Non-religious Wedding Ceremony Sites in Toronto

Looking for a non-religious site in the GTA for your wedding ceremony? Here are some suggestions.

While there are many beautiful outdoor garden options in Toronto, such as Edward Gardens, we’ll try to highlight some indoor sites or outdoor covered sites, which are harder to find.

The Toronto Wedding Chapel

The Wedding Chapel, downtown Toronto, capacity 35
A quaint site for a small ceremony, conveniently located downtown. The hall even provides full service packages that includes the officiant, photography, and decoration service.

Many art galleries also offer their facility for events. The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) makes an impressive and memorable space for your ceremony, but it doesn’t come cheap (starting at $3,000). Also check out Blue Dot Gallery in the Distillery District for a smaller but still modern ceremony space.

The Doctor's House chapel

The Doctor’s House located in the West end of Toronto, has a gorgeous non-denominational chapel for up to 120 guests. The facility also has a beautiful garden.

Heintzman House is a stately house with a solarium, grand sitting room, and outdoor site for wedding ceremonies.

Heintzman House solarium

Many art galleries also offer their facility for events. The AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) makes an impressive and memorable space for your ceremony, but it doesn’t come cheap (starting at $3,000). Also check out Blue Dot Gallery in the Distillery District for a smaller but still modern ceremony space.

Berkeley Church, dowtown Toronto
A former church turned into an event site, this place offers the look of a religious site for couples looking for a non-religious alternative.

Most banquet halls can accomodate your ceremony as well, usually by converting your hall for both purposes. Some halls also have a gorgeous garden site. In particular, Shangri-La Banquet Hall in Markham offers a seperate indoor ceremony site so you can have 2 seperate indoor spaces for both events.

Oakville Terrace, Markham
If you’d like to have an outdoor ceremony, the terrace offers an area that’s outside but covered so you won’t have to worry about a rain plan.

Finally, the City of Toronto has a number of Civic Centers open for ceremony bookings, but they are often not the best looking sites. Markham Wedding Chapel (capacity: 8-45 ppl) is one of the better City of Toronto Civic sites. But, the city also has a number of historic sites and museums that are open for weddings.

Wedding Dress Alterations in Toronto

For wedding dress alterations, check out these wonderfully skilled seamstress. Not only can they tweak and alter your dress to fit, but they can also make your wedding dress from scratch!

Pom Penner – Markham 905-479-4566

Pearl Seto – Scarborough 416-298-7899

If price is no object, you can also go to Toronto’s top wedding dress boutiques for alterations (check out stores such as Ritchie’s).

Wedding Dress Rental, Second Hand Wedding Dresses, & other budget-saving options!

There are many options for a budget-conscious bride to get the dress of your dream without blowing the budget. We’ll go over some of these:

1. Rent a gown

2. Purchase a second hand gown

3. Ebay factory direct priced gowns

4. Netbride, trunk shows, and other great deals

Option 1: Wedding Dress Rental

Renting a dress is a great way to save costs and be environmental. If you are living in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), you are in luck! There are many dress rental stores in our area.

Expect the cost to be $500-$600. These stores all carry designer-brands and this season’s bridal gowns. The rental cost includes alteration and dry-cleaning. However you’re going to be a little limited by choices because some dresses with detailing at the bottom are hard to alter (length-wise).

Plus most of these places rent bridal veils, accessories and jewellery as well. Ask for a package cost and discount if you’re buying more than 1 item or dress. There’s always room for negotiation.

Some places to start:

Armour - Great for petite brides, with a huge selection of dresses (e.g. San Patrick, Alfred Angelo) already preshorten and in small sizes. Info: 175 W Beaver Creek Rd Markham, ON 905.763.2300

Vivi Bridal – Again a large selection of gowns. Info: 175 West Beaver Creek Rd. Unit 3. Richmond Hill, ON.

