The elegant and quirky YMG1 and YMG2 - York Mills Galleries, located in midtown Toronto, offers an urban industrial loft-style space that is available to host wedding and other types of events. A background of windows, classic drapery and brick as well as industrial age beams frame this spacious 22,000 square foot facility.
Facilities and capacity
The indoor facilities are separated into two venues that seats up to 650 wedding guests and can take in up to 850 for cocktail events. There is the option to use just one room or to move between venues. Available venues include the banquet hall, ballroom and restaurant available to use for wedding events.
Services offered
Couples can book the York Mills loft for ceremonies, receptions, engagement parties, rehearsal dinners and bridal showers. They also have the choice to utilize the following services:
We recently had our wedding this past Saturday at YMG2. My wife and I were floored at how wonderful everything looked and felt. A number of guests also complimented the decor, and never knew this place existed since it's hidden in an industrial complex. Claire has been a great help from the start, being flexible with our numbers, and guiding us through the process. We had multiple compliments about the food, from the appetizers to the entree, and the speed of service . We used CaterTrendz Culinary. The bar was staffed with 2 bartenders and they were able to provide speedy service with getting the drinks out.
We would highly recommend YGM for any event!
Sent on 04/07/2019
Chantal Armali
· Married on 20/07/2019
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Amazing venue!
Just had my wedding at YMG (1) last weekend and it was absolutely perfect. The food was delicious, you can do so much with the space and everyone was really great to deal with!!
I fell in love with the venue because of the chairs, hah, but it was really perfect.
My only comment is that we originally were supposed to have our cocktail hour in the new outdoor reception (YMG0) and the week before the wedding they told us we couldn't have food or alcohol outside, so that was quite disappointing. But, it all worked out.
Would definitely recommend YMG to anyone!
Sent on 29/07/2019
Jennifer Macdonald
· Married on 05/08/2017
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
I had both mine and my brothers wedding in this venue. We had a great experience in both weddings. Ymg Staff was very helpful, professional and knowledgeable of our wedding customs and did their best to make our wedding a memorable one. Isaac is an amazing person, he was always available to help whenever we needed and tried his best to accommodate our unreasonable demands at times. The gallery is beautiful, spacious and well decorated with lighting with a nice dance floor. There was barely any need for external decoration. I want to Thank Isaac, Aileen, Frances, the office team and the wonderful waitstaff for making us a memorable occasion! Thank you!
Sent on 30/11/2017
Vanessa Voisard
· Married on 24/06/2017
3.4
Quality of service:
4.0
Responsiveness:
3.0
Value:
4.0
Flexibility:
3.0
Professionalism:
3.0
We found out about YMG when calling preferred caterers for another venue we were looking at. catertrendz owns this venue and was building a new venue next door, for smaller weddings called YMG2. If we booked before construction was complete, we received a discounted price on the catering costs.
We met with the catering manager who showed us the space during construction, we looked over the menu and were able to add upgrades and stay in budget. We decided to book them, and went into the office to sign the contract. Present was only the catering manager, despite the contract containing a piece about sole power being the only allowed sound and lighting company in the space. I was only explained about the plug in fee, and was actually given a list of companies I could reach out to for DJ services, so I was under the impression that any DJ could be used, bring their equipment and we pay the plug in fee. Sole power was contacted for a quote, but came back with a quote that was 2.5x higher than anyone else. We decided not to go with them, for cost and professionalism reasons. We never hear from Sole Power again until 3 months before the wedding. This is important later. I will touch upon this further down.
Over the next few months, we have a catering manager who is pretty responsive, then suddenly I send an email and get a response from someone else. The catering manager is now gone and has been replaced with someone else. It would have been nice for them to let me know and reach to me, before I found out they were replaced. Nevertheless, our new contact is fine, I have hired a wedding coordinator at this point, so she takes over most of the communication. We schedule a tasting about 3 months before the wedding and the food is delicious. We end up having in YMG1, which I guess is ok, but the space was freezing. We never once took off our coats for the entire meal.
