Toronto wedding venues and their transport quirks: Casa Loma to the Distillery

Toronto's wedding venues, in one paragraph

A wedding venue's transport is three things a chauffeur must know before the day: where the bride's car stops (the curb that puts her at the door and in the photograph), where the guests' shuttles drop (the door the venue's staff direct them to, often not the bride's), and where the vehicles wait between the ceremony and the departure (the staging street the coordinator and the venue agree, because a stretch cannot idle at a cathedral's steps for two hours). Toronto's venues range from a nineteenth-century cathedral on a downtown street to a converted whisky distillery on cobblestones to a banquet hall with a thousand-car lot, and each has a rule — the Distillery's no-vehicles gate, the King Street corridor at St. James, the Islands' launch that is not the ferry terminal, the gurdwara's baraat route — that the chauffeurs who drive weddings have learned. This guide maps them: the churches and cathedrals, the temples and gurdwaras, the synagogues and mosques, the Distillery, the hotels, Casa Loma, the event venues, the Islands, the golf clubs, the banquet halls, the destination venues, City Hall, the photograph spots, and a worked venue day.

The churches and cathedrals

St. Michael's Cathedral Basilica (65 Bond Street, at Shuter): the bride's curb on Bond's east side at the cathedral's steps (the Bond Street entrance), the guests' door the same, the staging on Shuter or Dundas East — Bond is a quiet one-way street and the cathedral's steps are the photograph. St. James Cathedral (106 King East, at Church): the King Street corridor's rules end at Jarvis, and St. James at Church is inside them — the bride's car stops on Church Street's curb at the cathedral's Church Street door, never on King; the staging on Adelaide East. Timothy Eaton Memorial (230 St. Clair West, at Dunvegan): the St. Clair streetcar's right-of-way means the bride's car stops on Dunvegan's curb at the church's side door or on St. Clair's curb lane briefly; the staging on Dunvegan. The Bloor Street churches (Bloor Street United at Huron, Trinity-St. Paul's at Robert, St. Paul's Anglican at Jarvis, the Church of the Redeemer at Avenue Road): Bloor's curb west of Avenue Road is fine and east of it is the Mink Mile's no-stopping zone (the Yorkville guide) — the Redeemer's bride's car stops on Avenue Road's curb. Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Basil's, the Danforth's Greek Orthodox cathedral, the Portuguese churches of the west end, the Filipino parishes: each has a curb the chauffeur has driven and the coordinator's manifest names.

The temples, the gurdwaras and the mosques

The South Asian weddings article covers them in detail: the Hindu temples (the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Claireville Drive in Etobicoke with its lot and its ceremonial approach; the Hindu Sabha in Brampton; the temples of Richmond Hill's Bayview and Scarborough's Middlefield), the Sikh gurdwaras (the Ontario Khalsa Darbar on Dixie in Mississauga; the Brampton and Malton gurdwaras) with the baraat's procession from a nearby lot to the door, the mosques (the Jaffari Community Centre in Thornhill, the ISNA in Mississauga, the Islamic Foundation in Scarborough) with their lots and their separate entrances; each venue's lot is the staging and the Brampton, Mississauga and Richmond Hill pages cover the cities.

The synagogues

Forest Hill's and midtown's synagogues (Holy Blossom Temple on Bathurst, Beth Tzedec on Bathurst at Warwick, Shaarei Shomayim on St. Clair West) and Thornhill's (the Vaughan page's Bathurst corridor) have Bathurst's curb lane or a side street (Ava Road, Warwick) for the bride's car and their own lots for the staging; a Sunday wedding is the tradition, the midtown guide covers the streets, and the reception is often the same building's hall or a downtown hotel's ballroom.

