Your Day
A Saturday here, hour by hour
This is the shape most Alder House weddings settle into. Not because we insist, but because the light, the kitchen, and the township curfew all get a vote. Your coordinator builds your real timeline with you eight weeks out.
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10:00 a.m. · Farmhouse & coach house
Suites open
Hair and makeup set up in the morning light. A coffee tray, and the quiet hours before anyone needs you.
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10:00 a.m. · Wherever you are
The rain call
If the forecast is unsure, our coordinator phones and you make the garden-or-conservatory call together. Then it's decided, and you stop checking your phone.
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12:30 p.m. · Courtyard
Vendor load-in
Florist, band, photographer, cake. The steward meets every van, so nobody texts you about parking.
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2:30 p.m. · The south wall
First look & portraits
The wisteria wall and millpond path have their best light before four. Your photographer will already know this.
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4:00 p.m. · Ceremony Garden
Guests arrive
Lemonade and shade at the garden gate. The shuttle from Orangeville lands at 3:45.
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4:30 p.m. · Ceremony Garden
Ceremony
Twenty-five minutes under the alders, give or take a reading. Unamplified strings carry well in the garden.
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5:15 p.m. · Conservatory & terrace
Welcome hour
First drinks out in ninety seconds, because the bar is stocked before the recessional ends. Lawn games on the long lawn.
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6:30 p.m. · Great Hall
Dinner
Family style at the tables. Speeches between courses, not stacked at the end. Trust us on this.
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8:30 p.m. · Great Hall
First dance
Lights down to half, candles doing the rest. The floor opens straight after.
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9:30 p.m. · Great Hall, north end
Late-night table
Flatbreads in summer, grilled cheese in winter. It disappears in about eleven minutes.
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10:00 p.m. · Estate-wide
Outdoor sound ends
The bylaw hour. The courtyard stays open for air and stars; the party carries on inside.
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10:30 p.m. · Great Hall bar
Last call
Water and coffee go out with the last round. The 10:45 shuttle boards for Orangeville.
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11:00 p.m. · Courtyard
Send-off
Sparklers over gravel, sand buckets standing by, and the estate goes quiet the way it has most nights since 1872.
Two footnotes worth reading
- Winter weddings move the ceremony to 3:30 p.m. so portraits catch the daylight. Everything after dinner runs on the same clock.
- This is a starting point, not a rule. Your coordinator builds your real timeline with you (and your planner, if you have one) about eight weeks out.
Who does what on the day (our coordinator, our steward, or your planner) is spelled out on the team page.
Caledon, ON · One wedding a day
Stand where the 4:30 ceremony happens
Timelines read differently once you've walked them. A tour traces this exact day through all three spaces.