Vaughan's banquet halls: a chauffeur's guide

Vaughan's banquet halls: a chauffeur's guide to the venues

The banquet hall is Vaughan's civic institution. The city's Italian-Canadian communities built the first of them decades ago for weddings of five hundred, and the halls have grown into event centres hosting every community's weddings, the corporate galas of the Concord head offices, the fundraising dinners, the proms and the anniversaries. On a Saturday in June a single hall can run three or four rooms at once, each with a stretch limousine at the door at a different hour. The chauffeurs who drive to them every weekend know things the venue's website does not say — which door the photographers want, where the party bus can drop without blocking the valet, how long the drive from each church really takes — and this guide is that knowledge written down.

The halls

Chateau Le Jardin — Highway 27 in Woodbridge, the best-known hall in the city; multiple rooms, a front loop where the stretch waits, and a grand-entrance door around the side. Site.

Paradise Banquet Hall — Jane Street in Concord; a driveway that takes a stretch to the door but not a bus, which drops at the lot. Site.

Bellvue Manor — Jane Street north of Paradise; a formal front with room for the stretch and the photographs.

Riviera Parque — Highway 7 in Concord; a large lot and an entrance off the Highway 7 service road.

The Venetian — Romina Drive off Keele in Concord, a short hop from Highway 7 and the VMC hotels, which is why so many guest shuttles run there. Site.

The Terrace Banquet Centre — Creditstone Road in Concord, in the industrial blocks, with a wide lot.

Fontana Primavera — Woodstream Boulevard in Woodbridge, near Highway 7 and Weston.

Universal EventSpace — Highway 7 in Woodbridge toward Highway 50, a newer event centre.

There are more — the golf-club venues at Eagles Nest and Copper Creek, the McMichael, the hotel ballrooms on Highway 7 — and the chauffeurs know them too.

The churches, and the drives between

Most Vaughan weddings begin at a church: St. Margaret Mary and St. Peter's on Islington, St. Clare of Assisi on Weston Road, St. Padre Pio and St. David's in Maple, the Thornhill parishes and synagogues, and the temples and gurdwaras across the city. The drive from the church to the hall is the time the timeline turns on, and the chauffeurs know the real figures: St. Margaret Mary to Chateau Le Jardin twelve minutes on a Saturday; St. Clare to Paradise fifteen; a Thornhill synagogue to the Venetian twenty; and the Woodbridge fall fair's October weekend, when Highway 27 closes at the fairgrounds and the Chateau Le Jardin route changes.

Photographs between

The McMichael grounds in Kleinburg, Boyd Conservation Park and the Kortright Centre on Islington, the Eagles Nest grounds, the lakeside in Woodbridge and, further afield, a Niagara vineyard: the wedding page explains how the stretch and the Sprinter move between the church, the photographs and the hall, and where the car is positioned for the door shots.

Guest shuttles from the hotels

Out-of-town guests stay at the Highway 7 and Jane hotel cluster five minutes from the Concord halls and fifteen from Chateau Le Jardin, and the shuttle — a Sprinter or party bus running a loop from the hotels to the hall before the reception and back after — is cheaper and simpler than a fleet of cars, and gets everyone there for the grand entrance. The chauffeur runs the loop on a timetable agreed with the planner.

Corporate galas and fundraisers

The Concord and VMC companies' galas, the community fundraisers and the awards dinners book sedans from downtown hotels and the towers to the hall and a coordinator on our side to run the arrivals; corporate accounts invoice it monthly.

Proms

June's proms fill the halls on weeknights as well as weekends; the prom page has the rules, and the chauffeurs know each hall's drop-off door and pickup lot for a stretch or a bus full of students.

Which vehicle to which door

The stretch goes to the grand-entrance door at every hall. The Sprinter goes to the door where the driveway allows (Chateau Le Jardin, Bellvue, the Venetian) and to the lot where it does not. The party bus drops at the lot at every hall except the largest lots' entrances. Sedans and SUVs go to the door. The chauffeur confirms the day before.

Booking transportation to a Vaughan hall

For a wedding or a multi-vehicle event, the contact page with the venues, the timeline and the guest count gets you a plan and a fixed day price. For a single car to a gala or a prom, the reservation engine with the hall's name in the address.

