Royal Botanical Gardens
The Royal Botanical Gardens is by far my favorite wedding venue to work out of. I’ve been a recommended vendor with them for a few years now. I’m fully familiar with their six ceremony sites and four reception halls. However my favorite feature of theirs is the indoor Mediterranian Garden. It is a multiroom year-round greenhouse. I make a point of incorporating it into my couple’s wedding day each time. It doesn’t matter if the weather is beautiful, rainy, or freezing cold. This location is perfect every time. It also changes with each season. For example, during the holiday season, a Christmas train set runs through the trees adding a fresh festive element.
While most venues charge a fortune for professional photo permits, the RBG includes it in their package. So if you book your ceremony or reception with them, the Mediterranian Garden and Hendrie Park come with it. They have additional gardens you can add on as well based on how fancy you want to be. However this is one of the few venues I know that will blow you away even with their most basic package.
Highlights
It was the perfect venue for this unusual wedding. I say unusual based on the relationship’s origins. It all started when Rachael became Daniel’s personal trainer. Now they own a gym together. Well actually, now they’re getting married. In the weeks leading up to any wedding, couples usually have a lot of fine details to sort out. These two were pairing up for a couples’ tag team tournament. Literal sweat and grind stuff six days before the wedding. And the morning of… the groom did a full Metcon challenge with all his guys before putting on the suit. Even their engagement shoot was unconventional as they chose Canadian winter instead of summer.
Rachel and Daniel’s had a small Christian ceremony at Glad Tidings Church. Event the church had a unique darker atmosphere. It was sleek and modern with purple accent lighting. All their guests had bubbles in hand for the couple’s exit. Their portrait session at Royal Botanical Gardens had fun accents as well. They brought foam swords and jumbo flowers for their bridal party to play with, in some of the photos. Most of the flowers in the venue’s gardens hadn’t bloomed yet with it being a cold spring, so these jumbo flowers added some great colour. They even had jumbo doughnuts for their late-night sweets table. It’s stuff like this that I love about modern weddings. Traditions are great, but nowadays there are no rules with a wedding or how to make it special.
