Always Occasions

Always occasions has a beautiful loft and you can tell they take pride in their space. They are able to provide suggestions that will enhance the wedding experience in their space. Staff are incredibly kind and accommodating. The only downfall is communication, as it was difficult to plan in advance. It wasn’t really till a month before the wedding that staff then became really attentive and were able to assist.

We cannot thank Anna and her team enough for going above and beyond from the moment we went to the days following our wedding. No matter how busy they were they always found time to reply to my number of messages, they helped bring together my vision perfectly, and were always so kind and reassuring, no matter what I needed. On the night of the wedding, Anna went beyond expectations, even taking our daughter around the venue so we could eat our dinner and relax. The entire wedding was so perfect and it was all because of the Always Occasions team.

The event was just gorgeous and the catering company that was recommended by the owner was beyond delicious. The venue is small but has a very unique lay out and the stunning staircase is a must for photos. If you are looking for a place that will give you that intimacy with your guests and have a uniqueness, this is the place for you. The owner also partners up with Knotwood Rentals giving you access to so many gorgeous, unique options for decor. My only feedback that impacted our experience is the fact that the staff did not pay attention to the small details. They left big IKEA tags on the curtains we bought for our back drop or did not add water to the flower vases so by the time we got there from church, most of our flowers were dead and looked sad. They also only set up half of our sweet table which was quite disappointing as that was the only desert we had for our guests. If it wasn't for those three things that might seem small to some, I would give this venue 10/10 but because they missed some important details, I am giving them 6/10...would I book again, yes but I definitely would ask them to pay more attention to the small details that mater to the very detail oriented bride.

My now-husband and I were trying to find a unique wedding reception venue that was both affordable and not your typical “hotel ballroom”. Always Occasions popped up on Wedding Wire in my search, and we took a look at it even before it was finished being built! It was slated to open that fall, was available for our wedding date the following June, and fit the bill – a brand new venue no one on our guest list had seen before, and super unique with its location, loft, etc. Also unlike every other venue we had looked at, Always Occasions allowed set up the day(s) prior, and even tore down your décor for you to pick up the following day, instead of packing everything up when you’re exhausted after your own wedding. This was a huge selling feature for us, so we booked the venue even without seeing the final product!

Anna and Mihaela were so kind, they really love what they do and make sure each bride and groom feel special. They go above and beyond to try and make your biggest wedding dreams come true and are really accommodating for anything and everything you want to do. I really enjoyed my experience working with them through all the planning, etc., however there were a number of issues that we encountered when the Wedding finally arrived.

Anna and her team really want to make everything perfect for every couple, however I think in doing so, they may over-promise on what they can actually deliver. To be fair, there are so many moving parts to a wedding there’s bound to be a few things that slip or don’t go as planned, and there’s only so much a small team can do, but Anna assured us numerous times that her team could handle taking care of a number of items and unfortunately some of these went by the wayside.

When we arrived at the venue after the ceremony, I had my bridal party all designated to double check certain things throughout the venue, just to make sure it was all ready for the reception since there were so many details, they all also had a list of things to check and photos of how it was supposed to look. Everything should have been ready to go by then, but our group was frantic trying to fix a number of things. We had requested one long table for all our guests – 6 tables put together along the one wall of the venue, but when we arrived all the tables were all significantly separated, which was a problem as the couples who would be seated together at one long table would now be seated apart from each other. All the place cards were also mixed up, they had to be moved around completely to match the seating chart. I know a few other tables, like the signing table, etc. had to be rearranged a bit, but that was minor compared to the guest tables.

The venue itself is absolutely beautiful and the perfect size for a small wedding. There are so many photo ops around there as well for couple photos. The one downside is that they do have their bar upstairs. While it makes sense based on having room to fit all the tables/buffet/dance floor, etc., it is a bit dangerous. One of my bridesmaids fell down the stairs after having a few too many towards the end of the night, luckily she was ok, but it was terrifying as it’s a very steep, open staircase. It was also hard on the older guests at the wedding to have to go upstairs for their drinks all the time. We had an open bar and wanted to pay for a secondary bar on the main level for this reason, but Anna assured us many times that her staff would take drink orders from these guests and serve them throughout the night. So, we didn’t get the secondary bar, however in talking with these guests, no one took their drink orders at all and one or two of them wound up getting drinks for the whole table throughout the night so certain people didn’t have to use the stairs. We asked for a bottle of red and a bottle of white wine to be on each table for dinner, which would also have helped with the stair issue, but there was no wine on the tables at all. We had requested to have a Champagne Toast for the speeches, and were told that the servers would hand all our guests champagne when they took away their dinner plates so everyone would have something to toast with, but this didn’t happen, the champagne was still being poured throughout the speeches and some people didn’t even get any. Lastly, we had bought a keg for the bar, and Always Occasions just bought a new Kegerator to keep it cold/pump the beer. I don’t think they set it up properly because they over-pumped the keg so it was all foam and no one could even have any, the whole keg was basically wasted even after the wedding because it was too pressurized. We luckily did provide other beer, but there is only one fridge behind the bar and there was no room so most of the canned beer was warm.

