1871 Berkeley Church

After 2 years postponement, our dream wedding took place on Monday, June 27th 2022 at the gorgeous ‘1871’ Berkeley Church. To the whole team at Berkeley Events, to our venue coordinator Brett, it was a magical day for us and wouldn’t have been made possible without your hard work. We can’t thank you enough. The food was fantastic, and the service was wonderful. Our hearts are still smiling!

The entire team at Berkeley was so accommodating and understanding as we had to navigate through several COVID delays for our wedding. The venue remains absolutely stunning and timeless, and the unique new decor additions made for some great photo ops for our guests. The food was incredible and received many compliments. Although we had our coordinator change several times throughout the planning (and re-planning... ) process, it ultimately paired us up with Lisa, who I have to say was the absolute glue that kept our wedding together. We hired Lisa on as our day of planner in addition to being our venue coordinator, and she was instrumental in making the day a success. She was our lifeline throughout the entire planning process, and her organization, quick thinking, and calm demeanor helped us have the time of our lives. Thank you Lisa, and thank you Berkeley!

The Berkeley Church had the exact atmosphere we were hoping for our wedding. We loved the different spaces the venue had to offer -- the mezzanine with beautiful stained-glass windows for the ceremony, the lower level and courtyard for cocktail hour, and the main floor with the stage and string lights for the dinner and dance. The space had so much character on its own we only needed a few flowers, greenery and candles for décor.

The food was delicious! The quality and consistency of the meal was just as great when served to 120 people as it was during our tasting. Being able to bring in our own alcohol and late-night food was an appreciated budget-friendly option and allowed us to tailor our selections to the tastes of our guests.

Derek was our assigned Venue Coordinator leading up to the event. It was an absolute pleasure working with him through the entire planning process. He was super organized and clear in providing us with all the required documentation we needed. He was incredibly responsive to our many questions and he also provided helpful guidance about what he thought worked well for other weddings and events.

Nash was the Event Manager assigned on the day of the wedding. He was great and worked closely with our MCs to make sure the night ran smoothly. The catering and bartending staff were friendly and professional. We appreciated how one server seemed to intentionally seek us out throughout the cocktail hour to make sure we were able to try each of our hors-d'œuvre and he genuinely congratulated us on our marriage. The bartenders also made a point to tell us how much our guests enjoyed our signature cocktails – it’s nice to hear this kind of feedback when you put thought into the details.

Overall, we couldn’t be happier with our wedding at the Berkeley Church. Highly recommend for any couples looking for a very special venue downtown Toronto!

Everyone was dazzled by the venue (including my husband and I). It came together beautifully and the food was unreal.

I’m sure this venue makes tones of money. My only criticism would be that they should spend some more money on repairs and upkeep. Some parts of the venue look run down. Still came together wonderfully isn’t the glow of the night.

1871 Berkeley Church is an amazing place to get married! A beautiful venue that does not demand a lot of decor! All the staff were so helpful and we hired Allie, our venue coordinator to also be our day of coordinator! It was the best decision ever! Allie was so helpful and always answered our emails in a timely manner. She communicated with our vendors and made everything about the wedding so much more simple!

Thank you for making our wedding an even more wonderful experience.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!!