History and elegance blend together at the 1871 Berkeley Church in Toronto, Ontario. Built in 1871 and now one of the area’s most original event venues, the building features exquisite event spaces that are perfect for hosting a unique wedding celebration.
Facilities and capacity
The venue features four stunning event spaces that are perfect for gatherings of any size. These include The Grand Ballroom, The Mezzanine, The Wine Cellar, and Circa 1871 Lounge.
The Grand Ballroom: This location is ideal for hosting receptions. It is decorated with elegant hardwood floors and stained glass windows. It also features a Victorian-inspired bar.
The Mezzanine: Located on the second floor of the church, this space is ideal for intimate ceremonies.
The Wine Cellar: This site can be used as cocktail hour space. With remarkable interiors, it offers a cozy atmosphere.
The Circa 1871 Lounge: Couples can arrange a photo shoot in this unique area. It comes with a charming garden space.
Courtyard: Located to the west of the Church is a garden courtyard proving outdoor space for your guests
Services offered
The talented and hardworking coordinators of the venue will attend to every detail to make sure your day runs smoothly. The venue has been celebrating weddings for more than 10 years and can make arrangements for a florist, photographer, and other vendors.
Cuisine
Prepare for your taste buds to be delighted with the extraordinary cuisine served by the experienced catering team 1871 Berkley Church. Enjoy delicious hors d’oeuvres, dinner entrees, desserts, and much more. Some of their dishes include whitefish ceviche served on a plantain chip, butter chicken on mini naan bread with raita, and AAA Ontario beef duo natural jus.
Location
1871 Berkeley Church is approximately 50 minutes away from Toronto Pearson International Airport. The venue is located near local hotels, such as the Cosmopolitan Hotel Toronto and the Cambridge Suites Hotel Toronto.
The venue is stunning with plenty of room and lots of options for using the space. When you book Berkeley Church, you get the WHOLE church: Mezzanine, which we used for the ceremony; Main Floor, which was a stunning reception setting; Basement, which we used for cocktail hour; and patio, which was great as a licensed area during the cocktail hour and perfect for photos!
Our coordinator, Ashley, from Berkeley Church was amazing!! So accommodating and quick to respond. Very thankful for her!
Sent on 18/10/2017
Sara Daniel
· Married on 27/08/2017
1.2
Quality of service:
1.0
Responsiveness:
1.0
Value:
1.0
Flexibility:
1.0
Professionalism:
2.0
I just had my wedding in August of 2017 at Berkeley Church. I will say that this is a beautiful venue, but the staff/owners are lucky it’s so charming.
From our first visit with Tom who barely showed us the full venue during the tour (there were areas that later our caterer showed us that Tom hadn’t taken us through) all the way to our venue coordinator Kathy, losing a vendor’s easel that we needed to return, this was overall a dysfunctional place to have an event or wedding.
First of all, this venue does state that it has an exclusive caterer that must be used. They told us they were willing to allow us to bring in our own caterer but for a Landmark Fee. We said no problem. It was very tough to coordinate with Tom as he seemed to be “out of the office” quite often and we seemed to be nickel and dimed throughout the entire process (I’m sure it’s because we weren’t using their caterer even though we still paid an arm and a leg for the venue and extra fee).
Fast forward to the day of the wedding, their staff had agreed to help set up tables on 1 floor while the caterer would look after the other level. Caterer showed up to find that nothing had been done. The worst part about this venue? COCKROACHES. My caterer later told me that during the wedding they witnessed a cockroach fall out of a cupboard in the kitchen (luckily our food was cooked offsite and stored in a separate area). To top it all off, a Berkeley staff member told my caterer to not leave purses or valuables lying around close to the back door as sometimes hookers and homeless people will wander in and steal wallets. How are you still operational?!?! A staff member also scribbled out a drink menu option on one of our signs that we were meant to keep as a memento of the night from our calligrapher. It’s now ruined and unusable.
To top it all off, our venue coordinator lost an easel that we need to return to our calligrapher. It was supposedly on her desk. It sounds like even the staff steal from each other.
Whatever you do DO NOT BOOK HERE. Totally unprofessional and an awful experience.
Sent on 27/10/2017
Rochelle Graub
· Married on 25/02/2017
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
We just got married there (winter wedding) and had the most wonderful experience. First of all the venue is incredibly beautiful. We said vows upstairs in front of the stained glass windows, had the cocktails in the basement and the reception and dancing on the main floor. Our venue coordinator was Alexia who was great and very helpful - a delight to deal with. The appetizers were so-so but our mains (black cod and braised beef short rib) were out of this world (all our guests commented on it), and I have to say the food was extremely important to us as major foodies - we also got a lot of comments about how great the desserts were - we had by far an exceptional food experience and frankly a fantasy wedding in every respect. Staff there was great too and I heard very positive feedback from our guests. I cannot recommend this incredible, beautiful venue enough. They really helped to make my wedding day amazing. Another plus is you have to bring the booze so you can save on paying the markup other places charge and get the alcohol you actually want if that's important to you.
Sent on 27/02/2017
Donna Rossi
· Married on 06/08/2016
4.6
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
4.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
4.0
It's rare to find a space that can accommodate 150+ downtown with as much flexibility as they had. We had a big, loud hard partying group that wanted to dance all night to a big band, the Berkeley Church was able to pull that off in addition to an intimate, romantic ceremony and a classic cocktail hour. We wanted our guests to relax and not have to worry about running around to different venues and the Berkeley was a perfect choice. The food was phenomenal (even for a picky Italian crowd) and the space didn't need a lot of extra decoration. Stocking our own bar was also key for us and a rare find in downtown Toronto, our planner even rented beautiful coupe style champagne glasses for us it was such a nice touch.
Although our initial contact was slow and sporadic and our tasting was misbooked (when we drove all the way from Philadelphia) they bent over backwards to make things right and genuinely cared about delivering a quality day. I couldn't have asked for more and we would do it again in a heartbeat.
The pasta was incredible, the fish and beef were perfect and everyone can't stop talking about the roast beef appetizer.
Sent on 31/10/2016
Ian and Elyse Vandenberg
· Married on 29/04/2016
4.2
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
3.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
4.0
Professionalism:
4.0
We had a wedding of approximately 150 people at Berkeley Church at the end of April. Our wedding was everything we had hoped it would be, so a big thanks to all the staff at Berkeley Church! From the moment we toured (1 1/2 year before our wedding date with Julie) we felt welcomed and at ease as Julie answered all our questions in person and via email. 6 months out from our wedding we met with our venue coordinator Kathy. Realizing Berkeley Church holds events on an almost daily basis, it was a little bit harder to get in touch with Kathy as often as we needed in the months prior to the wedding, however, in the weeks leading up to and the days of the wedding Kathy handled all our questions with quick response and reassurance that everything would go as we had planned and wanted. The night before rehearsal and day of the wedding were executed perfectly, so thanks to Kathy for that. Most noted highlight for all our guests was the food and the overall experience. Claudia was our floor captain, in charge of the dinner service and she did an outstanding job.
We highly recommend hosting a wedding at Berkeley Church. We felt the overall cost was reasonable and the experience delivered on all accounts. One of our main goals was to ensure our guests had a good time, and we have heard nothing but great comments from everyone!!