I had included a plug in cord for my iPad which was being used with an app for the Photo Booth, but the iPad was never plugged in and died at the end of the night so a few guests didn’t get to take part. The cord that I provided was never found, but the charging brick was.

We didn’t have a DJ, I handpicked all the music and made specific playlists for the cocktail reception, dinner, dance, etc., including a complete breakdown of all the chosen songs throughout the night and when to play each playlist/shuffle it, etc. I even renamed/numbered all music on my iPod for ease of use. Once again, we were going to have one of our bridal party look after changing the music, but we were assured that Anna’s team could handle it. Our music didn’t even play at the cocktail reception, and the wrong playlist was started for dinner. We had asked for certain songs to be played at key moment, but the cake cutting song never played, the bouquet toss song was late, and the wrong song was played for the garter toss. We had actually choreographed our first dance and asked that the song be faded/volume turned down at the end, but this never happened. For the dance, I put all the songs in a specific order and asked for it not to be a shuffled playlist…but it was shuffled to start with so at least one song was played twice. The biggest issue, however was that they have a Party Speaker as their sound system. We had heard it at the venue before, and thought it would be fine, but when you get that many bodies in there, it just isn’t strong enough. People had trouble hearing our MC, and when the dance started it just wasn’t loud enough. I had ensured all the volume levels on all the dance songs were the same on my main iPod, but not on the backup one. The backup one ended up being louder, so they swapped them out…but then a number of the songs were either too quiet or too loud because they had been fixed for only the main iPod. I had to stand by the speaker all night turning songs down or skipping ones you couldn’t hear, which was not quite how I wanted to spend the evening of my wedding. I realize we could have hired a DJ or our own sound system and this problem wouldn’t have been an issue, but again, we were assured that the speaker system they have on-hand at Always Occasions did work for other weddings and would be sufficient…and that they were happy to take care of the music for us.

The next day when we arrived to pick up all of our décor, nearly all of the boxes for everything were either thrown out or strewn all over the building next door. We had to hunt everything down to re-pack it all up and there were bags hidden in closets, things on multiple floors in a myriad of locations and really took forever to find...if we found them at all. I completely understand that our décor may not have been put away exactly how we may have brought it, but it seemed in their haste to set everything up, they just threw all the boxes/unnecessary pieces wherever they could find a spot instead of in one location for ease of tear down later. In our hunt, we also found that the chafing dishes from our buffet and the leftovers from the late lunch were all just sitting out/on the floor still with food in them. We would have gladly taken any of the leftovers home as we had paid for them, but everything just went to waste sitting out all night on the floor of a warehouse. After unpacking things later at home, we discovered a couple of our table cloths that we did provide were missing, one of our picture frames was broken, and that two of our personal ceramic ornaments were broken inside their packaging. Upon further inspection, pieces from one ornament were found with the other, so these were broken prior to being put in their protective boxes, and instead of telling us about it, they just pretended like it didn’t happen, maybe hoping we wouldn’t find out…

I am a very organized person, probably too much so. I plan a lot of parties/events myself, so since I knew I wasn’t going to be “in charge” this time but we were actually providing all of the décor, I tried to make everything as seamless as possible laying out everything the way I wanted it to be for the big day. I provided a map layout of exactly where I wanted every table/décor item to go on both floors, including staged photographs of every table/photo booth, etc. that I set up at home for reference. I gave a very specific seating chart, a complete list of all décor we were providing including the location they were to be set up, as well as what they were providing (which was minimal aside from tables/linens/place settings), and a schedule that was almost down to the minute for the order of things (with music cues). Because everything was provided with such detail, it was a little frustrating when things didn’t quite go as planned.

