Venue Research: The One

We will be having our wedding and reception at...wait for it...wait some more...the University of Toronto Faculty Club. I was pretty much in love the moment I walked in and I just became ever more happy with it as we did a walk through with the lovely manager Leanne. Leanne is a certified etiquette expert so obviously etiquette book loving me was thrilled with that little fact!


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Anyway, on to the actual venue. Here's how it measures up against my criteria for our venue.

1) It was really affordable considering it's location and its quality.
2) It is incredibly cozy and has numerous fireplaces, including one we can have the ceremony in front of.
3) It has space for our reception and ceremony to be in different rooms. I'll discuss that more below.
4) It fits 100 people really well.
5) Not a banquet hall!
6) Has a personal connection to us as it is part of the University and because it's in our neighbourhood.

There were also a number of bonuses to this venue. These are things that weren't essential, but I'm thrilled about them all the same.

1) We will have the entire venue to ourselves, which means we will have the full attention of the staff and no one will be frantically trying to make sure that the 6 brides at the venue don't run into each other, as clearly we're all self absorbed babies who need to feel like we are the most important people in the world that day! (Yes, I'm kidding...) Everything I've read suggests that it's ideal to have a venue all to yourself for the wedding. While I liked this idea, I knew for me this was something that I could do without. Luckily I don't have to!

2) They have lots of good vegan options and didn't bat an eye when my dad (yes I went to see the venue with my dad and Mr. Knitting) mentioned we would be needing a gluten free vegan option. I have a lot of vegans in the family, and I'm a dabbling vegan myself so it was important to me that there were actually appetizing vegan options and I wouldn't have to serve anyone white rice and vegetables!

3) They will be completely decorated for Christmas complete with Christmas trees! Yay for saving money on decorations!

4) They have quite a bit of Group of Seven (iconic Canadian painters) art on display here. This appeals to the art history major in me as well as the Canadian Gallery Guide at the Art Gallery of Ontario side of me.

Okay, so now we're onto a walk through of the spaces. All of the images are from the Faculty Club's website as my old computer died and took all of my photos of the club with it. While these images aren't perfect, they will give you an idea of the space.

This is the room we will be having the ceremony in. The chairs will all be set up facing the fireplace and we'll get married in front of it.


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This is the room where we will be having the cocktail reception immediately after the ceremony. I'm also toying with the idea of greeting guests here before the ceremony with hot apple cider. This picture doesn't show you much of the room, but you can get a feel for the sort of cozy gentleman's club feeling of the room. Also, yay for another fireplace!


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This is the main dining room where we will have the dinner and dancing. The room is also known as the Wedgwood room as the walls are painted to look like Wedgwood Jasperware, which I happen to love. Also, in case you were wondering, yes that is a balcony that I can throw my bouquet off of!


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So we now have our wedding location set and to say that this decision made me giddy would be a bit of an understatement. While getting my ring certainly made the wedding feel real to me, finding the location and putting the deposit down made it feel like this was really going to happen and that made (already highly perky) me incredibly excited.

Did you have a moment of complete giddiness during your planning process?