Built in 1871, The Berkeley Church was transformed into an event venue in 1999 and now hosts concerts, fashion shows and other events.
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Bad Berkeley
We got married at the Berkeley Church and despite a family member's trouble with her wedding there 3 years earlier, we decided to give the venue another try. We were very disapointed and would like to warn others who are thinking of getting married at the Berkeley Church. The venue looks good but they are disorganized, and we truly beleive, at the end of the day- they don't really care how smoothly you wedding day goes.
Here is an excerpt from a letter we wrote to the owners after the wedding- and never got a reply.
To the owners of the Berkeley Church,
While we enjoyed the venue we were very unsatisfied with a few key details
1) Food portions and presentation:
Portion size: Many guests complained (to us at the dinner itself and also afterwards) that the portions were too small. The mother of the bride very hesitantly told us (so as to save us from being upset) that she received only two short ribs and another guest received a vegetarian wellington (the vegetarian course) with nothing inside the pastry.
The food was delicious but the portions and presentations were totally unsatisfactory and not what we committed to at the tasting. We even specifically discussed with the chef and coordinator that we feel enough food is very important to guest’s enjoyment of weddings, as we are sure you would agree.
2) Cake topper: After specifically mentioning to the wedding coordinator that the cake topper (two birds on a bell) was a family heirloom for over 50 years, your venue lost this. We suspect that when the cake fell over (after the maid of honour asked it to be put on the stage because its position was precarious), the topper was thrown out as garbage. This heirloom can never be replaced and it makes us both very sad to think of it. It was on the bride's parent’s wedding cake and had been saved for 50 years and then refurbished for our wedding. We had planned on saving it too, in case one day one of our sibling’s children, or children of our own would continue the tradition.
3) Lighting: We asked the staff repeatedly to turn down the lighting to the tone for partying during the dancing but it was only after five requests from the groom, groomsmen and bridesmaids that they actually did so. We danced for about 2 hours in bright lights.
4) Key to the gifts: The bride and groom's siblings were told that the key to the gift room was to be held by a third party. While we realize this was someone assigned by the Berkeley, this was never explained to us and nor did this appear anywhere in our contract. Since cash gifts are common, we found this to be uncomfortable- especially because the key was passed between 3 different staff members throughout the night, none of whom we had met.
5) Place settings: After we spent about a day detailing the seating plan for the coordinator on a spread sheet, we arrived on the wedding day to find that tables that were supposed to have 12 places only had 8- not at one table, but at all of them! The bride had to re-arrange tables with her wedding party for the hour leading up to the ceremony to ensure there would be a place-setting and chair for each guest. When the groom arrived he and the groomsmen had to continue re-arranging place settings. Not the nicest way to spend time before the ceremony. For some reason children were not given space at the table and babies (despite a conversation about booster seats) didn’t have seating either. Where babies expected to stay on their parent’s laps during dinner even though we were told to ask our guests to bring their own booster seats?
6) Payment to the church for guest changes: Two days before the wedding we wrote to inform the coordinator that we required an extra guest. Within a very short amount of time, after receiving news of a death in the family we wrote back to her stating the new setting/person wasn’t required because one family member obviously would not be attending, however- even though it was within the same day, we were still charged $137.30 for this setting. We find this (coupled with the small dinner portions) to be very ungenerous and very much in conflict with the perception we had about the Berkeley prior to our wedding day.
We chose the Berkeley not only because of the venue but also because of the staff - who we felt were friendly, down to earth, attentive and professional. After spending months planning this wedding and spending thousands of dollars on it, we are very upset.
When the bride's sister was married at the Berkeley a few things went wrong but she did not write about the problems since she felt what was done was done. What nags at us now is that perhaps if she (and others) did share the negatives with you, maybe less problems would happen to other people on their very special day.
