So I’ve gotten two of the venues down pat.. Mehndi and Reception/Valima but now I’m looking for a Nikkah venue that’s formal, for about 100-120 guests around the GTA. I thought about Chandni but it may be too big. The plus is we’re doing our Nikkah on a Friday so that should cut costs down plus its strictly going to be close family and friends. I’m not sure if I want a full sit down dinner or just a reception style with appetizers and what not.
The other thing I’m struggling with is the course of events. My original idea was to have the mehndi on Thursday, Nikkah on Friday and Reception on Saturday but my sister think it may get too tiring for people. I thought of spacing it out so the mehndi’s the week before but we have a lot of out of town guests coming including my best friend and I don’t really think it’s fair for people to take two weeks off just for my wedding. Another idea is a Sunday reception but I HATE Sunday receptions as does the majority of my family. So I dunno.
Chandni has a small "hall" (it's more of a room becasue they don't have a lobby) at the side of one of it's other locations... I've been to a mehendi there. It seats about 100 people. Candles can be separated to accomodate your number of guetsts. My sisters Nikkah had around 120-130 people and we used the smaller side of Candles for it. Worked out well for us!
I think any big hall should be able to accomodate 100-120 guests by using dividers. If you want a separate hall, you could look at non-desi owned locations (check out Roma's) or maybe something like Maple Banquet Hall would work?
I had my wedding (June 2012) over 1 weekend... Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Since then, we've been to 3 weddings that did the same and yeah it gets tiring but its just the same as a Friday-Sunday wedding. I'm glad we did ours on Thurs, Fri, Sunday. We had guests flying in from the States and they wouldn't have been able to stay over 2 weekends... and this way, we also got to get a days rest between our 2 big events (Wedding and Reception)
I've been to the Chandni (Gateway blvd?) where the hall like slopes downwards.. it was pretty big, I liked it for the stage set up but it was kind of big. From what I gathered after doing some recon on Chandni for my engagement is that it's VERY reasonable price-wise and probably one of the main reasons it was booked up for every Saturday in the summer. My only issue is that if it's 100-120 people the hall might look empty but then we could move the buffet table inside rather than it being in the entrance area (like it was for a wedding I attended).
I'm using Candles for our engagement party so I don't want to use it again. Roma's is really nice I may look into that as well.
That was another idea I had but then it would take away from the fun of a mehndi if my family starts crying at the end of the night LOL.. Plus she wants it as traditional as it can be (mehndi, nikkah, reception).
Check out Rosehill Lounge too- http://www.rosehillevents.ca/
A Guppan (NoorArtistry) had her wedding there and it looked beautiful.
You can also bring in your own caterer- http://www.rosehillevents.ca/includes.htm
We used the Albion Road location of Tandoori Time for my brother’s valima catering and it was delicious! The owner, Waseem, is a great guy and he’s catered at lots of venues around the GTA. His staff was super professional.
This is the menu we got for my brother’s valima for $12 per head if I remember correctly…
Appetizers- Fish pakoras, Vegetable cocktail samosas
Mains- Veal Biryani, Chicken Tikka Masala, Beef Seekh Kebab, Paneer Jalfrezi
Sides- 2 Salads, Mint Chutney, Raita
Dessert- Kheer (rice pudding), Khoya Kulfi (ice cream served on popsicle sticks)
Also to combine mehendi and nikkah, you would do the nikkah first. You could choose to do it privately or in front of everyone. Then you move on to the partying which means the night ends on a high, happy note! Plus, everyone is so into the mehendi that the tears dry up quick fast
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was looking for… Something unique and budget friendly. I think I’m gonna visit them today if I can.
I wanted Parkwood, REALLY wanted it but my parents nixed the idea of gora food alltogether (even though it could be halal)… they said people wouldn’t “understand” it whatever that means LOL.
