Filed under: Planning, Venues, Wedding | Tags: Hamilton venues, LIUNA station, Toronto, Toronto venues, wed, wedding venues
posted by: missmiellen
Ok, I had a bit of a meltdown yesterday. J and I haven’t booked our venue yet, and the popular places in Toronto are all getting snapped up. So last night, I put a list together for J to go through, with all our current potentials, including details, website links and images.
This morning, I made 3 phone calls. One of them was to Liuna Station. We are not going to have our wedding here, but it is seriously so gorgeous that I can’t not talk about it. This is saying a lot, considering the fact that I’ve never been there, and it’s in Hamilton.
Yes, within that dirty Hamilton smog, there’s stands a place that shines so bright, it even caught MY eye (the pickiest eye of all). This venue used to be a rail station, part of the Canadian National Railway. It was built in 1929, and closed back in 1993. Then in 1996, it was used in the movie The Long Kiss Goodnight, with lots of money spent in renovations (apparently X-Men has been filmed there, too). Anyway, it was bought by the Labourer’s International Union of North America, which is how it came to be known as LIUNA Station.
Enough with the talk, let’s move on to the photos (all photos belong to liunastation.com).
I believe these drapes are by Versace (no joke, it says so on their site).
So if you are looking for a venue in Hamilton, look no further! Packages are reasonably priced, and as I’ve been told, the photos don’t do the space justice.
Ok, now that I’ve stopped pimping out LIUNA Station, I can chat a little bit about my state of mind. Up until 15:45 this afternoon, I was having a crisis. What happened at exactly that time? J and I went to scout our latest venue… and for the first time, we were wowed. YES! We had not felt that way about any of the places we’d seen, but today, we were very pleasantly surprised, and now I’m super excited. I won’t tell you where it is yet (how else can I get you readers to come back?), but hopefully by next week – before June 1st, our deadline, to be exact - we have a space for our wedding!
Filed under: Advice, Planning, Venues, Wedding | Tags: Toronto venues, venue shopping, wedding advice, wedding receptions, wedding venues
posted by: missmiellen
As you all know, I’ve been talking about venues for the past 3 months – you’d be unhappy to know that J and I still have not booked our venue. And as the title of this post says, the pressure is ON. We’re going into wedding high season, and people are booking their places while we’re still left behind.
There’s a few things I’ve learned in this process, so new to-be-brides, take heed.
Choose a space you fall in love with…
You certainly should choose a venue that makes your jaw drop the first time you see it. Why go with something anything less?
…but don’t be too picky
Being too picky has faltered our decision to make a decision. The more we prolong, the more spaces get booked up by everyone else.
Try and keep your guest list small
This is only if it’s possible, and if you’re looking for unique downtown venues. Once you go over 200, your list of gorgeous potential venues get cut in half (at the least). And of course, the smaller your guest list, the lower your overall cost. That venue takes up a huge chunk of your budget!
Make compromises
There are a lot of great venues in the city of Toronto, at all different price points. If you start well ahead of time, you will find a space that’s perfect for you. Don’t necessarily go somewhere you don’t like because it’s super cheap, and don’t go somewhere you can’t afford just because you love the location of the venue. Take all aspects into consideration – give and take, and you can make a space that was just ok into gorgeous..
It’s never too early
I feel like we’re really learning this lesson the hard way. There are still quite a few venues available that we like, but our original laundry list of selections have definitely shrunk. If you fall in love with a space, book it. Even if it’s 2 years away (just make sure you’re engaged first).
For those who are looking for Toronto venues, here are a few links that have been extremely helpful:
Biz Bash – event planning industry website with lots of Toronto venues and reviews
Venue Source – excellent venue site with contact information, capacity listings, images and virtual tours
Boston Avenue – venue listing (and portfolio with images) of Boston Avenue Photo Co.
Chow Hound – website all about eating; great for forums and reviews on caterers/wedding venues and their food
Filed under: Magazines, Planning, Wedding | Tags: bridal magazines, Grace Ormond Wedding Style, Martha Stewarts Weddings, Modern Bride, Wedding Bells, wedding magazines
posted by: missmiellen
I’ll bet every girl has flipped through a bridal mag in their life, whether they were engaged or not. Well, here is my somewhat comprehensive guide to wedding magazines… all in my humble opinion. Ratings are out of 5.