The Distillery: the Fermenting Cellar, Archeo and the Loft

The Distillery District guide's rules: no vehicle enters the gates, so the bride's car goes to Distillery Lane by the venue's coordinator's arrangement (the one vehicle admitted through the Cherry gate at the set time) or to the Cherry gate (the shortest walk to the Fermenting Cellar), the guests' shuttles drop at the Mill Street gate in waves, the staging is on Cherry or Parliament, the photographs are in the lanes, and the December weekends' Christmas Market closes Mill Street's curb. The Fermenting Cellar (300 seated) is the district's largest room and Archeo and the Loft its smaller ones; a Distillery wedding's cobblestones decide the bride's shoes.

The hotels

The Fairmont Royal York (the Imperial Room, the Canadian Room, the Concert Hall): the Royal York article's York Street conference entrance for the bride's car and the guests (the Front Street porte-cochère is the hotel's), the staging on York and Piper. The King Edward (the Crystal Ballroom, the Vanity Fair): Leader Lane's or Victoria Street's curb — never King — and the Financial District hotels guide's rules. The Four Seasons (the Vinci and Aria ballrooms): the Four Seasons article's porte-cochère for the bride at the hotel's event staff's time, the guests staged on Yorkville Avenue's west end and Bay. The Ritz-Carlton, the Shangri-La, the St. Regis, the Park Hyatt, the Hazelton, the Omni King Edward, the Westin Harbour Castle, the Sheraton Centre, the Old Mill: each hotel's door in the Toronto luxury hotels guide and the Financial District hotels guide, with the Old Mill's Bloor-and-Humber driveway the west end's classic (the Bloor West and High Park guide).

Casa Loma

The Casa Loma article's wedding: the bride's car at the Austin Terrace gate at the castle's event staff's time, the guests' shuttles up Spadina Road to the gate in waves (one Sprinter in the lay-by at a time; the others staged on Walmer or Spadina), the ceremony in the Conservatory or the gardens, the photographs on the terrace and the Baldwin Steps, the reception in the Great Hall or the Library, and the departure down the hill at midnight; the castle's calendar has the weddings and the film shoots, and a Saturday in June is booked a year ahead.

The event venues

The Liberty Grand (Exhibition Place — the Liberty Village guide's King and Strachan when the grounds' roads are closed, or the grounds' road to the Grand's own drive when open; the CNE's and the TFC's closures the venue's calendar knows). The Berkeley Church and the Berkeley Fieldhouse (Berkeley at Queen East — Berkeley's curb, the Fieldhouse's lane). The Steam Whistle roundhouse (the CN Tower loop article's Bremner curb, and a Jays game's closure). The Evergreen Brick Works (Bayview Avenue in the Don Valley — the Brick Works' own lot and drop-off loop off Bayview, the midtown guide's ravine). The Gardiner Museum, the AGO's Baillie Court, the ROM's Crystal, the Aga Khan Museum (the ROM and AGO article's doors). The Arcadian Court and the Arcadian Loft (Bay at Queen — the Bay curb north of Queen). The Storys Building, the Burroughes, the Great Hall, 99 Sudbury, the Fermenting Cellar's rivals on King West and Queen West (the Entertainment District guide's side streets). The Palais Royale (Lake Shore at Sunnyside — the Lake Shore curb and the Gardiner's Parkside exit). The Boulevard Club and the Royal Canadian Yacht Club's city clubhouse (Lake Shore and the waterfront — the Harbourfront guide).

The Toronto Islands' clubs

The Islands article's rule: the Royal Canadian Yacht Club's Island clubhouse is reached by the club's own launch from the foot of Parliament Street (the Distillery District guide's neighbourhood), the Queen City Yacht Club's and the Island Yacht Club's by their launches from the Harbourfront's slips, and the Toronto Island Marina's by the ferry — the bride's car goes to the launch's mainland dock, not the Jack Layton terminal, and the guests' shuttles the same; the photographs are the skyline from the water and the return is the launch's last run.

The golf clubs

The golf article's gatehouses: Rosedale, the Toronto Golf Club, Lambton, St. George's, Donalda, the Granite, the National, Glen Abbey, Copper Creek, Eagles Nest — the gate has the wedding's guest list, the bride's car goes to the clubhouse's porte-cochère, the guests' shuttles to the same, the staging in the members' lot, the photographs on the course's signature hole (the club's permission and a cart), and the departure down the club's drive.

