Months ago, when we were still looking for our venue, we fell in love – no, make that lust – with the Board of Trade, exclusively catered by O&B. You may remember? I never gave you the scoop on what happened with Mr. Oliver and Mr. Bonacini.

J and I visited the BOT a good 3-4 times (once was for Eight Chefs, one of the more delicious foodical events of ’09), which I would say makes us pretty good candidates for booking a venue. The final meeting with Lisa, the event co-ordinator, was to talk about what kind of menu we were looking at. Going back through my emails, that was on May 1. After we discussed all our wants, Lisa was going to have a chat with the chef, and see what he could come up with in our budget. On May 11, I followed up with an email, and was told it had been very hectic but she was going to sit down “with the chef tomorrow morning”.

On May 12, the next day, she emailed me with a few questions, to which I promptly replied. And then we waited. Loads. Believe it or not, I received a final menu from Lisa on the 26th of June. By this time we had already signed a contract and paid the first deposit to the Westin. I couldn’t believe how long it took for them to get us a menu to just take a look at!

We had pretty much forgotten about the BOT after our first visit to the Westin, because we fell in love, not lust, at first sight. But we still wondered where on earth Lisa went with our menus to take 6 weeks to get back to us?! As delicious as their food is, I’m totally disappointed in the way Oliver & Bonacini handled this. Damn them for making yummy brunch that keeps me going back!

Our venue visits last week with the mothers proved to be… unsuccessful. 2 out of the 4 places were complete write-offs, with 2 contenders remaining. In J and my eyes, there’s really only one place left. And tonight they invited us to a special event they are throwing!

If you are not familiar with Oliver & Bonacini restaurants, you have been seriously living under a rock (if you’re not from Toronto then it’s ok). We’ve been eyeing the Board of Trade for a while now, and the biggest attraction is that they are catered by O & B. Tonight, at the Board of Trade, O&B is throwing a private event called Eight Chefs, and they are bringing a chef from each of their restaurants to make delicious food and drinks for everyone, including us!! The space should also be all prettied up, so that we can envision the potential of the corporate meeting rooms that is the BOT.

UPDATE: The Palais Royale was booked for both of our chosen dates in 2010, so it got scratched off the list.

Day 2 of the venue visits was less cramped but no less hectic. We only went to see 2 places, preceeded by fabric shopping on Queen with my mom.

Toronto Board of Trade

The Board of Trade was an iffy one with me – I mean, how exciting can a bloody board of trade be? I had really low expectations of this one, because I was anticipating a very corporate, conference-like locale.

I went to see this with my mom because J was stuck at the office for a little while. We found the BOT with no problem, even though it’s located inside First Canadian Place. I had an issue intially with the wedding taking place “inside a mall”, but once I got there, I saw a completely other side.

The Board of Trade is at the Adelaide entrance of First Canadian Place, and it’s hard to miss. The event space is on the 4th floor, which you take an elevator up to. The entire meeting and event space, as they say, is “over 30,000 square feet of freshly-renovated, beautifully contemporary space for your corporate meetings, sit-down galas, intimate social gatherings, and everything in between.” I guess I should mention at this point that their exclusive caterer is Oliver & Bonacini (drool).

My first reaction when I got up onto the 4th floor? “Oh”. “Oh”, as in “Oh, this is not what I expected.” It was spacious, open, and definitely freshly-renovated. The colours were black, grey and white, and the overall look was contemporary, clean and stylish. It was JUST my cup of tea.

I met with Lisa, who was very friendly and extremely helpful. She took my mom and I around, and showed us all the space we were entitled to use. The main ballroom area was huge, and could easily fit over 300 people. There were 4 boardrooms that open up  into 1 long room, which was perfect for the ceremony. There’s a reception area for cocktails, a suite with a bar which could be used, and a room down on the 3rd floor which could be used and locked up with a key. Not to mention a handful of Macs that you could check your email on (in between toasts).

My favourite part was that the space was modern, and fit right in with our colour scheme and tastes. We’ve seen a lot of elegant places with super-vaulted ceilings, but something urban and modern suits us so much more. When we sat down to talk about the menu – I was just drooling. We had to leave to see 1 King West, but I told J (who was on his way down) that he needed to come by and see the space after.

Pros: unique, the look of the space, the amount of space, food, price, parking downstairs
Cons: needs decor, the bar package… there isn’t one; all based on consumption

The main ballroom, with the cool chandeliers

The wall lighting throughout the room

The Grand Banking Hall

The Grand Banking Hall is located inside the Suites at 1 King West. I had been dying to check this space out in person. It’s absolutely gorgeous in their photos – it was built in 1911 as the Dominion Bank head office. However, by the time we got there, my heart wasn’t fully in it because I couldn’t stop thinking about the BOT.

To get to the hall you have to go up a marble staircase, up to the 2nd floor. I caught a glimpse of the room through the glass doors and it was striking. The moment you step inside, you are immediately drawn to its gorgeous 35-foot ceilings. Though it was impressive, my first reaction was that the space was not big enough for 200+ guests.

The reception would take place on the 12th floor, cocktails on the 3rd floor, and to get to the dinner, guests would have to go back down to the 1st floor and up the staircase to the Grand Banking Hall. I didn’t like the idea of having so much travel between these 3 spaces, although all 3 spaces were really nice.

I think this space is great for those who have a wedding of 180 guests or less – but it really wasn’t going to work for us.

Pros: incredible ceilings, great 100-foot long bar
Cons: capacity, very separate ceremony, cocktail and reception spaces

The Hall when you first walk in

The 100-foot bar, which used to be where the tellers sat!

—

After going to 1 King West, we had a little bit of time left to take J over to the BOT. I was so happy when he said that he liked it too!!! Let’s keep our fingers crossed; I’ll keep you posted on our progress.

posted by: missmiellen

Picking my bridal party wasn’t hard, but deciding how I was going to propose to them took a bit more thinking. After going through many ideas including high tea, a bridal party website and vlogging, I decided to make each of them a card that listed the top 10 reasons why they should say yes.

The cards were designed on Illustrator, and I got J to print them on a gold flecked pearlescent cardstock. They turned out stunning!!! The envelopes I made with a heavy scrapbooking paper, a heart punch, ribbon and super cute Amy Butler chipboard letters.

I arranged brunch with the 4 girls at Oliver & Bonacini, and since it was Joan and Tiff’s birthday party that night as well, I told them it was a pre-party birthday brunch. Unfortunately, Tiff couldn’t make it (she had marriage class and then junior bridesmaids dress fittings), but I couldn’t hold it in any longer so I continued as planned. They had absolutely no idea!!!

Brunch was a success with loads of laughs, a tear or two and a lot of YES’s!!!

As for Tiff, I was originally going to propose to her sometime this week, maybe at lunch on Friday, but the rest of the girls wanted to be there when it happened. Instead, that night at the party, we all gathered in the Toika Lounge washroom, and screamed and danced while Tiff read her top 10 reasons and hid behind the card, weeping. Oh, and she said yes, of course!

Hopefully I can post some video excerpts shortly, of all of them reading out their top 10 reasons.  Stay tuned.

Thank you Joan, Lisa, Che and Tiff, for all agreeing to be with me through this crazy journey that is just beginning. Watch out everyone, I’ve got a fierce team!!!!