I also got married at the Berkeley Church and was very dissatisfied with the lack of organization by staff. It was a joke from start to finish with poor planning and a total lack of concern for our requests. They promised to "organize" our flowers but failed to come through a week before, so we had to organize them ourselves last minute. At the wedding, when people went up to get the food, it was wrapped in the plastic at the buffet. Guests were peeling away the plastic and looking for serving utensils.... No one came to help serve the food until we made a request. The staff "forgot" coffee and tea to go with the desserts, so there was none!!! They also somehow "ran out" of dessert so half the people didn't get any, including myself (the bride!). The list goes on, actually, but i don't have time to write about everything that happened. We too wrote a letter of complaint afterwards, and received no response whatsoever. PATHETIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE BERKELEY CHURCH IS A FABULOUS VENUE WITH INCREDIBLE FOOD AND SERVICE
ONE OF THE HARDEST JOBS WHEN DEALING WITH BRIDES AND GROOMS.....AND THE BERKELEY DOES 200 WEDDINGS A YEAR AND KNOWS THIS VERY WELL....IS THAT IF YOU LET THE COUPLE DECIDE TOO MANY THINGS FOR THEIR WEDDING THEY MAKE MISTAKES AND THEN BLAME THE VENUE FOR NOT STOPPING THEM....AND IF THE VENUE STOPS THEM THEY BLAME THE VENUE FOR GIVING BAD SERVICE.......
PLANNING IS A MUTUAL PROCESS AND IF YOUR FAMILY DOES NOT LIKE YOUR CHOICES, EVEN IF THE VENUE DELIVERED THEM TO YOUR SPECIFICATIONS, AND YOUR FAMILY RAGS ON YOU ALL NIGHT ABOUT WHAT YOU DESIGNED THAT THEY DIDNT LIKE, YOUR GOING TO LOOK FOR SOMEONE TO BLAME...
HUNDREDS OF SUCCESSFUL WEDDINGS AND HUNDREDS OF CORPORATE EVENTS GO OFF WITHOUT A GLITCH AT THAT SPACE WHICH IS WHY IT IS SO POPULAR AND FABULOUS TO USE....
BUT THE REVIEWS MENTIONED HERE ON THIS SITE, AND I KNOW OF THESE WEDDINGS INTIMATELY, ARE EXAMPLES OF SITUATIONS VERY PREVENTABLE IF YOU REMEMBER THIS IS YOUR WEDDING AND YOU ARE ORGANIZING IT AND WEDDINGS NEED A GOD BUDGET AND AN ORGANIZED MIND BEHIND THEM NO MATTER HOW GREAT OR BAD THE VENUE.
CHEERS
Interestingly enough, the staff at the berkeley church felt a need to comment about what I wrote here. however, they didn't feel a need to address our comments and views after our wedding and ignored our detailed email. The message to us was clear: we have your money, your wedding is over, too bad! the end!
And yes, I agree, it is a beautiful venue & looked fantastic on the night of our wedding. If the staff one day get their act together, it's an awesome spot to get married!!
My daughter got married at the Berkeley Fieldhouse in Aug 2009.
Overall the wedding was a happy and successful event but there were some things where I felt disappointed.
Weeks before the wedding whenever we went to the venue for meetings, one of the doors in the women's washroom near the fieldhouse was coming off the hinges. I mentioned this to the staff repeatedly. I was assured it would be repaired for the wedding. The day of the wedding, the other toilet stall door was coming off its hinges. i told the manager about it more than once and the staff present were not able to repair it. It was coming off its hinges the whole wedding. I found this very embarrassing.
The appetizers were supposed to be passed round immediately after the ceremony which was in the garden. They were only served about an hour after the ceremony ended. There was another wedding in the church next door and I think they waited till it was over before sending the servers over to our wedding. Again, not what we asked for or what we paid for.
Also, there were a lot of weeds growing in the garden that were not removed even after I asked for this.
I have the feeling that the owners are not paying a lot of attention to maintenance of the place....maybe they do not want to put much money into the venue as they are hoping to build a condo building over and around the church and are waiting for permission to do so, but so far their application has been rejected by the city.
Thanks to the good will and sociability of our guests, we still had a great wedding, in spite of the problems above.
Best Day EVER!
I had the privelage of getting married at the Berkeley Church this past summer (2010) and I encourage anyone to do the same if you are trying to find the perfect venue and company to work with!
My friends and Family were AMAZED at this treasure we had found and could not believe how original and high quality everything was in such a unique space.
Here is my run down of how I felt about everything:
Space - UNBELIEVEABLE - We used the Church space as the Fieldhouse was too small (our wedding was 250 Guests and thefieldhouse i think only fits 150 or so) although I loved the Fieldhouse too for the beautiful garden and cute chandlaiers.
