Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

At the Art Gallery of Ontario, you do not have to choose the artwork for the walls.

Some of the world's great artists have already taken care of that.

In downtown Toronto, the AGO gives couples the extraordinary opportunity to hold their wedding inside one of Canada's best-known cultural institutions, surrounded by art, architecture and spaces that look nothing like a conventional ballroom.

And the ceremony can happen at the architectural heart of it all.

Walker Court rises beneath Frank Gehry's extraordinary sculptural staircase, creating a setting where the aisle feels almost like part of the gallery itself.

Guests gather below.

The building rises around them.

Then the music begins and, for a few minutes, everyone stops looking at the architecture.

After the vows, the gallery becomes part of the experience.

The wedding can move into one of the AGO's private event spaces for the reception, while the building's combination of historic rooms and striking contemporary design gives the celebration different moods without asking everyone to leave.

The AGO's full-service event team helps carry the practical side of the day, with planning, audiovisual support and on-site catering allowing food and celebration to become part of the wider experience.

But there is something wonderfully different about having a wedding here that goes beyond logistics.

Museums are places built to hold things people decided were worth keeping.

Paintings.

Objects.

Stories.

Pieces of someone's imagination that outlived the moment in which they were made.

Then, for one evening, another moment happens among them.

Flowers arrive.

People dress beautifully.

Two families gather.

Dinner is served.

Glasses are raised beneath architecture thousands of visitors normally come simply to admire.

And somewhere in the middle of a building devoted to preserving extraordinary things, two people create a memory of their own.

Tomorrow the gallery will belong to Toronto again.

Tonight, it belongs to the wedding.