The Guild Inn Estate — Attraction in Toronto

Had my wedding here in July. Bear with me this will be a long one! Communication with this venue is not great. We were told certain things by one person and then the complete opposite from another. There are just too many people involved - sales manager, someone greeting you and going over tastings, a details specialist, and then a banquet manager on the day of. We had a LOT of audio issues on the day of. We were trying to set up the keyboard we brough and discovered the outlets in the gazebo weren't working and even the VP was completely unaware. Due to this we had to run a ridiculously long and ugly extension cord and had to change where we entered. This also caused a slight delay and the venue having to step in, but at one point "they don't have the upgraded package" was mentioned by one of their employees. I was also never told that they offer "complimentary" music on the terrace for cocktail hour, so I hired my DJ for an extra hour for no reason and then came to find out the music was never played outside. The audio guy assigned to our event had a medical episode during our ceremony - thankfully he's ok. If you're planning your wedding here and have elderly guests or guests with medical conditions, please note that they do NOT have a defibrillator on the premises. After cocktail hour our MC wanted to start his speech and then realized 2 of the speakers and the microphone weren't working. My coordinator had to inform their audio guy. That delay meant our MC missing a bunch of his speech and skipping right to entrances. We paid handsomely ($604) for their tech employee, which is mandatory if you don't use their preferred vendors. A week after the wedding i voiced my concerns via email to the first VP I had initially spoken to about a catering issue. She was not the VP on site for my wedding day so she spoke to other parties involved. With every issue that I brought up, they rebutted with things that were completely falsified. I spoke to 50% of my guests and my DJ who all said there was absolutely no music outside during cocktail hour. So essentially after them insinuating that everything I was saying was a lie, the VP offered me $100 for the extra hour I hired my DJ because "from her experience this is generally what they charge". Their own preferred vendors changed $2,000 for an wedding. When you spend over $20,000 and then are made to feel like a liar (when the VP says "we stand by our details of the event") is very upsetting. We were just another event in the books, just a number to them in their wedding factory. Other fun facts: They only have 2 women's and 1 men's washroom to share between the 4 ballrooms and the hand dryers looked like they hadn't been cleaned in a year. If you need to set your rehearsal time before 2 weeks out from your wedding day, that will cost you $565 even though they lock the doors and their washrooms aren't accessible. If you have the upgraded ceremony package you also have to pay $175 + HST for your officiant to attend. You're don't get access to your ballroom until 10 am the day of. You only get 1 hour for the ceremony, which essentially means you're setting up your decor while your guests are being seated. You only get the bridal suite 2 hours before your ceremony time so it's not somewhere you can get ready. There's only 1 hotel relatively close so you'll be competing for a room block with the other 2-3 weddings happening the same night.

They get 2 stars because the food was good and...

A bit delayed in this review, but really feel the need to praise the venue and everyone that helped along the way. For those who find this review long - a short summary here: food was delicious, service was fabulous, and venue was astoundingly beautiful (and clean)! For detail, please read on!

My husband and I hosted our wedding here in late September 2017, and we admit, it was a risk we took when we booked this venue and was worried when we were reading some of the reviews that people had left.

However, our assigned events detail manager - Julia worked with us along the way. She was fabulous to work with, was extremely responsive to our inquiries, and did not once complain with all the changes we made throughout this process. We were making changes to our schedules and slight changes to our meals even during the week leading up to the wedding, but Julia processed all these without any issues. She was extremely helpful with my husband as well when he had asked her directly to plan a surprise for me at the wedding.

The audio team, led by Meyer, from Guild Inn was also amazing and worked extremely well with our DJ; all videos were played as per our schedule and they ensured sufficient testing beforehand as well to make sure everything works on the night of.

The coordinator that was assigned to us on the night of was also extremely attentive - Abdul checked up on us regularly to ensure that everything was going in accordance with our schedule, to ensure we have drinks when we needed and our meals were kept warm if we weren't there to consume when it was served.

Lastly - the food and the alcohol, given that my husband and I are both known foodies among our friends, there was a high expectation on the food. First off, the venue was great in accommodating our guests with allergies or requested gluten-free products - all guests were served with their choice of food on a timely basis. For most guests, the night started off with a serving of dungeness crab cakes with corn salad, followed by the lobster ravioli. Entrees available included portabellini filet mignon, lemon, herb & garlic crusted rack of lamb, roasted salmon filet or a vegan pad thai. Desserts were served on an alternate basis - pomme amandine and mango/raspberry dome. Then late night stations included a poutine station and the "oh la la" station. We have not heard one single complaint on any of the food that was served the night of - in fact, everyone had praised the food - from taste to choice available. In particular, there were a lot of compliments from our friends on the filet mignon, rack of lamb and salmon - indicating that they were cooked beautifully and was surprising to see for a wedding of our size - which had closed to 280 guests. Even as the bride who barely had an appetite, I finished every single dish in front of me (and might have also finished my husband's dessert without his permission - great start to our married life!).

Thank you to everyone at Guild Inn who made our night...

I want to start this review off by saying we had an AMAZING wedding here. The day could not have gone better and our ceremony and reception went off without a hitch. Day of manager Judy was so helpful and we really felt taken care of during the event. Thank you Judy!

While the wedding day was perfect, planning the wedding with the management was disorganized, frustrating and unprofessional. Here are the reasons why:

Our wedding coordinator was switched three times in the span of 12 months. Each time we got a new coordinator, we needed to bring them up to speed (like from scratch...) ourselves instead of them already coming in prepared. There is literally an "extra charge" for any reasonable thing at this venue. The Guild provided us with their decor package and in their decor package was an offering for a GOBO light for $75.00. After being directed to purchase a digital template (which we did at our own expense) and send it to them we were then told that the cost of the GOBO would actually be $200.00! When bringing up the price discrepancy, The Guild basically blamed us for not knowing and took no responsibility whatsoever for not informing their customer about the price increase. I'm not sure if The Guild Inn makes their money through hidden fees but they would not honour their original price and their customer service was nonexistent. We felt strong-armed and deceived. After everything was said and done, they had the nerve to ask us if we still wanted to get the GOBO light and attached their "new" updated decor package, which reflected the light at $150.00. Until the day before our wedding, they still did not have the correct final floor plan despite this having been completed weeks beforehand. On the day of the wedding, they tried to put us in the incorrect Bridal Suite and we had to again argue with someone to get it right. ON OUR WEDDING DAY! (Shoutout to Judy for helping us out). The coordinators there do not try to help you at all when it comes to saving money. For example, we were first told that we could only use one vendor for dry ice and cold sparklers which cost approximately $2500.00. We then find out later on after doing our own research that this isn't accurate and we were able to bring in our own vendor for less than $500.00. Why something like this wouldn't be mentioned is beyond us. If you want to get the stage wrapped you will be paying over $1600.00 because they only have one exclusive vendor. A typical 8x12 stage wrap should not cost you more than $500.00. We didn't go for it and our stage was perfectly fine without it.

Overall, the site staff (i.e. bartenders, waiters, day of venue coordinators) on the day of were very professional however management whom you will be dealing with during the entire planning process are not great and you will...