I do think that many of these issues came down to it still being a new venue and the team just wanting to make everything perfect by making all these promises, however there was perhaps a lack of organization and personnel on-hand to actually follow through on everything. They refused to let us or the bridal party help set up the day before, even though we offered, especially because we had brought so many items, but if they had, perhaps a few of the issues would have been alleviated. Even in our email exchanges prior to the wedding, often responses would take a little while, another indication that while everyone is so lovely and well-meaning, they are just a tad over-extended. All of these smaller things aside, all of the major moments of the wedding were executed very well. While my husband and I, and at times our families and the bridal party, noticed things weren’t quite as we had expected, none of our guests really noticed the mishaps and all thought the venue was beautiful and our wedding was one of the best ones they had ever been to. Anna and a couple members of her team also came to our rehearsal and ceremony to help make sure everything there went off without a hitch, organizing our large bridal party and taking the décor for us from there to the reception venue, which was really a huge weight off our shoulders. Planning everything myself, I’m probably way too close to everything and all those small details really stick out to me, but really, all in all, our wedding was beautiful and everything we had hoped it would be, and Anna and the team at Always Occasions did have a big part in making that all happen. While we would like future patrons to be aware of some of the issues we encountered so they can be prepared and make some different choices/arrangements for their events, we ultimately would recommend the venue and the Always Occasions team for other weddings.

Where to begin.. I knew I wanted to have my wedding at Always Occasions before construction was done at their space in Manchester Square. I knew if Anna had anything to do with it that my wedding would be absolutely beautiful. Once I saw the space complete, it was exactly what I thought it would be... beyond beautiful and magical. My wedding day was everything I could of asked for and more and it is because of Anna with Always Occasions. Anna and her team are amazing and you can tell that they want you to have the wedding of your dreams! This team thrives on a good time! I highly recommend Always Occasions for any event! You will not be disappointed in the service or space provided !!!
Love, Mr. & Mrs. Rousseau

I was a vendor at the "LoveAlbertaLocal" art gala hosted by Cassidy from "Albertalocal," and "Always Occasions" did an impeccable job of making sure everything went ahead without a hitch.
Quite an accomplishment considering new covid regulations had just come into affect a couple days prior.
It wasn't hard to see all the care and planning that went into making sure everyone was happy and that everything was perfect.
The venue is absolutely beautiful.
Anna and her staff are diligent, welcoming, and friendly and they made the evening even that much more special.
It was an unforgettable night made possible in no small part by "Always Occasions."
I would definitely recommend them to anyone wanting to experience their own unforgettable night.
Thanks so much, Anna!

I recently attended a market and was pleased with the amount of friendly people at their booths. I thought I’d share my thoughts from a wedding I attended on New Years Eve at Always Occasions, as a group of us still speak about this experience when we get together. I was shocked on the functionality of this place. I observed a guest sweeping the floor after the ceremony because Pine needles everywhere and no staff were noticing the mess. Another guest was actually walking around pouring water for everyone with the 1 water jug Always Occassion’s staff claimed to have in the whole establishment. Myself and other guests were waiting to be served for 20+ minutes at the bar due to understaffing, while all the staff were rushing to change over from ceremony to reception. At this point we heard some heated conversations between the main girl wearing a hat and her staff. We were appalled, and felt bad for those girls. We were also missing cutlery not only at our table, but three other tables. The space was so crowded that anytime someone needed to pass by we had to stand up out of our chair, which became incredibly frustrating. I am sharing this so someone else looking to have their wedding here doesn’t make the mistake and experience what we did.

Anna brings energy, excitement and passion to her work. She has an amazing ability to help make your vision come true. Anna’s industry experience is invaluable as she can help you with all the different facets of a wedding. I can’t wait to work with Anna again for an anniversary party. Her team members are also your personal cheerleaders as you get ready and move throughout the day. Making sure everyone feels their best for the big day.

We had our ceremony and reception at always occasions and it was perfect. Everyone loved our venue and we would highly recommend it to anyone. We loved the day of coordination and the venue does all the set up and tear down which was super important for us and our families to have a stress free time. Beautifully decorated and amazing staff. Bartending was great. We broke a few glasses and someone was there to clean it up immediately.

The venue even made a little video for us and gave us a gift which was so special and lovely.

The only downsides were that on the day of our wedding there was a farmers market in the parking lot which we were not informed of. We had told all our 80 guests that there was a huge parking lot and then it was full of the farmers market so that added a lot of stress on the day.

There was also no water for our guests during the dinner portion so one of our guests was going around giving everyone water almost as if they forgot about water because the wine service and everything else was great.

We would recommend this venue to anyone who is looking and are so happy we had our wedding here at always occasions!

Always Occasions was great to work with. It’s obvious that they have years of experience in the industry and know all of the hints and tips to make the day easier. The space is gorgeous even with minimal decor and is so easy to ‘make your own’. They made sure everything was easy and stress free for me and attended to all the details. I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending them to anyone. Thanks so much for all of your hard work Anna and team!!