain pictures of all of the dresses described though more often then not, the written description is more attractive and interesting then what you see in the accompanying photos.

More Thoughts On Destination Weddings

Over the weekend, Shawn and I received an email from our friends who are getting married in Mexico next spring. The email contained all the info we needed to know to book our trip as well as a link to the resort’s website. While the email came as a surprise, the details in it were not as our smart friends have been prepping us for awhile on their destination wedding.

While I can understand that many couples want a “surprise” element when it comes to their wedding, the fewer surprises the better when it comes to destination weddings. As soon as you know that’s the route you’re taking, make sure to let your friends and family know. And don’t shy away from outlining your potential guest list. Because destination weddings tend to be much smaller than at-home weddings, many people will be unsure about whether or not they’ll be invited and it’s better to let them in on the answer as soon as possible so that those who are invited can start saving up.

Keep your guests in the loop on how your planning is going so that they can do their own planning. With at-home weddings, it’s fine not to reveal any details until everything is set in stone but because of the cost and complexities of destination weddings (for your guests anyway), it’s much better to let the details trickle out. These details will also help you to refine your guest list since they’ll result in you finding out that your choice of a February wedding in Cuba knocks out your Aunt Bettie because she’s travelling Europe then and your cousin Amy’s husband won't be able to attend because he’s American.

When revealing these details, make sure to watch your wording and don’t assume that anyone’s a given guest. Destination weddings can be beautiful and a lot of fun but they can also be a big, costly pain to your guests. Because of that, be prepared for a lot of “Oh, we’ll have to see if we can afford it” and “Oh, we’ll have to see if I can get the time off”-types of answers. Yeah, that probably isn’t the type of response you were looking for but then again, booking a $1000+ plus, week-long trip is a much bigger commitment than planning a single Saturday night out.

Also be prepared to be completely honest about the price of the trip. Don’t give vague answers or say that you’re sure you’ll be able to get everyone a deal. Instead, list off the resort’s selling features, explain why you and your fiancé picked tha place and then take a deep breath and let people know how much it’s going to cost them.

The resort our friends picked isn’t cheap but because they’d already explained why they loved it and why they thought we’d love it, we were able to understand and deal with the price.

The resort they picked, in case you’re curious, is the El Dorado SeaSide Suites. I’ll be sure to post a review about it once we get back in April.

Venue Hunting

Two weeks from today I’ll be looking at three different venues: the Steam Whistle Brewing Roundhouse, the Toronto Botanical Gardens and the Kortright Centre. I’m hoping that by the end of April 17, Shawn and I will have picked our venue.

We’ve already looked at two places – the Great Hall and the Berkeley Church. We both loved the Berkeley Church and we’re still considering it but I think the Great Hall might be out. It no longer allows you to bring in your own alcohol and that’s something we’re looking for because buying alcohol through a caterer is not cheap. Plus, by being allowed to bring in our own alcohol, we can decide what we want to have served, from specific brands of beers to certain vodka flavours.

While we did like the overall look and feel of the Great Hall, we just found that the Berkeley Church had a similar look and feel but with air-conditioning, outdoor space and nicer details.We expect that the Roundhouse, another 19th- century building heavy on period charm, will be the Berkeley Church’s main competition and I’m curious to see how the two stack up.

Meanwhile, the Botanical Gardens and the Kortright Centre will be offering something a bit different. Both of these modern venues have an emphasis on the outdoors and on being “green”. From the pictures that I’ve seen, both are stunning spaces with tons of possibilities and they both offer the beauty of an outdoor wedding while at the same time, providing the security of a great indoor space.

Friday, April 17, is certainly going to be a busy day for Shawn and me and I’ll be sure to share all the details of our venue hunt.