Martha Stewart Weddings ★★★★★
I subscribed to Martha Stewart Weddings when I thought I wanted to be a wedding planner. Who doesn’t love Martha? The best thing about her magazines are the creative do-it-yourself ideas, and she shows you how to actually do it. The editorial fashion features are usually very pretty, tasteful and trendy, and it’s never overflowing of bridal gown adverts. Her Real Wedding features are also great – they usually focus on a Martha Stewart staff member (who obviously will have the most gorgeous Martha-approved wedding) or an interesting person from the industry (current issue features a lady who is the executive assistant of Vera Wang). Even though Martha Stewart Weddings is not as thick as most of the bridal magazines, it has some of the best content. Quality over quantity!
Best for: creative brides who want DIY ideas for their favours, decor, invitations and food
Website: marthastewartweddings.com
Modern Bride/Brides ★★★
Modern Bride and Brides are both Condé Nast publication, and share a same website. I prefer Brides over Modern Bride because it has better articles and editorials, but both are exactly what you expect in a wedding magazines. I do really like their Brides FAQ feature – they have sections called Ask A Mom, Ask A Bridesmaid and Ask A Groom.
Best for: articles on etiquette and home decor, dresses
Website: brides.com
Grace Ormonde Wedding Style ★★★★
Grace Ormonde Wedding Style is the W of wedding magazines. It’s oversized, overpriced, and overly chic. If you’re looking for trendy, glamorous and outrageous decor ideas, you need to get yourself a copy of this magazine. Fashion editorials are always shot in some exotic location with the hottest dresses by the hottest designers (think Ines di Santo, Monique Lhuillier, Reem Acra in Puerto Rico or Hawaii). For amazing inspiration and some shattered dreams, go spend the $11.99!
Best for: decor, expensive Real Weddings inspiration
Website: weddingstylemagazine.com
Wedding Bells ★★★
Finally, a Canadian magazine! Weddings Bells is one of the better Canadian magazines, with great editorials and articles on Real Weddings, home decor and beauty. The best thing for us folks in the GTA is that the advertisements actually relate to us. Their website is not bad either – a budgeting tool that’s in Canadian dollars! Hooray!
Best for: finding local vendors (venues, dresses, invitations, etc.)
Website: weddingbells.ca
Today’s Bride ★★
Another popular Canadian wedding mag. Though I’m sure most wedding mags do this (since readers are not usually long-term), I found that they recycle a lot of articles. A friend lent me a copy of Today’s Bride from Winter 2007, and it contained some identical articles that were in a Winter 2008 I had. How boring! Issues are always thick, meaning they are absolutely loaded with wedding dress adverts. Great for those looking for dress and bridesmaid dress ideas, but a waste for us people who already have the fashion pinned down.
Best for: dresses
Website: todaysbride.ca
Wedluxe ★★★
Wedluxe is a relatively new magazine that is targeted to the Canadian luxury wedding market. Wedluxe is the Grace Ormond Wedding Style of the North, though it does come short in comparison. Given that it’s a new mag, it hasn’t built the reputation and substance of a magazine that’s been around for years, but it definitely has the potential and some great content already. Real Weddings will give you inspiration that you could actually carry out – they all take place somewhere in Canada.
Best for: Canadian “luxury” vendors, Real Canadian Wedding inspiration
Website: wedluxe.com
posted by: missmiellen
Sorry to everyone for my extremely delayed follow-up to my adventure at the Oliver & Bonacini special event – last week was a complete write-off (no pun intended) for me as I was busy with some projects. But I’m back!
So on Thursday, April 23, J and I were invited to an event called Eight Chefs, hosted by Oliver & Bonacini restaurants, at the Board of Trade. I was expecting a delicious night of free food and booze, and they delivered! There were 8 different food stations, each with food created by a chef from an O&B restaurant.
These few photos are taken from oliverandbonacini.com. Prepare yourself for foodie delights.
For your convenience, I also put them in my order of preference. I don’t remember all the fancy dishnames, but from left to right we have: truffled mushroom capuccino (YUMMMMM), oysters, crab cake with fiddlehead, seared yellowfin tuna, one that I really don’t remember (and can’t tell from looking at the photo either), and braised short rib ravioli.
Missing from these photos are the SOMA chocolate room, where we had this crazy, warm, spicy chocolate shot (it had cayenne pepper in it), and the incredible martini bar – where I had a martini called the Dill Pickled (pickle purée, white cranberry and a mini gherkin for garnish). There were also all sorts of canapés being passed around, some very delicious (there was a truffled croquette sort of thing).
Oysters, hanging out in the cool ice sculptured bowl
Another ice sculpture at the martini bar
Super tasty croquembouche in the dessert room
The finishing touch? On our way out, Lisa (the event co-ordinater we’ve been corresponding with) set us on our way with a little take out box of popcorn. You’d be silly to think it was plain or even buttered popcorn. The popcorn was truffled. YOWZAA!!