Picture Perfect Bridal - Smaller selection of dresses. Info: 50 Esna Park Dr. Markham. 905.474.5678

Honeymoon Bridal – Large selection of dresses in all sizes and lengths. They also have some rental dresses from older collections that they are now selling for around $150 (be warn, they are obviously selling them for a reason: the styles are no longer popular or in trend. But if you’re looking for a more traditional gown, e.g. one with straps, you would be in luck!) 245 West Beaver Creek Road, Unit 5A. 905. 882-1931

Faces Bridal Boutique – Personally didn’t find a lot of new styles here but they asked me to look only through a catalog which was limiting. 175 West Beaver Creek Rd., Unit 16. 905.764.8432

Hilda Studio - Info: Unit 1, 30 West Beaver Creek Rd, Richmond Hill, ON. 905.764.6137

Wonder Photo Inc. A small-to-fair selection of dresses but not designer branded. Cost is the same though as studios renting designer gowns. 1170 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Missisauga, ON. 905.270.0360

Eills Bridal Boutique – Info: 2201 Brimley Road, Unit 4. Scarborough. 416.291-2108

Taipei Love Forever - A friend of mine has checked this place out, her comment was that she wasn’t allowed to try on too many dresses without a deposit. Info: 175 West Beaver Creek Rd. Unit 1-2. 905.709.0516

Option 2: Buy a second-hand good karma wedding gown

Of course, keep in mind too that The Bride’s Project sells secondhand dresses as well as sample dresses donated by bridal stores for around the same price. Pro: goes to a great cause. Con: the selection at rental stores are always new and in-trend. With Bride’s Project, you need to visit at the right time to get your dress. Cost: Destination dresses start at $50-$100. Most dresses are in the $500 range. And top of the price dresses start at $700. Don’t forget you will need dry-clean and alterations, but they have some great seamstress and dry cleaning vendors they will refer you to.

Check bridal forums! Many brides sell their dresses and other wedding items on Bridal Boards, Craighlist, and ebay. Check out:

Canadian Bride – For Sale section

Wedding Bells Swap Shop

Frugal Bride’s Babbling Boards

Kijiji Wedding Dress Sell List

Also check out US based Preownedweddingdresses.com

Option 3: Ebay

Ebay is a great place to order custom-sized factory-direct wedding gowns from China, made exactly to your measurements. They can make a gown based on photos & sketches – the more you can supply the better. Cost: $100-$500. Many of the designer gowns are actually made in China. Of course you have no way of trying on the dress before you purchase it, but you can ask them to send you a photo of the finished product before you send in your final payment. My advice if you want to take this route is to really do your research and find a vendor with solid reviews. Try Milly Bridal, their prices tend to be higher but they are definitely most trusted amongst some bridal boards. After weighing it all in, I decided to go this route! Stay tune for my own Milly Bridal review.

You can also purchase your veil, bridesmaid dresses, and mother of the bride dresses through these suppliers. Again for multiples, ask for a discount as prices are up for negotiation. If you are a petite size bride, you may also get a better price on your dress just by asking.

And more options

- I’ve heard good things about ordering through Netbride – they have selected designer dresses at a better prices, but you may incur custom costs.

- Check out when trunk shows are on. There are many trunk show sales usually around Jan-Feb.

- Check out wedding show specials.

Toronto Bride Resource Guide

Knowing where to go for all the little details can save precious time and stress. Here is my resource guide for Toronto brides:

GTA Wedding & Engagement Photography Sites

Looking for a photography location for engagement or wedding pictures in and around the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)? Photographers Dave and Charlotte shares their favourite locations, both indoor and outdoor:

http://www.daveandcharlotte.com/toronto-photography-locations

Projector Rental in the GTA

Holding a tent wedding or feeling overcharged by your hall? Vistek rents projectors for weekends and weekdays, prices starting at $150 and goes to $225. Screens at $30.

Locations in Toronto, Missisauga, Calgary and Ottawa.

Paid Duty Officer

Hiring a Toronto police officer is giving yourself a peace of mind and security for your event. A man in uniform will set you back $65/hr (min of 3 hrs). For more information, visit http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/publications

You can call their office from 7am-3pm to set up an account and get an account number. Following that, you can fill out the form located at the link above (using the account number) and send it back. You won’t hear from the office unless something is wrong with your application. For my wedding, with the large guest numbers and alcohol being served, they determined that 2 officers minimum is required.