Toronto/GTA brides: Venue reviews on 1 King West, Paramount, Le Jardin!

johsusan

I've done an intense venue search the past few days with several visits and appointments, and have narrowed it down to three places.

1) 1 King West (downtown) - www.onekingwest.com/

2) Paramount Event Centre (in Vaughan) - www.bypeterandpauls.com/paramount/

3) Le Jardin (in Vaughan) - www.lejardin.com/

 

They're all pretty different, and I like each of them for those different reasons...it's really hard for us to prioritize exactly what we want. Have any of you heard anything about these venues (positive or negative) regarding food, service, DJs, preferred vendors, etc.? I've been searching for reviews everywhere online, but am coming up short.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

ring_pop

My wedding was at 1 King West!

We LOVED it!! I have nothing but good things to say about them.

Our coordinator Lisa was always very attentive and super quick to respond to emails and phone calls. We felt that she did everything in her power to accommodate our needs. She even put together the menus for me.

The food was AMAZING and our guests all raved about it for literally months after the event. Lots of people said that it was the best food they'd ever had at a wedding. We worked with Chef Samuel. After the first tasting, we had a few small ideas and concerns and they actually gave us a second tasting to make sure everything was exactly as we wanted. We're kind of foodies and we were really picky - no rubbery banquet chicken for us! - and they made everything perfect. They also let us bring in outside desserts since we wanted specific ethnic desserts.

The guests were also very impressed by the hall itself, of course. It was so gorgeous that we spent very little on decor. I really appreciated that they gave us the opportunity to come in and set up the afternoon before the wedding; many venues only allow you into the venue the morning of.

The suite that was included was just gorgeous and it was SO nice to be able to just go upstairs to bed after the wedding! The staff were super nice to us; the concierge even called us in the morning to remind us that breakfast was included (we were so exhausted that we forgot). And the staff who had worked at our wedding the night before, even approached us that morning to congratulate us and tell us what a great wedding it was!

It's unfortunate that there isn't any good, cheap parking option at the hotel itself. We directed our guests to park at Commerce Court. The other unfortunate thing is that you have to rent a dance floor and speakers (our DJ brought his) but it wasn't a big deal.

But overall we were extremely happy and like I said, I really have nothing but nice things to say about 1 King West!

ring_pop

PS. They do have a list of preferred vendors but they were pretty flexible about us bringing in whomever we wanted.

johsusan

Thank you! Your comments were super helpful. If you don't mind me asking, how much did it cost for the whole reception at 1 King West? It seems like there are a lot of additional side costs that could really add up (renting dance floor, room rental fee for cocktail hour, security)

ring_pop

I believe their packages start at $125pp which works out to about $165pp after taxes, tips and fees. This included security which was about $250 total, and the SOCAN fee around $60, which you'll have to pay anywhere anyway. We actually had the cocktail hour in the main ballroom so we didn't rent the additional room for the cocktail hour. (I don't recall whether they wanted to charge extra for the cocktail hour room... maybe you can negotiate that.) The dance floor was around $700 (depends on the size).

It is more expensive than many of the halls uptown, but it is right downtown, plus it's an actual historic building unlike many of the halls uptown. At the time I got married, they were pretty flexible with negotiation but of course, the economy was a little different then.

johsusan

I'm actually leaning towards 1 King West now... 

By the way, did you use any of their preferred vendors? And do you remember if they included linens/tablecloths as part of their package? I've been bombarding Jean (the catering sales manager) with a gazillion questions, and thought I'd give her a break for a little bit. I visited 6 venues in 3 days so it's hard to keep everything straight!

ring_pop

We used D&D Party Rentals which at the time was their preferred vendor for the dance floor, they were fine to work with. Other than that, we didn't use any preferred vendors. We did our own decor/flowers, and the DJ was someone I booked at a wedding show before checking the list of preferred vendors. I did ask him whether he had worked at 1KW though, and he said he had. He brought speakers so I didn't need to use their AV vendor (which was just as well because they were EXPENSIVE!). We didn't get any special lighting.

They had plain white linens, tables and black chairs included with their package so we stuck with those. You can see pics in my bio. You'd have to pay for chair covers or chair rentals if you can't live with the black chairs. Hmmm what else... I think they provided the podium for speeches and I can't remember who provided the microphone, but it all worked out in the end.

Good luck! Let me know if you have  any other questions, I'm happy to try and answer them!