This is one of my favorite venues. There's not many really excellent pictures online so I'll try to tell you about it. There are two rooms that you can be married in, and both have merit.
The great hall portion is huge with a vaulted ceiling and curiously, just about the worlds most perfect accoustics. You put a cello or a good quality human voice in there and the sound is just amazing. If this is the room that appeals, I'd say go for live music for your ceremony. String quartet. Or a singer with guitar. Or something like that. There's a piano in the room but I have no idea how often it's tuned. A piano in Toronto Ontario should be tuned twice a year at least. Srsly.Anyway, the great hall portion is a later addition to the schoolhouse and attached to the schoolhouse itself by a parlor area suitable for stand up receptions which contains a wet bar, access to the kitchens and curio cabinets with items of historical relevance.
The second room is the actual schoolhouse, dating from 1848 with low ceiling and narrow windows, very little light. It's dim, and there's room for about 100 guest to huddle into the reproduction school desks. Most of the furnishings and ornemantation are either reproduction or are antiques donated to the venue, but the school teachers desk that you sit on to sign your documennts is original and genuine. To sit at this gorgous, simple desk is to enter into your marriage in humility and this is half of what I love about this part of this venue - the quiet peace of the furnishings and room. The other half is that the building is made out of equal portions of brick and love.
Looking into the way back machine, here's a brief history of the Irish getting screwed in Toronto, as told by an undereducated wedding officiant fully expecting to be corrected. First the Irish Catholics came to Canada because they were getting screwed in their own country - unable to own certain things, unable to travel at certain times, unable to even own a horse over a certain height, that kind of BS. Then everyone in Ireland got screwed by the potato famine around about 1845. There was still a lot of food being produced but it was being shipped to England and places not Ireland, and it was just the potatoes that people were allowed to eat being affected over all. So people starved and struggled to get the hell out of Ireland. The US didn't want them and made a deal with England about the price of travel, so that to get to New York an Irish person would have to pay a lot of money and to get to Canada they'd have to pay very little, so a lot of them ended up here. Well, those who didn't, in their emaciated form, die either on the Atlantic or in the St. Lawrence river itself. There's mention of a couple of ships where people were sick, and rather than have the passengers be a burden or contamonate people on land they were just allowed to die within sight of it. No disembarking for them. This all pretty much sucked but was in keeping with what the Irish had begun to expect from the rest of the world, having been shipped off to penial colonies in Australia for being Irish and having been rounded up and sold at one point in history to the Carrabean. So what does the fresh hell of the mid 1800's have to do with a very attractive wedding venue?
When the famine victims did arrive they ran into the Irish Catholics they'd screwed over not a generation before, and it was awkward to say the least. Not a warm welcome. The rest of Toronto wasn't very kind eaither, George Brown writing in what was a pre-cursur to the Globe and Mail that they were lazy, violent, brutish and stupid. Irish by and large were considered a sub species at the time and the established Irish considered the new Irish imports to be assholes and hilarity insued.
So then this group of people got together and said "yeah, this isn't going to work unless they have some place to be, like a church and a school or something like that." This group included Bishop Strachan, brewer Enoch Turner, and the millers and distillers Gooderham and Worts. They raised funds and built a church, Little Trinity on King St. and from what I've read ran out of money. Enoch Turner, who had no children of his own but was pretty fond of them, determined that the life of the Irish wasn't going to improve without a school. Back in this time you couldn't go to school without paying for it and the famine victims were out of cash so he build them a school, out of his own pocket. and there it stands. Toronto's first free school, and given that it survived the great fire of the city years later it's the oldest standing one. Here's a blurb I wrote for the introduction of weddings I've done there, you can use it for your ceremony as long as you credit me and have a very nice day:
"We are, right now, within walls built by love in a very real sense. In 1848 brewer Enoch Turner founded this, Toronot's first free and longest standing school to provide basic education to the children of Irish immigrants. He was remembered in a period of grinding poverty as a generous and compassionate man. He had nothing to gain by this gift except the knowledge that he was helping build a better world. The world is changing with each moment, and each action and decision we partake in makes it what it is, and we learn from it. The most valuable lessons we learn in life, we absolutely learn from love."
There's a patch of gardens around it that look good in photo's and the interior of the great hall dresses up nicely. You don't want to dress up the schoolhouse, it's supposed to look the way it does and has a rustic charm you'd be hard pressed to replicate. The staff are friendly and renovations in recent years have ensured that there's a brides room the bathrooms are WAY nicer than they used to be. It's got an awful lot to recommend it and if your wedding is between 40-110 people it is, in my opinion, just about perfect.
