The Great Hall — Attraction in Toronto

The venue hunt is always the biggest puzzle piece to a wedding and from the moment my husband and I walked into The Great Hall, it was love at first sight!

The venue has such a wonderful energy and the most wonderful Victorian charm (stunning banisters, chandeliers, gold radiators, and all the details, details, details!), yet updated with all of the necessary modern amenities for an event (AC, state-of-the-art sound system, modern bathrooms, etc)...not to mention the stunning stage.

We know that music would be the focal point of our wedding, so this space naturally captured our hearts since it is a music venue.

Mark was our initial contact person and he was awesome to work with throughout the 1.5 years (we reserved quite a ways in advance). He had great insight for everything from rentals, to bands and little tidbits along they way (like how much pipe and drape is needed for a specific area and how much should it cost). He was also flexible and approachable, which is always helpful!

This venue is amazing in every way and just really cool and easy to work with! It's great for someone who has a vision and loves a blank slate (they do not provide the rentals, that's up to you...but they have recommendations). Also, use AllSeated for your seating plans, it's amazing! The items that you will need to consider, which Mark (or someone on the team) will fill you in on, is the landmark fee (the value of all food that comes in will be taxed this fee-it adds up, but this is how these historic spaces are able to stay in our community), venue rental fee (very reasonable) and bar fee (alcohol always adds up-there are options).

We also worked with Victoria leading up to the event and the day of and after, she was absolutely a joy to work with...so lovely and helpful!

I highly recommend the venue, if you are on the fence...you...

"The most stunning gorgeous space!!!" I initially found out about this beautiful venue when I babysat for a family who had got married here. There's so much character within the whole building that it really doesn't need any decorations added. We're still obsessed with the chandeliers, those gold frames and chairs up in the drawing room, and the little alcove area by the windows. We took all our wedding photos, bridal party, and family pictures in the venue and didn't feel a need to really go anywhere else, because there were lots of areas that made great backdrops for photos. Not to mention, there are many windows that allow for ample amount of sunlight coming in, and makes the space feel even brighter. Everything in the venue is very well kept, including the bathrooms which is an added bonus.

My husband and I also chose not have a wedding planner, and so we had a lot of questions to ask directly to our venue coordinator, Mark Foster, at The Great Hall. Mark was incredible to work with and played a tremendous part in how smoothly the wedding came together. He not only recommended us with excellent catering companies, but also florists, and DJs. He’s very knowledgeable about the venue space but also the wedding business as a whole. You can tell he has great rapport with the vendors and we trusted him with his recommendations. Most importantly, Mark was very quick with his email responses and was available to answer any questions/concerns no matter how big or small. He’s very client-oriented and supported us throughout the two years of wedding planning - thank you Mark! We loved working with you and we highly recommend this stunning beautiful venue for your next special event! -Julia & Matthew Cheung, The Great Hall,...

Yea solid venue, love concert halls this size, feels very intimate and connected to the music and band but still big enough to have a decent size crowd that can really roar. Toronto has a few venues like this now and it's great, typically the shows are more affordable and offers options to more obscure bands that still make it worthwhile coming here as they can fill the hall.

Security was fast and efficient. Getting through the doors was easy. The bar was well stocked and service was prompt. Everything was clean and organized and well laid out.

Two criticisms 1 The sound crew seemed to have some issues mixing for both bands. Both bands were signaling them throughout their sets. This is not exclusively a problem to the great hall, every venue in Toronto has this issue it seems like. Can the sound techs in the city please figure it out? The music is always A) too loud to the point that speakers are peaking and B) instruments aren't mixed well where you always have one instrument over powering the others. Please, please, please - venue owners you need to pressure the sound techs to do better, more testing, more practice, more work with the artist ahead of time etc because we are robbing fans by not being able to hear these artists at their best.

2 It was way too hot in there. Try improving the A/C, if it was even on?

It didn't ruin my experience but overall I feel like it could have been more fun if the mixing and temperature...