The Church was just incredible, original floors, that amazing back wall they lit up and all the candles everywhere and old brick...so unique and made for the best possible dance floor all of us have ever boogied on! The dinner looked mind bogglingly georgous.
Food: WOW WOW WOW - I have never had such great food. It was the far opposite of banquet hall food, like high end restuarant stuff. I heard several guests at my wedding say it was the best food they had ever aten at a wedding.,
Service: The staff leading up to and that night were so acommodating, proffesional, sweet and knowledgable. I felt so well taken care of. The night of everyone stepped up to the plate and made my family feel like royals. I was so touched...right from Tom the sales manager at the begining to our venue coordinator Kathy to Shaun our catering manager that night...everyone had my best interests at heart and I just cannot thank them enough
Price: TOTALLY reasonable. I went to several downtown venues with the same sort of structure of in house catering and bringing in your own alcohol etc and this space could charge a lot more. It is not cheap but we did not want a cheap wedding we wanted an affordable one that was spectacular still and that is what we got.
All in all I am just so happy I chose to get married there, it was the best decision I have ever made.
There are some bad comments on here....and actually the one from "Katie" who claims to be the owner is not the owner,I called her and let her know someone posed as her on this. first of all who would write such a rediculous thing like this-not only does it laugh at the readers here suggesting everyone whos on this site is as uneducated and silly as the person who wrote it, but she is one of the greatest human beings I know.
As for the other comments all I can say to the people reading this and considering getting married there is this: this is a popular venue, they are fully booked for the next year and more and every place has its small share of nay sayers. And people tend to only write bad things on here...we all have a right to our opinions.
The only bad thing I can say about my experience at the Berkeley is that it had to end!
Happy wedding planning Brides!
xo
I am considering the Berkeley and am wondering if you had to pay a 15% landmark fee to their preffered DJ and florist if you decided to go with an outside DJ or florist. Just wondering if this is something new they are doing?
Thanks
they have their own dj and flower companies in house as a regular thing now so it makes sense if they are charging a landmark fee. I used them (used to be called "flower girls" when i was there but I was told a gentlemen is the new florist so it makes sense he didnt want to be called flower girls so they changed the name lol) and the dj was AWSOME. such a nice guy and honestly i did not have a long time to plan my wedding, we decided to book and do everything all within 4 months so it was easier just doing it all at one place...they knew the space. The flowers were so original and cool and it was all really rasonable too. good luck!
the berkeley church was the PERFECT venue for my wedding day. i was looking for something amazing and stress free (i only agreed to a wedding to make the parents happy) and the venue delivered. the planning was such an ease --- cuz our fabulous planner, kathy, was on top of everything. she held my hand and explained everything i needed to do.
our food was delicious. loved the sautéed mushroom crostini w/ pecorino cheese, and of course our late night poutine station. the venue is so beautiful. the stained glass windows precious. really, my wedding was a dream day!
I work with a team of event professionals who have done events recently at Berkeley (6 since January 2011)
The Venue is currently under new management. There is still existing members from the old team (the best ones I assume) but there is a new executive director as I heard the previous one had to leave due to family circumstances.
This change has proved to be very positive. The venue has been host to amazing events in the past 10 years however we too have noticed on multiple web reviewer sites negative responses about the customer service and quality of the space and other related circumstances. Most of them if not all prior to 2011.
Not every event is going to be perfect but our 6 either nearly or completely were. Best quality of food and customer service from beginning to night of we have experienced in any venue in Toronto after 20 years of producing events.
Specific details I have learned through the grapevine is:
Renovated stage
Re-engineered air quality control in the large church venue
quality decore installations and upgrades in the smaller venue
New inhouse high quality staffing company and event management
New inhouse high quality florist who also does wonders to their garden spaces
New inhouse and complimentry furniture
Kitchen expansions
New Venues up and coming
Very impressive organization and if you actually do your research, they have recieved some of the fewest bad reviews in the industry compared to other venues of their type and level.
Hope this helps industry players and potential takers of that space. Want to keep Toronto as a great destination spot and this venue has sent our clients back to their countries saying Toronto is the place to be.
I also have heard that that they have over 300 events booked this year, more than any other event venue, even after separating the two onsite. So I guess the nay-sayers are not affecting the popularity of this star space.