Showing posts with label Weddings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weddings. Show all posts
Monday, August 9, 2010
From the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court legalizing same sex marriage
A reading I've added to my archive for options in weddings, and one I like very much. There are weddings at which it's been very appropriate, not all of them same sex:
“Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other nurtures love and mutual support. Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity and family. Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life’s momentous acts of self-definition. It is undoubtedly for these concrete reasons, as well as for its intimately personal significance, that civil marriage has long been termed a ‘civil right.’ Without the right to choose to marry, one is excluded from the full range of human experience.”
- from the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.
“Marriage is a vital social institution. The exclusive commitment of two individuals to each other nurtures love and mutual support. Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity and family. Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life’s momentous acts of self-definition. It is undoubtedly for these concrete reasons, as well as for its intimately personal significance, that civil marriage has long been termed a ‘civil right.’ Without the right to choose to marry, one is excluded from the full range of human experience.”
- from the 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage in that state.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Venue Review: La Maquette
Prettiest. Venue. Ever. Found on the south side of King St. at Church, the staff bend over backward to make the experience good, by all accounts the food is excellent and certainly it's well situated and voted one of the most romantic restaurants in the city. I've heard people note that it's not an inexpensive venue but I'm here to point something out: if what you want is elegant and pretty La Maquette has great value.
Consider this: one of the single best cost saving things a couple can do for their wedding, second only to limiting the guest list, is to have the wedding and reception in a reastaurant. No separate catering fee, no table rentals, no special occasions permit to aquire, no rental of linens, no hiring of staff and wondering if, transient workers that they can be, they'll show up. A restaurant is really the way to go: it's easy to arrange a tasting of the food, it's a known quantity, and all your costs are easier to determine and therefore less likely to bite you in the ass. Now, very swank restaurants can be pricier and certainly La Maquette is that. But it's also more than that - it's beautiful. Don't want to spend extra money on flowers or decoration? You don't have to. The interior is a work of art, at first seeming just quite pretty but on further examination the level of detail and depth to the quality of attention in it's design are truly breathtaking. Over the course of your event your guests will just get more and more impressed. The atmosphere is magnificent, the rooms open and inviting. No, I haven't had dinner there yet and will update this post once I do, but from the joy of couples I've seen married there and the quality of service I've seen on display I whole heartedly recommend it.
Consider this: one of the single best cost saving things a couple can do for their wedding, second only to limiting the guest list, is to have the wedding and reception in a reastaurant. No separate catering fee, no table rentals, no special occasions permit to aquire, no rental of linens, no hiring of staff and wondering if, transient workers that they can be, they'll show up. A restaurant is really the way to go: it's easy to arrange a tasting of the food, it's a known quantity, and all your costs are easier to determine and therefore less likely to bite you in the ass. Now, very swank restaurants can be pricier and certainly La Maquette is that. But it's also more than that - it's beautiful. Don't want to spend extra money on flowers or decoration? You don't have to. The interior is a work of art, at first seeming just quite pretty but on further examination the level of detail and depth to the quality of attention in it's design are truly breathtaking. Over the course of your event your guests will just get more and more impressed. The atmosphere is magnificent, the rooms open and inviting. No, I haven't had dinner there yet and will update this post once I do, but from the joy of couples I've seen married there and the quality of service I've seen on display I whole heartedly recommend it.
Bare Bones Marriage Ceremony for Ontario
For anyone wondering, this is what the marriage act requires. The spirit of it is covered in any general ceremony I do, but the actual language was requested by one couple ages ago. Here it is, dry as toast, from the Ontario Marriage Act:
I do solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, AB, may not be joined in matrimony to CD,
Je déclare solennellement que moi, AB, je ne connais aucun empêchement légal à mon mariage avec CD,
and each of the parties shall say to the other:
I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, AB, do take you, CD, to be my lawful wedded wife (or to be my lawful wedded husband or to be my lawful wedded partner or to be my lawful wedded spouse),
Je demande aux personnes qui sont ici présentes d’être témoins que moi, AB, je prends CD comme légitime épouse (ou comme légitime époux ou comme partenaire conjugal légitime ou comme légitime conjoint(e)),
after which the person solemnizing the marriage shall say:
I, EF, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Marriage Act, do hereby pronounce you AB and CD to be married,
En vertu des pouvoirs qui me sont conférés par la Loi sur le mariage, moi, EF, je vous déclare mariés(ées), AB et CD.