A wedding Saturday at the halls, from the dispatcher's screen

On a Saturday in June the dispatcher's screen shows the halls as a timetable: a stretch at Chateau Le Jardin's grand-entrance door at 17:30 and another at 18:15 for the second room; two stretches at Paradise at 18:00 for a Portuguese wedding and an Italian one in adjoining rooms; a Sprinter at Bellvue Manor at 17:45; a stretch at the Venetian at 18:30 after a Thornhill synagogue; a party bus on the hotel-to-hall loop for Riviera Parque from 17:00; and a prom's bus at the Terrace at 19:00. Each vehicle's day began at a house, a church or a synagogue and passed through a photo location; each hall's door, driveway and waiting rule was confirmed the day before; and the chauffeurs will meet in the same lots at midnight for the departures. The timing works because the halls are within fifteen minutes of each other and the fleet is positioned among them.

Galas and fundraisers, in detail

The halls host the corporate galas of the Highway 7 companies, the community fundraisers, the hospital foundation's dinner and the awards nights, with guests arriving from the VMC towers, the Highway 7 hotels and downtown. A gala booking is sedans and SUVs against a guest list with pickup addresses and times, a coordinator on our side who watches the arrivals and moves cars as the cocktail hour runs long, and the same fleet at the doors at eleven. The halls' valets manage the lot; the chauffeurs manage the lane the valet assigns them. On a corporate account the whole evening is one invoice.

Cultural weddings, and the halls that host them

Vaughan's halls host every community's weddings, and each tradition shapes the transportation. An Italian wedding is the classic circuit — church, photographs, hall — with a long reception and the largest guest shuttle. A Portuguese wedding is similar with the church on Weston Road or downtown. A South Asian wedding may run two days across two venues with a baraat procession that needs the Sprinter at a specific place at a specific minute. A Jewish wedding begins at a Thornhill or downtown synagogue after Havdalah on a summer Saturday and reaches the hall at nine. A Chinese wedding's tea ceremony at the family home precedes the hall. A Filipino wedding's church is often downtown. The wedding page explains that the timeline is built around the tradition; this guide adds that the halls' staff know each one too, and that the chauffeur and the hall's coordinator have usually worked the same wedding before.

Getting guests home

The end of a reception is the moment a chauffeured plan proves itself: the couple's stretch at the door at the agreed hour, the party bus's return loop to the hotels from eleven until the last guest, and sedans for the grandparents at ten. The halls' lots empty onto Jane Street and Highway 7 all at once at midnight, and a chauffeur who has staged the vehicles in the lot's exit lane rather than its far corner is the difference between a ten-minute departure and a forty-minute one.

Proms at the halls

June's proms fill the halls on weeknights — a Tuesday at Chateau Le Jardin, a Thursday at Bellvue — and the chauffeurs run the same doors with stricter rules: parent-confirmed bookings, dry vehicles, fixed returns. The prom page has them; the halls' staff enforce their own at the door.

Booking a single car to a hall

Not every hall booking is a wedding. A couple going to a gala at Chateau Le Jardin books an Executive Sedan there and back as two fixed fares, or by the hour if the evening's end is uncertain; a family going to a christening lunch at Paradise books a Luxury SUV; a company table at a fundraiser at the Venetian books a Sprinter from the office. Put the hall's name in the reservation engine as the address — the engine knows them — and the chauffeur drops at the door and meets you there at the agreed hour or on a text.

The halls in winter

Winter weddings and December galas fill the halls on the darkest weekends, and the transportation adds the weather: the stretch kept off the 407 in snow, the party bus's hotel loop given ten extra minutes, the sedans' winter tyres on Jane Street's hills. The halls' lots are ploughed; the chauffeurs' judgment on the roads is the rest, and a booking that cannot be driven safely is moved — which in ten Decembers has happened almost never.

Plan the transportation to your venue

The details

Jane Street between Highway 7 and Rutherford carries Paradise, Bellvue and the Wonderland traffic on the same Saturday evening in summer; the timeline allows for it. Highway 27 at Chateau Le Jardin has a left-turn lane that fills; the chauffeur approaches from the north. The Venetian's Romina Drive is a cul-de-sac in an industrial block and a bus turns at the end. The Terrace's Creditstone lot is shared with the neighbours on weekdays. And every hall's valet has a rule about where the stretch waits between the entrance and the departure; the chauffeurs know each one.