The venue was actually very flexible with what we could use to decorate. However, in our contract it was stated there were "plenty" of rectangle tables, which actually only meant 3. We wanted to use rectangle tables and not round ones, so we had to pay extra to rent those. This was not expected as I was asked specifically and mentioned in the contract. The linens, tableware and glasses were all included.
Back to the DJ situation. i would have reviewed Sole Power but they don't have a page here and they are affiliated with the venue, so this is the best place for this. As i mentioned previously, after getting a ridiculously high quote, for things I didn't understand. No effort was made to explain anything to me, nor was it shared above a few sentences in my contract that if i hired someone other than sole power, there would be consequences. I had already put down a deposit with another company, and it wasn't worth losing that. So I discover that my DJ is not allowed to bring in any speakers, or lights. We have to pay for a tech from sole power, even though i am paying the plug in fee. We have to rent all the equipment from Sole Power, even though my DJ had incuded it all for free. After a lot of attempts to compromise, we ended up with a $1000 bill for things I could have had for free. Sole power was gracious enough to discount the tech fee, but we still had to feed him a meal. Funny part was that we shared him with the wedding next door, and he chose to eat dinner there and not ours, so I paid for a vendor meal that wasn't eaten. So... before you sign a contract, make sure that someone from Sole power and YMG are present to explain EXACTLY what you are signing up for.
Now on to the wedding day. We arrived at the venue just before our guests, our coordinator had been there since noon which is when they allowed her to start set up. Everything looked great. A few small issues, the bridal suite safe never locked, despite multiple attempts to fix it. They just gave up and never mentioned it again. Thank goodness my brother in law kept on top of our gifts and stored them safely since we couldn't use the on site safe.
The bartenders were super friendly, in fact I think they were a little drunk. They had shots prepoured on the bar, which was nice, but they didn't have a shaker, so it meant all the shots were warm. The waitstaff forgot to pour champagne at the head table for the toast, so we had to cheers with empty glasses. At the end of the evening, the bathroom baskets were accidentally left behind, and when we went the following day to retrieve them, we were told they were taken by the cleaning staff and they were gone. No attempt at retrieving anything except the baskets themselves. We also had a few guests bring desserts and it took 3 weeks to get the dishes they gave them to the kitchen in back. I actually had to call the venue myself, because they kept asking for a photo of a bowl (who has a photo of a bowl), and refused to let anyone in the kitchen to look for themselves and didn't make any attempt to look. Finally after some persuading, they allowed the bowl owner and she located it in a few minutes.
Overall, our wedding day was great, just a few hiccups from mostly just not knowing, since, you know, I've never planned a wedding before. If i had to do it again, I would still get married here, i would just have made a few different decisions about music and lights.
Sent on 27/11/2017
York Mills Gallery's reply:
Thank you for your "review". This review is now 6 month after the wedding. To be honest; I am not sure where this came from. A week after the wedding you had sent me a direct message (if I could post screenshot, I would) stating that you "over the moon" and "thrilled with everything". At YMG we strive to make ourselves better every day. I would encourage you to reach out to us and let us know how we can make your next experience with us a better one. Thank you
Amanda Nicole
· Married on 01/06/2019
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
YMG2 - Elegant, Beautiful and Fun!
From the moment I walked into YMG2 i knew that this space would transform into something spectacular that guests would remember and I would adore. That is exactly what happened.
Frances and her team did an amazing job with making my dream wedding come to life. Our Guests were so impressed by the food, ambiance and liquor that they will be talking about the wedding for a long time.
The process of having in house catering and audio visual takes the pressure off from finding other vendors and allows for a seamless planning process and evening.
This venue is absolutely beautiful, we fit 160 people in YMG2 comfortably by taking down the draping and moving it to the front to open up the room. It was intimate, elegant and we still had tons of room for dancing!