I do solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, AB, may not be joined in matrimony to CD,
Je déclare solennellement que moi, AB, je ne connais aucun empêchement légal à mon mariage avec CD,
and each of the parties shall say to the other:
I call upon these persons here present to witness that I, AB, do take you, CD, to be my lawful wedded wife (or to be my lawful wedded husband or to be my lawful wedded partner or to be my lawful wedded spouse),
Je demande aux personnes qui sont ici présentes d’être témoins que moi, AB, je prends CD comme légitime épouse (ou comme légitime époux ou comme partenaire conjugal légitime ou comme légitime conjoint(e)),
after which the person solemnizing the marriage shall say:
I, EF, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Marriage Act, do hereby pronounce you AB and CD to be married,
En vertu des pouvoirs qui me sont conférés par la Loi sur le mariage, moi, EF, je vous déclare mariés(ées), AB et CD.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Venue Review: Enterprise 2000
A few years back I started to do weddings out on the lake, in an effort to get over my fear of water and also because the couples are irresistible. There's something so celebratory and fun about a cruise wedding, the couples who choose it are My Kind Of People.
This morning I was out on the Enterprise 2000. Awesomely named for a Trek party, it's aways away from the other boats dotting Queens Quay in Toronto. You have down Cherry St past some much larger, more purposeful ships and derelict looking buildings before you get to it. 100 people had plenty of room in this very nice boat. The original lay out of the ceremony site was on the prow but moved inside to the dance floor due to inclement weather. The dance floor is on the main level surrounded by a bar rails and booths. There are two bars, one on each level, and the second level is open above he dance floor so you can look down, the whole party connected. Above is an arched semi-clear ceiling which lets in light but not weather, which seems to be a very good thing for today. The DJ liked the space because he had room to spread out, the couple liked it because the venue had made it easy to plan a wedding from out of province and I liked it because they let the bride hang out in the wheelhouse, which overlooks the prow and has plenty of room. Also, the dealt with problems very well.
It didn't just rain this morning. It came down in a solid wall of water that made me wish I had gills. The end of the pier vanished into treacherous looking fog. Dangerous storm warnings, lightening, the works. Unable to go out on the lake due to safety concerns, the ceremony space was set up inside while the boat was tied to the dock. The clouds lifted a bit as the wedding went on and by the end, it had cleared enough that the boat was allowed out for its cruise following the receiving line. It takes a pro team to turn an unfortunate circumstance into a positive event, and the crew still stayed on top of the moment and provided great service to the couple. No idea how the rest of the cruise went, I skipped off home but the sun was shining right now and the couple in good hands.
Colours: orange and blue.
Personal touches: Jeweled initials hanging off all the bridesmaids bouquets, numbered ceramic lighthouse centerpieces.
Bride: Strapless sculpted white, long train, no veil/tiara, splash of stones on her belly. Intricate hair style, back from her face and up in the back just a bit, strands woven in together. Lush orange themed bouquet. Looked like beauty personified.
Groom: Sane. Finally, someone who ditches the suit in summer - groomsmen all in bright blue dress shirts, groom in white, ties all around but overall much more comfortable and better smelling than if they'd gone for suit jackets in this weather. Smart, handsome boys.
Rings: Hers was pretty and thin, row of claw set stones across, perfect for her slender hand. His I'd never seen the like of before, titanium comfort fit (good move) with an exterior that looked like a nut. You could have put a wrench beside this ring and got right confused about what to build. Gorgeous.
This morning I was out on the Enterprise 2000. Awesomely named for a Trek party, it's aways away from the other boats dotting Queens Quay in Toronto. You have down Cherry St past some much larger, more purposeful ships and derelict looking buildings before you get to it. 100 people had plenty of room in this very nice boat. The original lay out of the ceremony site was on the prow but moved inside to the dance floor due to inclement weather. The dance floor is on the main level surrounded by a bar rails and booths. There are two bars, one on each level, and the second level is open above he dance floor so you can look down, the whole party connected. Above is an arched semi-clear ceiling which lets in light but not weather, which seems to be a very good thing for today. The DJ liked the space because he had room to spread out, the couple liked it because the venue had made it easy to plan a wedding from out of province and I liked it because they let the bride hang out in the wheelhouse, which overlooks the prow and has plenty of room. Also, the dealt with problems very well.