The 905's banquet halls

Vaughan's and Woodbridge's (the Bellagio, the Paradise, the Château Le Jardin, the Fontana Primavera — the Vaughan page), Markham's and Richmond Hill's (the Premiere, the Le Parc, the Chinese banquet restaurants — the Markham and Richmond Hill pages), Mississauga's and Brampton's (the Grand Empire, the Versailles, the Apollo, the Chandni — the Mississauga and Brampton pages), Scarborough's and Durham's (the Scarborough guide and the Ajax, Whitby and Oshawa pages) — the halls have lots of five hundred to a thousand cars, porte-cochères for the bride's car, and a Saturday's three weddings at once; the staging is the lot, the guests' shuttles from a hotel the hall's shuttle lane, and the 407 article's toll road the Saturday afternoon's shortcut from downtown to Vaughan.

The destination venues: Niagara and Muskoka

The Niagara wineries (Ravine, Two Sisters, Château des Charmes, Vineland Estates, the Niagara-on-the-Lake inns — the Niagara wine tour article's ninety minutes and the Niagara day trip article's QEW), the Muskoka lodges (the JW Marriott at Minett, Windermere House, Taboo, Deerhurst — the Muskoka article's two hours and the multi-day hire article's weekend), the Prince Edward County barns (the Prince Edward County article), the Blue Mountain resorts (the Blue Mountain article) — a destination wedding's transport is the guests' coach from a Toronto hotel on the Friday, the bride's car from the lodge's suite to the lakeside ceremony, and the Sunday's return; the long-distance vs flying article covers the arithmetic for a guest list from three cities.

City Hall

The elopement and City Hall article covers the couple who marry at City Hall's wedding chamber (Nathan Phillips Square — the Bay Street curb north of Queen, the Financial District hotels guide's corners on a Cavalcade or a Nuit Blanche day) and go to lunch: a sedan or a stretch for two, the photographs on the square and at the ROM, and the fine dining article's room after.

The photograph spots

The Distillery's lanes, Casa Loma's terrace and the Baldwin Steps, the ROM's steps and Philosopher's Walk, the Music Garden and the Harbourfront's promenade, High Park's cherry trees (May) and the Hillside Gardens, the Brick Works' pavilion and the Don Valley, the Scarborough Bluffs and the Guild Inn's sculpture garden, the Sunnyside pavilion and the Palais Royale's lakefront, Trinity Bellwoods, the Toronto Islands' skyline, a Yorkville side street, the Financial District's Commerce Court courtyard, Osgoode Hall's gardens, Graffiti Alley off Queen West, Fort York's ramparts — each with a curb the wedding day timeline article's ninety minutes reaches, and the Toronto neighbourhoods pages cover them.

A worked venue day

A Saturday in October: a St. Michael's Cathedral ceremony at 2 and a Royal York reception at 6, the bride from Leaside, the guests at the Royal York. 12:30: the white stretch at the Leaside home. 1:45: the guests' Sprinters from the Royal York's York Street door to Bond Street's curb south of the cathedral (two waves); the parents' sedans to Shuter. 1:55: the stretch at the cathedral's Bond Street steps; the photographer on the steps; the staging on Dundas East. 3:15: the photographs — Osgoode Hall's gardens (the Queen Street curb west of University), the Financial District's Commerce Court (the Bay lay-by), the Royal York's own lobby. 4:45: the cocktail hour at the Royal York — the York Street door. 10 and 12: the guests walk upstairs (they are staying); the parents' sedans to Leaside and Leslieville; the getaway S-Class at York Street at 12:20 to the Ritz. Six vehicles, two venues, one Bond Street curb, and a cathedral's steps in the album.

Wedding venues quick reference

Booking a venue's transport

The wedding limo page books the day; the coordinator's manifest names each venue's door; the wedding day timeline article sequences the legs and the wedding guest shuttles article the waves. A chauffeur has driven every door on this list.

Book the venue's transport