It didn't just rain this morning. It came down in a solid wall of water that made me wish I had gills. The end of the pier vanished into treacherous looking fog. Dangerous storm warnings, lightening, the works. Unable to go out on the lake due to safety concerns, the ceremony space was set up inside while the boat was tied to the dock. The clouds lifted a bit as the wedding went on and by the end, it had cleared enough that the boat was allowed out for its cruise following the receiving line. It takes a pro team to turn an unfortunate circumstance into a positive event, and the crew still stayed on top of the moment and provided great service to the couple. No idea how the rest of the cruise went, I skipped off home but the sun was shining right now and the couple in good hands.
Colours: orange and blue.
Personal touches: Jeweled initials hanging off all the bridesmaids bouquets, numbered ceramic lighthouse centerpieces.
Bride: Strapless sculpted white, long train, no veil/tiara, splash of stones on her belly. Intricate hair style, back from her face and up in the back just a bit, strands woven in together. Lush orange themed bouquet. Looked like beauty personified.
Groom: Sane. Finally, someone who ditches the suit in summer - groomsmen all in bright blue dress shirts, groom in white, ties all around but overall much more comfortable and better smelling than if they'd gone for suit jackets in this weather. Smart, handsome boys.
Rings: Hers was pretty and thin, row of claw set stones across, perfect for her slender hand. His I'd never seen the like of before, titanium comfort fit (good move) with an exterior that looked like a nut. You could have put a wrench beside this ring and got right confused about what to build. Gorgeous.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
New Favorite Wedding Venue
This past weekend I had a wedding at Kew Gardens in the gazebo. After sweeping up the cigarette butts it's my new favorite wedding venue. Steps from the Queen Streetcar to the north and a short walk to the lake at the south, with a densely wooded path for the bride or whomever to walk out from to the west and lush greenery to the east, the gazebo itself stands on it's own. I have no idea when it was built, but the ornate iron work suggest the first bit of the last century. Windows along it's top let in indirect light but not rain, and a single iron and wood park bench adorns the hardwood floor. The paint is peeling everywhere, giving the romantic structure a sense of aging sort of beauty. If a big band were to appear out of nowhere, they'd be at home here. If an ancient carousel rose from the ground a hundred yards or so away, it wouldn't be out of place.
The Beach (or Beaches for pluralist) is the one part of Toronto that truly has a west coast feel to it, whether it's because of the level of the land or proximity to the lake or the rise of the streets heading north, I don't know. The vibe is brilliant and Kew Gardens seems to be it's beating heart.
The Beach (or Beaches for pluralist) is the one part of Toronto that truly has a west coast feel to it, whether it's because of the level of the land or proximity to the lake or the rise of the streets heading north, I don't know. The vibe is brilliant and Kew Gardens seems to be it's beating heart.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Lessons on leaving the house
Went to the local convenience store for eggs this morning, making up a breakfast for me and the boy. Paid no heed to any sort of grooming, other than attempting to wet down the strange animal which has curled up on my head and called itself hair. My comfy jacket (with it's frayed sleeves) over a comfy sweater (with ketchup on the zipper). Sunny day, only 100 yards or so away from the house. Passing by two people on their way to work.
"Hey, that lady married me!" says the gent, waving and smiling at me. A groom, I remember the wedding well, he and his bride were beautiful, I was considerably better dressed. I grin back and wave, frayed sleeve held aloft, likely crumbs on my face from a piece of pre-breakfast toast I'd been excited about. Possibly a blob of marmalade between my teeth.
Walking away I thought, really shouldn't leave the house looking so disheveled. I've officiated ceremonies for enough people that running into them here and there is becoming more common. I mean, I will leave the house looking pre-rumpled, possibly in a house coat now and again, but I really, really shouldn't.
"Hey, that lady married me!" says the gent, waving and smiling at me. A groom, I remember the wedding well, he and his bride were beautiful, I was considerably better dressed. I grin back and wave, frayed sleeve held aloft, likely crumbs on my face from a piece of pre-breakfast toast I'd been excited about. Possibly a blob of marmalade between my teeth.
Walking away I thought, really shouldn't leave the house looking so disheveled. I've officiated ceremonies for enough people that running into them here and there is becoming more common. I mean, I will leave the house looking pre-rumpled, possibly in a house coat now and again, but I really, really shouldn't.
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